The Testing Begins

Note: to adjust the size of the text in Safari, press Command + to enlarge or Command - to reduce the screen size. 

Answering the call=Accepting a challenge. As I wrote last time, Jodi at My Miniature Madness put out the call for volunteers to test her newly created kitchen bake and cooking sets. I immediately raised my hand--yes, I'm one of those who always sat in the front row, waving my hand to erase the black board or hand out the worksheets. Not always the teacher's pet, I wondered if Jodi would choose me. 

Now the adage "Be careful what you wish for" comes to mind because I feel I'm having to up my game by, re-set the learning curve. It's a good challenge and what better way to learn than to jump into the pool and start paddling. 

My quite impressive package arrived, but I had a full plate getting ready for my DAR chapter's 10th anniversary celebration on Oct. 1st. I spent Sunday cleaning the basement and putting away the party decorations to make way for the next project, the testing project. I know that Jodi must be on pins and needles waiting for reviews to come. I began by spraying the items with primer in the garage.

But before I began painting the 3-D printed project, I painted the faucets and bathroom accessories with model enamel, which spread on the unprimed 3-D Shapeways pieces with a nice glossy sheen.

I really do not know how to paint these 3-D printed pieces, trying to watch some Youtube tutorials mostly by gamers who make their own game figurines, which all seemed pretty overwhelming to me. I find it quite interesting that I haven't run across any dollhouse/miniatures tutorials. Most just say they used acrylic paint and added a glossy coat. They primed their pieces, so I primed mine.

So I began with the bottom of the cookie sheet by painting it with two different acrylics: one with iridescent platinum and one plain gray and two different brands. The top is the platinum which didn't go on very smoothly and seemed a bit clumps, so I settled on the plain grey, wanting my backward to look like my ancient aluminum bake pans and cookie sheet. Then I realized that I should have sanded the pieces before I primed them. 

I moved on to the dutch oven. I began by sanding it after realizing the I should have sanded the bottom of the cookie sheet, despite having primed the pieces. 

 I use a 120 grit and a 400 grit to sand out the ridges from printing. I sanded and sanded, even used a emory board, both sides, but as you can see I did not achieve a smooth surface on the dutch oven.

I am realizing that the nature of 3-D printed material creates lines and ridges, so hopefully another tester will have a more efficient way of smoothing out surfaces of these tiny pieces or perhaps it is just the nature of the product.

Some artists will use a latex gloss liquid topcoat to add a shine to their mini piece. I applied my latex gloss to the bottom of cookie sheet and didn't like it. I could see the brush strokes. So that's my next question: how to eliminate brush strokes?

But I achieve a shine on the dutch oven by polishing the paint--after four coats--with the soft cloth that came with my eyeglasses cleaner. I really liked the sheen that the soft cloth created. The photo does not reflect the sheen, and you can see the uneven surface that sanding didn't take out. Still, I like my little pot. 

Then I moved on to the tube pan that the Manchester mistress will use to bake her angel food cakes. It had a smoother surface than the pot,

Still not perfectly smooth. I don't think that more layers of acrylic paint will fill the ridges. 

From the cake pan, I moved on to the toaster which has deep ridges. I pondered how to paint it. Today we can find small kitchen appliance in all kinds of colors, but I decided to paint mine like my own toaster--white with a chrome colored trim. I taped the the ridge off with masking tape and used the iridescent paint. I had to paint it twice.

 

 

The toaster is really cool, but ridges are quite apparent. 

The loaf pan turned out nicely and polishing it the little cloth gave it a nice sheen.

So here are the results of today's work. I'm pleased with what I accomplished; however, I have lot more to learn and would hope for better sanding results to get smoother surfaces. The loaf pan probably needs another coat of paint on the inside. I pondered adding some burned-on looking stains, but I keep my bakeware clean and don't let those stains build up.

But what really counts is how the pieces will fit in the dollhouse. The neat thing is that once in the house the little imperfections won't show as they do in the closeup photos. The mixer, by the way, is not the one in Jodi's collection.

And the toaster looks pretty nice on the counter. And the dutch oven is full of chili simmering for supper.

I can see my cookie sheet filled with chocolate chip cookies ready to pop into the over--or not. The oven door doesn't open.😂

The fixtures are ready to put in place. They are made from plastic, according the Shapeways description, a different material than Jodi's. The enamel covered them well, which begs the question: could we use enamel on the Jodi's pieces? While this paint won't solve the ridges on the surface, it does have a nice gloss.

And look! The toaster works!

Thanks, Jodi, for asking me to be a tester. I'm having fun and learning so much. I am anxious to see what the other testers discover and learn.

I give all of these pieces a👍.

Today was my marathon mini day, but the rest of the week life takes over--a Dr. appointment, the Chiropractor, the car goes to the shop, and Thursday Heather and I take off for the Good Sam Show in San Jose, CA. I'll be posting on Instagram. Look me up: https://www.instagram.com/annrasmussen72/

Thanks for stopping by. It's always a pleasure to write for you.