This post is also available in: Español (Spanish)

Follow us to keep up to date with the latest tutorials:

Today I want to show you how to prepare, modify, and paint a 3D printed building from Imperial Terrain. This building in particular, is the “Desert Urban Dwelling” for Star Wars Legion that you can find by following this link.

Here is a picture of the original 3D model:

As you can see, the design and print quality are really amazing. However, like all 3D printing, you will find some fine print lines on it, so the first step will be to remove these lines from the model.

1. – Preparing the building

To do this, we will use fine sandpaper to pass it through all areas other than the wall of the building, since the wall will be covered later, and it will not be necessary to sand it. After sanding a little, I applied abundantly brush primer to these objects, with the “Gesso” product. This primer is much thicker than any normal paint and will help to cover the printing lines a little:

Once dry, if you are not happy with the texture yet, we can re-sand and apply another coat of Gesso, or simply re-apply another coat with Gesso. In my case, I have applied only 1 coat. In the next step we will give texture to the wall of the building. Therefore, the first thing we will do is to cover with tape the parts that are not walls and we don’t want to texturize:

We made a mixture of filler, white glue and water, and we began to apply it with the help of a spatula and our hands (recommended to use gloves). Here are photos of the result:

As you can see, I haven’t applied paste to the cracks in the holes in the wall, as I will apply another product in those holes, specifically, I have applied White Pumice and Brown Earth from Vallejo in different points to see the difference and the different effects that can be achieved. White glue and sand can also be used perfectly.

We let it dry for about 24 hours. In the next step we glue the roof to the building and put tape at different points of the wall in order to achieve irregular effects on the texture:

Now we give another layer of the previously used mixture (filler, white glue and water) in the points where we put the tape. We also took advantage of and plugged the gap between the roof and the building, creating a more realistic building:

Let the paste rest for a few seconds and remove the tape, which will achieve this effect:

2. – Painting the Tatooine building

Once dry, we sand the surface a little bit to eliminate areas that could be detached from the cover paste in the future. Once done, we will start the painting of the building. In this case I have given a brown primer mixed with white glue (for a first protective layer) and medium matt (for removing the shine of the white glue). This is totally optional and you can give a colour primer only.

Once the primer has dried, I have applied a thin layer of Vallejo Model Air Sand 71075 all over the building with an airbrush:

Next, also with airbrush, I applied Vallejo Model Color Dark Sand 70847, diluted with Vallejo Airbrush Thinner (71361) in some points of the building, as can be seen in the following image:
To finish with the airbrush, I applied Vallejo Model Color Sand Yellow 70916 diluted with Vallejo Airbrush Thinner at various points in the building, and I did the same later applying Vallejo Model Air Sand Yellow 71028 at different points.

Now we will only apply dry brush, first with Titanium buff Light and then with white:

Now we’ll just have to paint the details and objects of the building. For this purpose, base colours have been applied, washed with darker colours and finally lights with dry brushes or in key points of each of them.

3. – Last details and weathering effects

And finally, we applied some weathering effects throughout the building, in this case I have used Vallejo pigments, applied both dry and wet (mixing them with Vallejo airbrush thinner, or even with water). Light Yellow Ochre (73102) has been used to simulate sand effects, and Natural Umber (73109) to simulate dirt effects. For example, the lower part of the building, the metal objects and the damaged parts of the wall have been painted with those pigments, and finally, here is the finished building, with photos from different angles:

You can buy this 3d piece at Imperial Terrain, below the links:
Design already printed in 3D: Desert Urban Dwelling
STL files to print on your own: STL files