Resin 3D Printed Miniatures as a Patron Reward

I was thinking along very similar lines! :) So I plan to cap the service to 40 people to make sure I can deliver. The $20 will cover shipping as well! So it is a flat $20 for 5 minis and shipping. I plan to offer two tiers! Tier 1 : 5 28mm for $20 Tier 2: 4 28mm and 2 75mm for $30

M3DM

But how many are you able/willing to print a months? Assuming you can fit 8 28mm on the plate and print, cure, and clean 1 plate a day you come out with 48 people's worth. Not saying you shouldn't, just that its a commitment to do that if you manage to get 50+ people on that. Because even $20+shipping is a pretty good deal for printed minis, from what I've seen.

I'm actually okay with that! Because if people stayed for a year, that is 60 minis! Which is a bit crazy haha People already do that with my STL files, and I don't mind. Thank you for your very solid point though!

M3DM

Yes! I am making quite a bit of money actually!

M3DM

Surprisingly it isn't! I've crunched the numbers in an Excel sheet, and it has excellent profits. That's assuming $0.60 a mini, and $5.00 shipping. Though I do plan to do 5 minis for $20 instead, just to have extra wiggle room. I did a test run with family/friends, and it was a worked out like I expected.

M3DM

When you consider the hidden costs of printing on a photon (new screens, film, etc) in addition to the cost of resin and your time + shipping - I think 5 minis a month for $15 is a money losing proposition. Maybe 3 would be better, or just sell minis of your work for $5-$10 plus shipping to everybody thats a patron.

Douglas Rector

The challenge with that is the people who will join for one month, get their minis, and bug out. Because this is something that costs real money for you (and not just your time), I'd be hesitant. An option some others use is "once you hit $45" or whatever number, that entitles you to X." Which means a $15 patron could get to that threshhold faster, but it also opens it up to folks who can't back at that level. And it turns into a "sunk cost" incentive for people who've been following you awhile.

Tiara Agresta

I've only had a chance to print the "female paladin" from your models so far. It looks good, but I still need to actually get it out of the supports. Then I'll also have a better idea of if I lost any detail or features due to my positioning. I just feel like I'm going overboard on the supports out of fear of losing detail or detaching from the plate while printing. So that or pretty much any figure would be useful to get a better idea of how close to horizontal of an angle can reasonably be printed.

That seems like a really inexpensive option. I know resin printers are more expensive to print. Are you at least breaking even? :)

YbBad

I may hahaha I use standard green Anycubic resin :)

M3DM

It's a great idea for those without resin printers. What resin do you use, you may need to purchase in gallons if all goes well 😀

Mark Moore

I would be 100% down to do that. There is always a "better" way to print something, but I'm down to share what I do :) Is there a particular model you would like to see done?

M3DM

Would you be willing to upload the stl's with support or even the sliced photon files for some prints you do? I just got mine and am doing decently, but it would be nice to see how my positioning, supports, and settings compare.

Thank you!

M3DM

Absolutely! This is a great idea!!

And leveling that thing was a nightmare. I think I got 3 successful terrain pieces out of it. Only one of them was decent

Nick Molnar

Oh no! I almost drove my nozzle through my bed haha So I get where you are coming from.

M3DM

My first fdm machine...I didn't even get going with it much before, being a complete noob, I overheated the filament, clogged the nozzle and then somehow stripped a miniscule screw in the print head making repair costly, hence moving towards the photon for higher resolution, and ease of use. It's just much more expensive. -_-

Nick Molnar

The slicer time estimates are goofy. I started off trying to get excellent 28mm prints on a FDM machine which was a total nightmare haha I think I learned a lot, so in comparison the Photon has been great for me!

M3DM

...huh. I also use an Anycubic photon. It's a good printer, but I have a lot of misprints, some trouble getting prints off the print bed at times, and some leveling issues. But again, when it works, it has been great. Just slower than the slicer estimates.

Nick Molnar

Good to know! My Photon has been unbelievably good to me.

M3DM

I wish 3 International shipping has wrecked my poor minis!

M3DM

While I do have a 3d printer, I also get more fails and issues than complete successes, and some of the work you do is of a higher resolution than I suspect mine is capable. Or size.

Nick Molnar

Sad its not for Germany :(