Mulholland Drive Blue Key

[Patattack]

That looks awesome! Very metallic and perfectly smooth! Could you post (somewhat) detailed instructions of your process? I'd love to be able to get mine to look as flawless as yours!

Thank you for the compliment! My process wasn't too complex--luckily there's no super-fine detail to be lost, so you can apply extra coats of primer/paint to smooth out the surface a bit. I was surprised and pleased that the holes in the "shaft" of the key never got clogged by paint as I was worried they would. I think my technique went something like this:

1. Lightly sand the raw 3D print (no need to get it completely smooth, just a quick pass with a medium-fine grit), rinse with alcohol, allow to dry
2. Apply a coating of XTC-3D (clear resin designed to smooth out 3D prints) and allow to cure
3. Apply 2 coats of spray primer (allow to dry in-between)
4. Apply 2-3 coats of metallic blue spray paint (allow to dry in-between)
5. If it's not perfectly smooth at this point, you can lightly sand the surface with a fine grit sandpaper, then do another coat of metallic blue.

 

[SquidMan]

1. Lightly sand the raw 3D print (no need to get it completely smooth, just a quick pass with a medium-fine grit), rinse with alcohol, allow to dry
2. Apply a coating of XTC-3D (clear resin designed to smooth out 3D prints) and allow to cure
3. Apply 2 coats of spray primer (allow to dry in-between)
4. Apply 2-3 coats of metallic blue spray paint (allow to dry in-between)
5. If it's not perfectly smooth at this point, you can lightly sand the surface with a fine grit sandpaper, then do another coat of metallic blue.

Thank you for your help! I've never really filled or spray painted anything before, so this is very informative. What kind of primer did you use?

Also, I'm not sure if you saw but Astrobeej recently put up the box on Shapeways as well, that you can buy and assemble out of several parts. Would you recommend doing this sanding/filling/priming/painting process on each individual part and then assembling, or doing it after having assembled the box?

Thanks!

 

[Kitty Butler]

That box is amazing!! I must have one!