cloakfiend

...and the polished pics...as its a gift i cant be bothered doing all the little bits, ive probably done more than expected anyway.

Haha, great job! love the batty inside!

I find the more careful i am the more likely things will go wrong.

My problem is that is might chip off as its a poor coat due to the solution. Im not too concerned, but i hate damaging things by being cac handed.

ill try polish it up but it may fall apart!

Well finally and failure....finally tried a second time to plate this oversize model i made and printed, but as soon as i took the last photo my hand slipped knocked into the model and smashed it onto the floor damaging the plate....oh well. its a sign i think, to let it go. I have another one anyway so im not that bothered. the solution was shot, im lucky it coated at alll! This is my re-imagination of a friends request to make his painting into a 3D version.

I think Ive seen that model before, a life size version. I personally would have made her sexier. But thats just me :).

The amusing setups in alchemy! Well my ones anyway, no need for expensive equipment, this ones oversize as usual. I never have enough room. The statue is specially printed for the height and width of the 3lt container though so that wont be a problem....for now.

Got this scan from some website, the dude has loads of good stuff, so i thought id take it clean it up a bit and print it out. Not finished and i now see a few things im going to modify but with 2percent in fill it did ok! Support also was ok but i had to glue in some support joins to strengthen them mid print as they got a bit wobbly. 1d18hrs@0.06. Looks like it will clean up nicely. My lizard is going to need manual support (as the fingers and spikes need help) or dissolvable, just a time choice really. This one should look great with a patina! unfortunately my platng soulution is shot as i rushed the mix! Will updated as i go along...

Nice designs! Look awesome. I havent done any hard edge stuff in ages!

All thanks to Acetone! would look horrific otherwise!

Here is the first attempt.....

Oh roger dean.... my last avatar was one of his. Good ole Psygnosis logo. Ill do the giger style one then.....:)

Trouble is a blue patina is hardcore compared to a green one, it just keeps going untill it eats all the copper! I'll need a way thicker coat for the blue!!! Ill may do that today, its been lying about on one of my shelves for so long now, I have a few large ones, I may actually do the giger one today thats been lying around for months after the initial failure, I was meant to send that to a friend weeks ago! I have two so I'll keep one and he can have the other!

Heres the messed up one.....not given up on it yet. This is what happens when you get casual and try oversize plates with no preping what so ever. Everything need to be perfect for plating. If not this will happen very often....but think of how cool a blue patina on this will be!!!

In the meantime here is a copper plated bobble head. Not glued yet. but im happy with it. the base has a nice weight to it too. I double plated it due to my wires being frayed first time round and not enough voltage was going through! secong time worked better. Even after polishing compounds simply chucking it back in the tank with a re-plate over the bad areas worked just fine! My other plate is in a state of ruin, but it might just add to the look as the 2 plate attempts are poor and overlapping and crumbling off. looks kinda cool though! with a polish and patina, might just look epic after!

I'd also like to try the salt method, but I just use pritt stick power, (stronger than regular pritt stick and far stronger than the supplied glues). I change it maybe 3 or 4 times a year.

Hey, Glad you gave it a go! Top surfaces generally look much better when printing at 0.06 anyways, so it will look even better so I'd also try doing that, and if you lightly sand it before acetoning it it will be near perfect! Also with long thin prints like yours, don't dip, they will warp over time as dipping monumentally increases absorbsion times. The whitening is hit and miss, you may or may not always have it. If you reuse your acetone and the dirtry brush you used last time then you will definitely get it. I always get it now. Doesnt bother me. Dutch orange is a nice filament. Also it smooths well but the TR ones smooth better in my opinion, could be wrong, I bought like 10 spools of TR red and now I gotta use them up......luckily I have a lot to print.... Also if you want it shinyish, then simply buff it with a soft brush during the acetone evaporation!

I cant help thinking of this game when i look at that sculpt of yours. Cant wait to see it finished. I wanted to make just the helmet but after looking at your action scene makes me want to do the whole thing. Was going to do speedball too.

I sometimes have issues in 3DS max opening STL files they take ages or dont always work, then I have to hit Maya and reexoprt then from there. Mine take ages to open incura, but as long as they do im happy, usually only like 7-15 seconds for sub 1 million poly models. I have never saved a single STL file, somone once said you could make the surface smoother but not sure how that would combat ringing?

Funnily enough Im still to try out the washing up or dishwasher liquid test, which is meant to halt the absorbsion of acetone, but I remember from past experience with abs that washing up liquid dissolves ABS juice so im not too sure about that theory. Must have been dishwasher liquid then, but I need to double check that! either way just dont leave it too long. People are over worrying I think. try not to double or thriple dip as these chems tend to dry the hell out of the filament which is another reason they split later....but dont let that worry you too much, as mainly methylene chloride and ethyl acetate dry out the more than acetone. I also keep my sharp edges, so these should not dissolve and soften out lioke with ABS and acetone.

@geert_2 I just acetoned primed and plated two objects all in the space of a few hours, for my bobble heads. So in my experience of brushing on acetone and worrying about shrinkage, im not worried at all. You just need to feel when the shell goes hard. Trouble is i rushed the cacid copper mix and probably ruined it. I just did it cooking syle and chucked all the chems in and mixed it up, i forgot chems dont work that way, its not cooking its chemistry. Lesson learned. Both object Plated but had tiny sections that just didnt plate, ill try doing small patch fixes but will more likely just chuck the whole lot in again! will post pics soon! sorry for not gettting round to posting my second large object acetone tutorial, I'll try get round to that tonight!

They are easily read across all platforms. Stl files dont always open easily in 3d apps. Objs always work. It helps when you move from one programme to another. You generally dont edit stl files but create them. I preffer obj to stl. Whats the benefit of an stl file? Would love to know. As i never use them.

This is my next print....who knows how it will turn out..... original image and my 3D realisation. Ive done a few of these but this was my childhood fave.....I still have the book. Iain McCaig the guy who did the artwork, also worked on Starwars. He is an amazing artist, much respect! still gotta rotate the head a bit but ill try that last due to drawing with symmetry. I dont mind printing this one multiple times. Its so cool.

In my opinion the initial time you apply the acetone is the most effective. Anything later would just be to even out some post acetone sanding marks if there are any. I wouldn't recommend multiple brush applications, or dips for that matter, as the original chemical reaction has happened, and you are just playing around with the residue left over the model. You could potentially make it worse and risk splitting. Make sure its a nice thick brush on if you are doing it the way or at least a 10-15 seconds just to see the effects first time round. Ill try post a vid soon, but its not very difficult at all. .....and don't expect any shrinkage unless you literally drown the PLA in acetone for ages. Because its not as effective as with ABS light applications might not do much. You have to commit to potentially ruining your model Im afraid. When i did my big Trex skull which was over 57Hrs for the first time, I was a bit concerned which is why I filmed it, but soon realised that there was nothing to be afraid of. I honestly think that is why people don't use this method. Fear.