Materializing Monsters [2]

All three test prints are done and finally also painted! (find more pictures below)

From right to left we have: Lucius, Lucens and Luca.
My 3D printer is the brand new Prusa i3 MK3 and for all prints I used PLA.

  • Lucius, the Silverdragon:
    -Heigth: 5cm
    -Fill Density: 20%
    -Resolution: low
    -Printed with supporting elements (which were removed after printing)
    -Print Time: 2 hours
    -Painted with Golden Acrylics and varnished afterwards
  • Luca, the Golddragon:
    -Heigth: 5cm
    -Fill Density: 20%
    -Resolution: high
    -Printed without supporting elements
    -Print Time: 4 hours
    -Painted with Vallejo Game Colour + Golden Acrylics and varnished afterwards
  • Lucens, a.k.a. Thunderstrom, Prince of the Thunder Empire:
    -Heigth: 7,5cm
    -Fill Density: 20%
    -Resolution: high
    -Printed with supporting elements (which were removed after printing)
    -Print Time: 17 hours
    -Painted with Vallejo Game Colour + Golden Acrylics and varnished afterwards

Those three were mainly meant to test a few things and to get used to the 3D printing process. In the future I’ll do more 3D models, print them, paint some of them and also sale them (painted and without paint). All models will be limited to a specific number of prints though.
Maybe I’ll also produce more of the Lucens/Lucius-Model with different colors or without colors and sale them.
Currently I’m calculating prices + checking the packing and shipping options.

If you’re interested in any more technical/practical/etc details, don’t hesitate to ask in the comment section.

I had a lot of fun with those three – especially enjoyed the painting part <3 I look forward to more!

2 Comments

  1. Well, let’s try again to comment x)
    They’re really beautiful^^ I really like the small scales you’ve painted and the green eyes of Lucius.
    Maybe it’s the photography, but Luca seems to me more bronze than golden actually.

    However I think you have a lot of room to reduce the printing time.
    To begin with I’m nearly sure you could reduce the infill to 15-18% without any problem.
    10% would be maybe a bit extreme but that would deserve a test (eventually with slightly thicker outer shell).
    Concerning the resolution, your printer have only broad setting like low-high? Or can you set precisely the height of layers? Idem, can you set the speed of printing and the temperature of extrusion? Fine setting of all those parameters can also allow you to greatly reduce the printing time, but the drawback is that is require a lot of testing to find the optimum between speed, quality and risk of failure.

    1. Author

      x)
      Thanks a lot! It’s most appreciated ^-^
      Yeah, she is more bronze (that’s her base-color) – I called her golden dragon, because -depending on the light- her scales are shining bright golden c:

      I don’t dare to reduce infill, as I want the prints stable enough to endure longer shipping and arrive safely at their destination.
      There are options in between of low and high, yes.
      Well, I think, the best way to reduce printing time is through printing without supporting elements – they use quite a lot of material and time. Therefore, I will try to do designs/models that don’t need to be printed with supporting elements.

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