3D PRINTED MINIATURES- MONICA'S ICONIC PURPLE DOOR - FRIEND'S TV SHOW

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Intro: 3D PRINTED MINIATURES- MONICA'S ICONIC PURPLE DOOR - FRIEND'S TV SHOW

I've been making, collecting and painting miniatures for years, but I only even used traditional ways. Recently I bought my first 3D printer and once I started playing around with it I ended up printing miniatures. Using an FDM printer is not ideal for miniatures, resin printer is much better for that kind of a task, but it's still worth giving it a go. 

I designed and 3d printed this diorama of Monica's front door (from Friend's TV show) and I'll show you how to assemble it. 

STEP 1:

1) Print the box in light purple and the frame in black (or any colour and paint it black afterwards). 

2) Print the bottom layers of wall panels in light purple and then switch the filament to dark purple. You can do that by modifying g-code in Cura slicer. 

  • Once your wall panel is imported to Cura, select the layer heights, temperatures, infill and all that. Then switch to preview where you can see the layers. Count how many layers need to be printed in light and at what point you need to switch to dark filament.


  • Then, in the menu bar go to Extentions>> Post Processing>> Modify G-Code.


  • Click Add a script, then select Pause at height.


  • Change Pause at to Layer Number.


  • In Pause Layer type the number of layers you need the light purple to print.

STEP 2:

All the details for the door and the walls are printed separately and painted with acrylic and metallic paints.

I printed Monica and Rachel picture, MAINA LA VOYANTE and floor boards on thick printing paper.

The only thing I couldn't 3D print was the chain for the lock and tiny tassles. I made the chain by grouping together a few strands of thread and tying it in knots every few mm. I painted it with metallic paint. 

I made tiny tassles with yellow thread. 

I made the peep hole by slicing a small piece off my PTFE tube and painting it gold. 

The light switch has tiny white plastic buttons I made out of white milk bottle. 

You have to glue the painting to the canvas and Monica's picture to the frame as well as two tassels.

STEP 3:

Print a good quality wooden floor and cut it to size using the sheet guide (thin, black slices you can see in my Tinkercad file). Glue them to the bottom part of the box.

STEP 4:

Print the rest of the guide sheets and place them over the door and walls. Apply a tiny amount of glue in the cut out areas and place your small details, make sure glue doesn't leak towards the guard lines. Once glue is set, you can pull the guide sheets away. 

STEP 5:

Assemble the box by gluing all the wall panels to the inside. 

Glue the black frame to the box. 

STEP 6:

5 Comments

I don't own a 3D printer myself and the people I'm trying to work with say they need to upload a STEP file into the printer. Do you have any idea how I could do that, as I understand a .stl file won't help them?
This is so amazing and kinda throwing me for a loop. Just this afternoon (hours before the emails went out) I was showing my husband a key rack that I found on TEMU . I made several screenshots of it because I felt I could make it myself. I too love miniatures and making diaromas. It's a key rack OF THAT DOOR! https://share.temu.com/AMMjasoVZzA
So crazy cool! Thanks for sharing this! Couldn't have been timed any better! LOL
Proving, yet again, the adage "Great minds think alike?"
Agreed! Great use of the pause feature in CURA to print the moldings a deeper shade of purple.