Aug 27 • Painting
Painting FDM Terrain - Overcoming the limitations of FDM prints
I've been resin 3D printing since 2016 and have learned an awful lot since then - in fact I consider myself to be something of an expert when it comes to getting great quality resin prints. And becasue I love miniatures so much, including painting them, the surface quality issues present in FDM prints have historically put me off wanting to go near them. About a month ago, I ended up pulling the trigger on an FDM printer purchase so I have something that I can use for testing and also making larger models. I thought I'd test my new printer out by making some of the terrain elevations (kind of like hills but in a grid based system). Long story short, I had no idea what I was doing so I set the layer height to as low as I could possibly go and made sure I turned on the ironing setting on all top surfaces to try to get rid of the horrible stepped surfaces that are typical of FDM. Despite my inexperience, the prints were a relative success, with only a few minor flaws.
Now to paint them and record it all for your viewing pleasure! I'd already digitally painted one of these hills in zbrush so I had an idea of what I was aiming to achieve, but normally I'd do it with glazes and lots of layering, and a bit of drybrushing. None of these felt like viable options if I wanted to disguise or overcome the layer lines in the print so I needed to get creative.
I decided to use a thick acrylic paint called Raw Umber from Castle Art Supplies - I think it was purchased from The Works and it wasn't expensive. Colour wise its a warm, mid-dark brown colour edging towards a milk chocolate type colour. I grabbed the biggest, scabbiest brush I own which is my old Citadel tank brush from the early-mid 2000s and I roughly stippled the thick paint all over, trying not to spread it out too thin. I had to leave it to let it dry for a while, and when I came back to resume, I realised that I'd not saved the footage of that first part of the paint job!
Then I moved on to overbrushing/drybrushing. I did this in 4 phases:
1 - 2:1 Raw Umber to Vallejo Flat Earth overbrushed over the whole model
2 - 1:1 Raw Umber to Vallejo Flat Earth overbrushed over the top 2/3 of the model
3 - Neat Vallejo Flat Earth overbrushed over the top 1/3 of the model
4 - 2:1 Vallejo Flat Earth to Vallejo Ivory drybrushed lightly over the top 1/3 of the model
A note on this step. I started drybrushing top to bottom on the first layer and realised quickly that it was starting already to pick up and accentuate the layer lines. I switched up to overbrushing using a left to right stroke instead (brushing parallel to the layer lines) and the end result was far more pleasing and smooth.
Next up, I decided I needed to add some darker contrast into the rock face, so I took the Raw Umber and added some black paint to it. Then to make my glaze, I watered it down with tap water (our tap water is pretty good quality - if yours isnt you might want to use some bottled water or filtered water - don't underestimate the difference the quality of your water can make when painting). It was about 5 parts water to 1 part paint in the end. I switched my brush out for a size 6 synthetic brush with a big belly on it so it held a lot of paint so I didn't need to keep dipping my brush in the paint. Using just the tip, I painted it into the cracks and cervices and in the middle of each of the rocks avoiding the areas that had been highlighted. I didn't want to do a gradient blend becasue I thought it would show up the layer lines too much (and it was also far too time consuming to want to go back over it several times to get the blend!) I decided I'd instead stipple some dots around the outer edges of the dark areas to break up the outline. I then carefully and sparingly stippled Flat Earth and Flat Earth + Ivory mix in the same way, keeping the dots mostly around the top of the rocks. All done!
Next to tackle the grass!
In the attached images, you can see what our battle mat looks like for Crystal Collapse - very bright and vibrant and so I wanted to match this as best as possible.
I grabbed a few green paints that I thought would do the job - Intermediate green from Vallejo Panzer series, and Livery Green from Valleo Game Colour.
The Intermediate green turned out to be a bit too pale so I added some black to darken it as a base colour and then dabbed it over the flat surfaces, being careful to avoid painting in the grid lines and then rocks etc, being careful to leave some brown visible in places.
Finally, I mixed some livery green with the intermediate green base colour, and using the very tip of the brush, I thinned this about 1:1 paint to water and then painted LOTS of individual grass blades and it was finished!
All 3 of these hill pieces took a total of around 3 hours to get completed and whilst I'm happy with how they came out, retrospectively I think I probably need to take it up a notch and do another pass on the grass blades using the brighter Livery Green.
One thing I noticed that was surprising, was that the layer lines are a tiny bit visible in the end piece up close, but by the time I was applying the glaze, it felt almost like I was painting on a canvas or a piece of denim in terms of the surface texture. I think not doing a proper drybrush or using washes on the pieces helped to mitigate the unwanted textures.
GLOSSARY
Drybrushing
Apply paint to an old brush or one designed for drybrushing and then wipe it all off on a piece of kitchen paper until no more paint comes off. Draw the dry brush across the raised surface of the model, usually in a single direction mimicking the direction of light (i.e. top to bottom). It can leave a chalky finish on the model, but this can be overcome by gently dampening the bristles before painting using a damp (not wet) sponge.
Overbrushing
Like drybrushing, remove some paint from the brush and swipe it over the raised areas. Deposits far more paint and makes a more immediate change in tone without the chalkiness that drybrushing can produce. Use this technique with caution!
Glazing
Add water or a medium of your choice to the paint until it is very translucent. Paint it on to the model, beginning the stroke where you want the paint to be lightest and ending where you want it darkest. You can repeat this process painting gradually smaller areas to build up smooth gradients and progressively build up your chosen colour.
Stippling
Take a pointed brush with a large belly so it can hold enough paint so that the tip won't dry whilst you are using it. Carefully using the tip only, dab small dots onto the surface of the model. Be careful that your paint isnt so thin that it'll run, or that there isnt a huge glob of paint on the tip or it'll make a mess when you apply it.
Alternatively, you can take an old brush with splayed bristles and stipple harder onto the model to create irregular application patterns with rough edges. This is a great way to add texture to a surface, but also as used in this guide, a very quick way to apply a base coat to a model evenly.
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Painting FDM Terrain - Overcoming the limitations of FDM prints
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