Best 3D printer for miniature terrain?

[Gonzo100100]

I am looking to get my first 3D printer and I would love to hear your opinions about the subject.
I am thinking about buying one for over a year but now I am decided and Christmas is a great excuse (So, I have about a month to actually make the purchase). Anyway, I just began to do actual research so any pointers would be helpful. Also, I am not restricted by a budget but I am looking for something with the best bang for the buck so I am definitely not interested with + 2% efficiency for additional £300 kind of thing.
What would be in your opinion the best printer for my needs which are:
28mm scale barrels, crates, carts, fences, ladders, furniture, shingles, carvings for building walls, texture rollers, etc.
Basically, everything that is time consuming or difficult to do by conventional methods. At the moment I am not looking to print miniatures.
I think I need FDM printer because I think it’s more beginner friendly and I believe that overall, it should be better for terrain. I think resin printer is better for miniatures as they have much more details. However, correct me if I’m wrong (I haven’t decided that I am going to buy FDM over resin one).

[Tadgie]

Ender 3 for me.

OK you have to put it together but there are plenty of YouTube guides for that. Level it. Strong glue stick for me.

I find it very reliable and easy to change/maintain parts. Had mine for about 2 years now.

I now have a mass of terrain printed and hundreds of files to print more.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I will follow this with interest.

I have an Anycubic Photon Mono resin printer but I am thinking of an FDM printer to do larger objects such as terrain.

[zemjw]

There's a 3d printing forum over at Reaper that's probably worth a rummage, although they're more heavily into resin printers - https://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/forum/75-tips-and-advice-3-d-printing/

[Schogun]

An FDM printer will do terrain items fine and keep your cost down. A friend of mine started with an Ender 3D then sold it for a much better Prusa i3. Then he bought a resin printer for more detailed items.

[CookAndrewB]

For most terrain, I think an Ender 3 will get the job done. Get the cheapest base model, learn to use it, and then upgrade what you need/want from there. Even the base model will do good work. I run mine pretty much all week.

Resin printers have more clean-up involved, so I need more time and attention when I run mine. The build area is much smaller and, in my opinion, is really best suited for small scatter and figures. 

[TheDaR]

If what you're looking for is just scatter type terrain and accessories to furnish dungeons and buildings and the like, you may actually be better off with a resin printer.   You may not be doing minis, but the things you did mention also benefit from an SLA printer's main strengths.

Because resin printers expose the entire LCD screen at once, a whole plate full of a dozen small pieces prints at the same speed as one lone barrel.  So you can pack a lot into one print and turn out a lot of scatter terrain very quickly.  But the number one killer feature for SLA printers is the surface finish and quality of fine detail, which on a good modern 4k monochrome printer can rival that of professionally tooled injection molding.  Once properly washed and cured, finished resin pieces rarely need more than a quick pass with a blade or needle file to clean up a few supports marks; no gap filling or extensive sanding to get a smooth finish.  And if you do ever want to start doing actual minis, SLA is really the only way to go for things at 28mm or smaller.

Key downsides to resin right now are less mature slicer software and printer firmware options, smaller build areas for the price, having to do supports for prints far more often, resin being more expensive per piece printed, and there's a fair bit more setup, process and cleanup involved in deciding to just do a print.  Your work area may come to resemble a mad alchemist's lab.  Uncured resins are not the most fun thing to work with, and if you're sensitive to odors or sloppy about spilling stuff, they can be hazardous.  Wear your nitrile gloves and use your silicone slap mats.

Something like the Elegoo Mars (3 if you can find it, if not the 2 is still perfectly adequate) is a good balance between budget, features, print quality, build plate size, and print speed.   

If you want to do larger terrain pieces or vehicles, or things that are structural/mechanical and need to take weight, you'd better off with an FDM.  You have a lot more options for printing materials, including things like ABS, which can be extremely strong when properly printed.   You can get printers with much greater build areas per price.  Filament can be much cheaper than resin in volume and is mostly easier to store and care for (though you do have to watch out for keeping filament dry; if you get serious you'll start looking at drying cabinets).  It's also generally easier to just decide you're going to print something and a few minutes later, the printer is running.

On the flip side for FDM printers there's an absolutely bewildering array of options you may want (or need) to maintain and upgrade including firmware, slicers and print software, stepper motor drivers, linear rails, extruders, hot ends, nozzles, cooling fans, heating enclosures, etc.  If you're the sort, you can easily spend more time printing upgrades and doing calibration, chasing the perfect print, than the gaming pieces you bought it for.  Other downsides include much slower printing, especially of multiple parts, plus and more time dealing with minor mechanical tuning and calibration.  And the number one, which is  a rather worse surface finish that is far more likely to require substantial post-print clean up, especially for more delicate areas.   Hazard-wise, some plastics at high temperatures also give off noxious fumes  And there's a much greater chance of exposed high temperature or high voltage parts and more rapidly moving parts which can pinch or catch on most FDM printers than their SLA peers.

My personal recommendation for FDM would be a Delta or Core-XY mechanism type printer, as they usually can print faster and more accurately with less work.  I am partial to the FLSUN Deltas, in particular the Super Racer, for being able to print fast and for being relatively good straight out the box if you don't need extra speed.   I would consider building a Voron if I didn't already have more hobbies than I need.

