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Buying your first resin printer for miniatures is one of those decisions that feels enormous right up until you make it, and then feels obvious in hindsight. There are maybe a dozen machines worth considering, they mostly cost between $180 and $450, and the differences that actually matter for tabletop minis come down to three or four specs. Everything else is marketing noise about resolution numbers you will never perceive at arm’s length across a game table.
I print and paint my own minis on an original Elegoo Saturn, so this is not a spec-sheet roundup assembled from manufacturer pages. It is the list I would hand a friend who texted me “which printer should I buy” and did not want a lecture. If you are brand new to the hobby and want the full workflow before you spend anything, start with the complete beginner’s guide to 3D printing resin miniatures, then come back here to pick hardware. And whatever printer you land on, budget for good resin too, because the machine is only half of what determines how your prints come out.
The Quick Answer
If you do not want to read 3,000 words, here is the short version.
| Pick | Printer | Why | Approx. Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best overall | Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra | Big plate, clean 16K prints, best for batch and large models | $400 to $450 |
| Best for most people | Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra | The sweet spot: excellent detail, compact, half the price of the Saturn 4 Ultra | $200 to $250 |
| Best budget | Anycubic Photon Mono 10K | Real resolution at a genuine entry price | around $199 |
| Best large-format on a budget | Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Pro | Bigger plate than the Mars without the Saturn 4 Ultra’s cost | $250 to $300 |
If I had to pick one machine for the average person reading this, it is the Mars 5 Ultra. It does 90 percent of what the Saturn 4 Ultra does, costs half as much, and fits on a shelf. The rest of this article is about the other 10 percent, and whether it matters for how you actually play.
What Actually Matters When You Buy a Resin Printer for Minis
Resin printer marketing has trained everyone to shop by resolution, which is roughly like buying a car by top speed. It is a real number, it sounds important, and it is almost never the thing that decides whether you are happy. Here is what I weigh, in the order I weigh it.
Build volume. This is the spec people underrate the hardest. Build volume decides two things: the biggest single model you can print without slicing it into pieces and gluing it back together, and how many minis you can batch on one plate. If you play DnD and your DM likes big monsters, or you play any army game and need to print models by the dozen, build volume is the constraint you will hit first. A small plate is not a dealbreaker, but it is the thing you will curse at 11pm when a dragon does not fit.
Resolution, within reason. For 28mm to 32mm tabletop minis viewed at normal distance, anything at or below 35 microns of XY resolution looks great. The best current machines are down around 18 microns, which is genuinely sharper under a magnifying glass and genuinely invisible on the table. Resolution matters, it is just that every printer worth buying already clears the bar. Do not pay a premium chasing a number past 10K unless you also want the build plate that usually comes with it.
Print speed. Modern mono LCD printers are fast, and the fastest are very fast. Speed matters most if you are printing in volume against a deadline (a DM prepping Friday’s encounter, an army painter grinding out a unit). For a single hobbyist printing a mini or two at a time, the difference between 80 and 150 millimeters per hour is a nap, not a lifestyle.
The ecosystem. You are not just buying a printer. You are buying into a resin supply, a wash and cure workflow, replacement FEP film, and a slicer. Elegoo and Anycubic both have deep, cheap, easy-to-find accessory ecosystems, which is a real reason to stick with the two brands that dominate this list. A slightly better printer from a brand with no support and no parts is not actually better.
Price, honestly assessed. The cheapest printer is rarely the best value, and the most expensive is rarely necessary. The trick is matching spend to how you actually print. I will call out value at each tier rather than just ranking by dollars.
Notice what is not on this list: fancy touchscreens, app connectivity, AI-anything. None of it changes the mini that comes off the plate.
Best Overall: Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra
Check the Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra on Amazon
The Saturn 4 Ultra is the printer I recommend to anyone who prints regularly and prints big. It is not subtle: a 16K mono LCD, an 18 micron XY resolution, and a 218 by 123mm build plate that is large enough to genuinely change how you work.
The build plate is the reason this sits at the top. On a Saturn 4 Ultra you can fit a Huge creature base, a couple of medium monsters, and a fistful of supports on one plate and print the whole encounter in a single run. On a smaller machine, that is two or three separate print jobs with wash and cure cycles between them. If your hobby time is limited (and whose is not), the Saturn 4 Ultra buys it back by letting you batch.
