Hopefully some better answers otw, but pla painting is a little tricky. I can recommend using a non silk neutral pla, spraying with a plastic compatible primer coat and then painting with acrylics though. Have not perfected this, but it does work.
So far they've just used fine-point acrylic markers directly on the PLA, but it doesn't quite cover properly. I'll try the plastic primer 👍
A resin printer is much better for this specific thing, TBH. You can also make balanced dice with one, to go with the figures.
If you're printing miniatures on FDM you should check out
https://youtube.com/@tombof3dprintedhorrors
and
https://youtube.com/@onceinasixside
The first, Fat Dragon Games, has many years of experience printing, designing, and selling models for FDM miniatures. He's got opinions on filaments.
The second channel is more recent to FDM printing but made the jump from printing exclusively in resin and is now enjoying a journey into FDM. He talks about his preferred filaments in his videos.
I highly suggest you follow both of them. Also Fat Dragon minis aren't the greatest detail or have very expressive poses, but they are design specifically to print in FDM without support. So I suggest checking them out. Brite Minis is another FDM exclusive miniature model seller.
I haven't done FDM minis in a while so I'm not sure what filament brand to recommend specifically for that. But definitely stick with PLA. I know I used to use E-Sun and I believe that's what fat dragon used to recommend as well.
DO NOT use white filament to print minis. Pigments in the filaments affect their properties and there's a LOT of white pigment in white filament and it makes it more brittle. Black tends to have the least pigment, but that doesn't necessarily mean that makes the best filament for minis. Fat dragon usually recommends grey but I think that's more for aesthetic reasons.
I've always heard that resin printing is best for miniatures, but if you're happy with the 0.2 nozzle, I'd stick with PLA. CookieCAD and ProtoPasta both have fun colors. If you really want to branch out, ASA with acetone vapor smoothing could be something to try.
I really don't want to deal with resin, I don't have room for a proper safe workstation for it.
I think ASA with acetone vapour will smooth out too much detail, which is already limited. The layer-lines aren't really an issue either, i print at 0.08mm thickness (it takes forever to print these...)
I've always wanted to try dipping a fdm printed mini into some craft UV curing resin.
In my imagination that makes everything better ;), but I've never gotten around to try
probably about the same as like vapor smoothing abs with acetone. I think pla has solvents that work too but they're much nastier
I've had great results with Hatchbox PLA for minis - it takes primer really well and the light grey is perfect as a base for painting (way better than the white which gets brittle af).
They're not really available where i live though
after starting to print d&d miniatures, i switched from fff to resin printing; i have not looked back. the increase in fidelity between fff and resin is unfathomable.
I mostly print large functional parts, so FDM is the best solution for that, and I just happen to also use it for printing minis because I already have it. I don't have work space free for resin printing too, with all the extras it needs for handling and curing.
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