Sponge painting might be my new favourite way to get a ton of terrain painted fast.
For this project, I painted the entire set from the Grid City range – you see here in just 8 hours (including priming) and using sponge painting for the main colours.
Its a really simple technique that works particularly well for 3D printed terrain because you can cover large areas quickly while still keeping plenty of natural variation and contrast.
What do you need to sponge paint terrain?
All you need is a basic cleaning sponge (cut into smaller pieces), some cheap craft acrylics and a few regular paint brushes for the smaller details.
Here’s the process I used…
1. Start with a dark brown primer
I started by priming the entire set in dark brown.
I like using a dark colour as the starting point for terrain because it gives you an immediate shadow colour. Rather than trying to carefully paint every recess, you can let some of that darker primer remain visible between the raised details.
From there, I picked out the main colours I wanted to use. For this build, I started with a bluish grey for the primary sections – Use a colour wheel if you need help picking your two main colours and feature/accent colours.
2. Apply the first colour with a sponge
I cut a basic cleaning sponge into smaller sections and loaded one with my bluish grey paint.
Rather than brushing the paint on, I lightly dabbed the sponge across the raised sections of the terrain.
The great thing about this technique is that you get surprisingly good coverage while still allowing plenty of the dark brown primer to show through. This creates instant contrast and gives the surface a slightly irregular finish without having to put much effort into it.
You also don’t need to be particularly precise. The sponge naturally skips over the deeper recesses and details.
3. Add a lighter highlight
Once the first grey layer was down, I switched to a much lighter cream/grey.
This time I used the sponge more lightly, concentrating on the areas that would naturally catch the light and the edges where I wanted to suggest wear and damage.
You don’t need to completely cover the previous colour. In fact, leaving some of the darker grey showing through is what helps create the variation.
4. Repeat the process with the secondary colour
Next, I moved onto the sections I wanted to make orange.
I used exactly the same process as the grey areas, starting with the darker orange and then applying a lighter shade more selectively over the raised areas.
This is one of the reasons I really like sponge painting for terrain. Once you’ve established the technique, you can repeat it across different colours without having to completely change your approach.
It also gives you a surprising amount of depth with very little effort.
5. Pick out the smaller details
Once the main colours were finished, I switched from the sponge to a regular No. 4 brush.
This is where I started picking out the smaller details, including bolts, panels and other metallic features.
You don’t need to paint every single detail on terrain. I find that picking out a selection of obvious features is enough to make the whole piece feel much more detailed.
6. Add some colour accents
With the main colours finished, I went back to the grey sections with a regular brush and added a few small orange accents.
These don’t need to be everywhere. A few carefully placed details help break up the larger areas of grey and also tie the different colours together across the model.
7. Finish with turquoise details
Finally, I grabbed some turquoise and used it for signage, feature details and the windows.
I also used the same colour across some of the smaller details around the terrain.
Repeating a colour in different areas is a really easy way to make a large collection of terrain feel cohesive. Even though the turquoise only makes up a small part of the overall paint job, it helps bring the whole thing together.
The finished result
What I like most about this technique is just how quickly you can get something that looks finished.
The entire set took me around 8 hours to paint, including priming, and the majority of that time was spent on the main colour application rather than carefully painting individual details.
Sponge painting is great for 3D printed terrain!
Sponge painting also gives you a really nice amount of natural variation. You get plenty of contrast and texture without needing to carefully blend colours or paint every surface perfectly.
For large amounts of 3D printed terrain, I think that’s a pretty good trade-off.
The models featured in this tutorial are from my upcoming Grid City: Industro set, a modular sci-fi industrial terrain system designed around thousands of different possible combinations – The STL files will be available on Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/saucermenstudios/grid-city-industro-3d-printable-terrain.
