June 2026 delivered a genuine gear shakeup in the 3D printing world. Bambu Lab dropped the A2L on June 1, a 330mm large-format bed slinger that finally brings Bambu-level polish to big-format FDM. Elegoo's Centauri Carbon keeps gaining steam as one of the best enclosed CoreXY printers under $450. And on the painting side, there is a primer color choice that immediately improves your miniatures and most people skip right past it. Here is everything worth knowing this week.
Bambu Lab A2L: The 330mm Bed Slinger Built for Big Prints
The Bambu Lab A2L launched June 1 and it is the large-format bed slinger the Bambu ecosystem was missing. The build volume comes in at 330 x 320 x 325mm, which is 105 percent more print space than the A1. That means full-size diorama bases, large cosplay prop sections, terrain tiles, and bulkier functional pieces fit in a single print without splitting the model. Bambu used the same linear magnetic motors from their H-series on X and Y, which keeps movement smooth and precise even with a heavy 330mm bed shifting around. Silent mode runs at roughly 45dB, which is about as quiet as a dishwasher on low. The heatbed tops out at 80 degrees Celsius, so ABS and ASA are off the menu, but PLA, PETG, and TPU are all fair game. If you do mixed-media work, the optional blade cutting module ($69) turns the A2L into a basic vinyl and fabric cutter, which is a genuinely useful bonus for prop and display makers. Standalone price is $469. The A2L Combo with AMS Lite for four-color printing lands at $569.
Elegoo Centauri Carbon: Enclosed CoreXY at $413 and It Actually Delivers
The Elegoo Centauri Carbon is an enclosed CoreXY printer retailing around $413 and reviewers at Make: and 3D Tech Valley are calling it a machine that feels like it should cost more. The enclosed chamber with a 320 degree nozzle lets you run carbon fiber reinforced filament, ABS, and ASA reliably. The printer specs at 500mm/s maximum, though the real-world sweet spot for quality prints sits closer to 200mm/s depending on your filament. A built-in camera handles print monitoring, auto leveling handles bed prep, and automated filament loading with a purge cutter means changing spools is genuinely painless. For makers building structural display armatures, prop internals that need to hold weight, or anything that demands more material strength than standard PLA, the enclosure and high-temp nozzle make the Centauri Carbon the move at this price. One known quirk worth flagging: the printer generates unusually high idle network traffic, around 28 GB over 48 hours in early reports. If you run it on a congested home network, disable the cloud monitoring feature. Does not affect print quality, just something to know before you plug it in. For enclosed FDM printing under $450, this is one of the strongest value picks in the market right now.
Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max: Fit Your Whole Army on One Plate
If you keep running out of resin build volume mid-batch, the Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max is the answer. The 13.6 inch 7K LCD gives you a print area of 298 x 164 x 300mm, which is serious real estate for miniature work. A full squad of 28mm infantry, a warband of larger 32mm minis, or a batch of terrain accessories all come off the plate at the same time at the same quality. The COB LighTurbo 3.0 light source pushes uniform curing across that large LCD area, which matters because edge inconsistency is the classic failure mode on oversized resin screens. Current pricing runs around $699 on Amazon and through the Anycubic store. The official retail was $899, so that gap is a real reduction, not a manufactured sale price. I run an Elegoo Jupiter SE for my large-format resin work and the experience is comparable, but if you are coming in fresh without an existing ecosystem the M7 Max at this price point is a strong first choice. One standing reminder for any resin printer: nitrile gloves and a respirator mask every time you handle uncured resin. Non-negotiable regardless of which machine you run.
This Week's Quick Tip: Prime in Grey, Then Thin Your Basecoats
Primer color is one of the choices beginners gloss over that has a real impact on the final paint job. Black primer deepens shadows naturally, which is great for grimy, dark, heavily weathered models. But it fights warm colors hard and makes reds and yellows look muddy without serious buildup work. White primer pops vibrant colors immediately but washes out your natural shadows, which means you have to build them back in manually. Grey primer, something like Vallejo Grey Surface Primer brushed or airbrushed on, is the most forgiving starting point for any paint scheme. It gives you readable shadows in recesses without fighting warm or cool palettes. You get depth without penalty. Pair that with properly thinned basecoats (a 2-to-1 paint-to-water ratio as a starting point, adjusted until the paint flows off the brush without pooling or pulling) and your first pass covers cleanly without obscuring detail. Vallejo's surface primer adheres well to both resin and FDM parts without a separate adhesion layer, which saves a step. If you want a single product to upgrade your mini painting output this week, this is it.
That's Maker Monday
That's the maker world for this week. If any of this got you thinking about a custom print, paint, or engraving, come see what we make on the commission page. See you next Monday.
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