Hi everyone,
recently, my brother asked me to print some tabletop miniatures for him on my Prusa MK4S. I know miniatures are most commonly printed with SLA printers, but I found some workable advice and so far my first attempts look decent enough.
However, I noticed most models I find are optimized for SLA printing or at least not optimal for printing with FDM due to difficult forms such as sloping and cavities that are hard to support. Also, I mainly print construction and replacement parts and would like to avoid swapping nozzles often. So I started researching SLA printers.
Owning a Prusa printer and liking it very much, I first looked at their SL1S and fell over backwards when I saw the price tag. Having owned an Ender 3 by Creality before, I checked their offers, which are a lot more budget friendly. However, on the other hand, having owned an Ender 3 I know that you get what you pay for: The bare minimum.
Therefore, my main question is: What is a good starter model for printing miniatures using SLA?
My follow-up question is regarding slicing software. I remember reading a couple of years back that SLA printers have no universal format like gcode and therefore slicing software compatibility is a bit of an issue. Is this still the case?
UVtools allows to use PrusaSlicer for third party SLA-printer: https://github.com/sn4k3/UVtools/tree/master
I still don’t recommend SLA at home. Too much of a hassle in terms of safety.
The prusa tax is especially big when it comes to resin printers. I suggest an mSLA printer. The Saturn 4 Ultra probably meets or exceeds the Prusa specs and features at a much lower price.
Lychee is a great slicer compatible with pretty much every printer.
Elegoo’s Saturn 3 is pretty budget friendly and decent quality in my experience. I’ve owned an original Mars and a Saturn 3 and I’ve been happy with both.
