Technological advancements in the gaming arena have almost sidelined the use of tabletop games. A lot of people are still concerned about miniatures and are missing the custom characters and models of these games.
However, with prices going up exponentially, a lot of fans and gamers have decided to buy a 3D printer for miniatures in order to print down their own models.
For those who haven’t got the whole point yet, miniatures commonly refer to games like Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer. Many customers still don’t understand that 3D miniatures can mean any kind of small models and characters. In this article, we’ve decided to shed light on some of the best 3D printers available in the market.
These 3D printers are used to create miniatures and are based on your budget, needs and priorities. There are a lot of things to understand such as key best practices for printing miniatures and factors that would bring in a huge difference to small model print quality.
Many people have asked about the best 3D printers for miniatures and we believe that there are tons of options to choose from. Without any further delay, let’s take a look at the top 5 best 3D printers for miniatures to buy in 2022.
Top 5 Best Printers for Miniatures to buy in 2022
ANYCUBIC Photon
Price: $359.99 USD
ANYCUBIC Photon Mono SE is a major option when it comes to printing 3D miniatures. Basically, this product is known as an ultra-fast printing resin 3D printer with a four times faster printing speed. First of all, you’d get a nice 6.08-inch 2K monochrome LCD and the rapid prototyping has improved the printing efficiency to a great extent.
The lifespan of the Mono LCD is four times longer than RGB screen and it allows you to print for almost 2000 hours. With an upgraded matrix parallel light source, this printer is able to spread the UV light more evenly across the whole screen.
It also works together with dual Z-axis guide rail structure and the printing details and precision is great improved. The quality of printed models has the ability to blow you away. Overall, it’s a fantastic choice for printing cartoon characters and miniatures.
The build quality is very strong as it comes with a metal frame and CNC machined aluminum body. Photo Mono is a very formidable machine with lots of beneficial features and we’d definitely recommend it to everyone looking to buy a new 3D printer.
The heat dissipation system is quite commendable as it comes with Photon Mono SE’s UV cooling system. Efficient cooling, improved printing quality and great service is combined to make the Photon Mono SE.
Benefits:
• 2K monochrome LCD
• Good heat dissipation
• Stable and precise
• Strong build quality
Drawbacks:
• Smaller print size
MakerBot SKETCH
Price: $1,199 USD
The MakerBot SKETCH is one of the ideal 3D printers for home and education purpose. The MakerBot comes with a cloud file management and hundreds of lessons and plans to help you learn as much as possible. This is a reliable and Tinker-Free 3D printer that comes with a classroom and home friendly design.
The chambers are enclosed and there are built-in particulate filters. Heated and flexible build-plates are also an important part of this device. The MakerBot SKETCH also comes with an easy-to-use file management dashboard and it also allows you to manage and access printing queues between printers.
This device is basically crafted by the largest 3D printing community for educators. The MakerBot SKETCH is one of the finest 3D printers to buy in 2022 and there are many good reasons to buy this device. We’d definitely recommend this machine to all the customers that can afford a printer up to $1100.
Benefits:
• Home friendly design
• Built-in filters
• Flexible build-plates
• Reliable and Tinker-Free
Drawbacks:
• A bit expensive
COMGROW Creality Ender 3
Price: $236 USD
The COMGROW Creality Ender 3 Pro is another amazing 3D printer for miniatures. Firstly, it comes with a removable build surface and gives you an all-round protection to the 3D printer build plate. This feature will also ensure consistent temperature throughout the build surface and it is quite simple to remove the printing models after cooling.
Ender 3 Pro also comes with a UL certified power supply and protects your printer from unexpected power surges, which can potentially heat the hot bed to 110℃ in less than five minutes. Resume printing from your last recorded extruder position in case you go through a lot of power outages.
One of the main talking points of this device is the SEMI-ASSEMBLED KIT that allows you to learn the basic construction of 3D printers as you finish putting it up. Completing the whole kit is a lot of fun because of STEM educational experience in electronics and mechanical engineering. You’d also get a lifetime technical assistance and 24 hours professional customer service.
