How much does it cost to 3D print a miniature?

A 28 to 32 mm tabletop miniature costs about 10 to 26 cents in material: 6 to 9 ml of resin (15 to 26 cents) or 5 to 8 g of PLA (10 to 16 cents). Big models cost more, and a bulky 28 mm orc caster takes about $1 of resin.

How much does it cost to 3D print a miniature?

A 28 to 32 mm miniature costs 15 to 26 cents in standard resin and 10 to 16 cents in PLA. Two free 32 mm resin figures need 6.1 and 8.6 ml with supports, at 2.5 to 3.0 cents per ml. Three published PLA slicer files use 5 to 8 g, at 2 cents a gram.

Resin: cost per ml

ELEGOO’s US store lists its Standard Resin at $23.99 for 1 kg, which is 2.4 cents a gram. Resin is sold by weight but sliced by volume. ELEGOO’s data sheet gives a liquid density of 1.05 to 1.25 g/cm³, so:

cost per ml = $23.99 / 1,000 g x 1.05 to 1.25 g/ml = 2.5 to 3.0 cents
ml in a 1 kg bottle = 1,000 / 1.25 to 1,000 / 1.05 = 800 to 952 ml

The 2 kg bottle is $46.99, which brings the price down to 2.35 cents a gram.

None of the free models below states its resin volume, so we computed it from each downloaded STL file. This is the same figure a resin slicer shows as volume. The presupported files include supports and a raft.

Model, scale	Figure only	With supports and raft	Resin cost
Grimlock (Monster Atlas), 32 mm	1.3 ml	6.1 ml	15 to 18¢
Artillery Witch (Raphael), 32 mm	2.6 ml	8.6 ml	22 to 26¢
Orc Mage (VogMan), 28 mm	14.0 ml	38.6 ml	97¢ to $1.16

Supports and raft take 64 to 79% of the resin in these files, so the support setup moves the cost more than the figure does. AmeraLabs, a resin maker, puts typical 28 mm infantry at 5 to 15 ml, in line with these files. At 8.6 ml a figure, a 1 kg bottle prints about 93 to 110 minis.

FDM: cost per gram

On a fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer, use the grams from the slicer. These weights come from slicer files that designers uploaded with their models. At $19.99 for 1 kg of Polymaker PolyLite PLA on its US store, filament costs 2 cents a gram.

Model	Slicer file	Filament	Print time	PLA cost
Dwarf with Greatsword (Crimson3D)	PLA	5 g	about 1 h	10¢
Goblin with spear (CCreations)	PLA, Ender 3 Pro	5 g	53 min	10¢
Goblin / Imp (Mr Disintegrator)	PLA, Prusa MK4S, 0.4 mm nozzle, 0.1 mm layers	8 g	2 h 15 min	16¢

Electricity adds 1 to 3 cents. Prusa measured its MK-series printers at an 80 W average on PLA. At the U.S. average residential rate of about 18 cents per kWh, from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the 2 h 15 min goblin uses:

80 W x 2.25 h = 0.18 kWh x $0.18 = 3.2 cents

Resin consumables

Resin printing also wears through release film and alcohol. The FEP (fluorinated ethylene propylene) film on the bottom of the vat is a consumable. ELEGOO sells five films for its Mars 4 and 5 series at $24.99, or $5.00 a sheet. It rates each film for up to 60,000 releases, one per layer. For a 40 mm tall plate printed at 0.05 mm layers:

40 mm plate at 0.05 mm layers = 800 layers
60,000 / 800 = 75 plates per film
$5.00 / 75 = about 7 cents per plate

Washing uses isopropyl alcohol (IPA), and handling uncured resin uses nitrile gloves. IPA use per mini depends on your wash setup and how often you change the alcohol, so this page gives no per-mini figure.

How much does it cost to 3D print a Warhammer army?

The material for 50 infantry figures runs about $8 to $14. In resin, 50 figures the size of the Artillery Witch at 8.6 ml each use 430 ml, about half a 1 kg bottle. In PLA, 50 figures at 8 g each, the weight of the goblin above, use 400 g. Allowing for 1 failed print in 20 (5%):

50 infantry	Material	Cost	With 5% failures
Resin at 3.0¢/ml	430 ml	$12.90	$13.58
PLA at 2.0¢/g	400 g	$8.00	$8.42

The PLA line also adds about $1.62 of electricity: 50 prints at 0.18 kWh each is 9 kWh at 18 cents. Price each tank, monster or vehicle on its own from its slicer volume. One model the size of the Orc Mage adds about $1.16 of resin.

These figures cover material only. Printer wear and your time on supports come on top. The print cost calculator adds those lines for a whole batch.

How much should you charge for 3D printed minis?

Charge your full cost per mini plus a markup. Resin for a supported 32 mm figure is about 26 cents, so labor sets the price. With 10 minutes of cleanup at $20 an hour, the cost is $3.60. A 30% markup gives $4.68, or $5.20 after a 10% marketplace fee.

Worked example: one 32 mm resin figure

The labor minutes, hourly rate, failure rate, markup and fee below are example inputs. Use your own.

Line	Inputs	Cost
Resin	8.6 ml at 3.0¢	$0.26
Failures	5% failure rate: $0.26 x 0.05 / 0.95	$0.01
Labor	10 min of support removal, washing and curing at $20/h	$3.33
Cost per mini		$3.60
Price	30% markup: $3.60 x 1.3	$4.68
Price after fee	10% marketplace fee: $4.68 / 0.90	$5.20

The fee is divided out because the platform takes its share of the final price, markup included.

Batch cleanup changes the price most

Labor is more than 90% of that cost, so how you clean matters more than which resin you buy. Say a plate of 10 minis takes 40 minutes to wash, cure and de-support. That is 4 minutes a mini, $1.33 of labor:

cost  = $0.26 + $0.01 + $1.33 = $1.60
price = $1.60 x 1.3 / 0.90 = $2.31

Charge painting as labor: time it and bill it at the same hourly rate.

Machine time

Add the printer’s wear if you sell regularly. Divide the printer’s price by the hours you expect from it, then share each plate’s hours among the minis on it. The printer hourly rate calculator works out that rate. For an FDM mini, the STL cost calculator estimates the grams from the model file before you slice it.