Printing Detailed Miniatures with FDM | Community Spotlight

• Bambu Labs A1 Mini – The only printer I have ever had. I am not qualified to dive into the fray of talking about which FDM printer reigns supreme. The most I will say here is that printers released in the last few years seem to offer a better printing experience across the board over ones from previous generations.

• Sunlu PLA+ filament – Some users recommend specific brands and types of filament. I have had good results with this so haven’t felt the need to shop around.

• 0.2mm nozzle – Non-negotiable. Yes, it really lengthens print time. By a lot. Like so so much? But it’s necessary for a job like this where detail is primary. This isn’t a corner you can cut.

• Needle nose pliers – Grabbing and pulling off supports.

• Sprue cutter – When cutting or gentler touch is needed for removing supports.

• Superglue – Good ole superglue! Plastic cement like Tamiya Extra Thin will not do a thing with FDM materials. Keep it simple.

Considering how many individual settings can be changed in a profile, it’s worth mentioning a few that have a huge impact on squeezing the highest level of detail from your printer.

• Layer Height – Since you already have that 0.2 nozzle installed, feel free to shrink that layer height to anywhere between 0.08mm-0.04mm. Keep in mind the lower you go the more print times will increase. Also, the risk/reward ratio changes as well. With longer print times come increased risk for an unanticipated error to blow up your print. In almost all cases, 0.06mm is as low as you need to go, with 0.08mm working just as well in most cases. I print using 0.08mm almost exclusively and feel like my results speak for themselves. Any detail you feel is missing can be regained with the paint job.

• Wall Settings – More walls means a sturdier mini! Set this to 3-5.

• Infill – Default to Gyroid (10-20%) infill for the best balance of strength and speed.

This warrants its own section. The problem most users encounter when working with detailed models with fiddly bits is dealing with the supports. I have done a lot of trial and error here and found some approaches that have been helpful for me:

• Use Organic Tree supports - Some people recommend using slim supports, but I have had too many failures with those on my end. YMMV
  
  
• Have supports come from the build plate only - You don’t want supports sprouting from the model itself.
  
  
• Increase the Top Z-Distance - This defines how far away a support is from the model itself. The default setting is far too close for minis, often to the point of supports fusing to the model. The less you’re wrestling with supports, the better the chances of a clean looking mini. A rule of thumb is twice or three times your layer size. I often default to 0.20 as my very unscientific middle ground.
  
  
• Cut up that model! – Acquaint yourself with the Cut tool in your slicer. If you’re trying to arrange an item on your build plate and there doesn’t seem like there’s any way to lay it without generating a veritable forest of supports, it’s ok to Cut the model into smaller pieces. You can glue it back together. I like to use Tamiya Plastic Putty on obvious seam lines, especially on organic surfaces. Milliput or green stuff can work, too. Once the model is primed, it can be near impossible to tell where that line was.
  
  
• Clone questionable pieces – If you have a piece of a mini that seems like it will be a challenge, give yourself more than one chance. When I have a model with, say, a spindly staff or tiny legs, I will clone those sections so I have two or three bites at the apple. I will also give each clone a different orientation on the build plate to see if one will have a better support removal experience than another.
  
  
• Be gentle – I feel this shouldn’t be said but I’ll say it anyway. Take your time with support removal. If they don’t come off cleanly and easily with the needle nose pliers, move to the sprue cutter and snip pieces off bit by bit. I’ve had more than my share of legs, tentacles, or cloth bits snap off because I was impatient.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. More than this is where I stand on the shoulders of giants. There are dozens of ways to alter the behavior of your printer that can help or hinder getting a clean print. Beyond my level of understanding, if I’m to be perfectly honest. With that in mind I happily apply settings assembled by people doing the research. Go check out the Wiki in the r/FDMminiatures subreddit. There, you will find write-ups and deep dives on getting the most from a variety of FDM printers that really gets into the granular details.

Users can get amazing results from any of the following settings All-Stars. Applying any of these pre-sets will immediately improve your chances of getting a clean print of that model that’s been calling out to you:

• Fat Dragon Games - what I use, but really only because I saw them first. They charge $2 for access to their settings, but I don’t mind supporting good work.
  
  
• HoHanson
  
  
• ObscuraNox

I hope this is helpful as a starting point for people to explore printing models they thought were out of reach. Speaking for me, I took the assertion I could never print a line of models without a resin set-up as a challenge. To my surprise, it’s been a fun project!

Of course, getting the model in hand is just the first step. How can you paint an FDM model to give the best result? Well, that’s another post for another day.

Happy printing!

Bo-Pepper