How 3D Printing Projects Can Bring All the Family Together

Dear all,

Over the last decade, 3D printers have become increasingly accessible to the public and thanks to 3D printing, many creatives can express themselves in various ways. We, MyMiniFactory, have witnessed this growth and are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to lead the emerging 3D printing community. The 3D printing industry has brought so many opportunities for hobbyists and professionals alike. We have seen how 3D printing promotes creativity and positive interaction through the direct connections between designers and makers. The innovation and talent of 3D designers are astonishing, and cultivating positivity in the 3D printing community is one of our core goals at MyMiniFactory.

Today, we would like to focus on the fact that 3D printing can also be a fun activity for families with children and the fun increases when some painting is involved.

One of the multiple projects that our 3D designers share with the 3D printing community is the Fantastic plants & Rocks vol.2 by the talented designers at PrintYourMonsters, a crowdfunding campaign hosted on the MyMiniFactory platform. This project is one of a kind because of its value for an entirely new collection of pre-supported 3D printable terrain and exclusive monster miniature add-ons. That’s over 500 terrain and miniatures for both volumes.

Firstly, the core set includes ‘All the Plants & all the Rocks’ in 20 sets with 100 amazingly detailed pre-supported STL models perfect for all types of terrain and tabletop gaming. Everything from out of this world alien landscapes to deep dark underground caves.

The Stretch goals include 65 STLs, and each Stretch goal is more fantastic than the previous one and is boasting this world's chrystals, obelisks, mushrooms, and bug hives.

The Add-ons set includes 68 monstrous STL's featuring Bones Abomination Pack, Egyptian Temple Pack, Giant Spiders Pack, Giant Worms Pack, Jungle Darkness Mother, Swamp Creature Pack, UnderWater Creature Pack.

With the amount of such diverse files you get, we believe that this is a type of project that all family members can take part in if you own a 3D printer at home.
If you are a parent continually complaining that your child is spending too much time on screen without learning anything, 3D printing and painting such a project is the solution. Your children might also forget that mobile or video games exist and will keep them occupied for an extended period.

Plus, there are many other advantages that children can benefit from, here are just a few:

Projects like Fantastic Plants & Rocks vol.2, with hundreds of models included, are great ways to gather all family members together. Everyone can assist and take part in the fun process of printing and painting. With so many models, they can choose to create masterpieces with those they are more attracted to.

The vast collection of models in this project will help boost children's creativity, develop curiosity and creative thinking. The only limit in the realm of 3D printing this project is imagination.

Create unique experiences and experimentation at home. While the printing process is on, you get the opportunity to brainstorm ideas for painting or talk on any other topics.

This is a project where your child will learn the importance of creativity and ignite a sense of developing new ideas. They will learn about the importance of creative thinking and problem-solving and even increase their self-confidence when a model is printed and painted successfully.

And who knows, you can ignite your passion for 3D printing and they might think more seriously about it in the future. The possibilities are endless in such a flourishing industry.

Lastly, we would love to share some guides on painting a few printed models from this fantastic collection to inspire you and your children.

Primer: Ammo mig One-Shot Grey Primer A-Mig-2024

The Obelisk: For best results use an Airbrush Basecoat: Vallejo Game Air Cold Grey 72.750 Wash: Army Painter Strong Tone (diluted 2:1 water) Highlight #1: Minitaire Desolated beach D6-106 Airbrush from the top Highlight #2: Mix of Minitaire Desolated beach and sky grey Optional: Mist of Habsa Pro-color Coffee on the lower part of the obelisk

The Vines: Basecoat: P3 Iosan Green Wash: Army Painter Green Tone; Highlight #1: Mix of Iosan Green and P3 Wurm Green Highlight #2: Small dots of P3 Wurm Green

The Roses: As a French artist, Jeremy wanted to reproduce Black Baccara Roses (for passionate lovers) mixed with the famous “Edith Piaf roses”; Basecoat: Army Painter: Chaotic Red Wash: Army Painter: Red Tone Highlight #1: Army Painter Chaotic Red Highlight #2: P3 Skorne Red Highlight #3: Vallejo Game Color Scarlett Blood 72.106

The Base: Directly on the primer

Wash: Army Painter Dark Tone mixed with Strong Tone (1:2) Drybrush #1: Vallejo Game Color Cold Grey 72.050 Drybrush #2: Vallejo Game Color Stonewall Grey 72.049 Edge of base: Vallejo Model Color Dark Grey 70.994 Optional: Wash of Army Painter Dark Tone and light drybrush of 70.994 Vallejo Model Color Dark Grey

More painting guides can be found on the campaign page’s updates.

Here’s also a short video tutorial by Eskice Miniature showing the painting process of one of the models from the collection - the Palm Tree. You can watch him step-by-step transforming the printed Palm Tree into a beautiful piece of art.

We hope that these painting guides will be helpful for any of your 3D printing projects.
Have you tried involving your children in 3D printing and painting projects before? Let us know in the comments.

If you print and paint any of these project models with your children, please share them on social media and tag us (@myminifactory) and feel free to enter our Print & Paint Competition to win huge prizes.

The Fantastic Plants & Rocks vol.2 crowdfunding campaign is live for pledges until the 2nd of March. A new stretch goal of $100k is unlocked - that's an incredible 3Dprinter discount for the Sonic Mighty 4K printer and 1kg Aqua Grey 4K resin + shipping included.

We’d love to see your creations.

Happy 3D printing and painting!

MyMiniFactory team