A Fisherman's Daughter

[cloakfiend 995]

Hi, While I was ill tried to sculpt this or have a go at it, and this is what I finished with its not perfect but I couldn't wait to try and print it so it'll be an experiment to paint. I ended up resculpting it 3 or four times as I was referencing two separate sculptures of the same thing and they were slightly different so I just took the parts I thought represented what I wanted to see and just fudged the rest using references of cosplay hoods from capes and stuff to do the back, I'll ammend a few things and print it again, like the hair is way too low res and will need to up the poly count on that quite dramatically, as I can see the actual polygons on the print. I usually don't print so large, and that means a step up in model quality! proper edge loops and Retopo basically, or simply post decimation. I also forgot the ear!! btw Its based on a sculpt by Philippe Faraut called 'The Fisherman's Daughter', She looks a bit older in mine. Original at bottom in grey (clay).

 

Cant wait to see how this turns out!  Should be ready by morning, 24 and a bit hour print. I deliberately sculpted it in a way that it needed minimal support for parts that were simply not necessary. sorry for the dead eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 5, 2018 by cloakfiend

[geert_2 557]

I knew I had seen this model before. Somewhere, but where, where,...? Yes, indeed, Philippe Faraut, the absolute master in modeling facial expressions in clay.

 

Your copy of the hair and face are really great. But I think it is worth trying the eyes too. ?

It is going to be a challenge, because for the tiniest mistake, it would look very weird. But if you can get it right, it would really bring more life in the facial expression. If the details survive printing, of course... It might be a good idea to try modeling eyes only, and print them, and see what comes out? If filament would sag, she would get worms in her eyes...  :)

 

If you would let the model lean back 30 degrees on the glass bed, or even more, you would have less problematic overhangs in the face and frontal hair. It would require less support, I think. In the back fine details are less important, and it is easier to clean up. This might be worth a try too?

 

Anyway, looking forward to see the printed results.

 

[cloakfiend 995]

Thanks, I thought about leaning it back but a little sand under the chin should be fine and i want it in this position to plate. And the eyes.....ill tried once but its harder than it appears and hard to get right from all angles. Model will be finished by morning! Yay!

Edited October 5, 2018 by cloakfiend

[cloakfiend 995]

OK @geert_2 you convinced me, but I'm just gonna do my own eyes, I'm not aiming for an out and out clone, just an emotive feel..... with eyes now.

[cloakfiend 995]

Almost there...

[cloakfiend 995]

....and we are done!! Ive already slapped on the new eyed version which will be done tomorrow morning! Very happy here. Minimal cleanup needed.

 

[Smithy 1,144]

Great! And what do you plan for the finish? I would leave it as is, but I know you do always great things with your prints ? 

[cloakfiend 995]

Im not sure yet. I\ve just bought more plating solution because I had a whole lot of problems with the last one being contaminated with bad copper and the wrong kind of water! If I plate this it will be one of the largest thing I've plated volume wise, apart from the gigeresque thing I did a while back.

 

Gonna acetone it now. It cleaned up real nice with just a scalpel and a touch of 240 sandpaper on a few spots, took about 10mins. I fear the new one with the more detailed hair may actually come out worse, this one is definitely good enough, i was being overly paranoid. 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 6, 2018 by cloakfiend

[cloakfiend 995]

Ok heres the acetoned version..

 

Primered version will follow. then plated...and then....who knows. 

 

Im getting bored of plating now and have fallen into the trap of doing the same thing over and over, I want to try something new, so may very well try the patina paints on this one... perhaps a nickel patina? who knows?

Edited October 6, 2018 by cloakfiend

[geert_2 557]

On 10/5/2018 at 9:48 PM, cloakfiend said:

OK @geert_2 you convinced me, but I'm just gonna do my own eyes, I'm not aiming for an out and out clone, just an emotive feel..... with eyes now.

Yes, I think it is a good idea to develop your own style.

 

I like this model more than the blind one: it has way more character. Hopefully it comes out well in the printer too.

 

[cloakfiend 995]

Thanks, I think it came out ok, the print stopped at 99% but i think thats a scaling issue on my behalf, and the hair in higher resolution actually looks really good! I had a weird layer shift unfortunately after running out of material early on and 8 hours later the damage was done as the material cooled already, i just replaced it but hopefully ill be able to sand it out. Ill post pics when I get back.

