The content explores various resin types for 3D printing miniatures, comparing their properties, price points, and suitability for different use cases, ultimately guiding users towards making informed purchasing decisions.
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maybe you're new to resin 3D printing
and you're wondering which resin is
actually the best for printing
Miniatures or maybe you found that the
resin you have used it's way too brittle
and it can't handle you painting the
Miniatures and playing with them or
maybe you're even wondering what do I
get if I pay more for resin I have the
same questions as you and I decided to
just test a bunch of different resins
and see what you got at different price
points if you just want the cheapest of
cheapest resin you can get your hands on
and you want to print in bulk I think
sunlu standard is the best choice you
need to buy it in bulk and you need to
buy it directly from sunlu on a sale
which they have constantly but it is
brittle as all hell when I first bought
resin like this I was convinced the
quality of the print would suffer and
the details would be blurred or not as
sh as other resins but unless you're
putting your prints under a microscope
it turns out all of the resins are
pretty good at capturing details what
you will see a difference in from a
cheap resin to a more expensive resin is
britness but also sort of the finish of
the print the cheaper ones they don't
have as nice a finish how easy the
details are to see out of the printer if
you paint your Miniatures that becomes
largely irrelevant
this will mostly be something you are
concerned about if you're taking photos
directly of your prints or filming for
YouTube so if you want the cheapest go
with the cheapest these are all standard
or basic resins and they are very very
similar across all of the brands so what
are the downsides of cheap basic resins
well they're brittle as hell your
Miniatures will break just by minor
bumps uh they can't handle a fall from a
table and even when you paint them you
can sometimes break them me personally I
like a good deal I really like value but
I also hate waste while pending tons of
minis for cheap is fun I simply hate
shattering something I've painted if I
am going to use my time painting
something it needs to last and gluing a
shattered resin model back together is
not fun it's often not worth the effort
if it is even possible at all also you
will find that you can print a lot more
than you can paint so flooding your
space with prints is way too easy in my
experience it's better to spend a bit
more than this to get some Better
Properties in your resin so let's put
this aside these are all basic or
standard resins and they are almost
completely similar they are all brittle
they all have fine detail they have very
similar properties speaking of
properties these are the factors at play
in the resin you use for printing all of
the resins we use in printing can cure
when they are exposed to UV light you
don't want to buy a resin that cures
when exposed to air that's going to be a
very bad experience some of the resins
can be washed with Waters and other
claims to be able to be washed with
water they have different odors they all
expose Vox or volatile organic compounds
the strength or durability of the resin
when cured is determined by a lot of
things actually the flexibility the
tensile strength the impact resistant
and so on often low viscosity or runny
resin will be brittle and will be able
to be cured a bit faster in each layer
High viscosity resin needs a bit more
cure time per layer but it's also often
more durable the viscosity of the resin
will change with temperature so you will
find that on in higher temperatures your
resin will flow a bit faster that's
actually preferred the ideal exposure
time for a layer will also change with
the temperature and the viscosity stable
temperatures are much preferred when
printing like this some resins need
higher temperatures but they all want
sort of high temperatures think at least
20° and sometimes even 25° C the colors
of the resin can have an impact on the
properties of the resin so the same
color in the same type of resin or brand
might require a bit more exposure time a
bit less and they might behave a bit
differently this is especially true for
clear or see-through resin which is
really hard to work with in general when
resin goes up in price you get some
better properties than the standard
basic resins but not always when I'm
looking at resins to recommend I am not
looking at odor and I'm am not looking
at V exposure they all smell and smell
can be very subjective so I'm not going
to rate it on something like that and
all of the resin producers VX yes even
the Eco or plant-based or low or no walk
they all produce volatile organic
compounds for colors I'm a basic man I
like gray I want something where I can
see the details right out of the printer
so a lot of colors is sort of out for me
but that's very much sort of a creative
thing I need to take images I need to
take video of my prints if you're going
to Prime them and paint them it doesn't
really matter some of the color can be
easier to get primer on to to coat it
but it's whatever broadly you can Bunch
the resin into different types or groups
you got the basic resin which is low
viscosity and very brittle then you got
the tough resin which is kind of
expensive but also very tough has a high
viscosity then you have something in
between sort of a middle point where the
viscosity is sort of medium and the
price point is sort of medium ABS is
actually a term uh we we Alan from fdm
printing it's a type of filament which
is extremely confusing because nobody
really uses ABS that much anymore and it
has nothing to do with resin but that's
what we call it then we have these sort
