3D Printed Crafts: The Mooninites

I’ve been away from my place for a good chunk of this month and when I haven’t been away, I’ve still been terribly busy. But since I started this blog over two years ago, I’ve managed to post at least one update a month even at my busiest and I’m not going to let that streak end now. So here’s a 3D printed craft that I recently made for my brother and held off on doing a write-up for until now.

He initially wanted two sets of Mooninites from Aqua Teen Hunger Force and I was more than happy to oblige. The first thing I did was hop on over to Cults3D and download a free model of Ignignokt and Err, which I set up in my slicer program and printed in PLA filament using my Prusa MK3S+ FDM printer.

The next order of business was to sand and surface the prints to get rid of as much of the visible 3D printer layer lines as I could. I used some gray Rustoleum sandable filler primer, then followed it up with a round of sanding using a dollar store sanding sponge as well as some thinner sanding sticks to get between the harder to reach details. I repeated this process a couple of times before I was satisfied enough with the results.

Since PLA isn’t the strongest or most heat resistant material and these models have thin, fragile points along the arms and legs, I decided to make a simple one part, open-face silicone mold of the Mooninites and cast them in epoxy resin. My brother asked for multiple sets of these guys and even if I wasn’t concerned about their overall durability, making a mold and recasting them in resin that was dyed with their base colors was ultimately much less labor intensive than printing out multiple sets and sanding, surfacing, and painting each one.

To start the molding process, I melted some Monster Clay in my crock pot and poured it out into a small bowl and a condiment cup to act as a “bed” with which to place to models face-up. I would let the Monster Clay cool off enough to partially squish the Mooninites down into it to embed them part way to keep them stationary for the next step.

The beds of Monster Clay would provide flat, even surfaces on which to mount the Mooninites and hold them in place while I poured the silicone over them. I mixed up some regular platinum cure silicone and vacuum degassed it, a process which I detail in my molding and casting process article. Once the silicone rubber was cured, I removed it, the Monster Clay, and the original master models from the bowls and separated them.

He initially wanted one set of Mooninites for his home and one for his office, so I went for screen accurate colors for the first set (or as closely as I could manage with resin dyes and pigments, which aren’t as easy to mix as, say, acrylic paints) and translucent versions for the second sets. I would paint the faces and limbs with a brush.

After I cast these two, he asked for a third set for a friend and unfortunately, I mixed the “show accurate” pigments by eyeballing it and didn’t have either Ignignokt or Err’s colors premixed in a separate container or even a written record of how many drops of yellow, green, and white I used. I already had an off-color Err on hand (with a much more washed-out looking purple than I had wanted) and I later mixed an off-color Ignignokt who isn’t pictured here. He’s ended up being less yellow-green and more…green-green. You’ll see it later.

After making all three sets of resin castings, I knew I needed to make little bases or stands to keep the Mooninites upright. So I made two different sized oval-shaped bases in Tinkercad, printed out three copies of each to save myself some time in casting them, and repeated the one-part/open-face molding process that I did for the base models. Melt Monster Clay, pour in a bowl, embed the master parts, mix the silicone, you know the drill.

When that mold was complete, I mixed and degassed some epoxy resin before pouring it in. I thought clear, acrylic-looking bases would look cool, hence why I didn’t add any dyes or pigments to the resin.

After gluing the Mooninites to their bases, it was finally time to paint. I painted Ignignokt’s limbs and face purple and Err’s limbs and face blue. Though I admit, I wasn’t looking at any reference images when I was doing it and, not being the biggest Aqua Teen Fan, and initially painted Err’s details purple as well. After correcting that little mistake, I airbrushed the Mooninites with anti-shine matte varnish to protect the paint.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a final shot of the completed project but here’s a mostly complete progress shot that I sent to my brother. This was taken before I added the last few coats of paint to the Ignignokts (hence why the purple isn’t fully covering in certain areas), repainted the details on the Errs, and cleaned up the surfaces prior to the varnish but I’m sure you get the general idea.

I’m glad I was able to get my monthly update in and hopefully I can be more active soon.