3D printed plague mask

This was a Uni project and was designed as a modern interpretation of a plague mask. We had to make objects in only white or cream and had to make the piece more interesting using design and texture. I designed my mask in a 3D program called blender, to create a more interesting look for the mask I decide to make the face faceted to give me lots of different shades of the same colour. I achieved this by making my model low poly using the decimate tool in blender.

I imported my model into pepakura and then built a card version to make sure the model was scaled to fit my face, once I was happy with the scale it was sent off to the 3D printers.

The surface of a 3D print is quite rough and porous which needed to be fixed before painting. To smooth and seal the mask I used spot filling putty and filler primer. These were used to build up the surface to make it smooth as sanding away the plastic would get rid of the sharp facets that were part of the design. The mask was wet sanded with 600 grit up to 1500 grit.

To add more surface detail I opted to give the piece a crazed porcelain texture. I achieved this by using a 2 part spray paint, first a gold base layer is applied quite thickly in one coat and left to become tacky, then an off white top layer is lightly sprayed over the top. The two paints have a different chemical base and interact with each other creating a cracked appearance. The piece was then given two coats of satin clear coat to protect the finish and was done!