Welcome to the wiki!
This knowledge base is intended to provide support for 3D printing miniatures with FDM printers. This is a community contributed resource of information that will continue to be built and refined as more people provide their own recommendations and experiences. There are also many great resources elsewhere that this site will also link to and reference.
Guidelines
Due to the rapidly changing 3D printing ecosystem all advise here should be considered editorial based on personal experience and a starting point for anyone wanting to get started 3D printing miniatures with an FDM printer. Some content may be considered best practices and other content may represent advice that has risks and should be used with caution. At any time content on this site may be removed or revised. This site should be considered a family friendly site so things should be kept at a PG rating and questionable content will be removed.
FDM 3D Printing Basics
General printing guidance that should be considered first steps when getting started with FDM 3D printing or when troubleshooting printing issues.
Filaments
Recommended filaments, those to stay away from, and general filament maintenance guidelines.
Calibration
How to calibrate FDM printers & filaments.
Tools
General tool recommendations.
Printing Miniatures
Guides on printing miniatures on FDM printers.
Printing Tips & Guides
General printing tips and guides for printing miniatures via FDM.
Model Orientation
One of the first decisions you make when preparing a model for printing is what the orientation will be. It may be tempting to orient it vertically, with its feet on the ground, but this will often have suboptimal results. Instead, you will generally orient the model so that it is leaned back. This allows you to take advantage of the greater detail on the Z axis and to have supports on the back of the model, so any support scarring is less noticeable (all supports leave at least a little scarring).
Other considerations are to minimize the amount of supports needed, to minimize the appearance of layer lines, and to align the layers for stronger parts.
If you are unsure of how you should orient your model and it came with a pre-supported file, you can check that file for the orientation. Note that pre-supported files are generally not suitable for FDM printers since the supports are designed for resin printing.
Supports
How you support your model is a major factor for how well your print will turn out. FDM printers cannot print directly onto thin air, so anything with enough of an overhang will need supports. Below you will find some supports settings that you can use:
- timnolte supports v5 (current)
- timnolte supports v4
Common questions:
- What about the Resin2FDM tool?
- The Resin2FDM tool is a plugin for Blender that allows you to convert resin supports (on pre-supported files) so that they work with FDM printers. However, our experience has been that well-tuned tree supports (see the links above) provide better results with faster print times. This is because resin printing has different support requirements than FDM printers. Since the tool works by thickening the supports so that the FDM slicer can pick them up, you will need to cut most of them to free the model, which creates additional scarring, and with the density of supports generated, it is easy to accidentally cut part of the model.
Bases
Model Creators
FDM Miniatures
Recommended model creators specifically designed for FDM printing, and any tips for printing their models.
Non-FDM Miniatures
Model creators that are not specifically designed for FDM printing, and any tips for attempting to print their models.
Printing Terrain
Guides on printing terrain on FDM printers.
Printer Model Tips
General guidelines and tips for specific FDM printers.
Model Prints Galleries
A gallery of prints done on FDM printers.