If you saw my previous post on 3D printing, you’ll know that my very first original print was a Pokémon-themed dinosaur cookie cutter – in particular, “Tyrunt”, a Rock/Dragon-type Pokémon that looks very much like a baby T-Rex.
After successfully pulling off the project and print, I decided to complete the set, creating one for Tyrunt’s evolved form – Tyrantrum – a far more ferocious looking dinosaur-like Pokémon. For anyone interested in Pokémon and unfamiliar with these two, Tyrunt evolves into Tyrantrum at level 39.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into it – with creating the model, printing it, and what my thoughts and ideas for potential next 3D printing / modelling projects that I’ll be making and writing about.
Creating the model
I used the same method as before, creating SVGs in Photoshop for the backing, outline, and facial features, exactly as before. Then uploaded them to Tinkercad to create the model, before readying the print in the Creality slicer.
It was super quick to create the model this time around, now that I knew the right approach to take, with making the model taking less than an hour, ready for printing.
I’m a big fan of this method of creating the models, as it’s super simple! I’d like to see what else I could do with this, creating pieces or components in something more impressive and complex.
One such product would be the velociraptor robot head Arduino project I started a few weeks back, which was made from cardboard. While I need to revisit the design a little, this is a project that’s high on my list, so expect a few posts on this and its progress in the coming weeks.
The print
Printing the cutter took a little over 4 and a half hours, which is more than double that of my Tyrunt cutter – which took just under 2 hours. This is because of the difference in size, as the latest cutter measures 11cm across, as opposed to the 7cm of the first one.
It took a couple of attempts to get the size and scale right, besides that, there were no real issues with the print. There were also no silly mistakes this time around, like forgetting to connect the facial features to something, as I did on an early attempt of the last one.
The finished print is again a little shallow, being more like a dinosaur Play Doh tool than a cookie cutter. This was mainly as I wanted to try it out, before committing to more plastic and a longer print. That said, I don’t think I’ll print them again, although I will update the models to give the cutter more depth, making them more suitable for cutting cookies should anyone else want to give these a print.
Despite this, I should be able to use them to make cookies with a little bit of handy knife work – and I’ll likely work with the wife to whip up a batch at the end of the month. This is because, like many of you, we’re both trying to be good this month, to shed a little weight after the holidays, so no cookies for us just yet!
What’s next
I think I’m done with cookie cutters for the time being, and as I’ve already stated, it’s time to up the ante, moving on to more complicated prints and 3D projects. Making these was a lot of fun, and I would recommend something like this for a first project, given that it’s not all that difficult to pull off, even for a complete novice like myself.
As mentioned, I have been working on an Arduino dinosaur robot project – although it’s very much in the early stages, being more of a long-term project, and is some ways away from being remade in plastic. That said, it’s something I will be spending lots of time on over the coming months and will be writing about frequently here on my blog – it just isn’t all that likely to be my next 3D print.
I’ve also been playing around with Blender, a free 3D modelling software, trying to learn how it works. Part of this was rigging and posing models, with the intention of printing them. One such model is Regina, the main protagonist from Dino Crisis, which you’d have seen on my social media recently.
There’s still a lot of work to do before I can attempt a print of this model – I need to find and add a weapon model to it, as well as work on a couple of accessories and details which were missing from the original low poly model. With any luck I’m able to do this in a couple of weeks, provided I can set aside the time to finish it off.
There’s of course also the Ugobe PLEO project, which I’ve started printing a battery back for, but struggled to successfully print the base part of the model – which needs some further experimentation on settings to get right. This one is certainly a lot simpler than the Regina model, so I’ll likely look to sort and get this printed before I do anything else.
Well, that’s all for now. I had a lot of fun with this project, and my daughter certainly loves these new Pokémon additions to her craft box. I’ll drop a post in a few days on which project I plan on taking on next, but if I had a gun to my head, I’d probably go with the PLEO battery pack – so watch this space for more info on that project, and to see how it turns out.
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