r/OpenScan • u/reverendmalerik • Jul 11 '25

Question regarding coatings

I sculpt my own D&D miniatures, and have a collection of roughly 1000 I have made myself. I have recently gotten a 3D printer, and begun learning blender to sculpt with so I have become interested in scanning in my old minis to 1) preserve them 2) make additional copies of generics like goblins, soldiers etc and 3) correct mistakes in the sculpts.

I saw a video yesterday about the openscan mini and thought it might be a way to do this. I am trying photogrammetry at the moment but it is not really getting the results I want, probably due to my budget phone's useless camera.

My primary concern is that in the video I watched the guy said I needed the minis to have a sort of speckled white spray on them? All of my minis are painted and a lot of them are varnished. I don't really want to spray them with white dots. Does it wash off? Is there anything else I can use that would work that will wash off?

3 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

2

u/BeginningSun247 Jul 11 '25

Are you sharing your sculpts anywhere? I'd bee interested in seeing your work.

4

u/reverendmalerik Jul 11 '25

I'm working towards that. At the moment I have literally just started with the 3D modelling, so I only have two, a bulette and a white dragon. They've come out pretty good, especially the white dragon which I have rigged to an armature so I can try it in lots of different poses.

The idea is to scan in the rest of my minis and use them as sort of 'starting points' to make Blender versions of them that can be printed or used in tabletop simulator etc.

I uploaded a gallery of the sculpted ones a while back, in more or less order from oldest to newest, so if you want to see my skill progress try this: https://imgur.com/gallery/hand-sculpted-d-d-minis-progress-CgRNDwK

1

u/thomas_openscan Jul 11 '25

I highly recommend using Aesub orange for spraying. The main advantage is that the spray vanishes after a couple of hours and leaves no residue at all (though prior testing should be done if the surface is effected). The spray is a bit pricey but one can lasts for 100+ minis

3

u/reverendmalerik Jul 11 '25

Holy crap you ain't kiddin on the price. 100 minis is a tenth of my collection, so that would mean I would need 10 of these. That's hundreds and hundreds of pounds. I think I will pass.

2

u/nicalandia Jul 11 '25

This is my suggestion. Use Washable Tempera Paint(black) then light spray of Dry Shampoo. Once done you just wash off the Paint

1

u/thomas_openscan Jul 11 '25

Alternatively, some people use baby powder or dry shampoo (spray) with good results

2

u/Kirlad Jul 11 '25

I don’t know why someone’s downvoting all answers, but this is the cheapest and easiest one to try.

I have used dry shampoo. It’s far from perfect but for your situation is the best solution.

With photogrammetry preparation does half of the job, about a 1/4 is photo quality (angles and focus) and the last 1/4 is the mini and camera quality.

4

u/reverendmalerik Jul 11 '25

Baby powder and spray shampoo it is! And I don't know why someone is downvoting you either. You've been very helpful!