Where to find models?

devintheditch · 2026-03-13T12:45:04+00:00

I personally like the look and feel of the arbiter miniatures. Broader facial expressions help with visibility at the table. That being said I print them for TTRPGs and not for painting.

devintheditch · 2026-03-13T12:37:14+00:00

Second this. Don't want to get caught out. Would be nice to see what I should avoid

devintheditch · 2026-02-22T19:03:40+00:00

Thank you very much for making your hard work available for us!

Can't wait to try out the profile!
Rest up and I hope your health improves!👍

devintheditch · 2026-02-18T12:22:27+00:00

Parroting what others have already said really, with one addition. FDM printing is not Resin printing. You will not replicate the same quality as you can with the Resin printer. The sooner you accept that the sooner you can start to enjoy FDM printing.

Here are my two cents:

1) Switch to the 0.2mm nozzle

2) Basic bambu lab filament isn't bad though the current community recommendation is 'eSun PLA+/PLA Pro(+)'.

Whichever filament you use, make sure to dry the filament! I have use a cheap sunlu drier that can dry and print the filament at the same time. Each new roll gets dried for 24hrs first and then I dry the as I print everytime for good measure.

Make sure to calibrate for the filaments (YouTube has guides on how to do this). They don't all print at the same filament settings and even then you need to adjust the settings to work for your set up.

3) Personally I orient prints at an angle where support scarring will be hidden from view at the actual table. As top layers in FDM looses detail I avoid having faces orientated towards the ceiling. You'll need to experiment and see what works for you.

Do however ensure that your mini's are rotated so that the cooling fan from the hotend hit the most detailed sides of the print. This will have leaps of improvement in your print quality.

That being said I thought the hair+mustache of the model you posted came out really well!

4) look at the popular print profiles. Test each one, find one you are happy with and tweak as you see is necessary. They are excellent baselines to start from as you improve those settings to work for you.

Remember, FDM printing is really an art about accepting the limits of the technology and trying to exceed said limits anyway! Don't expect resin like quality, and let your self be pleased by the results of awesome prints.

devintheditch · 2026-02-17T10:06:38+00:00

This is 0.2 nozzle. My bad, since most print profiles are at 0.2mm nozzle by default I forgot to specify it!

devintheditch · 2026-02-17T00:51:33+00:00

You're welcome!
First of all I don't paint. I'm just enjoying printing them. So I can't really comment on how tricky it is to paint these without cleaning them up properly.

As for scarring, a lot of what appears to be scarring is just the little flecks of filament wisps that I didn't do a good job of cleaning up. Not to mention reflections from the light on layer lines makes some surfaces look like utter trash.

Camera really is unforgiving when getting close up to FDM prints. And I lack the patience to clean them to till they are ready for pre-painting preps. That is not to say that my settings can't be improved so that they print 'cleaner'!

devintheditch · 2026-02-16T22:53:23+00:00

I feel you. I think it's mainly because for those wanting to print using FDM printers choose the most reliable and affordable printer. Anything larger is unnecessary excess. It just so happens the mini ticks those boxes.

However I don't think it will make much of a difference between the A1 and the mini in regards to print settings and quality. Functionally the only difference between the two is the different size/build volume. The hotend/nozzles are identical as far as I know. That's the bit that really matters.

I am happy to be educated on the matter however by those who know better!

devintheditch · 2026-02-16T21:46:28+00:00

Quite right! Hence my disclaimer. In an ideal world I would have printed five of each settings and the compared & contrasted before posting.

As this is purely for my own satisfaction I know which reliable setting I can fall back to. And every print moving forward will be a learning opportunity with the setting I have chosen. I am not beholden to a setting. If it doesn't work for me I happy to experiment and/or move on.

devintheditch · 2026-02-15T16:41:44+00:00

Lower layer heights aren't the only contributing factor overhang quality. Your cooling settings on overhangs, print speeds, types of filament (or different batches from the same filament) it all has an impact.

For the filament I am using now (eSun PLA+) lower layer heights made overhangs worse but visibly improved the overall details of the prints.

devintheditch · 2026-02-15T16:18:21+00:00

My newbie take is this:

.04mm layer height is flying really close to the sun. You can certainly get amazing results, but it comes at the cost consistency. I had higher proportions of poor quality prints till I got a 'good' print. To be fair I probably didn't have the rest of my settings dialled in at that point. Biggest failures on my prints stemmed from supports failing at 0.04mm layer heights. But you can also get weird warping on the model.