The 16K resolution is, frankly, more than your eyes can use at table distance. Where it earns its keep is consistency: clean layer transitions, no banding on the broad flat surfaces like terrain floors and vehicle hulls where lesser machines sometimes show their seams. You do not buy the Saturn 4 Ultra for sharper faces. You buy it for a bigger plate and prints that come out right the first time, more often.
The cost is the cost. At $400 to $450 it is roughly double the Mars 5 Ultra, and it takes up real desk space. If you are printing a mini here and there for a home campaign, that is money and room spent on capacity you will not use. But if you print in volume, print large models, or print terrain, this is the one.
Specs that matter:
- XY resolution: 18 microns (16K)
- Build volume: 218 by 123 by 220mm
- Print speed: up to 150mm per hour
- Approximate price: $400 to $450
Best for: DMs, army painters, terrain builders, and anyone who batches.
Best for Most People: Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra
Check the Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra on Amazon
If the Saturn 4 Ultra is the enthusiast pick, the Mars 5 Ultra is the correct pick for most of the people reading this. It runs a 12K LCD at 22 microns XY on a 153 by 77mm plate, and for printing character models, NPCs, and medium-to-large creatures, it is excellent. That resolution clears the ceiling that actually matters for painted 28 to 32mm minis. By spec alone, it lands in the same practical tier as the Saturn 4 Ultra’s 18 microns for anything short of a loupe inspection.
What you give up is build volume. Huge creatures need to be split or oriented creatively, and you will not be batching a full encounter’s worth of monsters in one go. For a player printing their party, a rotating cast of villains, and the occasional larger enemy, that ceiling is high enough that you will rarely touch it. For a DM printing armies, you will feel it.
The Mars 5 Ultra also just fits a normal life better. It is compact enough that it does not demand a dedicated table, quiet enough to run in a spare room, and cheap enough that a first-timer is not betting the mortgage. Pair it with a wash and cure station and ABS-like resin for minis that survive being knocked off the table, and you have a complete setup for well under the price of the Saturn 4 Ultra alone.
Specs that matter:
- XY resolution: 22 microns (12K)
- Build volume: 153 by 77 by 165mm
- Print speed: up to 120mm per hour
- Approximate price: $200 to $250
Best for: Players printing character models and medium creatures who want great results without overbuying.
Best Budget: Anycubic Photon Mono 10K
Check the Anycubic Photon Mono 10K on Amazon
There is a difference between “cheapest” and “best value,” and the Photon Mono 10K is the second one. At around $199 it is not the rock-bottom entry price in resin printing, but it is the point where the price stops mattering and the results start. At 34 microns XY, it sits well within the resolution range the hobby considers table-quality for 28 to 32mm minis, plenty for clean faces and legible weapon detail without chasing a spec number you will not perceive across a table.
In resolution terms: the tier jump from a 4K machine to this 10K panel is bigger than the tier jump from here up to the Mars 5 Ultra’s 12K panel. Spending the extra thirty or forty dollars to get from a bargain-bin printer to the 10K is the best money in this entire list. Trying to save that same thirty dollars by going below it is the worst.
The build plate is 149 by 83mm, which fits five to seven medium creatures at a time. For one player keeping a party and some NPCs printed, that is a comfortable cadence. For a DM racing to print a full encounter before game night, it gets slow, and that is exactly the point where the Saturn 4 Ultra starts to justify itself. But as a first printer that will not embarrass your paint job, the Photon Mono 10K is the one I point beginners toward. When you are ready to actually run it, the beginner’s guide walks through the full day-one setup.
If you want an Elegoo-ecosystem alternative at a similar entry level, the Elegoo Mars 4 Ultra is a reasonable cross-shop, though the Mars 5 Ultra is worth the stretch if your budget can reach it.
Specs that matter:
- XY resolution: 34 microns (10K)
- Build volume: 149 by 83 by 165mm
- Print speed: up to 80mm per hour
- Approximate price: around $199
Best for: First-time buyers who want real resolution without spending Mars or Saturn money.
Best Large-Format on a Budget: Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Pro
The Photon Mono M7 Pro fills a specific and useful gap: it gives you a large 196 by 122mm build plate, close to Saturn 4 Ultra territory, at a price closer to the mid-range. If you want to print big models or batch in volume but cannot justify the Saturn 4 Ultra, this is the machine that makes large-format printing accessible. The Saturn 4 Ultra vs. Photon Mono M7 Pro head-to-head compares the two directly if that is the call you are making. Its 28 micron resolution is plenty for tabletop minis, and you can fit a Huge creature without splitting it.
