3D Printer for HQ miniatures

[Wexodius]

Hello everybody,

I am new and utterly unexperienced when it comes to 3D printing, but it seems like I recently discovered a treasure trove which can aid in expanding my HeroQuest world.
For example I refer to the 3D models which can be found on a website called Yeggi. Typing in HeroQuest in the searchbox reveals quite some interesting (and new) models.
Buying each HQ expansion separately is pricey and risky at the same time. Therefore I would like to hear your opinions and advice regarding printing your own miniatures.

Could anybody please give some advice regarding which 3D printer would be suitable to print these miniatures with relative detail?
Anything in particular I have to pay attention to, or I am better of buying my miniatures from a 3rd party?
Any advice is welcome. Thanks in advance for any reply ,

[wallydubbs]

From my experience with 3D printing HeroQuest figurines don't always come out the best in detail.

I have used both Makerbot and Ultimaker to make some expansion figurines:
Makerbot won't give you very good detail, only the basic shape, but you won't get facial features and hardly any distinguishing clothing, but they do hold together pretty well. When I made prints of the Elven Warrior the sword broke off much too quickly.
Ultimaker will give you much better detail but it's hit or miss with this one. The bigger the figurine the better. The Giant Wolves came out very well with this one, but smaller figurines like the Elven Warrior weren't very strong in the ankles and broke off once I removed the supports. The Elven Archer's bow was malformed and when I tried to make a grey Barbarian figurine to use as Kalvenos, the face collapsed into itself. The Polar Warbeats and Yeti's came out good, as did an Ogre, but the plastic wasn't strong or thick enough on the bicep and one of the arms broke off.
If you don't care about great detail use MakerBot, you'll hit or miss with Ultimaker, but it can handle the larger figurines.

[Gav_el]

I have found Thingiverse a great resource for HQ miniatures and furniture.

wallydubbs have you posted makes on the websites the files are from to show what happens when they go wrong. it may help to improve the quality of the builds.

[wallydubbs]

I have found Thingiverse a great resource for HQ miniatures and furniture.

wallydubbs have you posted makes on the websites the files are from to show what happens when they go wrong. it may help to improve the quality of the builds.

I didn't really save all the bad ones (although the library let me keep them for free if they weren't satisfactory. However I may have a few in storage that I'll post next time i find them ..
But here are some of the ones I've chosen to keep.

[cornixt]

The quality of any 3D print is highly dependent on the quality of the file used. A poor scan of an existing model is not going to produce a great result even with the best printer. Unless you really like the HQ models themselves, I would get miniatures from a current manufacturer, although you may have trouble fitting in with the scale.

On the 3D printer side, the Ender 3 seems to be the best bang for your buck right now. There is some time and effort involved in owning a 3D printer though, lots of tweaking settings and troubleshooting in order to produce quality prints. Go to reddit.com/r/printedminis for some nice examples

[Wexodius]

Thanks to everybody for the replies.
Seems like it's a double-edged sword at the moment regarding printing your own miniatures then.
I guess the technology for 3D printers is still in its early age for printing small scale items for the regular consumer.
Will have to weigh in the cost/success rate of investing in a 3D printer or buying miniatures from a supplier.
Seems I still have some more homework to do before I can make a decision.

[DungeonWorks]

I'm the owner of a 3d company and designer. Printing minis depends on so many things. The printer, the filament, the type of mini and how it was designed. If you want to print these the best you can, then a resin printer is what you want. But there is a lot of work with resin printers. If you're only use it for these minis then it's not worth your time. You can find many people in the facebook groups for 3d printing that could print these for you. Honestly that would be your best option. Just type in FB 3d tabletop and can find good groups.

[cornixt]

Here are a few of the prints I have made for dungeon crawl games. Printed on an Ender 3, mostly with .2mm nozzle. The open door is a single piece print that can swing open and closed. Nothing is quite finished being painted yet.

[Mortanius]

I own a Creality CR-10, and 2 sets of various sized extruder nozzles. I've found, for printing miniatures, the 0.2mm nozzle with a 0.05mm layer height results in a level of detail that is extremely close to that of a resin printer or an injection molded figure. The big commercial manufacturers use injection molding.
The only, and big, downside to using the nozzle and layer settings that I use on my printer is speed. The size of nozzle and layer height require a very slow print speed.

[cornixt]

Yes, a single Heroquest size model will take around 6-7 hours if you want it at the best quality. I've never tried anything less than .08mm layer height (Ender 3 works best at multiples of .04mm, the CR-10 might be different). I would never say it gets close to resin quality, but it is certainly good enough for my purposes. The original HQ models aren't exactly highly detailed so you're mostly fine for them, but you're not going to get current GW quality from an FDM printer.