Ask in any hobby group which technology to use for miniatures and someone will answer "resin, obviously" within a minute. It is not that simple, and in 2026 it is less simple than it was three years ago.
What the two technologies actually do
FDM melts a plastic filament and lays it down line by line, layer by layer. Resin (MSLA) cures a liquid photopolymer with UV light, one whole layer at a time. Everything below follows from that difference.
Detail
Resin wins on small scales. At 28 to 32mm, resin still resolves facial features, chain mail and fabric folds better than any FDM machine. But the gap has narrowed sharply. With a 0.2mm nozzle and modern slicers, FDM at 75mm and above produces results that most people cannot distinguish from resin once the piece is primed and painted. If you are printing busts or display figures at 100mm plus, detail stops being the deciding factor.
Strength
This is where FDM wins decisively. A PLA miniature survives being knocked off the table. Cured resin is brittle: thin swords, spear shafts and outstretched fingers snap. For pieces that get handled every session, FDM is the more practical material.
Size
Terrain settles the argument. Printing a modular dungeon or a ruined building in resin is slow, expensive and limited by a small build plate. FDM handles large volumes cheaply and quickly. Every serious terrain producer works in FDM.
Colour
Resin prints in one colour, full stop. FDM with a multi-material system prints in four or more, which matters for terrain, for gaming accessories, and for anyone who wants a usable object without paying for a paint job.
Mess, safety and workflow
This is the part people skip. Liquid resin is an irritant and a sensitiser. It needs gloves, isopropyl alcohol for washing, a UV curing step, ventilation, and careful disposal of contaminated waste. FDM needs none of that. If a printer sits in your living room, that difference is not a technicality.
Cost per piece
Filament costs roughly a third of what resin costs per gram, before you add alcohol, gloves, filters and failed prints. For a single 32mm figure the difference is small in absolute terms. For a terrain set it is the whole business case.
The verdict, by use case
- Terrain and scenery: FDM, without hesitation.
- Miniatures you actually play with: FDM at 32mm is acceptable and far more durable; resin if you want maximum detail and will handle it carefully.
- Display pieces and busts at 75mm and up: FDM is now genuinely competitive, especially once painted.
- Very fine 28mm character models for a painting competition: resin still has the edge.
We run both. In practice that means we pick the technology per job instead of defending one of them: FDM for terrain, large figures, multi-colour work and anything that gets handled; resin when the piece is small, delicate and meant to be looked at closely. Tell us what the model is for and we will tell you which one it should be printed in — and why.