From the Workshop: A Hand Painted Steampunk Skull

Most of what leaves the workshop is printed, checked, finished and photographed within a few days. Every so often a piece earns a slower pace. This steampunk skull was one of those: a commission printed on our Bambu Lab P2S, hand painted over several sittings, then wrapped up and delivered to its new owner.

Fresh off the printer

The model is a design we license from an independent artist, and it is a confident sculpt: goggle eyepiece, gears, hose runs, armour plating and a full set of teeth. In plain white you can see every detail the paintwork has to play with, right down to the rivets along the head plates. The fine layer texture that 3D printing leaves behind is usually something to minimise. Here it becomes part of the piece, because once painted it reads as hammered, weathered metal rather than plastic.

Building up the paint

The skull gets its bone tones first: a base coat, then washes and dry brushing to pull the texture out of the surface and settle age into the recesses. At this stage the mechanical parts are still untouched, which makes for a slightly odd looking thing sitting on the workbench.

The finished piece

The hardware is finished in aged bronze and copper, kept deliberately uneven so it looks worked rather than sprayed. Against the mottled bone it gives the whole piece the feel of something dug up rather than made last week, which is exactly what a steampunk skull should feel like. Once the paint had fully cured it was checked over, packed and delivered to its new home.

Like the look of it?

This one is gone, but hand painted and custom pieces sit happily alongside the main shop range. If you have something in mind, get in touch and tell us what you are after. And if you are curious what else comes out of the workshop, the shop is the best place to start.