Painting your Spaceships

June 25, 2010

A few weeks ago Steve of Third Fate Creations approached us about showing off his painting skills on some of the space ships on Shapeways. Steve works with mini designers in a very selective way. He chooses designs that inspire him and then paints them. Mostly this is for a fee and sometimes when Steve is really inspired it is in return for credit and keeping the painted mini. You can check out the pricing and also a lot of airbrush and painting tips on his site.

We gave Steve a few models so he could show off his skill for you guys and hopefully get you all to start thinking of the possibilities of combining airbrushing with your 3D prints. For Shapeways Steve painted two of Charles Oines intricate and wonderful spaceships: the Ryuushi Warleader and the Martian Icaria Class Strike Cruiser.

Steve said, "used an airbrush on all but the “gem/glass reflection spots” and on those used a 00 brush. The paint is a combination of GW, Createx, and Autoair, depending on what effect I needed. It took, roughly, 4-6 hrs total time to prep and paint each one."

If you look at Charles’ Shop you can see that the models are tiny. The Dominator for example of 0.9 by 3.6 by 3.9 cm. The intricate painting detail that Steve managed to achieve at this scale is just crazy.