[cloakfiend 995]

Here is the eyed one. And its dreaded out of filament layer which was just sitting there for about 8 hours before i restarted it. The hair is also more detailed and actually printed better than the low res hair due to the supports latching on the hairs that stuck out as opposed to the entire flat side making it very easy to remove. This layer line should be a breeze to remove as well, even though id prefer it was not there.

 

[SandervG 1,521]

On 10/5/2018 at 8:07 PM, cloakfiend said:

Thanks, I thought about leaning it back but a little sand under the chin should be fine and i want it in this position to plate. And the eyes.....ill tried once but its harder than it appears and hard to get right from all angles. Model will be finished by morning! Yay!

 

Just out of curiosity, why don't you use PVA?

[cloakfiend 995]

I don't feel it needs it on this occasion. and also the time thing. I will try it out, but only where its really needed. this model barely needs it and I like a faster turnaround. I'm also afraid a bit. I have a ton of time coming up, so ill make something deliberately intersecting with bottom details. also its pretty humid where I am for some reason. I feel @kmanstudios is gonna be getting millions of questions if I plan to use pva a lot. also ive not seen enough 0.06 pva done prints either to verify surface quality questions. 

 

Also i can remove the pla support in like 10mins including sanding, so I have my finished model in front of me sooner. 

 

.....Also I must say, dutch orange pla/pha filament is printing real nice at stock temps and support is coming off super easy just using regular needle plyers, way easier than transparent pla/pha. looks like a cleaner print too.

 

This print came out really nice by the way, my phone cam doesn't do it justice!!

Edited October 8, 2018 by cloakfiend

[cloakfiend 995]

Well this one turned out weird shiny!. Was way too big for my largest container and didnt coat properly. Am not going to do it again, might try polishing it a bit but it looks fragile anx might come apart.  I have another one with eyes to do properly! This was a test of a few variables and i learnt a lot so im happy regardless of the result. Black is my usual mecha black primer. Will post some nicer photos tomorrow. Its 4.41am. Why am i still up? damn 3d printing and plating. Im going to try to clear coat this after getting arty with it. That way i dont mind if i ruin, it ill just paint over it after...and seal it, even though that never seems to work.

 

[cloakfiend 995]

Here are some more detailed photos...can really see the weird texture. Im gonna need to find a new method to plate much larger things. My setup is just not big enough!

 

 

[Smithy 1,144]

I wish I would be able to produce such results. I see what you mean, but I am still impressed!

[cloakfiend 995]

Thanks! its not that difficult to do, but more very fiddly and can be very irritating when things don't work as they should, I tried to polish this up a bit and rubbed a lot of the copper off(as i expected) as it was a very weak plate due to many factors that I was well aware of, but sometimes you gotta just try anyway!!! I might post a few extra post pics later and call it a day on this model...

[Smithy 1,144]

Do you have some tips where I can find and read more background infos, what equipment, materials etc. I would need to begin with plating?

[cloakfiend 995]

I started with a copperface machine, and highly reccomend it to get started. I was told it was designed for use with small things like rings and other small items, but I soon got fed up of that and went big. Big things on a small setup are extremely difficult to acheive!! Also buying things like premixed solution is much more expensive than doing it yourself. Through a lot of.trial.and error and wasting money trying things out i am confident i can now plate anything as long as i can tick all my to do boxes. Plating is not expensive as some seem to think. But a lot of it appears to be trade secrets like the paint they use and solition mixtures and other things. The key to plating for me is to do it as cheaply as possible. There are simply so many variables its difficult to understand at the beginning what you are doing wrong if things dont work and can get frustrating. But if you percevere then you will reap the rewards!

 

Unfortunately there is very little detailed information as to the best methods to plate properly and cheaply, which is why I have simply deducted my own routines, and that is why I am also reluctant as to simply tell everyone how I do it. also size matters! plating small things requires different techniques then large. also you have brush plating, but that takes so long I gave up!!!

 

Once you have the plating set up Id say it costs anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars per model or something, but again depends on the size, the larger the model the more paint the more expensive! then again you can use cheap paint and it brings the cost down, but the cheaper stuff you use, the more experience you need to use it!  

