Alkmaar, The Nederlands. January 2021.
So do I want to produce terrain or models? It seemed to me that choice would be the determining factor in which type of 3d printer I should acquire. The ideal choice would be to have one of each. An FDM printer for the large scale stuff, really big models or pieces of terrain such as buildings etc. And one for the smaller pieces where the level of detail needs to be higher.
FDM printers basically work by placing one layer of melted filament on top of another layer. The height of these layers can vary depending on the equipment used and certain settings on the printer software. The resin printers work by also adding a layer on top of an existing layer, again the layer height can be determined by the equipment and software settings. One thing is sure though, the layer height is way smaller than that of an FDM printer of a similar price.
Photo: Formlabs.
On the left an FDM print, on the right a resin print. Clearly visible in the FDM print are the layer lines. Not too much of a problem for large terrain pieces such as buildings and the like, but disastrous for smaller figures. The resin print on the right holds lots of detail without the roughness seen in the FDM print.
An FDM printer. Large(-ish) build plate allows for reasonable size terrain pieces to be printed. The layering issue can be resolved, or at least, reduced by using a filler/primer on the model and when painting not to use the dry-brush technique against the layers (that will just draw attention to them).
A resin printer. The first thing to notice is the enclosure. The resins cure in daylight, so the printers are enclosed by a plastic filter. This also stops light from leaking from the print screen underneath the resin vat. The second thing to notice is the small size of the build plate, maybe 15-16cm by 8cm. Definitely too small for buildings in the 28mm scale range.
The cost of the printers seemed to be comparable, obviously depending on which printers you were looking at. Each type has the Rolls-Royce and Trabant equivalents. Comparing like with like I was edging toward the resin printers. At least you didn't need to build them when they were delivered.
So, as I stated at the beginning, am I going to print models or terrain? Also looking at the files available, I decided to go for .... a resin printer.