Dragon Coin and Medallion for IceFire Book by Lara Steele

thingiverse

We built these trinkets to help promote my wife's new YA/Middle School Fantasy Novel, IceFire. They turned out really well! There's a "one color" and "two color" dual extruder version. The one color version can also be paused and changed filament at 3mm to get a two color effect with only one extruder. Thanks to grumpyrobot for the original source, and extra thanks for letting us use it. Love the design, it looks brilliant. Also, thanks to Andrew Jackson for the cover design on the book. (Not that it has anything to do with this thing, but Lara likes the cover!) Note that the photos include a Western Style Dragon head coin that I didn't share here. Print Settings Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution: .2mm (Standard) Infill: 10% Notes: I can print 15 coins on a Replicator clone bed, ~1mm apart. Single Extruder Printing is reasonably straightforward. You can pause the z index at 3mm to change colors on the 3mm model for a single extruder. (I also paused it after the 3rd layer to add contrast black to the text, but probably most folks don't care about the text, and then a couple layers later to change back). If you want two colors and resize the single extruder version, consider stretching the X & Y but not Z to preserve the ability to pause the z-index at 3mm to change colors. The Coin and Medallion are both designed with the same height so that you can print both and change the color at 3mm in the same run. Dual Extruder Put both base & accent STLs in the same build. They should nest neatly. Don't let it move the accent to the bed, it's supposed to be in the air! Pick one color for each and go for it! I did NOT use the purge walls so that I could fit 2 or 3 more coins on at once, and it worked for me that way. Don't Forget ... to check out Lara's YA/Middle school Fantasy novel, IceFire! Post-Printing Lara also painted a few of them. The first test ones I only ran in one color gray, so she painted those to make them more interesting. Unfortunately she gave them away, but they looked great! To paint first stick a primer on them, we used cheap Fred Meyer primer like we do for Warhammer models, then she used her WH 40K paints. Attachments You can stick a ribbon through the medallion loop, and we've glued safety pins to the back so we can wear the coin. Use your Imagination! Don't Forget ... Lara would really like people to read her book! IceFire! Oh, and great reviews are cool too! How I Designed This Thanks again to grumpyrobot for the wonderful original source! Blender doesn't seem to always export STL well, so the files needed repaired, with 3D Builder did for me. I also scaled it so I could switch colors at the 3mm level. Took them to Rose City Comic Con and people loved them, but we didn't have anything to tie in the book. Adding the text to the bottom (to promote Lara's IceFire book) was reasonably straightforward, and the one color version was done! Since we have dual extruders, we wanted to print it in 2 color mode though. The one color worked because we could pause and switch colors (and Lara painted some). So I "just" wanted to split the model in the middle and have 2 STLs. Oh, and provide a little contrast to the text. That simple task turned out to be a serious pain in the neck. Blender wouldn't behave for me, it kept adding strange stuff to the exported STL mesh. Sketchup did OK, that's how I added the text, but every time I tried splitting it, it crashed! I tried numerous different things and mucked with it for hours, but couldn't get it to behave. Finally a friend aka SavageCreature helped me split it, and I also found that Microsoft's 3D Builder could split it without trouble. After that assistance I managed to get the dual extruder model finished reasonably simply. The two sections set apart from each other. Lara Steele's IceFire Cover (art by Andrew Jackson)