This week kicks off with news that sounds like science fiction: HeyGears has announced a desktop 3D printer that prints full-color 3D objects straight off the machine — no painting required. Also this week: Prusa finally activates the tool changer on the CORE One INDX, Games Workshop drops a new Necromunda to shake up the summer, the US tightens "anti-gun software" laws for 3D printers, and a university secures $1.15 million to print lenses the size of a micron. Let's go. 🔥
🔥 Featured
🎨 HeyGears G1X: A Full-Color Desktop 3D Printer
Hold on to your hat. HeyGears — the team behind the UltraCraft and Reflex resin printers — has announced the G1 Series (G1 and G1X), which they're calling "the world's first full-color desktop 3D printer." Here's what makes it genuinely exciting: it actually prints complete 3D objects with real volume, layer by layer, up to around 150mm tall, with color and transparency built directly into the part itself. This isn't a printer that decorates flat surfaces — it builds true three-dimensional models, already fully colored, straight off the machine. Imagine pulling a miniature out and having it come out painted in full detail, without ever picking up a brush.
That said, it's worth understanding one key thing so you don't get confused: the G1X is not a vat resin printer like your Saturn or your Mars. It doesn't use a resin tank and an LCD screen to cure entire layers at once. It works on a completely different principle: UV inkjet technology — what the industry calls "material jetting," the same concept behind the very expensive Stratasys PolyJet machines. A print head fires microscopic droplets of photopolymer — just 3.9 picoliters each — and cures them instantly with UV light, blending CMYK inks to build color directly inside the object. That's why it can do something your resin printer can't: full color and gradients within a single part.
The specs HeyGears is putting out are staggering: the top-tier G1X uses an industrial Epson i3200 print head with 8 ink channels, resolution up to 1440 × 2400 DPI, water-soluble supports, and over 10 million colors. This is territory that until now cost between $40,000 and $190,000 with industrial machines from Stratasys or Mimaki. Bringing that to a desktop, if it delivers, would be a massive leap forward.
And here's where we have to be straight with you, because we'd rather give you the real picture than hype you up. First: this is a reservation only — it's not on sale yet. There's a refundable $50 deposit and a Kickstarter planned for July 2026, with shipping estimated "sometime in 2026." There are zero independent reviews: every spec comes straight from the manufacturer. Second: watch the pricing. Only the top-tier G1X Full-3D (from $3,299 at VIP reservation pricing, $5,499 full retail) actually prints true full-color 3D objects. The cheaper models (from $1,699) are essentially UV surface printers. And third: the "world's first" claim is contested — Flashforge announced something similar (the CJ270) back in 2024, and it still hasn't shipped.
Does this mean you should ditch your resin printer? Absolutely not. For printing whole armies of grey minis at low cost and insane detail, your MSLA machine is still king — cheaper per part, faster, and with that glass-smooth finish. But the promise of "full-color minis straight off the build plate" is an exciting glimpse at what's coming. We'll be watching closely when the Kickstarter goes live. Full specs at 3D Printing Industry →
💵 Industry
🔧 Prusa CORE One INDX: the tool changer that actually works now
After months of teasers and pre-orders, Prusa has released firmware 6.6.0 — the first version that truly unlocks the INDX tool changer on the CORE One. What does it do? It automatically swaps between up to 8 nozzles mid-print, with contactless inductive heating, continuous nozzle presence detection, and automatic purging with a built-in waste bin.
The number that matters for multicolor printing: Prusa puts waste at just 13 milligrams per material change. To put that in perspective, that's five times less than the most efficient competing systems and thirty times less than standard filament flushing. If you've ever dealt with the mountains of plastic a purge tower generates, you know why this is a big deal. On top of that, calibration is down to 15 seconds per tool — twenty times faster than on the original XL.
This continues the tool changer wars we've been tracking: Flashforge's FlashSwap in #013 and Creality's KliTek in #011. The difference is that the INDX is the open, European alternative to purge-based systems. That said, full transparency: the release notes list several known issues (pick-up and parking failures, problems with flexible materials, spontaneous INDX head resets), so it's not fully baked yet. But the direction is crystal clear. Download the firmware from Prusa →
🎲 Miniatures
🎲 Games Workshop drops a summer bombshell: Necromunda is back
At the Big Summer Preview, Games Workshop dropped eleven announcements across eight game systems — but the headline for makers is the new edition of Necromunda. The Core Set includes two gangs — the Escher Blades of the Matriarch and the Goliath Forge Smelters — each with eight brand-new plastic miniatures. For the uninitiated, Necromunda is the skirmish gang warfare game set in the industrial hive cities of the Warhammer 40,000 universe: dense terrain, back alleys, scrap metal… an absolute goldmine for printing.
And that's not all. GW also announced the Orks Codex as the first codex of 11th Edition (with a resculpted Trukk), pre-painted plastic terrain for 40K, Custodes moving to plastic, Aeldari Exodites riding dinosaurs in Kill Team, a two-headed dragon for The Old World, and plastic Titan weapons for Legions Imperialis. There's plenty to get excited about.
