Autodesk has a scheme for most of its software these days where you don't have to pay for personal/non-commercial use. They (might? it's been a while) want a bunch of personal info for sign-up, but I'm pretty sure you can just feed them bullshit. Despite some restrictions in the free version I have found Fusion360 fairly user friendly, and it has been sufficient for my CAD needs at least.
Another vote for Autodesk Fusion. Free for personal use and have a wealth of tutorials on YouTube, which is probably as valuable as the software itself since you’re learning.
OpenSCAD
depending where you are there might be a recycling program, or iirc some have a scheme where you can send them back. if you're in a big enough city it might even be local, or if you have a university around ask how they handle it (depending on the courses).
The amount of blockages you will get and stringing making them look bad anyway it's probably just easier/faster/better in the long run to pick up a cheap resin printer setup.
That’s what I was planning on doing anyways, I’m probably going get a nice cash influx in the next coming months so I’m not too worried about it.
Hard disagree and I think it's people just coping or don't paint well. If you don't care for painting I suppose they're okay. If the standard is just "I guess it looks like what it's supposed to be" for identification, sure.
There's multiple communities where people post pics / youtubers who print minis in FDM if you want to look at the results, and while the quality isn't perfect it is more than good enough and is way better than the old pewter minis we used to deal with.
Yeah, they're playable
Never said FDM couldn't do that. But if you're actually into the modeling/ painting side of the hobby it just will never be there. Though idk, maybe layer lines on tyranids can be used for some cool painting effects.
Once you factor in energy cost of the much longer print time, resin vs filament(including all the waste and buying high enough quality filament to be able to print that fine reliably) in this application a cheap resin printer pays for itself relatively quickly.
The only point I'll contest is that those look like they've been primed. FDM can for sure nail some really high quality but I think paint prep is what'll make or break things either way. Trust me, I've made some resin prints look like absolute dog shit because I don't know how to paint. I'm surprised the FDM mini community hasn't been leaning into vapor smoothing for PVB/ABS/ASA.
