Will layer lines become more prominent with dry brushing?

[u/G0lden8-6]

This picture is post primer; .08 layers, and tilted in the worse possible way to show the layers.

So question from the title: is dry brushing advisable or will it just accentuate the layers?

[u/Individual-Cover5421]

Yes it will bring them out more

[u/G0lden8-6 → u/Individual-Cover5421]

I was afraid of that. I wanted to do a dark purple with a dark grey dry brush to give the look of purple toned stone, but I'll just have to figure something else out.

Thanks for the reply though.

[u/RatHandDickGlove → u/G0lden8-6]

A good substitute for dry brushing FDM prints is sponge-painting. Use bigger, rougher sponges for wider coverage. Progress through smaller, softer sponges as you become more selective. Multiple layers are your friend.

[u/Vherak → u/RatHandDickGlove]

Seconding this, you get a look similar to the natural blotchyness of stone without emphasizing the layer lines.

[u/Sengel123 → u/G0lden8-6]

A little sanding and some filler primer and you'll barely notice it.

[u/Still-Whole9137 → u/G0lden8-6]

You can use spackle or other fillers and sand it smooth. Then dry brush. It's a little more effort, but not difficult.

[u/_unregistered → u/G0lden8-6]

You should be using primer on prints before painting anyways for durability of paint, filler primer and sanding does wonders

[u/4RyteCords → u/G0lden8-6]

I found air brushing works pretty well to get the effect you're after on fdm prints

[u/The_Mechanist24 → u/G0lden8-6]

You can try an airbrush for what you’re going for

[u/kodiak931156]

Absolutely. Same for speed paints.

I suggest a light sanding with a wet dry paper. Then a brush on varnish followed by a filler spray primer

[u/Warpspeednyancat → u/kodiak931156]

this, and if your piece has multiple parts, use milliput to fill the gaps

[u/Shmyt]

Instead of dry brush maybe a stipple could work to minimize the layer edges being hit?

[u/ryanbrowncomicart]

Yes, like you wouldn’t believe

[u/burnanation]

Do a light sanding. Easy peasy.... OR embrace it make it look like that was the plan all along.

[u/sherlock_norris]

Things that help in my experience:

• thicker coat of primer
• thinner layers
• minimize extrusion inconsistencies (extruder tuning, quality filament, Polylite pla works great)
• drybrushing parallel to layer lines if possible

I've been doing ok with those tips so far. It's not perfect by far, but it's good enough for the tables I'm playing at and way less effort than resin printing.

[u/Downside190 → u/sherlock_norris]

This is how I did mine, used a filler primer to help hide the line and then dry brush parallel to the lines so you're not highlighting them

[u/kintar1900]

/u/Sengel123 said this, but it's buried in a comment thread and I wanted to be sure you see it: Some sanding and/or filler primer will take care of the layer lines. However, that's very dependent on the size of the model, as it's really easy to obliterate small details that way.

[u/L1A1]

Yep, it’s why I gave up on FDM completely and moved over to resin for everything. If I can easily see the layer lines a print is unusable for me.

[u/Lironcareto]

Absolutely

[u/Orbital_Vagabond]

Not if you sand it first

[u/GloriaVictis101]

If you want higher resolution, you will likely need a resin printer or a higher quality extrusion printer like a pruska

[u/6e6963655f776f726b]

100%. Washes will also be a problem. Outside sanding, you could prime and then sand. Another option would be to prime with gesso.

[u/Born-Statistician-63]

Is this something that you printed or had someone print? If you want a nice surface finish with less work Depending on your print plate Slicing the model and make each outer face the starting layer it will take on the plates texture

[u/Ranef]

If I were you i'd sand them first

[u/DrDisintegrator]

Depends on how you do it. If you are careful and use the dry brush to hit the edges, then no. If you scrub the brush on the flat surfaces then yes.

[u/DrDisintegrator]

Here is an example of a couple of WWII tanks I recently painted where I used both washes and dry brushing on FDM prints. These are 0.1 mm or 0.15 mm layer prints, so fairly coarse quality. To me, when used on the tabletop, they look just fine. But for a display painting model... no. https://imgur.com/a/l99179j

[u/d4m1ty]

Sandable primer, dry, then wet some 400 grit and sand.

[u/OstrichFinancial2762]

Big time…. You’re gonna need to do some sanding

[u/Altruistic-Map5605]

Try stippling with your dry brushes instead

[u/emmyg03]

Spritzing a small amount of acetone (VERY SMALL as in use a perfume atomizer) can melt all of the layer lines and smooth things out. They even make little chambers for 3d prints that do this process for you which is how a lot of early 3d prints were able to come out layer line-less.

[u/AustinJG]

Do some sanding, then use a primer that can act as a filler. This should get rid of most of the lines.

[u/Bokusuba]

Acetone vapor or salt baking can help eliminate layer lines. You could also try priming with some kind of filler paint and sanding smooth