Newish here and looking for advice about materials.

Hi everyone,

my names Steve and I've been tinkering with a custom Lego project now on here for about a year or so, I've printed off some roughs in WSF and while they're great and having something you've designed actually in your hand is mind blowing I'm not totally sold on the finish.

Even when polished, I've had Shapeways do it and done it myself WSF is still not quite where I'd like it to be.

I think I've finally finished designing all the parts I need to complete my project but I have no idea which material will give me the best results. Like I said I've tried WSF polished and unpolished so know where I stand with that, but what about White Detail? Will it give a noticeably smoother finish, it's hard to tell from the photos, it still seems kind of grainy. And it's that powdery "icing sugar" look I'm trying to get beyond. Finish is primarily what I'm concerned with as the items will be for display only really. So will White Detail give me noticeably smoother finish or should I really push the boat out and go for Frosted or even Frosted Ultra detail? Transparency of any kind is of no concern to me as all the parts will need painted to complete them properly.

I've been through the shops on here and had a look in them to see if there's any advice from sellers as to what they'd recommend but info was pretty thin on the ground considering there's literally thousands of Lego items there.

Are there any other custom Lego creators out there who've been where I am now, who are willing to share their materials wisdom to help get my project finished?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Steve

I'd consider Frosted Detail, it's even less expensive than the Detail materials. No matter the process you will see the production process (layers). With FD you could prime it to hide those effects some.

I work in custom Lego/Kre-o parts as well, so I feel your pain.

The only caution I'd give about the FD and FUD is that they tend to be more fragile than WSF. This might not be a problem if these parts are just going to sit on a shelf, but it might create more risk of breakage if you plan on snapping parts on and off or in and out of hands frequently.

I always recommend my customers go with WSF and paint it.