of detailed Scot resin they are often
brittle but look quite good but the
difference between a basic and the
sculpt or 8K stuff it's extremely minor
we also have the fast resins which are
expensive very viscosity and extremely
brittle and I don't like them we also
have water washable resin which is sort
of their own category but not really a
water wash is often a standard or basic
resin but it does not have to be at
least anymore we got abs like water
washable resin there is quite a big jump
in price between the standard resin and
just your average abs like often double
the price some people that are not
willing to spend that kind of cash they
often spring for a popular hack you see
you can mix different resins which each
other a normal example is to buy cheap
bulk standard resin and pour in 5 to 10%
s Tech tenacious the reason to do this
is that you lend some properties from
the tough resin to the basic resin while
saving a few bucks and a bonus is that
you can do the Breaking Bad reenactment
the plan is we cook so the majority of
your resin is cheap but your models get
quite a lot more durability for very
little extra cost you can also do a mix
of tough with abs like and this one this
is a very common way to do it oh and if
you ever find yourself with a little bit
of resin left over in your tank and you
have a bottle of resin ah you can't be
bothered to take the left out you just
pour the new one in mix them together it
will work fine but you're exposion time
might be a bit off but if you're a
beginner in printing Miniatures I think
you should look for a resin that just
works out of the box while this mixing
can be fun you need to be extra diligent
when mixing your resin before Printing
and sometimes you can screw up the mix
changing the ideal exposure time for the
model for me at least mixing is not my
favorite uh I don't think it's ideal for
beginners what are you actually getting
when upgrading from basic resin to an
ABS like resin for almost all of them
you get a bottle of resin where the
experience out of the bottle is pretty
good A model without flimsy parts will
be able to survive a fall from a table
not tough but you can handle them
without breaking at one point I wouldn't
recommend the elu or any cubic offerings
of abs like but with the newer versions
they're coming out with they are fine
and CR Tech fast is a very common
recommendation I like it a lot but what
it seems like is that they're all sort
of moving closer and closer together in
terms of properties and value it's
almost like they all get their resin
produced from sort of the same few
factories and maybe the ABS like resins
are good enough for your use case it is
often what I use when I just print stuff
but I'm actually moving away from using
all of the resins I've just talked about
so why is that well all of the resins we
have talked about so far require you to
clean your leftover liquid resin off the
model with alcohol or something similar
and that process is without a doubt the
biggest drawback to printing in resin so
if you are really a beginner into
Printing and you haven't bought the
recommended strainer jars and a wash
station I think you should start off
with something completely different a
water washable resin but watch out you
cannot just buy any water wasable resin
many of them are of the basic standard
and it's not a good experience they wash
poorly in water and they are extremely
brittle so they're not really water
washable they're just bad resins what
you get if you find a good water
washable resin is you get a cleaning
method that is really great if you want
to go water wash resin I think you
should go with the bucket and spray
method you can learn about it in this
video and for that method the war gameer
resin is the only thing I would
recommend it washes easily with water it
has durability that is comparable to the
ABS like resins and the finish of the
print are pretty nice but my model see a
lot of transportation and when they
arrive at the destination sometimes kids
need to handle them or even worse non
miniature Gamers at my Dungeons and
dragon table and I cannot mix this with
the SAR Tech tenacious because that's
not water washable and if it did I
couldn't wash it with water anymore and
then it would just be whatever so if I
really need some Miniatures to stand up
for some tough love and abs like mixed
with tenacious is the way to go but the
price increase from basic to abs like wi
and ases it's a bit higher but that
price increase ain't nothing than going
from abs like to printing directly with
the tough stuff if I'm printing
something and I need to be dead certain
it needs to last then I treating myself
to some
tgm7 from am merps some say it's magic
in a bottle and I'm actually one of
those people it prints with very good
detail like everything else but the
flexibility and toughness is just
extremely great I found it super easy to
work with you might find that removing
supports is a bit more work but when the
model is out of the support it really
holds up if you go to conventions where
people print Miniatures for display at
booth for a game they have made they
will often use tgm7 and that's for good
reason I really enjoy using this resin
but my wallet it ain't enjoying that
even when buying this in bulk it hurts
speaking of hurting it can be a pain to
get started with printing Miniatures
without some good guidance right now you
can get my video course teaching you
everything you need to know about
printing Miniatures and it's an early
bird price it comes bundled with a lot
of cool ready to print Miniatures and I
think it's just a very good value but
maybe you're still on the fence with the
whole resin printing thing well maybe
it's time you did something about it and
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