Resin 3D Printing for Board Gamers: Level Up Your Miniatures Game (Literally)

If you've ever opened a premium board game, stared at the grey plastic miniatures inside, and thought "these could be so much better" — this article is for you. Whether you're deep into Gloomhaven, obsessing over Zombicide, or building out an epic Warhammer army, resin 3D printing has completely changed what's possible for hardcore tabletop gamers.

This isn't a casual hobby upgrade. This is a full-on transformation of how you play, display, and dominate the table.

Why Resin — Not Filament — Is the Serious Gamer's Choice

Let's get one thing out of the way: FDM (filament) printers are great for big parts, props, and terrain. But for miniatures? Resin wins every single time. Here's why.

Resolution is everything. Resin printers — specifically MSLA (Masked Stereolithography) machines like the Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra or Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Pro — cure layers as thin as 0.02mm. That means you get finger joints, facial expressions, chainmail texture, and blade edges that filament printing simply cannot reproduce. The detail difference isn't subtle. It's night and day.

Surface finish matters at the table. When you're painting a 32mm paladin and showing it to your group at game night, you want smooth surfaces that take primer beautifully, not visible layer lines that look like tree rings. Resin delivers a near-injection-molded surface right off the build plate.

Speed has gotten seriously impressive. With mono LCD screens and newer resin formulas, machines like the Bambu Photon M9 can print an entire party of six adventurers in under two hours. Compare that to the days when resin printing meant babysitting a slow, finicky UV lamp layer by layer.

The Best Resin Printers for Board Gamers in 2026

You don't need to spend a fortune to get incredible results, but knowing what to look for helps enormously.

For beginners: The Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra sits in the sweet spot of price, print volume, and reliability. Its 12K mono LCD gives you resolution that would have been considered professional-grade just three years ago. Perfect for printing your first dungeon crawl party.

For enthusiasts: The Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Pro offers a massive 10.1" build plate enough to print a boss creature, several minions, and scatter terrain in a single run. Tilt-release mechanism means fewer failed prints and less frustration.

For the obsessed: The Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 16K is where "good enough" becomes irrelevant. The 16K resolution renders textures so fine that unpainted resin pieces look like professional sculpts straight from the vat. If you're entering painting competitions or selling commissions, this is your machine.

Where to Find Print-Ready Miniature Files

Great hardware means nothing without great files. The miniature STL ecosystem has exploded, and the quality available today is staggering.

MyMiniFactory (myminifactory.com) is the gold standard for tabletop miniature files. Their Titan Forge, Bite the Bullet, and Cast n Play studios produce monthly Patreon drops that rival — and often surpass — retail miniatures in sculpt quality. A $10–$15/month subscription unlocks hundreds of files per year.

Cults3D is excellent for one-off purchases. Great for grabbing specific monsters, terrain pieces, or objective markers to complement your existing game collections.

Printables (by Prusa) has a massive free library. You won't always find the highest-tier sculpts here, but for scatter terrain, dungeon tiles, and basic minis, it's an incredible free resource.

Kickstarter and Backerkit are worth watching too. Studios like Monstrous Encounters and Archvillain Gamesfrequently run campaigns with enormous value-for-money STL bundles aimed directly at board gamers and TTRPG players.

Pro tip for SEO searchers: if you're looking for files compatible with specific games, search "[game name] compatible STL" on MyMiniFactory. You'll often find fan-made proxies for Gloomhaven enemies, Blood Bowl teams, or Descent monsters that are frankly better than the originals.

Resin Printing for Specific Board Games: What Actually Works

Not every miniature game has the same needs. Here's a breakdown of how resin printing fits into popular titles.

Gloomhaven & Frosthaven

The base games ship with cardboard standees or simplified plastic minis. Printing full 3D replacements for every enemy class in Gloomhaven is a rite of passage for serious players. Expect 40–80+ hours of total print time for a complete set, but the table presence is absolutely worth it. Studios like Titan Forge have entire Gloomhaven-inspired enemy packs.

Zombicide & Zombicide: Black Plague

The retail minis here are decent but uniform. Printing variant zombie sculpts — so you're not looking at 50 identical walkers — is one of the most popular uses of resin printers in the hobby. Fans have also created compatible survivor and abomination variants that blow the stock minis out of the water.

Warhammer (Age of Sigmar / 40K)

This one is legally nuanced — Games Workshop IP is protected, so printing direct copies is a no-go. However, the proxy and "counts-as" ecosystem is massive. Plenty of studios create legally distinct sculpts in compatible scales that scratch every itch without touching GW's IP.

Dungeons & Dragons / Pathfinder

This is where resin printing truly shines. Print exactly the monsters your players are about to face, at the exact scale your grid requires. There are no constraints, no retail availability issues, no "sorry, that miniature is out of stock." If your players are fighting a custom homebrew creature, model it in Blender and print it yourself.

