3d printed kirby figurine
OVERVIEW
In one of my group project classes, the first two weeks were dedicated to giving us a crash course on different engineering skills and getting us oriented with some of the resources available to us for our final project. In this case, we were tasked with designing something in our CAD software of choices then 3D printing it. I decided to design a Kirby figurine in SolidWorks.
SKILLS
SolidWorks, FDM 3D Printing
PROJECT DATE
April 2022
my initial thoughts
I mean, who doesn't love Kirby? In one of my project classes, I was given a mini project prompt that required me to design something using a CAD software of choice
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I took this as an opportunity to create something fun that I could place on my desk. I decided to create a Kirby statue using different images of Kirby through a quick google search for inspiration. Generally, Kirby's body is just a series of ellipsoids with some details for the face. With this in mind, I knew that this would be fairly simple to approach. Kirby makes me think of the video game franchise Super Smash Brothers, so I drew inspiration from this game and made the platform resemble the pattern of a smash ball.
creating kirby's facial features
Kirby’s body is essentially a sphere, and one challenge was figuring out how to get the features for the eyes, cheeks, and mouth projected onto the surface of a curved surface. Prior to this mini project, I only had experience creating features on flat surfaces. For the Smash ball-shaped figurine platform, I create a sketch on the default top reference plane then utilize the Boss Extrude tool to extrude the features out to the needed amount.
The curved surfaces were a little more of a challenge to me. This project made me well acquainted with the Wrap tool to project the details for Kirby's eyes and mouth. First I created a reference plane at the center of Kirby's body and created a sketch for the eyes and the mouth. From here, the Wrap tool was used to project the features onto the surface of Kirby's face. The same procedure was followed to project the tongue and the pupils onto the existing features.
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reference place bisecting kirby's body
sketch of kirby's projected facial features
creating kirby's arms and legs
Kirby is often found with a pose where he is standing on one foot while the other is being held out facing the back, with his hands in the air. One big challenge was figuring out the most optimal way of creating these features.
I utilized reference planes in relation to the origin of Kirby’s body to have the supporting foot in a location closer to the front of Kirby’s body, while the back foot reference plane was created further back. From here, the Revolved Boss/Base tool to create ellipsoids for Kirby’s hands and feet respectively.
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Image from SolidWorks showing the base sketch for Kirby's arms and legs, as well as one of the arms getting set up for a Revolved Boss/Base.
3d printing the figurine
The Kirby statue was printed using a Lulzbot Mini 3 printer. The statue was printed with the bottom of the Smash Ball stage contacting the printer stage. This was the clear choice to me, since any other orientation would involve awkward supports added in to account for sections with significant overhang. Once the print was completed, pliers and a file were used to remove the supports. This was performed carefully to avoid scratching or breaking the figurine itself. The figurine has been a nice edition to my bedroom shelf.