So I've been printing terrain nonstop. They're coming out pretty nicely, however, when I start to paint it highlights the layers. How do I stop this/ mitigate the look of this?

Any suggestions would be helpful and great, thanks!

There are a number of ways to do this. It will depend on the piece and the desired effect you are looking for.

You can sand the piece if possible. Some recommend using an automotive primer as it fills in slight imperfections. You can use a watered down wall compound/filler at about 50/50. That gives a rock/concrete look when dried and it can be sanded and painted any way you like. Lastly some recommend brushing on a watered down PVA mix.

I am sure others in the community can offer advice from their experience but here are a few solutions I know of. Hope they help.

2 hours ago, C3POFETT said:

There are a number of ways to do this. It will depend on the piece and the desired effect you are looking for.

You can sand the piece if possible. Some recommend using an automotive primer as it fills in slight imperfections. You can use a watered down wall compound/filler at about 50/50. That gives a rock/concrete look when dried and it can be sanded and painted any way you like. Lastly some recommend brushing on a watered down PVA mix.

I am sure others in the community can offer advice from their experience but here are a few solutions I know of. Hope they help.

Thank you! I will have to try these different solutions out. I’ve tried some sanding, I’ll have to try the filler technique.

As C3POFETT said it depends on what you've got or what you're trying to do, but if your working with PLA, most of the time it's sand, fill and more sanding, put on a coat of primer and, yup, more sanding.

For the adobe look of tatooine, I build up spackle and sanded grout directly over my prints just like you would old school foam terrain. It fills in print lines pretty well, so no need to sand. For non tatooine terrain, there's also a product called XTC3D made by Smoothon. It's a two part resin that you can apply with a sponge brush that is fluid enough to run into print lines before it cures. It still requires sanding, but it can cut out on a LOT of work. The drawback is it's a pain for small prints (mixing two part solution, keeping it from kicking off too soon etc). There's plenty of videos and reviews out there for it though. If your'e working with ABS, there's always vapo-smoothing with acetone too. Again, lots of how to video's out there.

I've been brushing on gesso in thin layers and sanding as necessary for prints from spool-based 3D printers. I'm still experimenting, but it seems to be working well so far.

If working with a print from a resin 3D printer, I usually just lightly sand the print before painting and let the primer do the rest of the work. If there are hard to reach spots, I've been told you can brush some of the resin over the rough surface.

I've seen reports of using Modge Podge successfully - although it typically takes a couple coats.

A wee bit late to the show on this thread, in spite of that I have this suggestion.

If you are doing Tatooine or Jedha, a layer of straight (i.e. undiluted) PVA glue over the model followed by a beige unsanded grout. I apply the unsanded (very important) grout to the model using a flour sieve w/ 60 mesh over a plastic tub (large enough to catch excess grout). I wear a dust mask and rubber gloves when doing this, to protect against the grout dust. The end result is very tough, looks the part and conceals moderate resolution lines.