Elven Archer and companion, in FUD

Today, I received the prints (eagerly awaited) of my archer and panther in FUD. I printed the smaller versions to test the detail. Plus, I already spent a bunch of time painting the large display version and am happy with it.

EDIT: Before I get some confusion, let me make it clear that I painted these pieces with a thin coating of black paint, which is my standard procedure for plastic models I'm going to paint.

Detail-wise, the prints came out very well. I'd say they have all the detail that the almost 2x larger version has. This makes me very pleased, although it will make painting them even more difficult, as I must not squander the detail.

However, I am observing a phenomenon that others have observed - a sort of "layering", probably due to the support material. If I had any brains, I would have been more cautious and would have sought corrective action (e.g. a lighter) before painting the black wash on the models. So, I don't know if the layers can be melted off as was suggested elsewhere on the forums.

It is quite clear to me from my models that the irregularities are due to an improper application of heat. Notice that the pictures show a "shadow" or projection of the model onto the base. The irregularities are fairly deterministic, when comparing my two prints of the archer. There is even a shadow of the arm on the panther's head.

The last picture is a comparison between my WSF panther and my FUD panther. In all these pictures, I have increased the contrast to show the layers properly. You can see the line between uncontrasted and contrasted portions. There are almost 3 segments showing on the panther.




So, I hope to see some improved prints in the future - I'm sure that the process is still being refined. It looks to me like these prints did not get enough heat.

If that black is acrylic paint, you can try with an bath of alcohol: simplest stripping procedure, the paint becomes soft and drops easily after some minutes/hours, just scrub with an old toothbrush. Then proceed to any smoothing steps you want to take, and apply primer. First of all try the alcohol in a side of the base with a cotton swab, to make sure the alcohol doesn't attack the material, of course.

Thanks for the advice! It is acrylic - I assume isopropanol will be sufficient?

Isopropanol or ethanol will do. If you look into miniature forums, you will get the full list of cleaners (even demo pics), sometimes needed for some types of paint. Those alcohols are the first thing to try, easy to buy and not as dangerous (compared to the nasty ones).

I tried what I suggested with a lighter... it makes no difference apart from softening the surface slightly - not sure what the answer is

Great models as always Turtles

Thank you for the comparison Turtles, love the clean difference between WSF and FUD panthers, will be waiting for Shapeways to sort out this issue over time with FUD before I get my models done since I need them to be perfect for casting/production purposes. Still, very excited about FUD and the mm wall it has is just insanely awesome.

Great info, Turtles, and I don't mean to hijack the thread but RogersX have you actually done any casting using Shapeways materials yet, and if so what was the process and what were the results?

Glenn

Nope, been waiting for FUD ever since I found Shapeways and excitingly followed all their threads/blogs about high detail progress. Now waiting for FUD to work itself out concerning trial and error then will upload the miniatures for my game. Then can finally post in "It's Arrived"!

Cool. I would venture to guess that they have the problems sorted out as far as I can tell. I just got three FUD and one FD model in, and all look perfect.

When you do try the casting please post your results in the forums...

Glenn

Will do big time. Not sure if all the probs are sorted as Turtle mentioned his shadow issues etc? Some jobs seem to come out perfect, others not so much. Might give it a little more time...