Another new project / 3D printed stuff

[Drifter 851]

Figured I'd start this thread and just update it with pictures of some of my 3D printed projects as I work on them rather than start a new thread for every thing I print and do.

 

Just started this project a bit over a week ago. I decided I wanted to do a medieval  diorama for my theater room since the rest of the room's decor is all medieval themed. So decided to start printing a scene which will be a castle tower sitting on the edge of a rocky shoreline of the ocean with a dragon on top of the tower, then a giant kraken coming out of the water attacking the tower. Took about 130hrs to print just the tower pieces. Then did a lot of paint work and weathering to make it look aged, made some vines out of stained twine and ground up some reindeer moss to make the moss and growth on the towers crack. Added some wood railing and made a wood door. Have the dragon pieces running on both printers right now so hope to have that done and painted by the weekend so I can move onto finishing the base and making some realistic water using some clear silicone and paint mixed which other items which should be interesting.

 

 

 

[Drifter 851]

 Finally done with this one. Pretty much everything is 3d printed except the base I carved/sculpted out of foam then airbrushed and flocked it with sand and flocking. And the trunk of the tree is one of my bonsai trees that died over the winter so I just spread aquarium filter floss across the branches then flocked it the way model railroad guys do on their builds. Rest is all printed and airbrushed. Water I airbrushed the base then coated it in clear silicone, then added waves by pulling upwards on the silicone as it dried and painted the white tips. Also added flicking light inside the tower as well as a flickering micro LED chip on the end of the wizards torch. Probably over 200+ hrs into it from start to finish. Fit's right into the theater room theme really nicely. Was quite an enjoyable build, already kicking around ideas for what will be built on the 2nd of the side tables.

 

[Drifter 851]

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

I need to get a 3D printer! These are insane Steve!

[Drifter 851]

Thanks Lee.  It's amazing the stuff you can do with them. And the prices have come down so much over the past few years. I have two of them now and both are the Ender 3 V2's which sells for about $250, then I upgraded the extruder/hot end with a direct drive Microswiss one which runs $100. So no more than $350 invested into each of them.

[Drifter 851]

Been so busy with my custom rod business working 10hrs in the shop per day I haven't had much time to do anything else. So finally set a side a few hours for myself this afternoon and got around to painting "Dobby" from Harry Potter that I printed last month. He's about 19" tall. Should look right at home in the theater room.

[Antpool84 1,109]

Wow!! That looks amazing dude!! How long did it take you paint it?

[Drifter 851]

I'd say about 6 hrs total. A lot of that was just laying down the base coat of white, then base coat of the flesh tones. I did the base coats by brush which always takes longer, then the fading and detail work with airbrush which goes a lot faster.

[Drifter 851]

Haven't been 3D printing much the past month or so. Just been so busy with rod orders. Finally made some time last night to fire one of the printers back up and printed a Glock mag rack for my extra magazines. Came out really well and fits perfectly. Just have to pick up a spool of gray filament to reprint the final ones in gray rather than white.

 

 

[Addryn 16]

Recently purchased a 3d printer and here's my first item which I really like. Luckily, there are a lot of models of it, and I didn't have to create it myself. But this is the next step of this hobby for me
 

Who knows, what are the best paints for it? I was thinking about spray paint, but not sure it would go with this plastic
 

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

Love the first design @Addryn , I'd say spray paint would be fine. I know people use different coloured plastic to do the designs so you already have a base colour on it already, if you have different colours that is?

[Luseth 1,949]

I am still getting to grips with my new printer, having issues getting things sticking to the bed so just ordered some isopropyl and a feeler gauge to hopefully help me correct things.

 

That said the best paints are meant to be acrylic or enamel paints 🙂 

[Luseth 1,949]

Oh by the way, great choice starting with something Witcher themed 😄 

[Addryn 16]

On 3/28/2023 at 11:29 AM, GazzaGarratt said:

Love the first design @Addryn , I'd say spray paint would be fine. I know people use different coloured plastic to do the designs so you already have a base colour on it already, if you have different colours that is?

I have just black and white filament. Going to buy more colours but not now

[Greboth 2,721]

Paint depends on what look you want to go for as obviously you can get much finer detail hand painting like you miniature's v spray painting.  Maybe check out Punished Props? I've done any 3D printing or painting but watching their videos they mix and match depending on what they're doing so they could give you an idea of when to use spray v brush, plasti dip vs acrylic etc.