How to Print AMAZING FDM Miniatures! | A Complete Guide to FDM 3d Printed Minis [2024]
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- Опубліковано 4 лип 2024
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In this video Jacob breaks down his entire process for Printing miniatures on a hobbyist level FDM printer, using his Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro. From picking models, to editing minis and adding supports, all the way to support removal and cleanup. With every step of the way documented for you, treat this video as a starting point to your own FDM mini journey.
Want to see how i paint these minis? Check out this video!
• FDM Miniatures in 2024...
If like what I do, consider checking out the channel!
/ @painted4combat
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Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:56 - Picking A Model
6:27 - Editing Models (Optional)
10:00 - Slicer & Settings
17:25 - Manual Supports (Optional)
19:42 - Slicer Supports
21:37 - Printing!
22:32 - Removing Supports
23:08 - Model Cleanup
23:42 - Prepping for Paint
24:19 - Outro - Навчання та стиль
Being in the 3d printer space for the last 10 years, its wild to see how far FDM has come.
Absolutely! I got into 3d printing a fair few years ago now with a secondhand Anet ET4, and that thing had a tantrum twice a print 😆 in the year and half I've had the Neptune 3 Pro, I only just had to fix my first clog about month ago and that's all I've to do. Awesome tech that's only getting better.
Great blender tip and a great video! I have a Bambulab A1 and it works great once you added the proper supports. I usually print miniatures with a 0.2 nozzle to bring out those subtle details.
Nice guide. Added to my "reference" saved videos list.
Nice timing, I've been looking into printing minis and figures to paint. This definitely helps!
Glad I could help! Hope you get some great results 🙌
That blender tip was super clutch, thanks for that!
No worries! hope it helps you get some different minis on the print bed 🙌
I have been printing minis on my fdm for a couple of months now using my own settings in Cura. I'll have to give your settings a try. I mostly do busts, but i've had pretty good success with full figurines.
Very useful information. I may be trying minis now. I would recommend 2 things. 1 get a 0.2mm or 0.25mm nozzle and 2 give orca slicer a try.
Thanks for the input! I'll take a look at Orca.
As for the 0.2mm nozzle - I print a pretty even split of minis to larger objects like terrain or household items, and don't want to go through the hassle of swapping nozzles that often; that said I should give it a try at some point!
You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. Waiting on my printer to come in. I'll be using this vid as a reference. Thank you.
Happy to help 🙌 If you have any problems arise while getting into it; feel free to post questions here and I'll answer what I can. Best of luck with your new printer!
Let’s see the video about support free FDM model creators!
I recommended more focus on supports but did not expect it to get this interesting. You are basically confirming my own observations and experiments on manual supports. Started for me with a backpack for a miniature. Parts of the bottom kept drooping a lot even with supports. I added two manual support in each corner and then it printed with perfect results.
You could probably do a series of videos just where you slowly add supports to different, simple and difficult. miniatures :)
I am really gonna experiment with this in Lychee but what is the diameter of your supports?
Your explanation makes it sound like 0.4 mm but looks in the video like it is closer to 0.8. Just want to skip past some unnecessary experiments that you have already solved :)
Looks like "supports" in general is the nr1 thing that is holding back mini printing with MDF.
Great to hear that this helped!
My current towers are 1.6mm for the main shaft, enough to maintain a sturdy support, and then tapering to 1.2mm at the tip - most slicers will make this a single loop as mentioned, but some will add a dot of filament to the center, overall this is the best thickness I have found. Otherwise sometimes a slicer will cut the top off the support or there wont be enough material to actually support the model.
And i recommend a minimum of an 6-8mm base/rim for the supports for connecting to the build plate, otherwise they are too easy to knock over.
Amazing video!!!
I will try some of your technics!!
I will love to see your take on larger models also!!
Good job!
Thanks, hope some of my tips help 🙌 Will see about doing a follow up on larger models in the next few weeks!
Wow this is great. Been printing since February of this year. Have solely been doing miniatures. I've managed to get some okay results with resin styled STLs, but its mainly because I've been adjusting the xy compensation in prusa to make some things thicker. Guess I'll have to pick up blender and play with that
XY Compensation is actually a really great, quick option! But picking up some basic blender know-how will open up a bunch more options when picking out minis.
Awesome. I do have a issues with supports being knocked over and ripping up brims so I'll have to try the manual ones. I'm already using Prusa Slicer and love it. I don't often have issues with very narrow parts though so I just leave swords, etc alone and don't pick or skip models just based on that. I already assume that I'll lose fine surface detail due to resolution but it sometimes surprises me
Awesome to hear; Let me know how your use of the manual support go, definitely want to continue developing those to be as user-friendly as possible! - and I totally agree, modern FDM printers are shockingly good at picking up most surface details, but its more often a 'nice surprise' when it happens, rather than an 'expected outcome', at least for me 😅
Awesome video! I’m gonna throw some minis on the print bed right now!
