Meeple fairy light decoration

A string of 10 meeple, which attach to a cheap LED string light set such as from the shop “Flying Tiger”.

Step 1: Buy the lights

Flying Tiger and supermarkets sell cheap, battery-powered LED strings.

• Look for a light string with baubles (or pumpkins, or skulls, …) attached with small, rubber grommets.  It's easy to replace the baubles while reusing the rubber grommets. This set is one example.
  
• 10 lights from two AA batteries will be brighter than 20 lights from three AA batteries. Sets with 50, 80, 100+ lights are likely to be too dim.

Step 2: Adjust the model to fit your lights if required

Print one meeple (merson?) and check the fit, or measure the rubber grommet.  You may need to adjust the size of the socket, depending on the size of the grommet.  You can do this with the OpenSCAD source code for the model.

The model is made in two parts: the outer shell, and the infill pattern.  This is to prevent there being a wall around the hole in the infill where the light will fit, so more light shows through.

Step 3: Slicing

The 3MF file is already configure using PrusaSlicer.  If you re-slice it, note these settings:

• Fewer top and bottom layers (5×0.2mm = 1mm) to allow more light through
• Maximum length of the infill anchor = 0.2mm, to avoid anchors to nothing around the hole for the LED.
• Concentric top fill pattern and a mixture of internal infill patterns for decoration.

I printed using transparent PETG on the textured PEI sheet.  It could be interesting to try the How To Print Glass advice.

Step 4: Colours

My light string is all white, but I coloured in most of the LEDs using a permanent marker pen.  The lights are bright enough for a room in the evening, but not very good in strong daylight.

Credit

The meeple outline is from https://game-icons.net/1x1/delapouite/meeple.html under CC-BY licence.