Best 3D printer for miniatures and terrain: ELEGOO resin vs Bambu Lab filament, model by model

If you want to print your own wargaming miniatures and terrain, the two names you'll hear most are ELEGOO for resin printers and Bambu Lab for filament. Both make a ladder of models, from small and cheap to big and fast, and the right rung depends on what you print: 10mm armies, 28mm heroes, terrain boards or hobby gear. Here's every model worth considering, side by side, with our honest take on each.

First printer for miniatures

ELEGOO Mars 5 Ultra

Whole armies and terrain in resin

ELEGOO Saturn 4 Ultra 16K

First printer for terrain and gear

Bambu Lab A1 or A1 mini

Enclosed, fast, all-rounder

Bambu Lab P2S

The short answer

• For miniatures, buy a resin printer. Start with an ELEGOO Mars 5 Ultra if you print a unit at a time, or go straight to a Saturn 4 Ultra 16K if you print whole armies, bigger models or resin terrain.
• For terrain, storage and hobby gear, buy a filament printer. A Bambu Lab A1 mini or A1 is the easiest way in; the A2L prints big terrain pieces in one go; the enclosed P2S is the quietest, cleanest all-rounder.
• For everything, you'll end up wanting one of each: resin for the models, filament for the table they fight on. Why the two are so different: resin vs filament for miniatures.

ELEGOO resin printers compared

ELEGOO's resin printers come in two families. The Mars range is compact: a smaller screen and tank, ideal for a squad or a few characters at a time. The Saturn range has a 10-inch screen and roughly twice the plate area, so you can fill it with a whole unit, a batch of bases or a building in parts. What changes from model to model is how fine each pixel is, how big the plate is, and how much the printer looks after itself.

ELEGOO Mars 5: the budget way in

The cheapest sensible resin printer for miniatures. Its 35-micron pixels are coarser than the newer screens, but primed, a 28mm figure from it still looks far better than anything from a filament printer. It has no tilting vat, camera or Wi-Fi, so you level it, watch it and carry files over on a USB stick. Our take: fine for finding out whether resin printing is for you, but you'll likely outgrow it within a year. If you can stretch the budget, the Ultra is worth the step.

ELEGOO Mars 5 Ultra: the best first printer for miniatures

Twice the resolution of the Mars 5 in almost the same footprint, plus the comforts that make resin printing less fiddly: a tilting vat that peels each layer off gently (fewer failed prints and faster layers), automatic levelling, and a camera that spots failures. The plate takes a unit of 28mm infantry or several 10mm stands at a time. Our take: the one we'd tell a friend to buy first. The small plate is its only real limit: big centrepieces and terrain have to be printed in parts.

ELEGOO Saturn 4 Ultra (12K): the batch printer

The step up in size: a 10-inch screen and a plate roughly twice the Mars's area, so a full regiment, a sheet of bases or the parts of a resin building fit in one print. It has the same tilting vat and camera as the Mars 5 Ultra. Our take: if you paint armies rather than characters, the bigger plate saves hours. The 12K screen is plenty sharp for 28mm and very good at 10mm.

ELEGOO Saturn 4 Ultra 16K: the detail and volume pick

The same big plate with ELEGOO's finest 10-inch screen, pixels about 14 by 19 microns, and a heated vat that keeps the resin at 30 °C. That heater matters more than it sounds: cold resin prints badly, and garages and sheds in an Australian winter get cold. Our take: the best all-round resin printer here for wargamers. Honestly, at 28mm you'll struggle to see the difference between 12K and 16K once a model is primed; what you're really paying for is the heated vat and the extra crispness at 10mm. If you need even bigger, ELEGOO's Jupiter range is the next step up, but it's a lot of printer for miniatures.

Bambu Lab filament printers compared

Bambu Lab's printers come in two families too. The A series is open-frame: cheaper, easy to set up, and best with PLA. The P series is enclosed: faster, quieter, safer around kids and pets, and able to print tougher plastics. Every model calibrates itself and works with Bambu's AMS feeders for printing more than one colour.

Bambu Lab A1 mini: the easiest start

Small, cheap and remarkably good. The 180 mm cube fits paint racks, organisers, movement trays and most terrain pieces once they're split up. Our take: the best printer to learn on. Its only weakness for wargamers is size: a big hill or a whole ruined building won't fit in one go.

Bambu Lab A1: the terrain workhorse

The same easy machine with the full 256 mm cube, enough for most terrain pieces and a stepped paint rack in one print. Our take: the best value filament printer for a wargamer. Being open-frame it's a little louder and less suited to ABS, which hardly matters for terrain and hobby gear printed in PLA.

Bambu Lab A2L: when terrain gets big

Released in 2026 with a 330 × 320 × 325 mm build volume, about double the A1's. Gaming board tiles, large hills and whole buildings print in one piece, with no glued seams to hide. Our take: worth it if terrain is your main reason for buying a printer. For miniatures it's no better than the A1, and nothing in this table beats resin for figures.

Bambu Lab P1S: last year's favourite

The best-selling enclosed printer of the last few years, now being replaced by the P2S. Our take: still an excellent printer, and a bargain if you find one on clearance, but don't pay full price for it now.

Bambu Lab P2S: the all-rounder

The P1S's replacement keeps the same 256 mm cube and adds a touchscreen, better failure detection, automatic flow calibration, a hardened quick-swap nozzle and the newer AMS 2 Pro. The enclosure keeps the noise and smell in and lets it print tougher plastics. Our take: the one to buy if you want a filament printer that just works for years. For miniatures, swap in a 0.2 mm nozzle and fine layers: it's the best a filament printer gets, but still softer than resin.

What else you'll need

Our picks, by what you want to print

Prices change often and both makers run regular sales, so check their Australian stores before you buy: ELEGOO Australia and Bambu Lab.