THE SECRET IS OUT! Here's How I Finish My 3D Prints!

hey guys what's up welcome to my channel i'm frank and if you're here you want to learn how to finish your 3d prints you want to go from this to this pretty big difference [Music] [Applause] [Music] i have multiple videos like this scattered across my channel between priming sanding painting i'm still working on the clear coat dedicated video but they've gone a little old or dated as i progress with my hobby and skill level obviously i'm going to experiment with new finishing techniques and new products and now i just moved from england back to america so i have access to a whole new slurry of paints and products i can use and i kind of want to talk about some of them today so first we're going to go ahead and cover getting prepped for painting like sanding and primer then we're going to talk a little bit about what you do after you have the part primed the painting techniques what do you look for is it ready to even paint then we're going to talk about different layering methods and some of the new paints i've discovered and some mistakes i've made recently and then we're going to cover some finishing methods some you know things to look out for weathering damage clear coating and some uh pretty cool stuff so please even if you've been doing this for a while i implore you watch the whole video maybe you'll hopefully learn something throughout it that you haven't known before and if you have any comments questions concerns about anything please leave it down below i try to read all the comments and if you guys haven't already if you could hit the subscribe button that would really help the channel out but let's jump in i'm not going to spend this video talking about how to fuse and combine 3d prints and like you know pla welding and sanding and smoothing the seams that's kind of for another video and i am working on a much more updated one i'm sure some of you will be happy to know i'm still using my cool little dual orbital palm sander i've just bought a new one recently and i still really love 40 to 60 grit for that first little scuff up and then i'm actually using a 220 pad to kind of send everything home and while i'm using that yeah there are going to be spots like in here where i can't really get the palm sander there's going to be small cracks and crevices and you really just have to get in there with just normal sandpaper and do it by hand but getting some 60 grit by hand can really knock down some of those layer lines really quickly as for hand sandpaper i mean you just guys just want a variety sometimes they use my 80s sometimes i use my 180 my 400s and then there's wet sanding but i'm not going to really talk too much about wet sanding in this video a lot of you know i love wood filler and i still like using it however i have finally made the jump into bondo glazing putty i couldn't get this stuff in england and this stuff's pretty great it dries in like a half an hour and that's what i'm using on this rescue helmet as kind of a test and i'm a fan i'm also going to link a lot of the products i used into my amazon down below now this is just an age-old trick when it comes to body work on cars you sand and fill then you hit it with a layer of primer you sand it again you hit it with layer of primer and as you start to sand you'll begin to see where there's you know raised surfaces or whatnot that you need to continue to sand and that's what i'm going to have to do down here once i'm done filling your sanding or whatever i hit it with another coat typically a different color and this in this case it was just a black primer and i'm pretty happy with how smooth this is coming out i'd be ready to put this into paint however if you're dealing with metallics when you think you're done sanding and priming you probably aren't when you start dealing with metallic paints it shows everything it very well could show a lot more layer lines than it was letting on like i'm gonna have to sand this back down these are still some of the primers i'm using i still really like um rust-oleum's filler and sander primer i'm a really big fan of it however a friend danny from ctk creations just recently turned me on to the dupli-color primers and oh my god this stuff is incredible and i wish i could have gotten in england the filler primer does not gunk up anywhere near as badly as the rust-oleum filler primer it goes on smooth and this is just one layer of this black sandable primer and this with this primer mixture along with the bondo glazing putty is how i was able to finish this god killer helmet and this star boost helmet in just one day i did this as a paint test but i was able to sand prep prime paint clear coat this entire helmet in less than 10 hours all thanks to how quickly these primers were drying how easily they were to sand and that bondo glazing putty a lot of people want to try to take shortcuts around this and get the best type of spray paint that hides layer lines you're still going to need to put in some elbow grease but power tools do help and quality products do help for sure but your sanding and prep time is absolutely going to pay off in the end when you go for your final clear coat and try to get those nice smooth results it is all about prep work now when it comes to paints i could talk for hours and or days about all the different paints and methods i've used i cannot emphasize this enough about reading the proper instructions on the back of every single can of spray paint it's sitting right there in really small weird text that's going to make you look kind of dumb when you're standing in the store trying to ski and squint as you do this and learn some paints don't play well with others however let me just jump in and say that sometimes the can might lie about what it's compatible with if i