Supports for Miniatures: Where to Put Them and How to Not Scar the Sculpt
Our files ship without supports on purpose: supports tuned for a 2018 Ender fail on a 2026 resin printer and vice versa. Auto-generated supports from YOUR slicer, plus five minutes of manual fixes, beat any pre-supported file. Here's where those five minutes go.
The four spots minis actually fail
- Chins, hood edges and armpits — downward-facing islands that appear mid-print. One light support each.
- Weapon tips held away from the body — a sword point or bow tip printing in mid-air. Support the tip, not the blade.
- Cape and cloak hems — long shallow overhangs. A row of light contacts along the bottom edge.
- Elbows on raised arms — especially overhead poses like our strength-pose baphomet.
Resin settings that don't scar
Tilt the model 20-30° so layer lines cross the face diagonally and islands become slopes. Use light supports with 0.25-0.35mm contact tips on detail areas, mediums only on the base and heavy masses. Put the densest supports on the model's back — nobody repaints the back. Remove supports before curing, under warm water: they peel instead of chipping.
FDM: just use trees
Organic/tree supports (Cura, PrusaSlicer 2.6+, Orca) changed FDM minis completely: they touch the model in a handful of points and snap off clean. Set support interface off for minis, 10° branch angle, and a 0.1-0.2mm top distance. Skip rafts; a textured PEI sheet grips 25mm bases fine.
Reading our print reports
Every file here includes a scan that flags thin walls and steep overhangs with their exact locations — open it next to your slicer and you know where the manual supports go before the first failure. That report plus tree supports is why our bandit warband prints overnight without babysitting.