I am using a Bambu X1C, printing a model of the Grinch in PLA on a textured plate with Bambu Studio. I have tried printing the colors in various orders, and the green color does not print as neon green, but a washed out lighter green.
I’m printing using .12mm Fine setting.
I have tried printing the layers in the following order:
white - green - red - black
green - white - red - black
Auto for both first layer filament order as well as other layer filament section.
Are there other things I can try to get the neon green look neon green?
Reason I ask is the stuff I know to do is modifying the original model but there is another way if you don’t mind scaling the thickness up in the scale tool in Bambu Studio. Make it thicker. As you add thickness, Studio will print more layers of the colors which will make them more true.
If you look up about HueForge prints you’ll see why. Some colors of filaments are a bit translucent or even a lot translucent in thin layers. Cures are making them thicker and also backing them with colors that enhance or at least don’t detract from the filament color.
More of a hassle but you can also go with a different green that’s more opaque or gives you a result closer to what you’re looking for.
If it’s your model, you could make the color layers thicker or even add white layers behind the colors. White tends to brighten colors and also makes them a bit more true.
But easiest and quickest is to scale the thickness up (if being thicker isn’t a problem).
I don’t know if Studio will do it but you might be able to select individual colors and scale the thickness. I don’t know how thick the colors are but looking close it looks like they are half the thickness of the black lines on the face. Might be a mistake maybe?
Malc would know if individual parts of a design uploaded as a single unit can still be scaled. Or you could just try it.
The model has a 0.6mm thick front panel, less than the common 1mm thickness often used to generate an opaque panel sufficient to manifest the colour.
However, given this is a light box, the expected reality is NOT to be opaque, as the light needs to bleed through.
This will likely mean the green you have chosen doesn’t work well with translucency when providing what would be expected when fully opaque.
You can test this easily by creating two models using basic primitives.
Create a new project, right-click to see the context menu and add a cube.
Change the dimensions to 40w x 40h x 0.6mm and print it in your green.
Repeat this and change the height to 1mm and print again. Based on your previous comments, you should see two outcomes: one looking a little faded and the other richer.
I would recommend repeating the two height tests using a different green to see which one might be a better fit for the needs of a lightbox.
0.6mm is actually a very common thickness for light box lenses. It ends up being 3 layers printed if using a 0.2mm layer thickness.
Malc doesn’t say if the 0.6mm thickness is the black or green. Just using preview and zooming in it looks like the green is half the thickness of the black.
If the green is three layers thick (0.6mm), it could be your green just isn’t a good match and you need a different green to get the light box color you want.
It’s pretty common that colors used in light boxes (transmissive) don’t look the same as when used in reflective applications. Some filaments are close to opaque and are just dark areas in light box applications. It takes a bit of experimenting sometimes to get the right colors when using them in light boxes.
@MalcTheOracle, you were 100% correct. I feel a bit foolish not to have changed out the green beforehand. I printed the cubes and though slightly different colors, neither of them was neon. I switched to a neon green Elegoo filament, and the cubes printed out the “correct” neon green. I had tunnel vision and did not even think to switch out filaments. My Grinch looks like it should now. Thank you so much!