look at the back of this rustoleum metallic finish paint somewhere along the lines here it says a top coat is not recommended well that's a lie and that's a lie and that's a lie and that's a lie it all depends on what you play with and how you experiment for the longest time i couldn't get that rust-oleum gold to take a proper clear coat until i found the right mixture of clear coat now it's not a 2k rust-oleum clear coat or a 2k two-part clear coat from a spray gun it's a 1k dupli-color clear coat which is far superior to the krylon and rust-oleum clear coats i've been using in the past now there's nothing wrong with those ones they worked great but they just didn't react well to metallics this entire captain america shield is actually clear-coated because i found paints that would work with the clear coat i was using but let's talk more about the paint itself now there's different types of paints like the krylon fusion paints these all in ones they cover anything it doesn't matter what color you put them over this could be pink hot you know hot rod red gold green black white it will cover it and it won't have any problem doing it but then a stark contrast to it is right next to it this metallic red is this metal cast red and this is a tint this isn't actually a real paint that gives you you know this solid color out of the can you need to use a paint like this over a chrome or a metallic or gold any type of metallic surface that you put this over that's what it's for it's for metal cast will give you a finish like that now unfortunately i kind of rushed this captain america shield and you can see some splotches and blotchy parts around because it got you know it pulled up in that specific area now this is gonna be a damage shield i don't care it's gonna get destroyed and dirty anyway the center blue part is also a blue metal cast and it looks pretty good but when you're looking at something like this you have to be really careful with your coats and how you're applying them or else it can start to look kind of funky now this mark one helmet and this nova helmet are this exact same brand of rust-oleum metallic finish that's just the silver and that's just the gold and they both can take this metal cast beautifully things like this duplicolor perfect match are very similar in the sense that they're a tint what is on this cap may not always be what comes out of the can depending on your base coat there's also other tricks you can do like graphite rubs which give you a really nice metallic surface and this is just standard graphite polished and buffed into gloss black paint now you can use a flat black paint and then do a clear coat over it like a 2k or 1k and buff it in it'll give you pretty much the same result but it's a quick cheap way to get to a nice metal finish and sometimes i think it looks pretty good if not better this is how a lot of people do their mandalorian helmets this is how i did mine now i also do want to say make sure you guys take your time and experiment with the order you tape and paint things in for example this iron man hand after using different types of tapes on it i know that this metal cast red likes to leave a lot of residue it doesn't matter if it's clear coated cured whatever anytime i would take tape off the metal cast it would leave a lot of smudges and residue now these can be fixed with clear coat or wet sanding but i just didn't want to deal with that so i changed my order of operations i did the entire glove in gold the entire topper did the um the gunmetal waited for that to dry completely and then taped off the gunmetal because i knew that could take the tape without leaving weird marks or residue then i did the red so no tape ever actually covered the red so i didn't have to worry about smudges and i have to say not all tape is created equal while you can get away with some 3m blue painters tape that does work on some surfaces this frog tape is next level stuff it is pricey but that's what's going to give your nice clean lines and especially this delicate surface stuff i mean this stuff this is what i did my entire suit and again and it's incredible unfortunately this captain america shield suffered a little bit of the consequences of me rushing if you kind of look at the blue just right you can still see some of that residue but since i clear coated it and i knew this was going to get battle damaged anyway i wasn't too worried about it but again take that into consideration make sure you're testing it test out just scrap parts kind of like this when i was getting ready to repaint my suit i had some extra spare parts and that's exactly what i was doing i was clear coating them i was painting them i was sanding them i was trying to different things i was putting tape on it rubbing it on there real hard and pulling it off really quickly to see if the paint came with it now this is because the chrome base i used on the metal cast didn't cooperate well but this side and all of this turned out just fine the only difference in the red between these two helmets was the chrome base i used again the red did not like that chrome however i was able to tape this one off just fine now you're not going to run into some of these problems when you're using something like an airbrush but again that repetition and learning and testing is still absolutely instrumental to getting this process nailed down and if you guys are wondering about any of the helmets i've shown that i don't have a build video on yet there are ones coming out that talk more about the new techniques i'm using so stay tuned for things like the iron mando the god killer and star boost next up is clear coat now i really haven't addressed this in a specific video yet and that is coming out because there's just so much to talk about now initially i was using a mixture of