[DeRuyter]

Adding to what has been said from the resin perspective. IMO small terrain pieces look good in resin. I have done smaller pieces and 15mm terrain on my Anycubic Mono. There is of course the option to print the terrain in pieces to fit the build plate, but for really large 28mm buildings/bridges you may be better off with FDM. Having said that if your budget allows there are larger SLA printers now like the Elegoo Saturn and the Anycubic Mono X. Maybe they'll be on sale for the holidays?

[Gonzo100100]

The good thing is that in general the printers are cheaper than I remember them to be. Also, the entry level printers based on reviews print good quality models. Now I am considering to buy an FDM printer like Ender 3. I don’t think I’ll go for something as Prusa i3 because what I understand its advantages over Ender 3 are that its faster and easier to use but couldn’t find how much better it is in terms of details of the prints – that is the most important thing.
I am also considering to buy resin printer along FDM one. In this case I am less sure if I should go with “entry level” for around up to £300 or go a step higher and spend £600-700.
Initially I planned to print terrain elements and buy miniatures but as I saw how many STL files of amazing miniatures are available for printing I think I may print minis as well.
I wonder if I could get some better deal for something like black Friday, I would buy end of November in that case.

[beefcake]

I'll Echo the Ender 3. Cheap but works great. I have an ender 6se as well, they both work just as well, the 6se self levels but that's not much of an advantage I think.

[Gonzo100100]

But Ender 6 is apparently 3x faster. I found 3dprintbeginner.com and I like them because they are comparing a lot of printers. Anyway, based on their comparisons they do recommend Ender 6 as a really good printer to buy for its price while in case of the entry level they say it’s better to get Artillery Hornet because Ender 3 is pricey for what it offers.
I am also thinking about Photon Mono X because wherever I go everybody thinks it’s 8th World wonder. Earlier I thought about HALOT-SKY because it’s also like Ender – manufactured by Creality. Anyway, it presumably is just as good as Photon Mono X but costs 80% more so it’s no brainer what is the better option.
The main question for me that remains and I’ll have to decide in the next few weeks is this:
Go with “intermediate” level and get Ender 6 + Photon Mono X give or take £400 each or maybe it’ll be better to buy “entry” level printers like Artillery Hornet or Ender 3 pro + Photon S or Halot One for £350 both?
I think the printers will run non stop in my case. I really got into the hobby by now. Since the beginning of the pandemic when I got into it whenever I have free time just to sit and relax, I work on the hobby, either paint minis or make some piece of terrain. I completely lost interest in video games, almost completely in movies, I maybe watch Netflix once per week, and dumped some of my other hobbies too. So, if there is time, I can allocate for a hobby it will go for wargaming stuff in most cases. Based on that I am 95% sure that I will heavily use the printers and that’s why I am thinking to go straight to “intermediate” level of printers.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I have a Photon Mono and I am very impressed with the quality you can make.

Resin printers need a lot of care as the resin is sticky gooey stuff that gets everywhere if you are not careful.

With the Mono or Mono X you will need to buy a screen protector as the LCD screen is directly under the FEP.
If there is a leak in the FEP, then the screen can be ruined. It is very easy to puncture the FEP when you are learning.
The LCD screen costs about £70 to replace.

[beefcake]

But Ender 6 is apparently 3x faster.

Maybe 3x faster to level. But definitely not 3x faster printing speed. Pretty comparable to the ender 3 TBH. In fact some prints I have done (same file) might have been slower. Can't really remember but definitely not faster enough to be hugely noticeable.

[Gonzo100100]

Ok, I have bought
-   Photon Mono X + Wash & Cure 2.0 + 3kg resin pack for £539
-   5PCS 1KG Gray Resin ANYCUBIC Rigid Resin for LCD 3D Printer Photon Mono X for £109
-   Ender-3 V2 + 2kg PLA Filament for £207
-   Creality Ender Series PLA Filament 10 kg for £107
Together £962

For a long time I couldn’t decide if I should get Ender 7 or Ender 3 v2 (I found Ender 7 for £448) but ultimately decided to go with Ender 3 because there is so many guides for it while I couldn’t find much convincing information about Ender 7 – apparently it print fast but well, if I’ll need upgrade I’ll simply buy it on black Friday 2022 offer.
I am super excited I hope I made good choices.
If I have anything more to ask you that would be if you recommend any particular accessories to buy like additional nozzles for Ender 3 v2 or 3DLAC spray adhesive (do I need that)?
Or some other accessories like BL Touch Auto Bed Leveling Sensor for Ender Series?
And the same for the resin printer, should I order some other stuff to make the printing process better? Some additional protective elements? Maybe some flexible resin to add to the one I got to make the miniatures more durable?
I watched a number of videos and read some articles but still feel like walking in the dark. So, any advices or useful links will be appreciated.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

It sounds like you have a state of the art set up.

Buy a Screen Protector for the Photon Mono X. I bought Bullet Brand for My Photon Mono.

The weakness of the Photon Mono and Mono X is that the LCD has a plastic polariser film and this is directly under the FEP.
If you get some hard debris from a failed print in the vat, the build plate can push this into the FEP.
It is easy to get failed prints or part failed prints when you start out.
In the worst case this causes a hole and resin leaks onto the screen.
It is almost impossible to get hardened resin off without damaging the polariser or the LCD.

Buy a silicon mat to put under the resin printer and wash machines - I actually bought two of these.
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07BLB1MMH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Anycubic Tough Resin is new and very good.

I bought extra Soval Vats and Soval Flex plates but they are not really necessary.