So the other day, I was on Facebook and saw some pictures being shared of David White’s Mecha Zone work.  My first reaction was that this stuff looks cool, and since I saw the term bouncing around, I assumed he used 3D printing to prototype these pieces.

Turns out, these figures are entirely manufactured on an Afinia H-Series printer!  David then uses an acetone vapour bath method to smooth out and strengthen the pieces.  If I understand correctly, the only paint applications are silver.

I found it pretty amazing that something could go from concept and design…

…to prototyping and full-on production like this, basically all in someone’s home.

The Mechanaut V2 and the Predanaut are David’s first 6-inch online figure releases with this degree of complexity, as far as I can tell.  Preorders are up on his StoreEnvy site, with both figures having a production run of 8-16 copies, depending on interest.  It takes approximately 13 hours just to print all the parts seen above!

I’m going to be doing some coverage on these in-hand, once mine arrive.  I find the notion of this kind of figure being entirely designed and PRINTED by an artist to be extremely fascinating, especially given Aaron Archer’s Q&A answer at TFcon 2014 about the direction he sees the toy industry heading towards in the next couple of decades.

In the meantime, check out this interview that David White did with Afinia for more info and insight!

 
(Click either of these portraits to go directly to their StoreEnvy pages)