Benefits:
• UL certified power supply
• Semi-assembled kit
• All-round protection
• Amazon Choice award
Drawbacks:
• Not suitable for beginners
LONGER Orange 30
Price: $315.29 USD
If we talk about high-precision and larger printing size, the name of LONGER Orange 30 comes to our mind straightaway. The Orange 30 is a higher precision resin 3D printer with a built-in 2K LCD screen that produces 2560×1440 resolutions. Offering bigger size of printing at almost 4.72×2.68×6.69 inches and you’d also get an improved solid linear guide and special slider design to enhance the accuracy and stability of Z axis.
This particular 3D printer is integrated with matrix UV LED arrays and it also gives you a better printing performance since the matrix illumination comes with better uniformity and high intensity. A real-time printing status preview is established by a full-color touchscreen with upgraded trough and more convenient scale.
The slicing software is also self-developed by LONGER and you’d get a smart support generation in one-click. The high-temperature warning system and fast cooling is also quite effective and it includes a temperature detection system as well.
A 3D printer with a price range of less than $350 is very fascinating and the features that we’ve discussed are very useful as well. Some of its main talking points include Parallel LED Lighting, large printing size and an off-line printing facility. As a result, we don’t see any good reason of ignoring this device.
Benefits:
• LCD screen 2K
• Special slider design
• UV LED arrays
• Color touch screen
Drawbacks:
• Slicing software is a bit complicated
Voxelab Polaris
Price: $159 USD
Voxelab Polaris 3D Printer is our last product of this list of the top 5 best 3D printers for miniatures to buy in 2022. Just like the above-mentioned device, it also comes with powerful slicing software and it also supports both CHITU slicing software and VoxelPrint slicing software.
Many people would understand that VoxelPrint can quickly set up the support and helps in modifying the support parameters. Moreover, you’d also get a dimension compensation mechanism that will effectively reduce the error caused by resin shrinkage.
Internal honeycomb support is also provided by VoxelPrint and the cutting function is going to give you a different printing experience. The packaging is very stable and cheap, however; the Polaris uses a 2K HD masking LCD to give you accurate printing with a single pixel size of 0.047mm.
Have you ever thought about getting a better printing effect than the FDM 3D printers? Well, the Polaris 3D printer offers an excellent performance and it is compatible with different 3D printers. A lifetime technical support and one-year warranty is promised by Voxelab and we’re sure that most of the 3D printers are far behind in performance as compared to the Polaris.
Basically, this product is known as a UV Photo-curing LCD Resin 3D Printer that is assembled with a 3.5-inch smart touch color screen. We won’t claim that this is the best device on the market, however; we certainly feel that it is amongst the very best 3D printers that you can buy in 2022.
Benefits:
• Excellent performance
• Powerful slicing software
• Supports both CHITU & VoxelPrint
• Honeycomb support
Drawbacks:
• Cheap internal components
Conclusion: Our top 3 picks
Some topics are out of our technical abilities as writers and reviewers. We have to accept that finding and discussing the best 3D printers for miniatures was one of them. Despite a huge variety available, we were not sure about the top and most popular brands that make these devices.
Also, we don’t feel that adding devices from high-end companies should be a compulsion. Best 3D printers for miniatures are discussed in this guide and we want you to take a close look at each and every one of them in order to take the right decision. As far as our top 3 picks are concerned, we’ve kept the LONGER Orange 30 at the first spot because of its built-in 2K LCD screen and special slider design.
The second spot goes to the evergreen Creality Ender 3 Pro that comes with a UL certified power supply and semi-assembled kit. The third and last spot goes to the ANYCUBIC Photon that comes with a 2K monochrome LCD and good heat dissipation.
Write it down in the comments below if you have any queries. Let us know and we shall try to answer them accordingly. See you soon in our next analytical guide, until then, goodbye and good luck with whatever you choose.