3D printing an Egyptian chess set

I have been looking to get into 3D printing models for quite sometime now. Ideally, the tool that I should use for printing objects with fine details such as facial features, ornaments etc. would be a SLA (stereolithography apparatus) printer. If on FDM (fused deposition modelling) printers such as my Mk3S, I would prefer least to get a MMU (multi-material unit) upgrade so as to highlight different features using color. A SLA printer such as a Prusa SL1 is simply too costly for consideration but MMU upgrade is something that I hope to get sometime in the future.

Regardless, I attempted to print some chess pieces based on an Egyptian theme just to find out how good my plain vanilla Prusa can handle tiny features. I choose to use a layer height of 0.1 mm as a fine balance between model details and print time. I’ve written about choosing layer heights and its impact on print quality here.

The results were pretty good and the next step would be to work on the the rest of the pieces in white PLA so that I can paint the models. Alternatively, I am also exploring wood PLA options to aim for a nice oak or walnut finish on the pieces. Printing using wood PLA is quite time consuming to set up and fine tune and I hope to write about my experiences in an upcoming post.