Rub’n Buff – Paint 3D Prints Easy and Fast

Today I am going to be talking about what everybody painting 3D prints should have in their arsenal. That is Rub’n Buff. So let’s get into it. All right, so I am really excited for this tutorial today because Rub’n Buff is one of those things that it’s so easy to use, and you get such beautiful results. I’m going to show you exactly what you need to do to get results like this. So me being a giant Ninja Turtles fan, I take advantage of every opportunity I can to print anything Ninja Turtles. And so today’s tutorial, we’ll look at that ninja turtle, but something from Ninja Turtles. This is Rocksteady from Ninja Turtles. If you don’t know who Rocksteady is, I am sorry for you. Because Rocksteady is freaking awesome. He’s a rhino. This is actually a full figure 3D file and I just sliced it in half and went ahead and just printed it and turned into a bust because why not. So let’s jump over to the table and get started.

Okay, so I have everything you could possibly need to do Rub’n Buff on a 3D print. And everything I have here for the most part, some of these things you might actually have around the house. And some of them you might already have you’ve been painting, I actually have three different types.

 I have gold leaf, antique gold and silver leaf, I actually got these in a three pack. And they’re kind of the most popular and I honestly love all of them for different reasons. And you’re absolutely going to want some rubber gloves, I always use a rubber glove when using this stuff because it can cause skin irritation, it says on the on the back. So you just want to be safe and use rubber gloves. The other thing is a paper towel because you are going to wipe it off. It’s kind of like dry brush a little bit then if you have an old brush, like this is an old makeup brush that you can use. You can absolutely apply this with a brush. But I would not be using a brush that you want to try to reuse because this stuff does stay in things. So a lot of these things are disposable. 

Next, you’re going to need a spouncer. And if you’re unfamiliar with what a spouncer is, it’s a sponge on a stick. Yep, just that fancy. But they’re really handy because you can really get in there with them because holding just a regular sponge can sometimes get a little hard to deal with. But you can just use a regular sponge like I’ve actually have some like natural sponges that I’ve used. And I’ll just tear some pieces off and use them so I can get a lot of uses, but any kind of sponge would do. 

Then I have some different Q tips. I have regular Q tips. And then I have these like baby soft Q tips. And they have a lot more cotton on them. Both of these are really good for getting into small details that where you want that Rub and Buff where some of these bouncers won’t get to. And then next I have some cotton pads and these work out really well. If you don’t have any spouncers. You can also use cotton balls too if you have cotton balls, but with the stringing and you can get a lot of fuzz kind of coming off. I don’t typically use cotton balls, but you could if you don’t have any of these things. Now I have seen other people use paper towels but I personally don’t like using paper towels because it leaves scratches and stuff on your model. So it actually doesn’t really give a clean smooth application. Lastly, one of the most important things is a respirator. Now if you are not applying this in a well ventilated area like mine, I would strongly encourage you guys to have a respirator and make sure it’s a proper respirator to where it is good for the particulates of the vapors, because I’m not gonna lie. This stuff stinks and it has a harsh smell to it. And you got to just be careful because there is warnings on the back just about the fumes as well. So it is something you really don’t want to mess with while applying it when it’s wet. Once it dries, it is perfectly safe and it’s nothing to worry about. You can touch it and everything like that. So I have my gloves on and I have my rock steady and And I’m going to be using a spouncer for most of this. And then I’m going to be using some Q tips to get into some of these smaller crack areas of his actual, like goggles, I guess, and maybe some of his eyes depending on how good the sponge does. So the big thing to understand is, when you’re dealing with different size spouncers, these will get into smaller cracks, and while the bigger ones will not get into smaller cracks as well. So getting right here is not going to work out too well. And using this will actually help a lot. So once you actually use these bouncers, they’re pretty much a one time use, and then you just kind of gotta toss them. But you can get packs of these are relatively inexpensive. And I’ll have a link for of these down in the description you but you can get these at craft stores. I’ve randomly seen them at dollar stores. But they’re kind of one of those disposable items. So I’m going to be using one and a quarter inch spouncer with silver leaf because I just want him to be silver. Now the one thing about him is this comes apart is sledge hammer. So the prep that I have done for this model is I literally have just painted him black. So you can see he was white filament. And I just did a black base coat and got a nice smooth coat on him. And he’s looking really good. Now, all I have to do is apply the Rub and Buff to this bouncer. So you take it and this is the number one number one key out of this entire video, a little bit goes a long way.

A little bit goes a long way. So remember that. So I am just going to put a little bit on this, that right there is enough to do this entire model. This is a little more than I wanted. But sometimes these tubes will these metal tubes will squirt out more than you’re actually wanting. So just be careful about that. Now I’m going to cap it. And now what I’m going to do is I’m going to basically get it all evened out on this sponge. So this is kind of like how we do it with dry brush. And I am going to try to rub off as much as I can. And you can see there. Now I’m going to start with the back the flat surface. So when you’re starting, I highly recommend always picking an area that isn’t in high visibility, because you might still have too much on it. And you might not realize that. So here we go. Now I’m just going to I’m not going to be pressing really hard, I’m just going to lightly be just dragging it across the model.

