It’s another foray in to 3D printing this week with a Command Squad based experiment that I did for testing out a different version of the Fat Dragon Games A1 Print Profile that I have mentioned before.
These guys were once again taken from the purple STL website (I like to keep things vague as many STL creators don’t like undue publicity as it can bring Mr. Workshop’s attention) but I believe that all these models were free and relatively easy to find. They’re not 100% 3D printed, as some of them had arm-based accidents and have clearly had their extremities replaced with real GW plastic (the flag on the far right and the rifle on the fuel cannister wielding guy for example).
My printer set-up is pretty basic – I have a Bambu Labs A1 with AMS; the printer I picked up in a black Friday sale in 2023 and the AMS I picked up off of eBay in early 2025. I don’t really do much multi-coloured printing, but having 4 spools of filament locked and loaded is pretty useful! For filament I almost always use Elegoo Matte PLA as I find it’s the best compromise between price (usually about 15 pounds a kilo) and quality (it’s pretty great). I do sometimes use Bambu Labs own Matte PLA as it is marginally better quality, but it is a full 5 or 6 pounds more expensive per kilo, so it’s an occasional treat rather than an every-day.
I regularly swap between a 0.2mm nozzle (infantry sized models) and a 0.4mm nozzle (vehicles and anything functional) and these seem to do me pretty well. For settings I use the Fat Dragon Games A1 profile for anything on the 0.2 nozzle (https://www.fatdragongames.com/fdgfiles/bambu-studio-slicer-profiles-a1-mini-3d-printer/) which gives absolutely incredible results for FDM, and then I just use the built in 0.8mm Extra Quality setting for 0.4mm nozzle models. The Fat Dragon Games profile really is excellent, and whilst you can still absolutely tell that the models are 3D printed, they are more than good enough to be painted and used on the tabletop (although, I’m not sure they’re good enough to avoid you getting chucked out of an official event!).
I have printed quite a few tabletop models since I got my 3D printer, but I have definitely fallen foul of printing loads of stuff and then realising later on that they’re either A) not going to be used or B) not really good enough quality. These command squad models are just on the cusp in my opinion, just good enough to keep and use, but many of their 3D printed brethren have since found themselves gifted to other people or chucked in the bin – At the end of the day I love the painting part of this hobby a lot more than the gaming part, and whilst FDM models are a great cheap entryway in to the game, they’re still not quite as good a painting and modelling experience than the real deal GW plastic or 3rd Party Resin.
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