Why does this matter to a 3D printing store? Because Necromunda and industrial terrain are among the most printed projects in the hobby: scrapyards, barricades, platforms, containers... And because every GW release drives demand for paint, detail resin, and finishing tools for months afterward. If your printer has been sitting idle, now you have a reason to fire it up. We've covered 40K 11th Edition extensively in previous issues, so we'll leave that aside — this is a whole different story. See all the announcements on Warhammer Community →
⚖️ Regulation
⚖️ The US Wants to Mandate "Anti-Weapons Software" in 3D Printers
This one's more serious, but worth paying attention to. A wave of legislation is spreading across the United States that would require 3D printers to use "blocking software" to detect and prevent the printing of firearms. It's no longer just California (the AB2047 we covered in Weekly #009): New York has already passed it as part of its state budget, and Washington is working through similar legislation (though the mandate wouldn't kick in until 2029).
The problem, according to the technical press and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), is that this kind of blocking is technically impossible to implement reliably — the EFF calls it flatly "doomed to fail." The deeper concern: overly broad definitions could sweep up general-purpose printers, open-source software, and makerspaces, creating headaches for everyone while failing to address the actual problem.
Does this affect us in Spain? Not directly, for now. But 3D printing regulation is a global trend, and what happens in the US has a way of shaping policy in Europe sooner or later. It's worth keeping on your radar. This is an ongoing legal issue with no resolution yet, so we'll keep following it. Read the analysis on Fabbaloo →
🤖 WTF Science
🤖 $1.15 Million to 3D Print Lenses Smaller Than a Human Hair
We're closing with some genuinely impressive science. A team at the University of California, Santa Barbara, led by Professor Galan Moody, has secured a $1.15 million grant from the National Science Foundation to acquire a 3D nanoprinting system capable of printing a polymer lens less than 50 microns wide directly onto the edge of a chip.
To put the scale in perspective: 50 microns is half the thickness of a human hair. We're talking about 3D printing structures so small they're measured in millionths of a meter. The system will be housed in the university's nanofabrication facility and opens the door to manufacturing optical components and complex structures at a scale that until recently existed only in theory.
Not something you'll ever have at home, obviously — but it's a reminder of just how far 3D printing reaches: from a Necromunda miniature on your tabletop to a microscopic lens on the edge of a chip. The same core idea — building layer by layer — scaled to the largest and the smallest. Pretty cool. Read the full story at 3DPrint.com →
💬 Our take this week
The big trend of 2026 is still multi-material and color printing, being tackled from two completely different directions. On one side, HeyGears is trying to bring full-color printing (via UV inkjet) to the desktop; on the other, Prusa is refining FDM tool changing with near-zero waste. Two very different technical approaches chasing the same goal: leaving single-color prints behind. And quietly in the background, regulation is starting to emerge as the big uncomfortable topic of the coming years.
For miniature hobbyists, this week sends a clear message: a new Necromunda release is coming packed with plastic to print and paint, and somewhere on the horizon there's a future where you might not need to paint at all. But that future isn't here yet — today, your resin printer and your brushes are still king. We'll keep holding the line: resin, paint, free tools, and this newsletter every Monday. 💪
❓ Frequently asked questions this week
Is the HeyGears G1X a resin printer?
Not in the usual sense. It does print full 3D objects with real volume, but it doesn't use a resin vat and LCD screen like a typical MSLA printer (Elegoo Saturn, Anycubic Mars, etc.). It works via UV inkjet (material jetting): a printhead fires and cures droplets of photopolymer layer by layer, which allows it to print in full color in a single pass. It's a different technology altogether — closer to industrial Stratasys PolyJet machines.
When can you buy the HeyGears G1X, and how much does it cost?
Right now it's only available as a refundable $50 deposit; the Kickstarter is scheduled for July 2026 with shipping "sometime in 2026," no firm date. At VIP reservation pricing, the top-tier G1X Full-3D package — the only one that actually prints true full-color 3D objects — is $3,299, with a planned retail price of $5,499. The cheaper models starting at $1,699 are mainly for UV surface printing, not full-color 3D objects.
Should I swap my resin printer for one of these?
Not right now. For printing highly detailed miniatures in gray at low cost, with smooth surface quality, an MSLA resin printer is still cheaper, faster per part, and more reliable. The G1X looks promising for anyone who wants full-color prints without painting, but it hasn't been independently tested yet, ink and resin costs are still unknown, and only the expensive model delivers true full-color 3D printing.
What is the Prusa INDX tool changer?
It's a system that allows the Prusa CORE One to automatically swap between up to 8 nozzles during a single print, enabling multi-color or multi-material output. Its key advantage is minimal waste — around 13 milligrams per tool change, compared to the purge towers that waste significantly more filament with other systems. Firmware 6.6.0, released on June 25, 2026, is the first version to enable it as a fully functional feature.