Can I finally prototype quality miniatures of my designs?

I’ve been using FDM 3d printers for about 5 years but always felt very constrained by the quality that I could achieve. The potential to use the prints the way I wanted to was limited by the necessary post printing effort required. I’ve drooled over the capabilities of SLA printers but found the price prohibitive. I really hoped the Anycubic Photon would allow me to print the quality that I wanted, within a reasonable price range.

The focus of my content would be printing miniatures of my designs of rovers, vehicles, stations and outposts. Since I design completely in 3d, modifying my content into printable files was pretty straight forward.

I found the splicing software for the printer was very user friendly and I had no troubles understanding how to scale the imported files and add supports. Because the process that this printer uses to expose the vat of UV sensitive resin to light exposes then entire layer at once as opposed to an FDM printer that needs to trace the entire layer out, filling up the printing area adds no more time to the print. This saves a lot of time if you plan to print many pieces.

It took me a couple of attempts to understand the best way to layout objects for prints and to orientate the geometry so that it would print correctly. Usually, straight lines worked better and needed fewer supports when the object was printed on an angle.

The first thing I noticed once I started cleaning up my prints, was the quality. I found smooth surfaces that were ready to be painted right out of the bin and because the resin is still a little soft before it’s totally cured, it was also very easy to cut the supports and carve off any excess resin. I bought a UV nail dryer lamp for curing which works really well. Once the piece is cleaned up, 1 minute in the lamp and the resin is pretty hard.

Pros:

-The resolution of the prints is practically unmatched at this price point and the software is easy to use.

-Printing numerous objects and filling up the print bed adds no more time to a print than printing one object.

Cons:

-The resin is relatively expensive compared to the usual FDM spools you may be used to although there are other brands of Resin like ELEGOO 3D Rapid Resin for almost half the price of ANYCUBIC’s. The 250ml bottle that the printer comes with was used up within 2 days of printing.

-It is messy and requires a lot more tools and liquids for cleaning up than FDM printing. The resin is toxic but if you are willing to take the time and the precautions, I believe it is well worth it.

-You may not like the smell and ventilation (or an open window) in a small room is highly recommended. The smell of the Isopropyl that you use to clean it up is also not very pleasant.

-Not a big print area (115mm x65mm x155mm ) but if you need this quality at a larger size, you may pay 3X-5X as much.

Summary

The ANYCUBIC Photon has allowed me to produce models at a resolution that previously, would not have been possible in my price range. The ability for me to iterate on the design and produce parts that previously were impossible makes this one of the best additions to my pipeline that I’ve added in a while. If you create miniatures, this is a perfect tool for you.