The tradeoffs are real and worth knowing. At up to 120mm per hour, it prints slower than the Saturn 4 Ultra’s 150mm per hour at equivalent quality settings. It is a value large-format printer, not a premium one. But for a DM who needs to print big things regularly and is watching the budget, that is a genuinely useful niche, and nobody else fills it as cleanly at this price. Anycubic sells it through their own store in addition to the usual retailers, and the full breakdown is in our M7 Pro review.
Specs that matter:
- XY resolution: 28 microns
- Build volume: 196 by 122 by 220mm
- Print speed: up to 120mm per hour
- Approximate price: $250 to $300
Best for: Budget-conscious DMs and terrain builders who need a big plate.
Full Comparison Table
| Printer | XY Resolution | Build Volume | Best Use | Approx. Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra | 18µm (16K) | 218 × 123mm | Large models, terrain, batch printing | $400 to $450 |
| Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Pro | 28µm | 196 × 122mm | Large-format on a budget | $250 to $300 |
| Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra | 22µm (12K) | 153 × 77mm | Character models, medium creatures | $200 to $250 |
| Anycubic Photon Mono 10K | 34µm (10K) | 149 × 83mm | Budget entry with real detail | around $199 |
| Elegoo Mars 4 Ultra | 35µm | 153 × 77mm | Budget Elegoo alternative | around $180 |
Prices drift with sales, and this niche runs frequent discounts around the holidays and Prime events. If you are flexible on timing, a machine one tier up often lands in the tier below’s price during a sale, which is the single easiest way to buy above your budget.
Match the Printer to How You Actually Play
The right printer depends less on the specs and more on what you put on the plate. Here is how the picks map to the games most of you are printing for.
DnD and general fantasy. DnD demands the widest range of any tabletop game: a 25mm halfling one week, a Gargantuan dragon the next, ten identical goblins the week after. That range rewards build volume, which is why the Saturn 4 Ultra tops our dedicated best resin printer for DnD miniatures breakdown. But most DnD players do fine on a Mars 5 Ultra and only split the occasional huge model. Buy for what you print most weeks, not for the one dragon a campaign.
Warhammer 40K. 40K is a batch game. You are printing squads, vehicles, and the occasional monster, over and over, and the math that matters is per-mini cost versus Games Workshop retail. A bigger plate pays off faster here than almost anywhere, because every extra model per plate is real time saved across an army. Our best resin printer for Warhammer 40K guide leans hard toward build volume for exactly this reason.
Age of Sigmar and rank-and-file fantasy. Same logic as 40K, with even more identical models per unit. If you are printing regiments, batch capacity is the whole ballgame, and the Age of Sigmar printer guide makes the case for a large plate over chasing resolution.
Pathfinder and smaller-scale skirmish. Pathfinder tends toward character-forward printing with fewer massive models, which makes the Mars 5 Ultra a near-perfect fit: excellent detail, enough plate for a party and its enemies, no wasted capacity. The Pathfinder printer guide digs into the specific scale mix.
First printer on a tight budget. If you are buying your very first machine and mostly printing characters and a rotating cast, start with the Photon Mono 10K or step up to the Mars 5 Ultra if you can. The full case for a cheap-but-good first machine is in the best budget resin printer guide.
Do You Actually Need 16K? A Reality Check on Resolution
Short answer: no, and the manufacturers know it. Here is the longer answer, because this is the single spec people overspend on.
Resolution in resin printing is measured two ways that get conflated. The “K” number (8K, 12K, 16K) counts the horizontal pixels on the LCD. The micron number (34µm, 22µm, 18µm) is the actual size of one pixel, which is what determines how fine a detail the printer can render. The micron number is the one that matters, and it depends on both the LCD and the physical width of the build plate. A big 16K screen and a small 10K screen can land closer together than the marketing implies.
For 28mm to 32mm miniatures, anything at or under about 35µm produces detail that looks crisp at the distance you actually view a mini across a table. Every printer on this list clears that. The jump from 34µm to 18µm is real under a loupe and invisible in play. So if you are choosing between two printers and one has a flashier resolution number, ask what else changed. Usually the higher-resolution machine also has a bigger plate or a faster screen, and those are the reasons to buy it. The resolution itself is a tiebreaker, not a headline.
