How Resin 3D Printed Figures Are Made: Inside Our Workshop
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Updated: November 2026 · By Hobbyteka Workshop Team
You're about to pay a small shop you've never heard of for a figure, and you want to know who's actually making it. That's us: a team of three and a sculptor in Germany, printing on an Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max and painting by hand. An unpainted figure leaves the workshop in 3–10 working days. A hand-painted one takes 2–8 weeks more, and this article shows where that time goes.
| Stage | What we do | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 3D model | STL from a studio we hold a commercial license with, or our own sculpt for custom orders | Custom sculpt: 2–3 weeks |
| Printing | Check and fix supports and hollowing, print at 0.035 mm layers | 1–3 days, rarely 5–7 |
| Cleanup | IPA wash, ultrasonic cleaning, drying, UV curing, support removal, sanding | A few hours |
| Painting | Airbrush primer, then airbrush, brush, drybrush and sponge, varnish | 3 days to about 2 weeks of work |
| Final check | Full test assembly, photos for you, packing | About 15–20 minutes |
Numbers in this article are as of late October 2026.
Who Makes Your Figure
There are four of us. One person runs orders and the workshop, one prints, one paints, and our sculptor builds models for custom orders. We've been printing since spring 2025 and founded Hobbyteka UG in winter 2026.
Where the 3D Models Come From
Most figures in our catalog are sculpted by independent 3D studios: Bulkamancer, Tanuki Figures, NekoFigurines, CA3D and VYRA. We pay for commercial subscriptions that let us print and sell their sculpts. The sculpt is theirs. Printing, cleanup and painting are ours.
Studio files usually arrive already cut into parts and supported. Some studios use auto-generated supports, and those don't always hold, so we rework them before printing.
For custom orders, our sculptor builds the model from your references. We show you preview images before printing, and we do the hollowing, supports and test prints ourselves.
Printing on an Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max
Every figure we sell is printed on one machine, an Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max. It's one of the largest desktop resin printers on the market, with a build volume of 298 × 164 × 300 mm (11.7 × 6.5 × 11.8 in). We're not sponsored by Anycubic. It's simply the printer we use.
The size changes how we print. When parts fit on the plate together, we join them in the file before printing. That's how we printed Malenia's full-length cloak from Elden Ring and the cloak of a Bloodborne hunter for our own shelf: each in one piece, with no glue seam to hide.
We print at 0.035 mm per layer, thinner than a human hair. Figures are hollow where it makes sense, which saves weight and resin and puts less stress on large parts. If you're choosing a size, our guide to 1/8 vs 1/6 scale figures compares them.
A typical figure prints in 1–3 days. Big figures with lots of parts can take 5–7 days, but that's rare.
Why We Mix Our Own Resin
Our figures are printed in our own blend of two Anycubic resins: ABS-Like Resin+ and UltraTough. We switched because of the resin we used before: very thin parts printed with it bent over time. One customer's figure bent on the shelf at home. We reprinted it, painted it again and sent it free of charge.
The current blend took months and about 20 test mixes. It keeps fine detail sharp and gives thin parts enough flex to survive handling. For clear and glowing parts, see our transparent and glow resin effects.
Washing, Curing and Cleanup
Fresh prints come off the printer coated in liquid resin. We wash them in isopropyl alcohol (IPA) in a Wash & Cure station and an ultrasonic cleaner, let them dry, then cure them under UV light so the resin reaches full strength.
Next, supports come off and the contact marks are sanded down with sanding sticks, sandpaper, a detail sander and a rotary tool with radial bristle discs. The whole cleanup takes a couple of hours per figure.
Unpainted figures ship at this stage: washed, cured and, in most cases, already sanded.
Glued or Shipped in Parts?
Most figures ship in parts, each wrapped separately, because a figure in pieces is less likely to break in transit. If a sub-assembly travels safely glued, such as an arm made of several pieces, we glue it before shipping. We can add magnets on request. Pins are rarely needed.
Assembling a figure yourself? Use a gel-type super glue that works on resin. Not every plastic glue holds resin well. Thin glue has another problem: turn the part before it sets and the glue runs straight out of the joint. We use Kraftprotz Universal Sekundenkleber Gel and keep liquid Loctite 401 as a backup, but any gel cyanoacrylate that bonds plastic will do.
Hand Painting: Where the Weeks Go
Before we start, we agree on the color scheme with you. Primer goes on by airbrush only (Kaleido and Vallejo primers), never from a spray can.
The painting itself mixes airbrush, brush, drybrushing and sponge work. Our main airbrush is a Harder & Steenbeck Evolution CR Plus. A Sparmax MAX-3 and a Gaahleri GHAD-39 handle other jobs, and all of them run off a Fengda FD-186 compressor with an air tank. The finish follows the material: clothing gets satin or matt, while eyes, lips and anything that should shine get gloss. We seal painted figures with Kaleido ColorWorks varnish.
Painting a figure takes from three days to about two weeks of actual work. The rest of the 2–8 weeks is the queue. Right now about ten orders are in progress, so we quote up to eight weeks. When the workshop is less busy, it's faster.
Before shipping, we assemble the figure and send you photos. If something isn't how you pictured it, say a different skin tone, small changes are free within reason. The figure will sit on your shelf for years, and we'd rather fix it now.
What Goes Wrong and What We Do About It
Failed prints are our most common problem. Resin printing is sensitive to its surroundings: a temperature drop, a draft, a slammed door or a bump against the table can ruin a print, even with the printer's cover closed. Usually the second attempt works. Sometimes the file is the cause. Then we redo the supports and the hollowing, occasionally more than once.
Parts break in the workshop, too. A thin piece snaps during cleanup or falls off the painting bench, and once in a while the cat gets to one first. We reprint the part. You never see it.
Shipping has gone well so far. Of our 85 orders this year, three had a problem:
- One parcel was lost. The carrier refunded us and we settled it with the customer. It's the only lost parcel in two years of shipping.
- One part broke while the customer was assembling the figure. Not our fault, but we sent a replacement anyway.
- One figure bent at home because of our old resin (see above). We reprinted, repainted and reshipped it for free.
We'll cover how we pack in a separate article.
If your figure arrives broken, send us photos of the damage and the packaging. We usually reprint the broken part and the work is free. Depending on your country, you may cover shipping for the replacement. If the defect is our fault, everything is on us. More details are in our FAQ.
Working With Resin Safely
Liquid resin and IPA are hard on skin and lungs, so here's how we work:
- Print room: respirators with A1P2 gas and dust filters, gloves and lab coats, an air purifier, and no daylight. A stray ray of sunlight can start curing resin in the vat.
- Painting: a spray booth with extraction, plus a respirator and gloves.
If you buy an unpainted figure, the parts arrive fully cured. Sanding still makes fine dust, so wear a dust mask or sand wet, and wash your hands afterwards. Once your figure is finished, our resin figure care guide covers cleaning, display and storage.
FAQ
Will I see layer lines?
On painted figures, no: primer and paint cover them. On unpainted parts, yes, if you look for them. Even at 0.035 mm, you can spot layers up close under a raking light at the right angle. At arm's length you won't see them, and we sand the most visible areas anyway.
Can I send you my own STL file?
Yes. We'll check it and give you a quote, and we can make small changes to the file.
Do you repair figures bought from other shops?
No. We only repair and reprint figures we made.
Have a character in mind? Send us your references through Custom Orders, or browse the figures we can print right now in our catalog.