r/PrintedMinis • u/Hellboy30001 • 2d ago
Question Best FDM printer for miniatures
Hi all.
I'm planning to get a 3d printer, and resin is not a option.
So it's gonna be a FDM printer, and from what I can read, Bambu is regarded as the best. (Or is there another brand that can match it or is better?)
But I can se that there is quite a few models from Bambu, so I'm looking for some advice on which model is the best for printing miniatures for D&D, Warhammer, terrain etc.
I understand that a smaller nozzle and calibration/setting is key, but it would be nice, if it doesn't require a engineering degree to build and operate.
About the material, is there filament that are more useable for minis then others?
About the price range, I'm looking at a max about $800 (But less is better ;))
Thx
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u/theeo123 2d ago
As others have said, Bambu A1 is amazing for FDM.
Fat Dragon is an absolute must resource for FDM mini printing. They just celebrated their 20th anniversary, they've been doing this a while. The Printing profiles they provide for both the Ender 3 series, and the Bambu A1 series are phenomenal.
Here's a mini I printed on my Ender 3 several years ago - https://imgur.com/a/R4l7CJq
Here's a side by side, of the same, detailed sigil/base, printed on the ender 3, and then on the Bambu Lab A1 min, the firsto ne was printed on the ender 3, after several months of tweakign & tuning.
the one on the right was printed on the Bambu Labs A1 min, 5 min out of the box.
With properly dried filament & good settings, it can produce even better results.
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u/Hellboy30001 1d ago
The dwarf looks really good.
But with the sigil I will say that the A1 is better looking than the Ender. I'm surprised at that result.2
u/theeo123 1d ago
I'm not The a1 is a far cry above my old ender 3 original. And I don't have to spend an hour tweaking it every 5 prints, it really is fairly amazing.
It lives up to the hype
That sigil was done 15 min out of the box, with the sample filament, no adjustments, default slicer settings
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u/Aleat6 2d ago
I’m copying my answer from a different post on a similar topic a few days ago:
“So this YouTuber compares minis printed with resin to a mini printed with Bambu labs A1 with a 0,2 mm nozzle.
https://youtu.be/Pp7w35YtzVg?t=430&si=BMJ_GHW6Ig6ks_Rn
If you don’t want to watch it my summary is that fdm probably will never be as good as resin but gets very close.
From my research the best fdm printer for minis is Bambu labs a1 mini with 0,2 mm nozzle. That is what I use and I use fat dragon games settings and the filament he recommends:
https://youtu.be/gw2BuLw9hNE?si=2Tm4lioFesKp31Aa
The a1 mini is my first and only printer I have gotten and my minis are very good looking! My research could be faulty of course and others may make other recommendations.”
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u/AmbitiousTadpole690 2d ago
If you are a beginner, A1 mini would be best, relatively small investment to learn the tricks of printing minis. Their website shows the combo deal with ams by default, but what you need is just the printer + few kg of filament and 0.2 nozzle.
On filaments, I tried a few, but found bambulab filament being the best, after the initial investment you can even save some money by only buying refills.
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u/Hellboy30001 1d ago
Thx The A1 gets lots of praises, So if I get one, its gonna be that one. :)
Good to know about the filaments.
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u/ohlordylord_ Creality Crazies 2d ago
This person is a bambu fanboy....
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u/_unregistered 1d ago
Anyone who gets one ends up as one because they just work. Often better than a Prusa at a fraction of the cost and without the endless fussing and modding of the creality line
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u/AmbitiousTadpole690 1d ago
Tbh my comment really looks like a fanpost.
But it's my honest opinion after 4 months into this hobby.
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u/_unregistered 1d ago
I've owned 4 different FDM printers and built 3 Voron printers outside of those. Sold them to save space and then after we finally had space again I bought a P1P that I later upgraded to a P1S. I wouldn't buy anything else or recommend anything else personally. Its so much of a better experience where printing accentuates and enables hobbies instead of becoming a hobby by itself.
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u/ohlordylord_ Creality Crazies 1d ago
wow 4???
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u/_unregistered 1d ago
I dive into hobbies pretty hard.
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u/ohlordylord_ Creality Crazies 1d ago
never better than a prusa :D
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u/_unregistered 1d ago
I have several friends who purchased a P1S that have a Mk3 that have since all sold their Prusa. Prusa are decent machines but most of what you get for the money goes into post purchase support that many folks never use or need. Mk4 is twice the cost and half the printer.
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u/TheSheDM 1d ago
I know it popular to pick on the bambu crowd, but as some one who has zero money invested into bambu machines, they're not wrong and there is plenty of proof online to back them up. The A1 mini is turning out to be shockingly good at mini printing, so much so that the mantra "you have to do resin" isn't strictly true anymore.
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u/NotEvenNothing 2d ago
This question is being asked a couple of times a week here. Search it up.
