Maybe it's because I was an impressionable youth when the movies first came out, or maybe it's because I'm a sucker for time-travel movies, but as far as I'm concerned, the Back to the Future trilogy is the best trilogy ever! This week @CO and I are starting a project that will bring an iconic piece of that movie franchise into our home as a piece of functional art.
The first part we designed was this beauty! For those familiar with the movies, you'll recognize it as the license plate on the DeLorean from the first movie.
This is just a small part of a bigger build, but we wanted to experiment with a few approaches. The Bambu Lab P1S 3D Printer's plate produces a really cool texture that completely obscures any layer lines you'd find on other FDM printers. We printed this first version to test out the results and absolutely love how crisp the artwork is (though there was an uncommon hiccup in the white filament within the "O").
Then we experimented with making the "OUTATIME" text 3D to mimic an actual stamped license plate. This meant the plate needed to be printed face up, so it doesn't have that cool texture.
Instead, the smaller letters printed a bit funky. I have an idea for how I can correct for that though.
...so, ignoring the small hiccups in the prints, which design do you like better? 2D letters with texture or smooth 3D letters? Let us know in the comments below!
Check out our teaser video to see the announcement of this epic project:
...and grab the 3D models if you'd like to print one for yourself!