I am from a traditional oil painting background and now a 3D artist for a landscape architects. I’m getting into 3D printing a little and thought I might be able to combine my skills. For example, I could model a rhinos head in detail, print it out and paint it in detail. A example of a painting to maybe give some idea what I’d like to do - http://www.artmajeur.com/en/artist/mhc-art/collection/the-art-of-martin-coohill/1007580/artwork/rhino-study/180606
Does anyone paint detailed models?, what kind of paints do you use?, are there any websites with such work? - if I could sell such work and find some kind of niche all the better
I acually just painted an owl that I modeled and printed. I am not a professional in painting by far but I think my first results were decent. I used acrylic paint and brushed it on. My model is in abs though. I have found many people use the spray guns for abs or airisol cans. In researching the topic I have found it really depends on what type of plastic and what type of tools your comfortable with.
I don’t have access to a spray gun so for now I am sticking with the hand painting. It was to bad. Between applying acetone and the few coats of paint in took me Saturday and Sunday. This model also had a great deal of detail and it was my first time painting something like this so it took a little long then expected. It definitely takes a little practice if you haven’t done it before. If you have a spray gun and are comfortable with I would say definitely give it a shot.
A 3D printed model painter explains step by step her workflow. Her style is more cartoonish, but that really is up to the artist. Their project Bold Machines is pretty cool by the way.
I would recommend you to smooth your prints first via cold acetone bath for example, as the surface of your print will be clean and shiny, ready to apply the paint.
My experience is with 3D printed monsters designed by children (aka Moyupi), so nothing realistic, but in my team we used this acetone smoothing method, white plastic primer spray, acrylic paint and some spray vernish for the finish, and it worked out well. Good luck!
That’s great, thank you for the link. It gives me something to go on, I’d still like to find some more detailed paintwork - the sort of work done on models for movies like Jurassic park
I’m in Bath, UK - in the south-west. Sounds like an interesting idea, I could send you some of my work if you want to see what I’ve done in the past. If you’ve any scans you want me to look at I’d be interested to see them.
