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What is the level of detail possible for 1:72 figures with PLA? (obsolete) (diyrpg.org)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/3dprinting

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

(I've been informed that I had been told complete BS by the person trying to tell me that resin printing 1:72 wargame minis would be stupidly expensive. As such, my question here is no longer relevant.)

I am considering the option to get back into miniature painting by starting with 3D printing my own custom figures.

Given the price difference, it would have to be plastic (I read PLA is a good option), and for my purposes it would mostly be 1:72 scale figures.

The deciding factor is whether at such a small scale PLA can achieve a level of detail that doesn't look completely terrible. I'm used to 1:72 injection mold figures, and my previous paint work in the past was always so thick that much of the detail present on those would disappear anyway. So I'm really not looking for much.

But looking for existing images of such prints is very much not search engine friendly and I mostly just come up with Chinese soldier figures made out of some mystery material or figures of unknown scale.

Can anyone help me to find some reference pictures of 1:72 PLA figures so I can take a look if this level of detail is acceptable for me?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

What nozzle and layer height were you printing with? I’ve printed a few minis with a 0.2mm nozzle and 0.08mm layer height and the results look much smoother than what you had…

[–] Apepollo11 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Exactly this. I still use a 0.4 nozzle and the results are more than satisfactory.

These figures were all support-free designs by EC3D, and are a joy to print.

At 0.08mm layers, you can feel the lines with a fingernail, but can't see the from more than a few cm away.

[–] Linuto 1 points 1 year ago

This was probably 2 or 3 years ago, but I had a .2mm nozzle and .08 layer height as well most likely.

My pla prints have always looked rough, no matter what tutorials or tweaking I do.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Dude, that looks rough as hell compared to any resin print. I don't get why some people just have to cope so hard over this, resin is just better for detail, it's not a comment on your print skills or whatever.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Oh, I agree, resin prints are much more detailed. I just wanted to provide another point of reference for FDM mini prints, since the parent commenter’s FDM prints looked… rough.