Not sure id say "prefer" as i don't have experience with many others, but i used rustoleum sand and fill primer from amazon
PiJiNWiNg
Just realized i should probably share the STL link in case anyone wants to make their own: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4245103
Its translucent green filament with green EL wire run through it, with the battery pack stored in the base.
I was about to put in my two weeks notice I when i had to run out to one of our sites to update the firewall. Fortunately, i happened to have a 3d printed "dick-o-saur" in my backpack, and placed him atop the rack before taking new photos for documentation.
Printed plastic, but I'm glad my paint job made you question! I do wish the gears turned, but the model designer was trying to emulate what he saw in the game, which didn't seem to care about real functional parts, haha
Hell ya it do!
Thank you! I have high hopes ๐
Thanks! I do wish the EL wire was a bit brighter, but when the lights are all off it looks great!
Thanks!!!
Here's a quick rundown:
- printed all parts in PETG
- Sprayed all parts with multiple liberal coats of sand and fill primer
- sanded things down with disposable nail files (wasnt too finicky, mostly wanted to smooth the box part and get rid of some bad layer lines on the posts)
- wiped everything down to get rid of the dust (i sanded only a few hours after spraying, so there was hardly any dust anyway, but just to be sure
- based coated all parts in metallic gunmetal (sans "neon")
- heavy metallic silver dry brush over most everything
- assembled it
- dry brush stippled dark rust around most the rivets/edges, and anywhere grime would settle (way easier to tell where that would be when its full assembled)
- Dry brush stippled bright orange rust color over top of the brown areas where corrosion would be worst
- came back through with light silver dry brush in non corroded area (i got a little overzealous with the dark rust color)
- used a homemade oil wash (black and burnt ochre oil paints mixed with some mineral spirits) over top of all the gears, and ran a heavily loaded brush along the top edges and over rivet, letting the wash drip dpwn the sides.
- after it dried for 5-10 minutes, i used an old frayed brush to lightly drag the wash down to make the big drips look for natural
- After i was done, I realized i overdid it a bit again, and went back through with some mineral spirits and cotton swabs to re-expose some of the "bare metal" in the centers of the panels. I love oil washes! You have a ridiculous amount of time to manipulate the paint before it dries up, and looks terrific after it's dry.
And there you have it!
Of course! But it's all filament, specifically PETG. ๐