Resin Printing Setup: What You Actually Need

Jumping into resin printing requires a bit more preparation than filament. Here's the honest rundown.

Workspace ventilation is non-negotiable. Uncured resin fumes are not pleasant and not safe to breathe in quantity. Dedicate a space with a window you can crack open, or invest in a filtration enclosure. Many printers now come with activated carbon covers — use them.

PPE (Personal Protective Equipment): Nitrile gloves and eye protection whenever you're handling uncured resin. This is basic, and it quickly becomes second nature.

Wash and cure station: You'll need to wash prints in IPA (isopropyl alcohol) or a dedicated wash solution to remove excess resin, then UV-cure them to full hardness. A dedicated wash-and-cure machine (Elegoo Mercury Plus or similar) makes this seamless and is worth every penny.

Slicer software: Chitubox, Lychee Slicer, or UVtools. Lychee has become the community favorite for its smart auto-support generation, which is crucial for miniature printing where overhangs and thin parts need careful support placement.

Resin selection: For minis, ABS-like resins (Elegoo ABS-Like, Siraya Tech Blu) give the best balance of detail, low brittleness, and paint adhesion. Avoid cheap water-wash resins for anything you actually care about.

Painting Your Resin Miniatures: From Print to Masterpiece

The printing is just the beginning. The real magic happens when you prime and paint.

Primer matters more than most people realize. Resin doesn't hold paint natively — you need a dedicated miniature primer. Vallejo Surface Primer, Citadel Chaos Black spray, or Stynylrez are all excellent choices. Apply thin coats and let them cure fully before painting.

Base coating, layering, and washing follow the same principles as metal or plastic miniatures, but the superior detail of resin rewards more advanced techniques. Object Source Lighting (OSL), Non-Metallic Metal (NMM), and zenithal priming all look dramatically better on well-detailed resin prints.

Magnetizing is a game changer. Drill 2mm holes in bases and corresponding spots in terrain or storage foam, insert neodymium magnets, and your entire printed collection becomes modular, transportable, and immune to the chaos of a game bag. This is particularly worth it for large collections.

Common Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

Skipping supports on delicate parts. That outstretched sword arm or tiny arrow is going to peel off the build plate mid-print without proper supports. Use auto-supports and manually reinforce thin protrusions.

Printing too fast. Slower lift speeds dramatically reduce layer separation forces, which means fewer failed prints and better fine detail. Don't max out your speed settings just because the printer supports it.

Not shaking your resin. Pigments settle. Every session, shake your resin bottle for 60–90 seconds before pouring it into the vat.

Skipping strain filtering when returning resin to the bottle. Use a paper funnel filter. Cured resin chips in your vat will ruin future prints.

Neglecting FEP/nFEP maintenance. The release film at the bottom of your vat degrades over time. Inspect it regularly and replace it when you see cloudiness or punctures. A $5 film sheet prevents a $30 failed print.

The Community: You're Not Doing This Alone

One of the genuinely great things about tabletop gaming and 3D printing is that both communities are obsessively helpful.

Reddit's r/PrintedMinis is the hub. Post your prints, ask for support advice, share your paint jobs. The community feedback loop accelerates your learning dramatically.

Patreon and Discord ecosystems around specific studios (Titan Forge, Archvillain Games, Dragon Trappers Lodge) give you direct access to the sculptors themselves, early file previews, and a community of people printing the same models you are.

YouTube is your best teacher for technique. Channels like Table Top Workshop, Dr. Fausius Workshop, and Black Magic Craft cover everything from slicer settings to advanced painting tutorials with tabletop-specific context.

Is Resin 3D Printing Worth It for Board Gamers?

Here's the honest answer: if you play board games with miniatures more than twice a month, the investment pays for itself within the first year — in upgraded game pieces, custom terrain, replacement components, and the sheer creative satisfaction of putting something you made onto the table.

The barrier to entry has never been lower. Entry-level resin printers now cost less than a single premium board game. The STL ecosystem is richer than it's ever been. The community is enormous and welcoming.

You're not just upgrading your miniatures. You're upgrading the entire table experience — for you and everyone you play with.

Quick-Start Checklist

For anyone ready to jump in, here's what you need on day one:

• Resin printer (Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra for budget / Anycubic M7 Pro for mid-range)
• Wash & cure station (Elegoo Mercury Plus)
• ABS-like resin (Elegoo ABS-Like Pro or Siraya Tech Blu)
• Nitrile gloves + safety glasses
• Lychee Slicer (free tier is excellent)
• MyMiniFactory account (start with their free files)
• Vallejo Surface Primer for painting prep
• A well-ventilated workspace

Print something. Fail at it. Try again. Then bring it to game night and watch everyone ask you where you bought it.

Did this guide help you get started? Share it with your gaming group, and drop a comment below with what you're planning to print first. For more deep-dives into tabletop hobby tech, subscribe to our newsletter — we publish new guides every week.