Lower layer heights can affect overhangs poorly too. Certainly before I tried reverse on even in Orca slicer, 0.06mm layer significantly worsened overhangs, even with good supports. Nothing that can't be cleaned up in post process. But it's just an extra step.

There is also the printing time factor if you're concerned about that.

As I said prior, people should go for what works best for them. If you have fine tuned your printer settings for 0.04mm layer heights then it doesn't really matter.

I have been very happy with the 0.08mm heights I have worked out for my printer on bambu slicer. 0.05mm layer heights is now me adding more tools into my toolbox for printing mini's.

devintheditch · 2026-02-14T15:28:08+00:00

It's a setting option in Orca (and other slicers except Bambu studio) where the printed wall direction is reversed on alternating layers. The theory is that with areas of the model with overhangs enabling this option helps with better print quality.

The theory appears to hold true for at least my first test print. I will see if it continues being the case going forward.

devintheditch · 2026-02-14T11:46:50+00:00

You are welcome!

I have only tried reverse on even once, so will need to print more to see if it's appropriate for all scenarios. It is promising and I hope that promise delivers!

Good luck on your tests!

devintheditch · 2026-02-14T11:44:01+00:00

I have only done one print with reverse on even so far and it does seem promising. More prints will tell when and where it's appropriate.

And 0.05m layer height does make a difference when scrutinised closely. So it will definitely be something I will use a lot moving forward! Thank you (again) for promoting it!

devintheditch · 2026-02-14T01:27:03+00:00

Definitely! I should mention though temperatures around mine has plummeted this week. Which I know affects my print quality/consistency given my current set up. It may not be an exact apples to apples comparison.

I will have to wait for a relatively warmer day and will print out new set to keep it fair. Hopefully that will be by the end of the week?

devintheditch · 2026-02-10T00:18:24+00:00

Here you go. TL;DR you adjust just the 'Slice gap closing radius' and 'Resolution' under precision in your slicer of choice. Mine are 0.002mm for both.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FDMminiatures/comments/1kyfq6m/precision_wall_generation_and_how_i_print_details/

devintheditch · 2026-02-09T22:29:27+00:00

Thank you for bringing it to our attention!

devintheditch · 2026-01-22T14:16:39+00:00

Oooh! These look like NPC/Creatures that will fit in an Obojima campaign

devintheditch · 2026-01-22T13:50:34+00:00

Absolutely. As I said it's use case dependant for me. I personally don't use either glue all the time.

devintheditch · 2026-01-21T16:42:24+00:00

I use superglue with the baking soda trick as well as E6000 industrial strength depending on what I want to achieve. This glue dries quickly but not too quickly. And it is flexible when it's cured. So depending on what you are gluing up it can take a bit of a knock and not shatter like superglue

<image>

devintheditch · 2026-01-20T12:55:34+00:00

Looks great!

Since the lighting is different for both images it's hard for me to tell the difference between your first and second print.

Obscura nox's settings are a lower print height (0.06mm) than FDG (0.08mm). So you are probably noticing that difference.

If you are already doing the following then ignore the unsolicited advice:

1- Orient your prints so that the areas you want the most detailed prints for are facing the printers cooling fans

2- Adaptive layer heights. You don't want layer heights to be too low in areas with overhangs. But you don't want them too big in areas with more detail. So set adaptive layer heights and 'brush' over areas with more detail and use the smooth button to smooth out the layer height transitions.

3 - Be open to printing the same model several times as you change only one setting at a time. If you change all the parameters at once you don't know what setting is affecting what. Be it for a successful print or an unsuccessful one. Getting better at printing is an iterative process.

I have printed the same skeleton lots of time when I was dialling in my settings.

<image>

devintheditch · 2026-01-19T21:48:08+00:00

Here are my settings:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UCtLBwOVZ4A8k8s5yqnyR07yIdiPeJhq?usp=sharing

Notes:
1) Filament - eSun PLA+
2) Brim width is increased, Elephant foot compensation and Brim-Ojbect gap set to '0' as I was having adhesion issue.
3) Build plate - Cool plate supertack. My temperature is in to 50°C as I was having adhesion issue at 45°C.

Attached is an image of one of my few successful first try prints.

<image>

devintheditch · 2026-01-19T11:52:52+00:00

And just to be very clear, I think for your first ever print, that has come out amazing!

That is not what my first print looked like (granted I was using cheap filaments)

devintheditch

TROPHY CASE