If you’re a designer, 3D artist, architect, or hobbyist, you can enjoy painting colorful models right on your desk or get professional full-color 3D models. We have introduced the principles, materials, and post-processing for the most common full-color printing methods in the article ColorJet Printing / PolyJet / Multi Jet Fusion Comparison in Full-Color 3D Printing. You can click in and have a better understanding of all these three printing technologies.
Indeed, however, you don’t need to be an expert in 3D printing before you make your orders. Rough knowledge about the appearance, geometry, functions, and costs may be enough for picking the suitable methods for your models. Here we summarized the key points that may help you make a quick decision:)
PolyJet Multi-Color: The only choice for making transparent and colorful models
PolyJet (Rigid) Multi-Color allows you to print models with full color, including gradients, textures, transparent components, and opaque components.
The lifelike anatomical models you have ever seen are printed with PolyJet printing technology. It’s widely used in the biomechanical industry. With three unique digital materials and an extensive library of anatomical presents, you can create a range of biomechanical models that look, feel, and respond like the real thing. Its applications include device testing, medical training, and surgical preparation, etc.
With this technology, we can make our prints look like epoxy resin crafts but have more intricate details and more incredible geometries. Like this 3D printed BB Pod, which is originally designed as a naked infant floating in a glowing, orange liquid in the game Death Stranding. The main character needs it to detect the ghosts when walking through a post-apocalyptic landscape. To present the clear liquid in the pod and to make the prop at one time without assembling it, we used PolyJet Full-Color resin.
From the photo, you can also find that PolyJet is not suitable for making miniatures as the resolution is not enough. Although it offers a layer thickness of 0.016 and 0.032mm, the nozzle doesn’t have a comparable precision, so the colors on the edge may blur.
Hand-painting always has the highest resolution for miniatures and multi-color complex models.
For artists who make toys and action figures, we will suggest printing with general resin and painting by hand. Just like the originally designed cat general statue, we first printed the prototype and then produced a small batch with urethane casting technology, then our painters did the priming the fine-painting processes.
Hand-painting can adjust the textures conveniently with different coatings. The fur, the scales on its armor, and the patterns on its clothes are too small to be clearly printed. Nor can full-color printing reflect the gradient color, the highlight, and the shadow obviously and slightly.
Full-color PolyJet and Sandstone printing can make the prints totally the same, while hand-painting may have small differences on batches of products. Don’t worry, our experienced painters can control the differences perfectly and only the experts can tell the nuances.
Various types of resin do not have quite different performance when making non-functional models and prototypes. They are all easy to have common finishing and you just need to choose a cheap one.
If you prefer the rock-like touch and the gloss finish, then Full-color Sandstone is for you.
Full-Color Sandstone offers multi-color printing, making it the best material for figurines, architecture, and other applications that require many colors.
Compared to full-color plastic, which nearly has no shares from the market, full-color sandstone obviously has more vivid colors. Although sandstone is brittle and not water-resistant, we can solve these problems by spraying a coating your prints.
Sandstone printing is the cheapest method for making colorful models.
Till today, most people print the scale models of themselves, their families, friends and pets using full-color sandstone as it’s the cheapest method. The model is built from 3D scanning or image-based modeling and rendering (IBMR), or made by a 3D modeler. Although sandstone is brittle, it can serve as a mini statue on the desktop well.
If you are still confused of how to choose the printing method, please feel free to consult our sales managers! As a professional digital manufacturing solution provider who has been devoted for 10 years to turn your idea into real matters, FacFox strives for clients’ best value by making parts with amazing quality, cost efficiency, and speed.