Where finer resolution does earn attention: display pieces, busts, and anything you will photograph up close. If that is your hobby, chase the microns. If you are printing an army to shove across a table, do not.
What You Will Spend Beyond the Printer
The sticker price is not the real price, and pretending otherwise is how people end up frustrated. Budget for the full setup from the start.
Resin is the recurring cost. A standard bottle runs $20 to $40 and lasts a while, but for minis that get handled, dropped, and jostled in a dice tray, you want a tougher ABS-like resin rather than brittle standard resin. The best resin for miniatures guide breaks down the play-versus-display tradeoff. Siraya Tech Blu and Elegoo ABS-Like are the two I point people toward first.
A wash and cure station is not strictly required, but skipping it means an IPA jar, gloves, and a lot of manual fiddling. A dedicated station makes the whole post-processing workflow faster and more consistent, and it is the accessory that most improves your day-to-day printing. Our wash and cure roundup covers the picks by price.
The small stuff adds up: nitrile gloves, flush cutters for support removal, replacement FEP film, a UV flashlight, and something to funnel resin back into the bottle. None of it is expensive individually, and the essential accessories roundup collects the full list so you can order it alongside the printer instead of discovering each gap mid-print.
Rough all-in for a complete first setup: budget the printer price plus another $80 to $150 for resin, a wash and cure station, and consumables. That is a realistic starting number, and it is worth knowing before you click buy rather than after.
My Pick, If You Made Me Choose One
Buy the Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra. It is the machine I would hand almost everyone: at 22 microns XY its resolution clears what a painted mini actually needs at table distance, the same practical tier as printers costing twice as much, the build volume covers the vast majority of what tabletop players actually print, and the price leaves room in the budget for the resin and wash and cure station that make the whole thing work. Most people who buy the Saturn 4 Ultra first would have been just as happy on the Mars and kept $200.
Buy the Saturn 4 Ultra instead only if you already know you print big or print in volume, DMs prepping large encounters, army painters, terrain builders. You will use the plate, and you will be glad you have it.
Buy the Photon Mono 10K if the budget is genuinely tight and you just want in the door with results you will not have to apologize for. It is the best cheap printer here, and cheap is a perfectly good reason.
Whatever you pick, the printer is the start of the workflow, not the end of it. Get the machine sorted, then read the beginner’s guide to actually get a clean first print off the plate. That is where most of the learning curve lives, and it is far more forgiving than choosing hardware felt.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best resin printer for miniatures overall? The Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra, for its combination of a large build plate, clean 16K prints, and batch capacity. But for most hobbyists the Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra is the smarter buy: resolution in the same practical tier at half the price, and enough build volume for the vast majority of tabletop printing.
How much should I spend on my first resin printer? Around $199 to $250 gets you a genuinely good first machine (the Anycubic Photon Mono 10K or Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra). Below that, quality drops off faster than the price does. Then budget another $80 to $150 for resin, a wash and cure station, and consumables.
Do I need 16K resolution for tabletop minis? No. Anything at or under about 35µm XY resolution looks crisp at table distance, and every printer worth buying clears that. Higher resolution is nice for display pieces you photograph up close, but for minis you play with it is a tiebreaker, not a reason to overspend. Build volume matters more.
Elegoo or Anycubic, which brand is better? Both are excellent and dominate this list for good reason: deep accessory ecosystems, cheap parts, and reliable machines. Elegoo’s Mars and Saturn lines are my default recommendations, but Anycubic’s Photon Mono series competes hard at the budget and large-format tiers. You will not go wrong with either.
Is a resin printer worth it just for tabletop gaming? If you print regularly, yes. The per-mini cost after the initial setup is a fraction of retail miniature prices, and you can print exactly the models your game needs on demand. The budget printer guide runs the cost-per-mini math if you want to see the break-even point.
Can these printers handle terrain, not just minis? Yes, with the caveat that terrain is volume-hungry. Large terrain pieces stress a small build plate, so if terrain is a priority, lean toward the Saturn 4 Ultra or Photon Mono M7 Pro for their bigger plates. For very large terrain specifically, an FDM printer is also worth considering alongside resin. Resin vs. FDM for miniatures breaks down exactly where each technology wins if you are deciding between them rather than adding a second machine.