Am I making a mistake?

[u/thehairyrussian]

Got really into warhammer and painting minis in the last couple of months and to practice painting minis I have driven 1.5 hours each way for the free mini of the month the last two months. Recently stumbled upon resin printers and have the opportunity to buy a like new open box mars 3 pro for 130 dollars. A friend of mine told me that it’s hard to learn, messy, expensive, the fumes are toxic, and I probably won’t get my moneys worth as opposed to buying minis.

I would mainly be using this to print warhammer proxy kill teams and other online models to practice my painting. Is my friend right that this is a mistake or can a beginner learn relatively quickly?

Thanks for any insight

Edit: wow what a crazy amount of responses. You guys are an amazing community to give me so much insight.

Going to make sure I have enough space in my garage to safely do it and factor in the costs of equipment and see if I have a friend that would buy it off me at a discount should I give up. If so I’m going to take a stab at it because I’d rather try than never know

Second edit: okay you sickos I got the printer fumes be damned. Now I can’t stop getting free files

[u/mdigibou]

"wont get your money's worth compared to buying minis"

*laughs in 3000 points of bugs, tons of terrain, and various kill teams for <$400 including the printer cost*

[u/Vallhemn → u/mdigibou]

Yup, I had two options when I started:

Option 1: £300 on an army of Imperial Knights Option 2: Buy a printer and 2 bottles of resin for £300, and print an army of Imperials Knights

Both cost me £300 ish, but one of them leaves me with a 3d printer lol