/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Hello /3dpg/, I'm planning on buying a 3D printer with my roommates but there's some things we'd like to know before it.

We'd like to use it mainly to print figures and props to then paint and ready their looks, so for now my main concern is how hard is it to grab a random 3D model from somewhere and then prepare it for 3D printing, both as a one-time printing and separate pieces to build later. Not modeling from 0, but grabbing a model, put it in a pose and then print it.We'd like something like pic related (left) altho I'm pretty sure that's either a professional printer or a model that has been cleaned after printing it, but we definetly want to avoid something like in the right.

We don't need a big explanation of how to do it, just if it's fairly easy for the average Joe to do it. I have a bit of experience in 3D Max if that helps.
As for the printer itself, we haven't decided yet but we're looking at the Prusia i3 or the BQ Hephestos. Our budget is 550€ top.