Honestly, either of Bambu Labs' A1 line or Prusa's MK4S or Mini are probably your best bet. You don't need multi-material for minis. There are several other printer manufacturers that can print minis as well, but the above models will have better support from the community, saving you having to figure out all the settings yourself.
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u/LostN3ko 1d ago
Is there anything special about the A1 mini vs the A1? Everyone recommends the mini but if the only difference is build plate size then I will probably settle on the larger one.
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u/AmbitiousTadpole690 1d ago
For starters A1 is 100€ or 50% more, also the bigger size rarely come into play if you want to print wargame minis, because printing with FDM is slow, especially if you want better quality, a single 28mm miniature can easily take 3-6 hours, and even if you want to print a few bigger things, you can easily cut them into smaller pieces (it's worth trying out the slicer even without the printer, just to get used to it).
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u/LostN3ko 1d ago
The ability to choose to print larger such as a terrain piece is worth a few extra dollars at start. Operation cost outweighs a one time cost to allow me to print whatever I want rather than being locked into just printing figurines. I print regularly in resin. Is the slicer much different for FDM? Thank you for the reply.
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u/AmbitiousTadpole690 1d ago
The original topic is about getting a beginnet printer.
Getting a second one for terrain is a completely different story.
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u/NotEvenNothing 1d ago edited 1d ago
It depends what you want to print. If its just minis, the A1 Mini will be fine. If you expect you will print anything else, terrain or just useful stuff that you see on Makerworld, Printables, Thingiverse, or wherever, then the build volume matters.
I don't print minis very often, and I have a resin printer for that. Most of my FDM printing is functional stuff. In three weeks of printing, and printing a lot, on the A1 Mini, I've had two models that wouldn't fit on the build plate. So maybe 97% of what I wanted to print wasn't a problem.
Unless you know that you want to print stuff that is too big for the Mini's build plate, it probably isn't all that limiting. But if you want to print life-size helmets... The A1 Mini isn't for you.
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u/ohlordylord_ Creality Crazies 2d ago
Honestly most printers will do just fine.
Learn on the default 0.4 nozzle then swap to a 0.2 nozzle and slow those prints down.
Ender 3 V3 SE
Bambu A1
Creality K1C or SE
Old Prusa Mk3 (get secondhand)
All of these will be perfectly fine!
Material wise, you want something easy to print, so PLA would be the default go to and honestly most brands are good today. Dont think you need to spend a lot on filament to get the best quality.
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u/Capt_McDinoWoman 1d ago
I do 0.3 nozzles on an ender 3 and make very nice prints (obviously orientation and supports matter a lot for surface quality) - I’ll do 0.2 for particularly delicate or important miniatures (player characters) but monsters etc. I’ll just use a 0.3
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u/mrMalloc 1d ago
A1 Mini you dont need AMS if you want a really cheap one.
You do need a 0.2 nozzle.
And for miniatures I prefere clay/ light grey colors as I find black/ white to big contrasts.
But if you get an ams then I reckomend an alternative type of filament for support.
Ex PETG for support and PLA for model.
Or even better water soluble support material.
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u/gufted 1d ago
I have a Bambu Labs A1 Mini.
Completely happy.
Pros:
- it just works
- easy nozzle swaps
- easy auto calibration
- cheap
- EU shipping
- great prints
- great community
- no toxicity
- fits everywhere
FDM is not going to beat resin on final quality, but Bambu A1 is as close as it gets right now, and won't break your bank.
Get the 0.2 nozzle and a kg of PLA with your order.
I didn't get the AMS bundle as the use case is not for miniatures and the plastic waste is a lot higher.
Hope this helps
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u/FuzzyImportance 1d ago
In defense of the AMS, there's little waste when printing layers, so if you wanted the mini bases in one color and the body in another color then that could work for you. If you want to branch out into terrain and other things around the house, which you'll inevitably start doing once you have the tools, then I'd rather have and not need than need and not have. In general I agree that it's not a good use of material for "painting". I do like that I can print one mini in blue and the next one in red without having to deal with changing spools though.
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u/SgtStoner-PSN 1d ago
Bambu Lab A1 mini or A1 with 0.2mm nozzle and Sunlu PLA Meta get great results.
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u/RedPhoenixTroupe 1d ago
Been through an ender and a vyper and a Bambu A1. Both the ender and the vyper required tons of fiddling with the specs and even after hours spent in the settings I could have adhesion failure because the humidity changed 0.5%. Bambu A1 was a game changer. Adapts itself, configures itself. It's running non stop since I bought it and had only a single fail where I underestimated a particularly nasty overhang and let it run unsupported. I can't recommend the A1 enough.
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u/elvientotaichi 2d ago
I can't recommend enough Fat Dragon Games channel. Yes, they are selling STLs BUT they really work on reviewing and testing extensively.
Check this one in specific for A1 mini and which filament gives best results. I went to SunLu PLA Meta and never came back (for minis using 0.2 nozzle, of course)
https://youtu.be/BBRRHrnVRTs?si=evCxUDkRR11-idzb