Resin vs FDM comes down to this. A resin printer gives you finer detail and smoother surfaces, but every print comes out one color, and the liquid resin needs gloves, ventilation and careful disposal. An FDM printer with a multi-filament system can print the colors straight onto the mini, but layer lines show and fine detail is softer. If you want the sharpest detail and plan to paint by hand, choose resin. If you want minis that come off the plate already in color, choose FDM.
One thing up front: we don't own a resin printer. Everything below about resin comes from resin makers' own guides and safety data sheets, linked where we use them. There are no resin print photos in this post, because we haven't printed any.
Quick answer: resin vs FDM side by side
| Resin (SLA / MSLA) | FDM (filament) | |
|---|---|---|
| Detail | Finer. Smooth surfaces, minimal layer lines | Softer. Layer lines show on close inspection |
| Color | One resin per print, so one color. Paint by hand afterwards | One color per loaded filament, printed in place on multi-filament printers |
| Post-processing | Wash in alcohol or a similar solvent, often a post-cure | Remove supports. Nothing to wash |
| Safety | Liquid resin can irritate skin and cause allergic reactions. Gloves, eye protection, ventilation | Hot nozzle and moving parts. No liquid chemicals |
| Running costs | Resin, wash solvent, gloves, hazardous-waste disposal | Filament, plus purge waste when you print several colors |
| Best for | Hand-painted display pieces, very small details | Tabletop minis in color, terrain, bigger batches |
Detail: where resin wins
Resin printers cure a liquid photopolymer with light, one thin layer at a time. Formlabs, which makes resin printers, says in its FDM vs SLA vs SLS comparison that SLA "has the highest resolution when compared to FDM or SLS 3D printing". It adds that SLA parts have "minimal visible layer lines".
The same guide puts numbers on the FDM side: FDM printers "can typically create around 0.8 mm thick walls, and embossed or engraved details have to be around 0.6 mm wide and 2 mm high to be visible." Bear in mind those figures come from a resin printer maker.
On a 28mm or 32mm mini, that's the difference between crisp chainmail and chainmail you can just make out. Faces, fingers, belt buckles and thin blades are where you'll see it most.
FDM can still look good at tabletop distance. Our guide to painting miniatures by printing the color first says it plainly: layer lines still show. A 0.1mm layer height and a resin-style orientation still matter, and a wash helps by darkening the lines into shadow.
Cost and mess: what resin asks of you
We haven't put prices in this post, because we haven't bought resin supplies ourselves and prices change. But the list of what you need differs, and it comes straight from the makers.
What liquid resin is, from its safety data sheet. Elegoo's safety data sheet for its Standard Photopolymer Resin (US version, reviewed January 2024) lists these hazards:
- "Causes skin irritation."
- "May cause an allergic skin reaction."
- "Suspected of causing cancer. Route of exposure: Inhalation."
It tells you to "Wear protective gloves/protective clothing/eye protection/face protection" and to "Ensure good ventilation/exhaustion at the workplace". It says the resin "Must not be disposed of together with household garbage. Do not allow product to reach sewage system." Other resins have their own SDS, so read the one for the bottle you buy.
Gloves, washing and ventilation. Formlabs' resin care guide says to wear "chemically-resistant gloves like nitrile or neoprene (not latex)" when handling liquid resin, printer parts or unwashed prints. If resin gets on your skin, wash it off with soap and water, not alcohol or other solvents. Its printer safety page says printers "should not be operated in closed off, unventilated spaces such as closets". Safety glasses are recommended during post-processing.
The wash solvent. Most resin prints are washed in isopropyl alcohol (IPA). Formlabs' IPA guide calls it "a highly-volatile, flammable" liquid and says to keep it away from ignition sources. It also says used IPA with resin in it can't go down the drain: "Do not pour liquid or partially cured resin into drains or dispose of it with household waste."
So resin's running costs go beyond the resin itself. You also pay for the solvent, gloves and disposal, and you need a ventilated room to print in.
FDM's costs are mostly filament. For a multicolor mini, the hidden cost is purge waste: every color change pushes out some filament. Our guides on cutting AMS purge waste with palette order and printing multicolor D&D minis on a Bambu AMS show how to keep that down.
Color: the biggest difference for painters
A desktop resin printer prints from one tank of resin at a time. Formlabs' resin care guide says to "use a different resin tank for each type of Formlabs resin", because cleaning a tank to change resins "may lead to contamination and print failures". You can't swap colors partway through a mini. A resin mini comes off the printer one color, ready for primer and paint.
FDM works differently. A printer with an AMS, MMU or another multi-filament system swaps filament between regions, so a mini can come out with its skin, cloak, armor and base already in different colors. As our full color FDM guide explains, that means discrete colors (one per loaded filament), not smooth gradients. At arm's length, four to eight well-placed colors read as a painted mini.
To get colors onto an FDM print, the model needs color information the slicer can read. An STL can't carry color. A 3MF can. 3MF vs STL covers the difference, and what a 3MF file holds shows what's inside one.
Can resin printers print multiple colors?
Not the desktop vat printers most mini painters use, for the tank reason above. Multicolor resin-style printing does exist, but it's a different process. Stratasys's PolyJet technology "precisely jets and instantly UV-cures thin layers of liquid photopolymer" through inkjet heads, and Stratasys describes it as "multi-material 3D printing for full-color, transparency, and flexibility in a single model". It jets the material instead of curing it in a vat, and it's a professional system rather than a hobby printer.
For a home mini painter, multicolor in one print means FDM. Resin means painting by hand.
Painted 3MF files and resin printers
Layerpaint exports a painted model as a 3MF with a color assigned to each triangle, for FDM slicers like Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer and PrusaSlicer. We haven't tested a resin slicer with a Layerpaint 3MF, so we can't tell you whether one opens it. Even if it does, a single-tank resin printer would print the shape in one resin and ignore the colors.
If you print in resin, start from the original STL. You can still paint a copy in Layerpaint to plan your colors before you pick up a brush. The gallery shows what painted models look like.
Which one is right for you?
Choose resin if:
- You want the finest detail you can get, for display pieces or very small figures.
- You enjoy painting by hand and will prime and paint every mini anyway.
- You have a ventilated space, and you're happy to wear gloves and deal with resin and IPA waste the way the SDS asks.
Choose FDM if:
- You want minis that come off the plate in color, ready for a wash and a few details.
- You print squads, terrain or bigger pieces where speed and batch size matter more than the last bit of detail.
- You'd rather avoid liquid chemicals at home.
If you go with FDM, the best filament for miniatures covers materials and palettes, and the AMS painting workflow takes you from STL to a printed color mini. To see how Layerpaint compares with painting inside the slicer, read Layerpaint vs Bambu Studio painting. Or open the painter and drop in an STL.
Common questions
Is resin better than FDM for miniatures?
For detail, yes. Resin makers' own comparisons show finer features and fewer visible layer lines. For color, no: a desktop resin printer prints one color, and FDM can print several on one mini.
Can resin printers print multiple colors?
Desktop vat resin printers print one resin at a time. Full-color photopolymer printing exists on professional systems such as Stratasys PolyJet, which jets material rather than curing a vat.
Is resin printing safe at home?
Resin makers say it can be done with precautions. Elegoo's SDS lists skin irritation, allergic skin reactions and a suspected cancer hazard by inhalation, and asks for gloves, eye protection and good ventilation. Formlabs says not to run printers in closets and not to pour resin or used IPA down the drain. Read the SDS for your own resin.
Do FDM miniatures still need painting?
Usually a little. Printing the colors covers the flat areas, but eyes, edge highlights and washes are still brushwork, and layer lines still show up close.