I was handed a model yesterday with the request to have it painted with a Friday deadline. Worst case scenario, I hand it over to the client Thursday night. It can still be ‘not ready for handling/tacky’ just not wet when I hand it over.
That said, I am concerned about my drying time. I have a day job, so my painting will be done tonight and if necessary, tomorrow after work as well.
My applications are as follows:
A couple of coats of primer/filler (the model was 3D printed and has some obvious print lines, despite media blasting).
A coat or two of Testor’s enamel, gloss black.
A coat or two of Alclad II Stainless steel.
I very much prefer to let my separate applications dry as much as possible, often overnight+. However, my time-frame is obviously tight on this project.
What do you guys think would be my approximate minimum drying times per application? I’m spraying in my basement. “Low” humidity, though fairly cool (approx 65 to 68 degrees F). A small space heater/fan is available.
I used Rust-Oleum 249279 Automotive 11-Ounce Filler Primer Spray, to great effect. It’s pretty heavy on the solids so it filled in much of the print lines on the model.
I gave it about an hour and half to two hours to dry before applying my Testor’s enamel. I let that dry overnight and am in the process of putting my coats of Alclad on tonight. So far so good, as everything seems to have dried just right.
BlackSheepTwoOneFour - The print is a robot character/trophy top. It’s for a comedy award being given away in Boston.
By the way, I also do 3D modeling (not just post process and painting) for output to 3D printing if anyone has any interest. I’m a 3D artist professionally, and I do the 3D printing in my spare time. It’s tricky, but when it works it’s terribly satisfying.
Hey waynec - I use a few packages. For modeling I use 3DS Max and Zbrush. For the little animation I do, I use Maya. I’ve recently started taking a class in Solidworks. What do you use? Don - 3D printing can be tricky. Getting your model to be printer friendly is challenging sometimes. There is certainly a learning curve but it’s not insurmountable. There are a number of forums with people eager too help. Keep it up!
i also use 3DS MAX 2009. got away from it for a few years but dabbling in it again. i do a lot of 2D technical cutaways and P&ID in VISIO, a client driven decision. my detailed cutaways look like CAD dwgs.
its a different thought process. remember how you started out in 2D with basic geometry; circles and squares? now its basic solids; boxes and cylinders. and when you pot 2 solids together say a cylinder on top of a box, its ok if the cylinder is “in the box” a bit. learned that after my teacher let me spend 2 hours trying to match a complex curve (dive plane) to complex curve (submarine sail).
