Prometheus Rising Studios   Ben Mininberg's models, toy customs, and design work.

This 1/60 scale PBT-000 Bounce Tortoise print is not for any higher purpose or machination, I simply wanted a stainless steel print of my power suit.

Shapeways  offers prints in Stainless Steel.  They are expensive, the finish is rough, and as far as I can tell the process is magic.  Shapeways describes the process on their site, and I get the first half.  Instead of laser sintering granules of plastic power together layer by layer, a nozzle injects dots of glue into layers of stainless steel powder.  Then, the glue and powder print is infused with bronze in what I can only assume is a dark and eldritch ceremony.  The results are grainy, heavy, and amazing.

The Shapeways people do a little polish work, but I think I may try and clean up the print a little more… maybe with a Dremel with a steel brush tip, and then a jewelry polishing cloth.  I wanted to show off the print out of the box, though, because it’s still incredible.

It looks like the figure was printed laying down like this so the arms wouldn’t sag during printing.  Even so, the layers are not that obvious, and the grain is pretty even, rather than having that typical ridged layer look.