Awesome! Hope you start getting some great minis from your machine 🙌
Thanks for the video. why did you choose the Elegoo neptune printer can I ask?
I had to give up resin when I moved to a smaller apartment that didn't have sufficient airflow.
Frankly, The Elegoo Neptune 3 pro was coming out around that time, so I decided to pre-order it to make the most of a pre-order discount from my local seller.
(this was done after confirming the printer was living up to its claims via reviews on YT, primarily watching Uncle Jessy but also others who were not sponsored 😆).
To be honest, at that point in time, many printers were coming out in this rough price range and all advertised very similar features, some having more than others.
I settled on the Elegoo because it appeared to have the most of those features in a single printer, at a price in the lower end of that range (pre-order discount helped), and was a brand I had some level in trust in; the main features I wanted was robust auto bed levelling, a built in flex plate on the print-bed, dual z rods and a direct drive extruder; and this printer had all that as well as a bunch of additional nice-to-have features.
So in short, it had all the features I was looking for, under a brand name I trusted to deliver a quality product at a reasonable price.
I've never had any issues, in the year and a half that I've owned it, using it often daily or at the very least one a week; I finally had to clean my first clog about a month ago and other than levelling the bed every so often, that's the only maintenance I've had to do. It really is a great printer and I've put it through its paces, that's for sure.
Thanks for the reply. Really appreciated. @@Painted4Combat
Wonder if desktop SLS will have a bigger impact on printing minis.
If it gets cheap enough, maybe? But the labour and material-handling costs for SLS are almost as bad as those for resin, whilst the printers themselves are still nearly ten times the cost - 3K USD is very very cheap for an SLS printer but a *lot* more money than an SLA. When it comes to minis, I expect desktop SLS will be more useful for companies selling physical minis than for individuals printing a few characters here and there - to really make it worth turning the machine on, you want to fill the entire build volume. That means printing a lot of things at once. And to make it worth buying the printer, you want to be doing that regularly.
Sorry if I missed it in the video, but are you using a 0.2mm nozzle?
Printer is completely stock, so just the Included 0.4mm nozzle - Apologies for not being clearer on that.
@@Painted4Combat Thanks for the reply. I'm unable to download your support towers from MyMiniFactory, it sends me to a 404 error page. Would you be able to upload them anywhere else?
I have added a direct download (google drive) to the video description!
@@Painted4Combat Legend. Thanks mate! Great video, very helpful. Instant sub.
Nice but veey complicated for the average hobbyist
Yeah, this is definitely aimed at people who have a little bit of experience playing with the settings of their printers and slicer, but even just pausing the video and copying the settings should yeld some nice results!
@@Painted4Combat I have plenty of slicer experience But nothing relating to blender
I see! Yes, the blender portion is for people wanting wanting delve into that and open up a few more options when it comes to picking models.
Not a necessary step, but I reckon if you follow those steps a few times you'll get the hang of it.
I tried my best to keep it as simple as possible, just touching on the most necessary menus and controls, it is just such an in-depth program that even a simplified workflow like this can be daunting.
Dude. I have cheats GALOR!
First, get a .25mm nozzle. It will greatly increase detail
Second, under advanced, "external perimeters" to 0.18mm. This will give you sharper details and will get your SLA levels of clarity. If you choose to stick with 0.4mm nozzles, set external perimetersnto 0.32mm. These are safe levels of under extrusion.
Third, EXTERNAL PERIMETERS FIRST! This will guarantee that your external perimeter defines the shape, causing excess extrusion INTO the model, not outside, which will cause details to round out.
If you are doing mechanical things, rotate the model in space such that planar surfaces are 45 degrees from the print bed, this will increase the resolution of planar details (think battlemechs and such).
To reduce stringing, which can bond support material to your miniature, set seam to nearest and increase your rapids.
Set your external perimeters to slower. This will compensate for rapid moves causing vibrations, your model will have more time to settle for critical details. This is an anti stringing strategy. The faster your rabid, the less time for oozing.
Adding two more:
Set slice resolution to 0 and gcode resolution to 0.001. these settings are unnaturally high for LARGE models. Most 8 bit microcontrollers can't handle the HUGE detail such high resolution, large prints will render....but for small prints, these finer resolutions are no worse than a low resolution large print.
Obviously a smaller nozzle means more perimeters... Unless you cheat and set perimeters to 0.32 instead of 0.25. this is a safe level of over extrusion.
Smaller nozzles mean lower flow of material. This means more print time. This also means HIGHER time in the melt zone. Turn your temperature down 15 degrees. This will also reduce stringing.
Great recommendations! I'll be sure to try a few 🙌
@@Painted4Combat I added two more, slice and g code resolution. For miniatures, these are safe values to set super low.
@@Painted4Combat added two details re:using 0.25mm nozzles
1 second in I see layer lines, so yeah no thanks. I can already print at 0.05 on my Prusa.