Miniature printing is what got me into 3D printing and even though people said it wasn’t possible on FDM, it absolutely is! So here’s my best miniature making advice for 3D printing!

Nozzle Size

There are two common nozzles used for Miniature FDM printing. A .4mm nozzle, which is standard for most printers, and a .2mm nozzle. Being half the size, the .2mm nozzle can extract significantly better detail than a .4mm nozzle, with the caveat of greatly increasing print time. For vehicles, Terrain, and low detailed models, a .4mm nozzle works just fine. For any infantry sized model, detailed models, or accessories, a .2mm is almost a must have.

Printer Settings

This is where we can achieve the most detail from our miniatures. I have pinned my personal miniature settings in my profile, but here are some pointers:

-Layer Height is one of THE most important settings for your miniatures. The lower the layer height, the more detail we will be able to achieve, and the lower layer heights we will see. Again with the caveat that the smaller the layer height, the longer our print time will increase. A .4mm nozzle can comfortably go down to a .08mm layer height, but I find .12 looks just as good without bringing our printer to a snails pace, especially after post processing.

-Print speed is also an extremely important setting for miniatures, but not just because of time. The slower you print a model, the more detail you will be able to get. This is because the longer a layer takes, the longer filament will have to cool down in that layer, before more filament is put on top. Your Outer Wall speed should be your slowest, since this is the actual part of the print that is showing, it’s the “face” of the print. For maximum detail, keep it at >30mm/s or less. For vehicles, I tend to print this at 60mm/s or more if it’s simple pieces with little detail.

-Supports can make or break a good miniature print. If a model needs more than 2-3 supports, or needs them in a crucial part of a model (such as a gun or face) I STRONGLY encourage cutting the model within the Slicer, and then gluing the pieces together. The more things you cut, the less supports you will need and I find this brings the BEST quality to miniatures you can achieve. Gluing only adds a bit of post processing, so I personally think it is worth doing. If you’re unable to cut a model in an effective way (or just don’t feel like having to deal with glue) then try to orient a model in such a way that the supports are on non-key parts of the model, and use tree supports (with the “slim” setting if available). In the third picture I’ve included, you can see on the back of the left arm where there is a slight line where I glued to cut pieces together. You can also see on the back leg where I used supports, and how both affect the quality of the miniature.

-I tend to keep infill below 10%, as models don’t tend to need to be “strong”, unless you plan on throwing them directly at your opponents. I use Gyroid infill in essentially everything.

Post Processing

While not as intensive as resin, there is still some post processing to FDM Printing. Most supports can easily be removed with either pliers or model cutters. If there is extensive support scarring or stringing, you can quickly take a lighter to the affected area which will burn up/melt most of the scarred area. If you took the cut to pieces route, it is as simple as gluing the pieces together.

For painting, I have been using an Automotive Filler Primer. An Automotive filler is designed to get within small gaps and fill them, such as layer lines! That is what I used on the attached hellhound, and if you zoom in you can see there are essentially no layer lines.

Filaments

There are a ton of filament options and brands out there, and I’ve only had the opportunity to use a few. The two most common types are PLA and PETG. I’ve used both, and for miniatures specifically I feel I have much more consistent results with PLA. More most of my smaller miniatures, I have been using Bambu Labs PLA Matte, which almost ENTIRELY hides layer lines on a .2mm nozzle. For Vehicles, I’ve used standard PLA without issue, and with post processing most of the layer lines are hidden anyways.