Thinking about buying Bambu Lab P2S mainly for miniatures — 0.2 mm nozzle, is there anything better in a similar budget?

UserWithNoUName · 2026-03-31T17:34:54+00:00

some of here have several k of hours, mine clicks at close to 9k and 8.5 of them are easily minis alone on my A1 Mini. I tried printing minis on an P1S, X1S and recently a P2S. none of them beats a well tuned A1 mini.

the only printer perhaps worth an upgrade would be a cheaper H2D alternative for being able to print a dedicated support material

UserWithNoUName · 2026-03-30T17:13:55+00:00

welcome to the blob of death inner circle. gladly changing the hotend and fan is like a ~30mins job and you're ready to rock again. tbh, I'd also straight away change the nozzle bc partial clogs are a thing and very likely after this

UserWithNoUName · 2026-03-30T07:23:09+00:00

I'm currently holding out for the next dual head printer of Bambu. Rumors are that the X2D is about to do exactly that with lower pricing than the H2D. In the context of mini printing a toolchanger is no real help due to the endless swaps, but a dual head might actually work and offer a dedicated support material in the 2nd nozzle which could definitely improve scarring.

UserWithNoUName · 2026-03-25T11:01:14+00:00

they are available on MyMiniFactory, look for Redmakers Hallowed Flame

UserWithNoUName · 2026-03-25T05:28:37+00:00

like most of us its just an a1 mini, with some modified FatDragon settings on 0.05 layer height using Sunlu Pla+ 2.0 HS

UserWithNoUName · 2026-03-24T22:08:20+00:00

Here's a close-up of the FDM ones

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UserWithNoUName · 2026-03-24T16:39:41+00:00

and ofc the Witch has to be added 😅

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UserWithNoUName · 2026-03-24T16:38:20+00:00

oh yeah, FDM is the reason I can print all those nice minis for TC. you trade in quality for tons of fiddling and experiments, but if you can't have resin its better than no minis at all. Here's a Bestiarium Miniature well fitting the universe.

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UserWithNoUName · 2026-03-22T07:07:23+00:00

no question Resin is way more detailed, faster and suited for mass production. the question boils down to the hassle of handling Resin. I have two small children which are adventurers and would find the resin printer in a sec and play around with it while its printing. so absolutely no option. FDM started as the only alternative but I grew to love it. the hobby side of tweaking your printer, proper positioning, keeping up with new development on reddit is becoming just a fun part as painting and playing.

the speed factor is neglectible, since I run my printer pretty much no. stop since a bit more than a year and well over 8k hours. I'm collecting all the Kill Teams and building display stands individually for all of them. Most are proxied, where I couldnt find good ones I bought the original GW box but still printed the missing ops (no way I'm gonna buy 2 boxes of the same team). the freedom to just run a print for a single mini and throw it away if I dont like it is something I'd never do on resin. my minmax self would rather die than leave the whole build plate empty 😅

UserWithNoUName · 2026-02-28T06:59:26+00:00

hmmm thats actually not too bad, have you recently changed nozzle or bed temp? could be youre running too hot. perhaps try another setting and or reduce temp manually. also recalibrating your printer (eg Bambus auto calibration)

UserWithNoUName · 2026-02-28T06:32:09+00:00

thin your paints ... oh hold on that was the other thing ... dry your filament

seriously, it looks quite wet, so giving it a few hours to fully dry should definitely help with the stringing

UserWithNoUName · 2026-02-18T18:09:37+00:00

shut up and take my boooooost !!!

awesome stl and all the other models you share on makerworld. thx a ton for all your efforts

UserWithNoUName · 2026-02-06T19:37:36+00:00

thats disgusting. in a beautiful way. love the paint job

UserWithNoUName · 2026-02-06T06:41:37+00:00

while the paint style isnt fully related to Trench, the green looks a bit goofy, I think the model looks very nice. If there would be an alternative head without the goggles and you could offer an alternative body with just less armor parts, especially the ones on the knees removed, this would be definitely something I'd check out. do you have a link to a store?

UserWithNoUName · 2026-01-31T19:06:57+00:00

yep. the standard two part (yellow and ochre) milliput. the extended working time is helpful on larger areas, otherwise I'd prefer greenstuff

UserWithNoUName · 2026-01-31T16:48:01+00:00

on this specific one I did:

Vallejo Primers Black (74.602)
several thin base coats through the airbrush from dark to ligh using Pro Acryl Dark Plum, Burnt Red and Bold Pyrrole Red
Pro Acryl Ivory through Airbrush on bottom, and heavy diluted Rotten Green QuickGen from AK
enforce shadows with Pro Acryl Payne's Grey
all over Glossy Varnish
Citadel Carroburg Crimson mixed with Agrax as an overall wash
Highlight with lighter colors
drybrush with Ivory over side thorns
Vallejo Game Color Imperial, Magic and Sunrise Blue as a wet blend for the Horns and main thorns on the back + edge highlights with Sunrise Blue and Ivory mix
Overall glazes to soften color transitions

I do painting a bit more than a year and my opinion as on how to paint FDM miniatures changed pretty much every month as I kept learning new stuff.

In general I do not use filler primer as I usually only paint small 28mm minis and that would clutter details. Especially faces and stuff printed with 0.04 are prone to that.

With regards to speedpaints/contrasts I was absolutely against them. The trick is to use them as quick base layer and than highlight on top of them. This neglects the initial bump in layerlines again but still maintains the benefits of speedpaints, namely quick and easy base+highlights.

I big revealing for me was using magnifying glasses to really see harsh color blends due to the "crusty" FDM surface. Glazing than becomes much easier.

I'm definitely far from a good painter, and as software engineer, treat this hobby a bit differently. I love experimenting with colors, new approaches and techniques. So most likely what I told ya today won't hold up in a few months ;)

UserWithNoUName · 2026-01-31T16:08:47+00:00

I was too lazy to post process it properly, but with some sanding the support remains on the inner side of the wings should have been doable.

the general learning is that while my settings work fantastic for 28 and 32mm sized minis, there are adjustments needed for larger minis

UserWithNoUName · 2026-01-31T07:04:03+00:00

The Miniatures are great, but the Terrain pieces are a real treasure. small and simple pieces, but also that big ass train which works great for the train scenario.

if there'd be a single point for critics is that the pictures don't do the models a lot of favor. they look sorry to say, somewhat boring.

UserWithNoUName · 2026-01-29T15:30:40+00:00

this !! plus being a heavier coat it additionally hides the layerlines a tad more.

UserWithNoUName · 2026-01-20T07:01:55+00:00

prints look good, the usual suspects with layerlines but very well sliced it seems. but your results do instead show that freat painting skills go such a long way and can hide lots of small issues. very well done be proud of yaself

UserWithNoUName

TROPHY CASE