When resin isn’t just resin

By now almost all wargamers have at least heard of resin printed miniatures. In fact, even the established veteran companies in the industry have been known to use MSLA printing technology in the prototyping phase, and to ensure their studio artists can paint miniatures up for box-art on their latest releases.

In fact, it’s likely some of you have seen resin printed miniatures at your local hobby clubs or gaming nights. We all know these are made of resin. But what does that mean?

Without delving too deep into the science behind it, UV resin is a mix of monomers and photoinitiators. When exposed to the correct wavelength of light, the photoinitiators make the monomers form chains known as polymers. These create the structure of our prints!

However, not all resins are created equal. Many are known for being fragile. Brittle, bits snapping off easily and the like. In fact, we encountered this to our dismay in our first foray into printing, but this challenge put us down the resin rabbit-hole.

Today, we use a blend of resins from different manufacturers. We did so as the result of much trial-and-error trying to find the right mix of print layer height, exposure time, odour, durability, and detail retention.

Now, we can proudly say that even fully cured, our sword blades and spear-tips do not snap off from an errant nudge. When you receive our prints, you will notice that they have just a bit of “flex” to them. This is thanks to the inclusion of some resins known as “technical” resins.

Technical resins is a catch-all term for resins with special properties. Some have high heat tolerances. Some are used in casting. Others still provide flexible, rubbery prints. 

By adjusting the proportions of each resin used (and adjusting exposure times accordingly), it is possible to optimize a resin mix to a given task. As gamers first and foremost, we knew that we wanted detail, and enough durability to endure the gaming table.