Recommendations requested for a resin printer suitable for wargames models

[Aotrs Commander]

Hi. I run a small... Very, very small... Business creating and selling wargames models.

I am, very tentatively, looking at a resin printer. This is because the print house I am using for resin may in fact turn out to be unviable, leaving me with only my Prusa i3 Mk3 or Shapeways. While the Prusa, for the wargames market, produces acceptable quality models, there are some things (notably 1:144th scale (10 or 12mm) infantry is not among them. Shapeways is both increasingly expensive and unreliable. The print house I have been dealing with I was hoping to be a better alternative, but I am not longer sure if it will be viable.

I am thus, somewhat in frustration at this point, it must be admitted, making a tenative look at a resin printer. The brutal truth is, I'm not sure I can actually afford one, nor have I a clue as to where to put it even I got one, but I feel as though I at least ought to make the attempt. I should note that I am nowhere NEAR big enough to be looking at significant orders at ths point (by far and away, the vast majority of my customers are still on Shapeways), so I'm essentially only looking at a small printer for occasional jobs. The demand may in truth be sufficiently small I might be able to sweet talk my mate who does have one he got second-hand for the occasional deal. But I feel I owe it to my customers to at least investigate, since the demand for resin prints seems to be on the increase, and uptake on my FDM home prints has been very low. This may be unnecessary (or simply turn out not to be affordable), but at least I can say "I did look at the option."

(I am also very aware that if I am totally beholden to Shapeways, as/when/if they elect to stop their shop service or it becomes truly impractical to use, I am, as they, say fracked, which was why I started offering home prints as an option a few years ago.)

Below are pictures of some of my models (I have a LOT of models...!) of the type I would be looking at. The first one is 144th infantry, the primary thing I would be looking at resin printers for; the second some infantry and vehicles I had done in resin, plus one from off my Prusa, and finally one of the latest models done on the Prusa.

MG3 GPMG_MK19AGL Company Group 01.jpg
Fennek AD platoon hybrid 01.jpg
ZSU_23_4V.jpg

What would be the recommendations for a resin printer suitable for doing those models? It would have to be one that doesn't use a properitry resin, on the basis that I absolutely couldn't afford to get a printer that might not have resin available.

I would even be willing to provice a model file for test printing if there was anyone willing to attempt to run one on a particular printer.



Secondly, both myself and my father have heard for quite some time heard that resin printers can produce significant smell (it is one of the reasons my father is not keen on having one in the house). Is this still the case?

[3BAprinting]

I would recommend a Zortrax Inkspire. It has a HEPA filter, since resin has a bad smell. It also has very nice quality, and is super simple to work with due to Z-suite slicer. If you want to read more about it, you can do so here.