There was a need. A need for something to hold my Wacom pen vertically. I’ve been laying it on my desk like a savage.
I searched Thangs.com for “wacom pen holder” and quickly settled on this unique slinker. Downloaded the STL.
A few months back I saw a YouTube video about improving the exterior finish of a 3D print by adding slight random motion to the outer-most wall in the slicer. The setting for this feature in Ultimaker Cura is called “Fuzzy Skin“. I checked the box. And I lowered the default of 0.3mm to 0.1mm. 0.3mm seemed a little high. Sliced it. Printed it. Nice.
The pen holder held the pen. And it didn’t look overly anisotropic. Success.
But a few days later, I wasn’t satisfied any longer. I bet I could do more with it. I grabbed my paints and headed to Null Space Labs for their weekly open house.
First, I primed the model with a flat white primer from a spray can. 3D prints notoriously require a lot of sanding to achieve a smooth surface-finish. I was hoping the “fuzzy skin” was going to do that work for me. But I brought along some fillers just in case.
I applied a coat of Gesso hoping to fill in some of the more egregious layer lines. Why prime before applying the filler? Because freshly printed plastic does not let anything adhere well. The primer wasn’t for painting, it was for fillering it. New word. Let it dry.
Fast forward a few days. Boop.
I reengaged the painting process. Brown paint first, on the tentacles, mixed it myself *twirls mustache*. Then fleshy red on the suction cups. Mixed that one myself… oops. Decided to solve it by mixing a pink and sponging it onto the suction cups, on the relief. Not bad. Painted the ground to look like mud. Almost done.
“Hey mom, should I make the mud look wet or the tentacles look slimy?”
“You should make the tentacles slimy.”
And so I did. I used the hobbiest’s standby, glossy Mod Podge.
Mother knows best.
