I 3D printed my family a board game for Christmas, here's how it went

With a cost of living crisis that refuses to die, finding presents that won't make our bank balances yelp in horror is… well, it can be hard. This is why I've been trying to make more gifts myself recently; nothing says "I love you" like an ill-advised project you've poured blood, sweat, and tears into, especially if you're lucky enough to have access to gear like 3D printers. Because I test these for work, and because my in-laws love the best board games as much as I do, I settled on a thoroughly silly idea. Can you see where this is going yet?

My family adores Catan, and it just so happens that there are numerous free files that allow you to create a fully 3D version of its board (this community is a gem, I swear). "Perfect!" I thought. "I'll print the tiles off, paint them, and away we go. How hard can it be?" Oh, the sweet summer child I was.

With a proverbial spring in my step, I downloaded the files and set about crafting my 3D printed board game. And yes, it was bloody tricky. But you know what? It's been some of the most fun I've had all year.

After finding the most up-to-date version of the community-made files at Thingiverse (which collects user-submitted designs for free), I had to make an important decision. No, not questioning my sanity; rather, should I use resin or filament? If you're not familiar with 3D printing, there are two kinds of printers and materials you can use. Resin machines use a gloopy liquid to form incredibly high-detail models, and these are often used for miniatures in wargaming or the best tabletop RPGs. Meanwhile, filament printers rely on those classic reels of plastic that are melted into almost any shape you want (perfect for sturdier creations like terrain or cosplay, in other words).

Because resin looks amazing but can be brittle, I opted for filament – these pieces would hopefully be getting a lot of use, so they needed to stand up to punishment. Happily, today's filament printers can also pump out some high-detail results as is, so opting for one of those would get us the best of both worlds.

Next, I had to decide whether I was going to opt for a multi-color print or paint the pieces myself. While the former is very tempting and can provide stunning results (as I gushed about in my Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo review last year), I decided against it because it felt less cost-effective. I'd need to buy a lot of differently-colored reels to make it work, which somewhat defeated the point. And because I have an overabundance of miniature paints for Warhammer, I felt comfortable enough to try it myself.

Yes, drastically underestimating how hard something is going to be is a weakness of mine.

With all those decisions out of the way, I got to printing. Since my Elegoo Centauri Carbon review a while back, it's been my go-to machine – it's fast, reliable, and gives good results no matter what I throw its way. Fortunately, that was the case again here. While it took longer than I'd anticipated to get everything finished (there were a lot of pieces, so leave ample time if you're hoping to do something similar), I can't fault how it all turned out. As with so much 3D print-related shenanigans, good prep can help a lot; printing a test piece first to work out the kinks will save plenty of bother later, for example.

That left me with the fun bit – painting and adding effects to it all. I decided to avoid painting the ground green despite the fact it'd be much faster because it can look quite… plasticky unless done well, so I opted to go full wargamer instead. When I'm putting together terrain, I usually slap down a basecoat of brown followed by drybrushing (AKA remove as much paint as possible from the brush before dusting it over the model, hitting only the highest points) with something lighter. I then go in with a couple of different flock colors to provide that mottled fauna effect. This proved really effective, particularly when the pieces were assembled together, and it properly brought the scene to life. A bit of snow effect for the mountains and gloss for the water, and we were away.

Because I don't know when to stop, I decided to finish off this mad project with magnets. These would mean the pieces snapped together nicely, without the need for clips or any worry of them coming apart in play after being nudged. Funnily enough, this was the fiddliest bit and had me cursing my life decisions.

What I was left with was a (hopefully) impressive tabletop array. I'll be just handing it over as you're reading this, so with any luck, it'll go down well. But even if it doesn't, the whole experience was one I'm so glad to have undertaken – it was an example of the frankly amazing things we can do now with the right tools. While I appreciate that I'm very, very fortunate to have access to this gear, the problem-solving I've had to use along the way will prove useful regardless of what I'm making. It's made me eager to try more ambitious projects in 2026… which I'll no doubt regret a few months from now.

Want to try something new in 2026? Be sure to check out the best card games, or the best family board games.