this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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3D Printing
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First, what kind of models are you curious about making? Big, small, decorative, springy, strong? Cosplay helmets, bike parts, tabletop miniatures?
This will inform whether you should look at tutorials for FDM (filament) printing or MSLA/DLP (resin) printing.
I would like to make kid's cartoon characters (forx example: Bluey, Miracolous, Disney..), about 6-8 cm of height at max so I can put them on the decorative cakes for the photos.
I think for a small, detailed figure that you're going to photograph, I'd recommend resin sprayed with a food-safe clear coat such as shellac.
Resin of all kinds requires rubber gloves, cleanup, and a well-ventilated room because it's smelly and generally bad for you in its unfinished liquid form. A small resin printer will cost under USD$200. Creality has one on sale for USD$100. They also sell washing/curing stations -- I built my own stations out of junk, but for USD$99, I'd go with theirs. Much more compact.
Nerdtronics made some excellent videos introducing resin and explaining how and why we print the way we do. These days, almost all printers are plug-and-play and the software is super smart, but I think these videos are highly educational anyways.
I've watched Nerdtronics videos and they're gold. Great quality and really, really clear! Thank you again
If resin is a non-starter for you, FDM printing can also make cool miniatures, but it will take more effort and the details won't be as fine.
People are getting good results printing minis on the Elegoo Neptune printers which are around USD$190. The latest fad is multi-material printers like the Anycubic Kobra 3 combo (USD$380) and Bambu A1 combo (USD$490) which can make colorful figurines at the cost of wasted plastic.
Tomb of 3D Printed Horrors has been getting pretty good results and is a good channel to follow if you go down the FDM route.
(Elephant-in-the-room sidenote: If you look at FDM printers, you'll run into fans militantly promoting Bambu Lab as part of an ongoing corporate-sponsored flamewar, and the community has a laundry list of grievances against the company. It's a mess. Bambu printers are good but not spectacular, and easy to use but hardly the only user-friendly printers out there.)
Wow! That's a lot of useful info! I'll check the Nerdtronics videos and all the models that you've shown. Thank you very much!