Post #643989 by Whystler on Sat, Jul 14, 2012 8:33 AM

On 2012-07-13 19:31, Gene S Morgan wrote:

Sorry for all the dumb questions ....

Never a dumb question they say - and they are right! :) I'll see if I can answer a few things for you, but first - a question for you: What Shapeways material are you ordering your pieces made with? That will help me answer your questions about roughness/layering.

re: smoother on my printer? Shapeways materials can, by far, be a lot smoother than what I can do on my printer. I would have to find out what material you're ordering and then I can probably recommend a better choice for you.

Re: krylon spray paint - I have been painting models since I was quite young and learned that it's always good to put on a "primer" coat of spray paint before you do any brush painting onto plastic because paint applied by a brush is then more likely to adhere nicely to a primed piece. The spray paint option ensures that you get an even coverage on your primer coat.

In my case, doing a primer coat also helps to reduce the ever so slight translucency of the ABS plastic I print with. If you hold a fresh piece pre-painted piece up to the light, you can see a glow through. This is disastrous when you brush paint on, because the light shows all the paint strokes from within. Priming it with spray paint totally seals out the light.

I would recommend a prime coat on shapeways plastics too, just for the best adhesion of later paint.

re: clear coat after ... I haven't done very much of a varnish coat like this because I use a brand of acrylic paints called "patio paints". They are meant for things that can go outside and be weathered a bit. They are more resistant to water, sunlight, and wear. Plus, these paints have a nice smooth finish that is great for painting on and brushing off the antiquing glaze.

re: hollowing - yes, hollowing is definately a good skill to have for larger pieces. However, for your pendant pieces it wouldn't be so useful. Since you don't have a lot of volume as it is, you wouldn't be able to get rid of much internal volume anyway and still retain a 2mm - 3mm wall thickness. Many Shapeways materials required a 3mm wall thickness. Some can handle less .. as little as 1mm but then you are left with a very fragile model that feels cheap and is not particularly stable - easily cracked.

I have not used the program that you use, so I can't suggest a good way to hollow in that program. But I can tell you two ways I can hollow in 3d studio max. (1) Imagine if you have a sphere... and then you make a slightly smaller sphere and embed this into the larger. There are boolean tools in Max that will allow you to subtract the smaller sphere from the larger. (2) There is also a shelling function in Max that you can use to create an inner or outer shell on your model. This works best on simpler models.

Again, let me stress that for a small piece like a pendant, hollowing is not of use to you. It's great for larger pieces though!

Hope this helps!

Let me know what material you are ordering from Shapeways, and I can tell you why it is rough and advise you about better materials :)

-Whystler

[ Edited by: Whystler 2012-07-14 08:36 ]