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

This 1/18 scale Bounce Tortoise  is the first fully finished printed figure made on my UP! Mini 3D printer.

In 1/18 scale (Microman/GI Joe scale) the Bounce Tortoise stands around five inches tall.  That makes it a heft, chunky power suit toy.

Printing the parts for such a large figure took around fourteen hours total.  In the future, I’d like to break the body and legs into some smaller parts, which will reduce print time dramatically.  The figure was printed on the finest layer setting (0.2mm layer thickness) with a loose-solid fill, making it durable and weighty, but not wasteful.

Before painting, I did some finishing to the surfaces of the figure.  I first used 240 and 600 grit sandpaper to clean off the larges ridges between layers.  Then I coated the figure in a healthy coat of grey automotive primer, which filled in some of the deeper gaps between layers.  A final run at the figure with 600 grit sandpaper smoothed the flat surfaces back out and made the figure ready for printing.  More extensive filling and sanding could have been done to get a smoother surface, but I like the effect of a little surface texture on the finished figure.

The ‘Iron Duke’ was painted with Vallejo acrylics, oil paints, and Monster Kolor enamels.

Being able to make such a large figure of my own design is a dream come true.  Having my own printer opens up all sorts of possibilities that would be difficult using a third party printing service, and up-sized minifigures are only the beginning.