Monarch Butterfly

thingiverse

I found a lovely butterfly .stl in Thingiverse at: Butterfly by ericchf November 19, 2014 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:552835 This design has the base then the webbing separate to be glued together. Clearly Ericchf does not have a slicer that can stop to change colors (or didn’t in 2014). So I then used TinkerCAD to make them into one piece. Then I saw 8ran’s lovely articulated butterfly: Articulated Butterfly by 8ran March 01, 2018 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2810756 I sliced out the central articulation and doubled it then inserted it into the middle of the joined butterfly described above. I used these butterflies to attach to a copper flower I have had for many years, so I also printed blocks for 1/8” copper tubing to be glued on post printing. When I glue PLA, I like to use 5-minute epoxy, then add several drops of superglue on the wet epoxy. Each adhesive has an advantage and results in a bond stronger than the plastic. I printed in Gold Silk and Jet Black PLA filament. All are 20% fill, 0.20 mm thickness. I told the slicer to stop for a filament change at the point where the veining of the wing began.