Sitting Pikachu Pokémon

thingiverse

Pikachu pokemon figure sits proudly on a named hexagon plate.\nThe time had come to test my new 3D printer and its ability to print intricate details and curved surfaces. With the only included filament color being bright yellow, I knew exactly what I wanted to print: Pikachu. The perfect choice in these days of Pokémon Go. This design can be printed without support structures, but beware - the tail may require some extra care. To play it safe, use support structures to ensure a smooth print job. Your 3D printing software will likely point out errors in this model. If your software has an auto-correct feature, turn it on and Pikachu should print perfectly. Note: The copyright for 3D model data belongs to Gamefreak, Nintendo, and the Pokémon Company from 2001-2016. Print Settings: Printer: XYZprinting da Vinci 1.0 PRO 3-in-1 Resolution: 0.4mm nozzle, 0.25mm layer height Infill: 15% (10% should also work) Notes: You may need to use rafts if your printer has trouble sticking prints, and support for a successful print of the tail section. I printed this design without support or rafts using ABS at 210 C nozzle and 90 C plate with 15% hexagon infill. It turned out great. How I Designed This Designing Pikachu When searching for a detailed Pikachu model to print, I was shocked to find none that met my requirements. Several models came close but the pose of Pikachu didn't quite fit what I had in mind. To ensure a robust and support-free print job, I realized I needed to create my own 3D Pikachu model from scratch. With little to no modeling experience or skills, this task seemed impossible at first. Fortunately, Pokémon Go brought with it an abundance of great 3D models that are freely available for download (just remember to give attribution to Nintendo and others when used): http://roestudios.co.uk/project/3d-pokemon-models/ Now I had a good Pikachu model, but this one was posed like the ones I found in various 3D print archives. After more searching, I discovered a poseable Pikachu model made by Haolink on Deviantart: http://haolink.deviantart.com/art/Pikachu-MMD-3D-Model-eye-posable-557647939 With this poseable model, I had complete freedom to make Pikachu sit and rest its arms on its stomach. The hard part came when exporting the model as an STL. I plan to write a blog post about this on my blog: http://blog.mivia.dk. For now, let's just say that import/export went back and forth between programs: Mmd, PmxEditor, Blender, Sketchup, and XYZware pro. I had to redraw and reattach the tail of Pikachu in Sketchup where I also added the hexagon plate and text. If you examine the STL, you'll notice several surfaces are in collision or missing. Cleaning this up in Sketchup would likely take hours. Let me know if you're able to print using this STL as is so I can decide whether it's worth cleaning up the model completely.