(I’ve been informed that I had been told complete BS by the person trying to tell me that resin printing 1:72 wargame minis would be stupidly expensive. As such, my question here is no longer relevant.)
I am considering the option to get back into miniature painting by starting with 3D printing my own custom figures.
Given the price difference, it would have to be plastic (I read PLA is a good option), and for my purposes it would mostly be 1:72 scale figures.
The deciding factor is whether at such a small scale PLA can achieve a level of detail that doesn’t look completely terrible. I’m used to 1:72 injection mold figures, and my previous paint work in the past was always so thick that much of the detail present on those would disappear anyway. So I’m really not looking for much.
But looking for existing images of such prints is very much not search engine friendly and I mostly just come up with Chinese soldier figures made out of some mystery material or figures of unknown scale.
Can anyone help me to find some reference pictures of 1:72 PLA figures so I can take a look if this level of detail is acceptable for me?
You’re going to want to consider layer height. The layer height on FDM printers can be set usually between .12mm to .28mm. You need to look at your models and their actual sizes and see if any features will fall within that range. Depending on the print orientation, those will likely not resolve.
If you want higher resolution, you probably want a resin printer. They have more fidelity through screen resolution and the layer height can generally be between .025mm and .1mm. But they’re more expensive and the resin is more expensive than just about any filament.
For 2cm model with a .2mm layer height, you’re looking at like 20 layers with an FDM printer. With a resin printer and 0.5mm layer height, closer to 50 layers.
With a 2cm tall figure, in my opinion, you’ll have issues getting the resolution you want on any printer. Expect to spend a lot of time troubleshooting and calibrating and troubleshooting and recalibrating.
I’ll be happy to be proven wrong!
These are supposedly 1:72 resin figures. (No clue what printer, though.)
https://i.etsystatic.com/23671410/r/il/e17d8b/5222856934/il_1140xN.5222856934_b3ie.jpg
Look a bit rougher than injection mold, but for wargaming purposes this would be absolutely sufficient.
Those are resin prints, not FDM prints. The print technology (FDM vs resin) is the bigger factor than the actual plastic used (PLA vs others).
And that level of detail is impossible with FDM regardless of the plastic used.
Yes, my post says that they are resin.
Yup, looks like resin to me. But I agree, they’re good for wargaming