And I’m going to be doing this multiple times. And you can go back and forth. And that’s it. So we’re just going to be just dragging this across the model.

And you can actually drag this in different directions. Depending on if you want more of the ridges, you would go perpendicular to the ridges. And if you’d want some of the inside ridges, you just kind of go along the groove like this. But the key to Rub and Buff is you usually want to hit the high ridges multiple times to be able to get some of those cool, more worn areas that have a lot of Rub and Buff on them. So I am just lightly, very lightly Rub’ng this on and you can see already how that’s looking so I’m really paying attention to the angles of where how I’m pulling the direction because of some of these muscles. I’m really wanting them to show up. So I don’t want to fill in all the cracks and I’m going to be getting all of these big areas first with this one and then I’m going to be getting a smaller spouncer to get in some of these cracks so it’s starting to not give as much and when you have to start pushing hard to have some combat If you can always come back to your paper towel where you originally wiped it off, and try to get some more on it. And the key here is to really focus on where are you wanting those shadows like obviously, in the creases here, and you know, in in between the arms, those are areas that you’re really not wanting a lot, because you want those shadows to still remain. But some of the big areas like the, say the ones that are popping out the farthest on most models, that’s really where you want to hit it hard, like see on the ridge right there, like it really brings it out. And I typically like to do any smooth areas, just hit them extra hard to and just kind of fade off. So like right here, get as much as I can on that because it’s just a smoother area. So I’ve pretty much hit all the areas I can with this size bouncer. So what I’m going to do now is I am going to downgrade to a smaller spouncer. And I’m going to do the exact same thing, a little bit goes a long way, you saw how much I got of this model. And if it was smoother, I could actually finish it with the amount that I got on there. So you can see that’s right there, what I put on there. So I’m gonna go ahead and wipe this off now.

So in only going one direction, you can see how I’m getting all of this stuff in his mouth, like all of those shadows are just starting to really take shape

and then hitting the extra high points like his nostrils multiple times to really build up that Rub and Buff.

And then when I’m going to the eyes, I press just a little harder, so we can actually the sponge can get in there and just touch the eyeball.

Now there are some trouble spots around here. And that’s when we’re actually going to switch over to the cute tip. But for right now I’m going to finish up this hand. And then we’re almost done with him. This is a super, super fast thing to use, it doesn’t take long to do this to a model. So he has started to really transform. So while I’ve got this small one, I’m going to go ahead set him aside and do this sledgehammer but I think it might be cool if I make it super bright too. So I’m going to just add a little bit more

and the one thing is if you really want a heavy coat to it, don’t wipe it off. So

I really want this thing to be shiny. So you can see now the thing is silver. So now that thing is nice and bright, which is awesome. So

exactly what I wanted. So now the hammer is done, but you can see how I left it kind of dark at the end. And that’s just to help with some of the shading, like so it doesn’t all look perfect. Because that’s the key with Rub’n Buff is not making things look absolutely perfect. You want them to be sporadic. Just so that’s kind of how the worn look is not controlling every single little thing. It’s okay if some bark parts are darker than others. So now, I’m going to switch to the Q tip. Now the thing about the Q tip is I’m just going to literally rub this kind of spin it on the nozzle tip. I’m not even going to squeeze any out. And here I’ll even do it on the very tip. And I’m just going to kind of tap it in They’re in the mid cap itself, because a little bit goes a long way. And now I’m going to wipe it off as much as I can. And this will start to flake out a little bit. But I want to get right here in the goggles a little bit. So I’m just going to 

kind of tap in there, like that. And kind of spin it around. And there we go. So I want to get right here.

And then also get inside the ear a little bit.

And you’re gonna see that it’s going to start breaking up, and they don’t last too long, because of you know, on the filament, it’s just Rub’ng it up like crazy. So I’m just gonna do the same thing. Just touch it a little bit, wipe it off, then I’m gonna just start applying it. So there we go, we have him done. So let’s go ahead and jump to the turntables. So we can really get some nice close ups of what this guy looks like now. So I’m going to leave you with one last tip, you don’t have to use Rub and Buff just on the entire model like we did in this video. You can use it on specific pieces and parts of a model. So I did this Mandalorian and I did it on his helmet, his shoulder. And I also did it on some of the cracks and things like that. Like you can actually paint over Rub and Buff. So if you wanted to, you can do something like this. I also painted this Dr. Doom with Rub and Buff his shoulders, his mask, even this gold clasp right here is all Rub and Buff. So you can use Rub and Buff in different ways. Don’t just be limited to this. And this is still awesome. So don’t feel bad if this is all you can do right now. And you know what if every single 3D print looks cool, I wouldn’t care, that’s for sure. So let’s go see some close ups of this model and see how it turned out. As you can see it turned out awesome. I highly encourage everybody to get some revenue above and just try to use it on one 3D print because you can get some really cool effects. So I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial. And if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below. And other than that, I hope you guys have a great day.