rust-oleum clear coats it was a uk-only brand not rust-oleum but the line it was like an automotive brand and that's what i originally did my whole suit in and it looked great it came out shiny it gave really good protection and i could buff polish and wax the helmet just like you do on a car where using you know normal car cleaning compounds i could do that with the paint on this and well all of these too but this leads us back into the you know the thing i was talking about before not all paints are created equal now i have something like my mark one helmet here which i'm gonna dirty and damage up but i'm not gonna clear coat this and this is a big point that people talk about like the mandalorian you know realm of things or when you want that metallic metal finish but you don't want it to operate like metal metal gets dirty and tarnished and gets fingerprints and gets scratches if you want something to look like metal but you don't want it to act like metal well then what are you trying to do here this is going to be a display piece for the wall i want it to look nice and shiny but it is going to be dirty but if i press really hard into some areas i can still tarnish the chrome up that's kind of how it works but if i hit it with a clear coat i'm going to lose a lot of that shine which i don't want to do now this first god killer helmet is done with this perfect match duplicolor which isn't quite as shiny as this 1k or the 2k i've used in the past it gave it a little bit more of a matte sheen but it still looks really good and it goes on super smooth and i haven't found a paint that reacts badly with this yet except something like chrome but any of the reds the golds the you know the metal cast especially love this duplicolor perfect match and then you can take it up a little bit more with this gloss clear now this stuff goes on pretty thick you can easily make the paint run by putting this on too much so definitely be careful with that i tested it on this helmet and again it looked came up looking pretty good and it definitely kept the metal cast very nice and red and shiny and now my new favorite is this dupli-color 1k they used to have a 2k clear coat but apparently they don't make it anymore it's almost impossible to find but that's what i did this entire shield in and this isn't even buffed or polished or waxed yet and this is what i did my entire suit in and you can see that that came out pretty good looking this gives a much thicker shell i've actually had a point where i had to peel off the clear coat and it almost was like a vinyl wrap it um it didn't react well with the paint underneath it but i was able to pull almost the entire clear coat off in one layer because it had bonded to itself so well the oddballs like graphite rub are a little bit harder to clear coat and you're gonna have to experiment around with this i know people have good luck with the 2k clears and if you've never used a 2k clear coat out of a can there's actually a little activator ball in the bottom of it you flip the can over and there's a plunger down here and you actually catalyze the can and then you're on a time limit typically the cans are only good for 24 to 48 hours before you can't use them anymore so this 1k clear is the closest i've gotten to that 2k finish with a reusable can the last thing i want to touch on is the drying times how long you should wait to do the next coat to do the clear coat to buff polish sand whatever you need to do and it's going to vary dependent on the colors you're using and the clear coat you're using this starbus faceplate was clear coated just yesterday i can touch it press into it pretty easily and it's not really sticky but this god killer helmet which i use the same clear coat on is still a little bit tacky and that can also go by how thick you went and then the paint underneath it maybe i didn't give the red enough time to cure so it's acting weird with a clear coat this is a trial by fire hobby there is no way around that obviously i can give you tips and experiences and failures that i've had but in the end you're gonna need to make a lot of these mistakes by yourself are you in a humid environment i'm in the lower east coast now it's pretty warm here and that's drastically affected how i have to paint especially coming from england which really had no humidity at all i could paint whatever i wanted as long as i had a little bit of heat in the room it's the same thing i tell people when they're getting into the 3d printing hobby as a whole you're gonna make mistakes and don't be afraid to fail yes it can get expensive real quick when you're talking you know 14 15 for a can of spray paint that you know you ruined or something got messed up so i totally get that i totally get the questions and i do my best to answer them so i definitely hope this video helps you guys and like i said in the beginning of video if you have any comments questions concerns please leave them down below or hit me up on instagram or hit me up on the discord there's links for all of that stuff down below i try to respond to everybody i possibly can and you guys give me good video ideas from just the questions you ask one final shout out to my patrons thank you so much for uh subscribing to that and helping me out you've helped a lot with this whole project the garage build up the suit repaint and i i can't thank you all enough so thank you so much but that's a wrap for this one guys as always thank you so much for watching and you have a good day [Music] you

Channel: Frankly Built

Views: 58,018

Keywords: 3d printing, finishing 3d prints, painting, cosplay, ironman, mk85, duplicolor, spray painting, franklybuilt, graphite rub, metallic finish, metallic paint

Id: 28sCTJD3MZg

Length: 14min 8sec (848 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021