Very good point. I have joined the lost kingdoms patreon to get the stls but don't currently have a 3d printer. Going to do some research into it to find the best (low price) printer for minis. I just am not keen on the simplicity of the GW line troops, too dull and static. I wish you could use 3rd party minis at gw journeys, I want to try some when we can again.
I am in the same boat as you, signed up to patreon but I don't have a printer yet. I have been doing extensive research and I think as it stands, the Elegoo Mars is the one I would go for out of the more budget line up. If I could afford it I would go for an Epax X1 but it is very much out of my price range.
I use the Mars and so far I have had not problems with it other than not knowing what I was doing at the beginning lol. So far it’s been printing them great.
My print farm is made up of Mars' for the resin side. It's just as good as the other more expensive printers on the market that use the same resolution LCD, pretty much the same as the anycubic Photon with a few minor differences that are really down to preference(like the top coming all the way off the Mars or being a rising front panel on the Photon). The main issue with the cheapest printers like the Mars and the Photon is that they dont have the best official support, but the user communities around these printers make up for that completely imo. The Epax looks like it has some very nice quality of life improvements for the price though. I may look at them when expanding further.
I had never considered 3D printing before. Now I have consumed hours of videos and researching what the best 3D printer for an affordable price is. I've gone extremely deep into YouTube Rabbitholes including getting PPE like a respirator, nitrile gloves and eye protection. I also plan on getting a UV Curing Station and a Finishing Station with tubs for for IPA as well as other accessories. Lost Kingdom Miniatures changed my life. I don't have anything but the .stl files from the one patreon for the chameleon skinks and kroxigors, but I eagerly await more releases and have fully intended to purchase a 3D Printer no matter what. I simply must have these miniatures at any and all cost.
You can make your own UV curing station if you are into DIY projects. I made one using a sheet of plywood, a roll of reflective vinyl (for cars apparently, from Amazon), and this UV light/turntable. A 405nm UV is what you want, the difference between the 6W and 20W versions in that listing is that the 20W one will cure your models faster, and also bake them faster if you leave them in too long. I think it is worth the extra money to go for the 20W because it saves a good amount of time. I have also heard of people having success making them out of a bucket with a strip of 400-405nm lights all the way around the inside. There are guides for this style of curing station online. The turntable from that Amazon listing is also serviceable for smaller pieces, but if you take my advice and cure your prints in water then you might want to get a slightly sturdier turntable for the larger pieces. (The bowl of water adds a great deal of weight). Whatever you do, I suggest you cure your resin prints in a bowl of water. As in cure the print completely submerged in the bowl (preferably a glass/pyrex bowl bowl). This prevents oxygen from getting into the first layer of the print which can stop it from curing properly, in turn causing a tacky finish even if you are cleaning the models properly. I started using water to cure my models and noticed a more "crisp" finish but also got rid of a strange tacky finish that wouldnt go away no matter how hard I cleaned on a small number of models. There seems to be very little information about this in guides and on the internet apart from text posts of people telling others to do it lol. You can also get a small(3-6L) utrasonic cleaner and use that with your cleaning solution of choice, although you SHOULD NOT use IPA in an ultrasonic cleaner, as there is a heating element in the cleaner that can be a fire hazard, and besides there are other cleaning solutions that are actually cheaper than IPA (and much easier to find in the current pandemic as an added bonus). To see a nice short vid with some cleaning alternatives depending on where you are click here. Personally I use Mean Green Super Strength. I also put the cleaning solution in a plastic baggie with the resin parts, and then submerge the baggie in water, to save on the amount of solution I use (because you want to fill the ultrasonic cleaner up to a certain line to really get the best effect, and the resin parts will foul the solution quite quickly with the ultrasonic cleaner working).
Could you clarify what you mean by cure in water? The videos I've watched they take out the build plate of the 3D printer. They hold the build plate over a tub, vat, pickle jar, or some other container often with a sieve that can be raised and lowered, and they take a metal (or plastic) paint scraper and knock it off the build plate into the jar of IPA Alcohol. Then they like use tongs or pliers and swirl it around and shake it and stuff. Then it seems they wait for it to try and put it inside a UV Curing Station (Nail Polish thing, or self built, or just direct sunlight outdoors). I was going to get this thing: https://www.amazon.com/600Ml-Stainl...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5EJA0NN78F24VY74WAED I am not really sure what it's for though.
Yeah I mean you submerge the print entirely in water while it is under the UV light curing. It's not a necessary step and by all means leave it out unless you run into that tacky finish I was referring to. But I have used all kinds of cleaning solutions including IPA and Acetone and then the tackiness (which was only on a small number of models and usually only in certain spots) went away the moment I started using this method. It might be more difficult to do with one of the nail UV machines as they dont always have a ton of vertical clearance for your container of water.
Hmm I feel like I may need to watch some more videos haha. Where does the ultrasonic cleaner come in? Would it be like... take build plate, pop off model into baggy filled with that green stuff you said, or IPA Alcohol, close bag. Fill ultrasonic cleaner with water....then get a separate container of water and submerge bag with alchohol or green stuff and put that in the UV thingy?
No after you clean something to remove the resin you want to like rinse it off and then cure it when it has all the cleaning solution off. You dont want to cure with IPA still on the model. It will cause discoloration and possibly affect the quality of the top layer. You just put the model in a bowl of water before curing it normally. The ultrasonic cleaner is just a way to avoid having to swish around or scrub the models to remove the resin residue. The steps I follow go something like this: 1.Pop the models off the plate 2.Remove the supports (you dont have to remove them here but I do before the cleaning process as it is messier on my hands but fouls the cleaning solution less so I dont go through as much. You would be surprised how much gunk is on the supports.) 3.Put the pieces in a baggie of mean green(or other solution), remove air from baggie, put baggie in ultrasonic cleaner and fill the rest of the vat with water. 4.Run the ultrasonic cleaner depending on the size and crevices of the models 4B. If there is a particularly detailed piece that has given me trouble in the past or looks/feels like it might have residue on it, I might give it a brush after removing it from the ultrasonic cleaner with a toothbrush and some IPA or Acetone. Technically the IPA and Acetone are dissolving the uncured resin while the other cleaning solutions are "cutting" it and acting more like a degreaser that causes it to "slide off". Because of this occasionally you might want a bit of IPA or Acetone if something is being particularly stubborn(i.e. residue just moving around on the surface of the model rather than being removed). I personally like to use a scented nail polish remover (so a diluted acetone mixed with seed oils essentially) because it doesnt smell bad and is just not as caustic and gross as proper acetone or IPA. 5.Rinse the pieces in cold water and put them into a bowl of cold water to sit while they wait to be cured(probably not necessary, but I have left prints of all sizes in water for up to 2-3 hours with no ill effect to the final result. I figure if there is oxygen getting into the first layer may as well have them sit in water while waiting). 6. Put the pieces into another bowl of water, one or a few at a time, and cure them varying amounts based on the size and shape(and how flexible I want it to be.) I dont actually know if the water needs to be cold or if it being warm would actually be better. It tends to warm up from be over time anyway if you keep putting the same bowl of water in front of the UV. Hopefully this gives you some idea of how I do things. If you are still wondering by all means ask for more specifics. Also as I have said the stuff with the water is not exactly necessary but I was running into a tacky finish on a small number of models no matter what I did to clean them and curing in water solved it instantly.