NEW DESIGN: Sphynx Mermaid Fidget (#101)

Hey guys! In May, we faced some personal challenges that required our attention (and we’ll be responding soon to everyone we haven’t replied to yet), and also this model turned out to be quite tricky, requiring a lot of testing and adjustments. Because of this, the design release got a bit delayed.

So, we're happy to present to you a design we had to hustle over, dedicated to MerMay—the Sphynx Mermaid Fidget (#101).

This is a fidget model featuring a long, articulated tail with moving fins that can be flipped up over the body, which is a Sphynx cat. The head prints separately and attaches to the body using a SNAP joint.

Head Versions & Eye Sizes

We’ve prepared 2 versions of the heads: one with printed eyes and one with slots for insertable external glass eyes. At 100% scale, it fits 6 mm eyes.

8 mm eyes: Scale to 135%

10 mm eyes: Scale to 170%

In the pre-painted .3mf (Bambu Studio) file, we’ve included 2 color patterns for the cat, and on the 3rd plate, we’ve placed the cat scaled to 170% for 10 mm external eyes.

AMS Coloring Trick

The main colorway version (green tail and purple fins) uses 5 colors. If you are printing this design with an AMS, set purple and black to the same slot in the slicer. In the physical AMS, insert the purple filament first, and once the fins are printed, swap it out for black.

Print Tips & Recommendations

1) Keep the tail solid-colored: Do not color the lower grooves of the tail in a different color! The slicer doesn't handle this well and tries to bridge the overhangs of these grooves in mid-air, leaving the layers with nothing to hold onto.

2) Infill for the heads: Set the infill for the heads to at least 10% (preferably 15%). The ear canal is set quite deep, so with low infill, the top layers won't have enough support. This creates an extreme overhang that the slicer won't warn you about, resulting in a messy print.

Paid subscribers can find the archive with the files for the new dog in the attachments to this post:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/93014918

We hope you love the new kitty and that all the effort put into it pays off!

See you very soon with a new design!