Edited October 27, 2018 by cloakfiend

[Smithy 1,144]

I see, sounds complicated to me for the first moment, but as always, once started it gets easier and easier. And fully understand that you will keep your routines secret.

 

In my opinion plating brings a printed object to the next level, it looks amazing when polished and I think nobody believes that this was printed with a 3D printer.

 

I am a bit lazy with post processing and I should really dive into it, makes a huge difference.

 

Thanks Cloakfiend for your words...

[cloakfiend 995]

i know i should really add to my acetone thread for post production, but (in my opinion) it has to be done or else your simply cant take decent close up photos without seeing the layer lines or ringing or whatever. post work of some variety is essential imo. And for me acetone is simply the easiest way. im lazy too and hate sanding as well. there may be other methods like various coatings like xtc, resins of various sorts and acetone vapour on abs, but they produce inferior results again imo. im yet to see a better quicker method for cleaning up prints to perfection.......but im still waiting. not many people care for closeups so i assume not many people care, but im not many people, and i bought an ultimaker to make prints that i could work the lines out of in post, as it was higher res than the makerbot, and to this day I thank my friend from talking me out of getting a makerbot. that was 4 years ago. Everything you see here on this forum from me has been learned since owning an ultimaker. 3d printing, acetoning, sculpting, plating, adding patinas, proper sanding, all was a result of wanting high quality, affordable and reliable 3d prints.

 

You need to be committed though, lol. and unfortunately, have a wide knowledge of skills including problem solving and research. but again depends what you are after. ultra high res is resin and thats messy and needs proper maintenance. dont expect to come back to a resin printer after a few months and expect it to work without properly maintaining it. you can come back to an ultimaker after a year and its likely gonna be ok!  i always go for the least involved option. and resin costs are far higher for your average hobbyist. 

[Smithy 1,144]

I am exact in this dilemma, I recently bought a photo light box to take perfect pictures of my prints. The box works fine, light is great, pictures are very sharp, but you see every layer and every failure on the object. Nothing I want to show on a website or to some prospects. And I don't like to apply software filters to the pictures, because this is counterproductive in my opinion. I don't want to hide something, I want wo make it better, that I don't have to be frighten about a sharp photo.

 

A bought a xtc smooth on recently but haven't tried it yet. The videos I have found on Youtube shows quite good results.

 

And SLA printers are not for me, I like bigger objects and this was also a reason to buy a S5 to be more flexible. 

[cloakfiend 995]

Yes and with larger prints, its just more filament which isn't that expensive (depending on the filament of course), but sla goes very expensive if youre gonna be printing a lot and there is a lot of waste which is obviously more expensive than filament waste. and the mess and uv and boxes and trays and space it all takes up is far more hassle than a single fdm printer. i hate resin, period its ultra messy and goes everywhere. just like plaster of paris. i wanted to do a demonstration in london at fablab about acetoning, but not enough people were interesting. i can do endless videos but a lot of things dont show up on camera and you kinda need to see it for yourself. i can almost guarantee once you understand how it works you will use it on everything. sanding out lines on an acetoned model is more like polishing, sanding out lines on an un-acetoned model is a nightmare. Sanding also brings out uneven lines. acetone has many advantages over other methods including cleanup as you can also snip off supports without worrying if it will split the model because it softenens it temporarily making splitting from supports almost impossible. ill do a vid about this sometime to show you what i mean. remember that you need to clean up resin prints as well, they also have supports.

 

plating is not a secret though so do read up on it. you need copper anodes and cathodes a thing passing a current through a conductive solution of acid mixed with copper sulphate and a conductive object to conduct to. the expense comes with factors that simply make your life easier as opposed to necessity. unfortunately there are also many things that can go wrong and contaminating or depleting or oversaturating the solution with copper or other contaminants or organic matter tends to be the most common problems. Plating small things is easy. For large things it simply takes MUCH longer and you obviously need a larger setup.

 

But the results are very satisfying!!!!

Edited October 27, 2018 by cloakfiend

[Smithy 1,144]

Before I bought my first printer I looked also to the SLA printers and watched some videos. But too much effort with cleaning and hardening in UV, so I quickly put the idea beside. And normally I also don't need such a fine resolution, because I print 70% technical parts currently, but I will print now some sculptures or busts. 

 

When you acetone your prints, you use a specific brand of PLA I guess?

And do you acetone it like ABS in acetone vapor?