Recline

Here's my new project.  I've started a collection of potential sculptures on Pinterest and, having printed several curled up models, I fancied trying a more open, reclining pose like this one.  I have now discovered that this is one of the 'Square Nudes' series by Carsten Witte.

The amount of support material required should be fairly minimal although the steep angle under the upper back may need some.  Additionally, the palms of the hands are raised off the ground and will also need supporting. 
Another of the challenges will be to deal with the area where the thighs and calves will inevitably overlap after posing the model.

More to follow ...

Turns out that I still haven't quite got this 3D printing lark completely sussed yet. The modelling went quite well. I even broke with tradition and tried leaving the mouth open a bit to allow the front teeth to show. This, in turn, meant having to devise a different technique for closing off the open edges in the mouth area.

As usual, I opted to use Kisslicer to generate the gcode because I still find that it produces the best support material. The problems started when I began to print. In spite of the fact that I was using the same settings as I have for all my other prints (ABS at 240C, 0.2 mm layer height, 0.4 mm line width), the extrusion seemed thinner than usual and the inter-layer bonding was poor. The model finally appeared from the build chamber with several large cracks including a complete break in one of the arms.

The other major problem was that the fingers appeared to be poorly formed and looking as though they might come away with the support material. I haven't tried removing the support yet, due to lack of time, but I really don't hold out much hope for saving this print. 

One of the factors that has changed is my new hot end which has a 0.4 mm nozzle, whereas my previous one had a 0.5 mm diameter hole. Slic3r includes a place to enter the diameter of your nozzle but apparently Kisslicer does not.  I have never quite understood the logic of this, so I don't really know whether it could be a possible factor in explaining the latest failure.

I'll probably give it another try and maybe just turn up the flow rate a bit.

girl-6

You may remember that I found some interesting pictures on the CG Artists forum. One of the was called a painting by Edward McEvenue based a photo called girl-6 by buzillo.

I had a go at printing a model of her in the grey ABS which I had been using recently but was disappointed to see that the print was badly split in several places.

 

I have been reading about some people who have been experimenting with printing in a new nylon material called Taulman 618. One of the claimed advantages is its superior layer bonding with greater resistance to delaminating. I thought I would give it a try.

So, what are my first impressions of printing with nylon?
Positives:

• No odour
• Sticks well to blue painter's tape even on a cold bed
• Nice smooth surface with a lovely sheen
• No delamination at all
• Much more flexible (less risk of breaking)

Negatives:

• Support material is harder to remove
• Strings are tricky to remove
• No way of smoothing the surface yet
• Much more flexible (less statue like, more bendy toy)

Will I be using it again?
Definitely!

Bridge printed

My test print of Bridge was successful at first sight, but on closer inspection the leotard had been only partially printed, particularly across the back where it was rather messy. In other places, it was a completely separate and rather fragile layer which started to come away as I removed the support material. So, in summary, my first faltering steps with printing clothing had been a bit of a failure. I decided to try and recover an otherwise good print by breaking away the remnants of the leotard.
A bit of scraping with a knife and an acetone vapour bath later, and I had another nice looking model.

Before removal of support material and leotard fragments