Articulated Night Spirit (Dragon)

Please let me know of any issues. I am very active in this community and usually respond to issues before the next day. There are no current issues with these models now, as far as I can tell. I have tested on all the major Slicers.

8/22/2023 - Check out my low poly remix! I was surprised how good it came out. It looks pretty cool…

https://www.printables.com/model/559094-articulated-crystal-night-dragon-v1-low-poly-remix

WHY?

I have been tweaking and modifying the Spirit Dragon since I started 3D Printing. My daughter loves it, so I spent a lot of time making tweaks and improvements. Once I felt it was as good as it could get, I decided to start making variants. Right now, I am finding unique heads on other models, and plan to add them to my original posting. I will post more variants on that listing, here: Articulated Spirit Dragon (FIXED, rugged, blunted, Alt HEADS!) - V9 by AKinferno | Download free STL model | Printables.com.  

NIGHT SPIRIT

Yes, I know the name isn't very creative. I am particularly proud of this guy.  I think it looks really cool. So, I am giving him his own posting, along with a single variant. If you find issues with the model, let me know. I will update it, in most cases, by the weekend. I won't post other dragon variants here. This one is for the Night Spirit only. All other variants will be on my main listing above.  

When looking for dragon heads, I was trying to find one that didn't have horns with severe overhangs.  One complaint I got about the Spirit dragon was the difficulty printing horns without supports. The lower fins on the Night Dragon had pretty steep overhangs, along with the chin/neck. I rotated it, scaled it, flattened the base, the reshaped the fins so they angled up closer to 45 degrees. Several people posted pics of them printed very nicely. I think I printed them too fast, so the thin frill didn't come out well.  I tried again with an updated model, where I thickened the spines. Printed better, but still too fast. Let me know what you guys think.

‘og’ model is the head directly from the Night Dragon model.  Be sure to print the horns slow! Or they will look like mine, in the included pics.

‘thick’ model has the thickened, textured horns.  I can't decide which I like better.  Tell me what you think in comments.  Seen in the pics printed at 70%.  Also, too fast.

PRINT SETTINGS

• 2+ walls   [I use 3]
• 10%+ infill   [I like 20% weight, but lightning or 0% should]
• .10 layers or above   [looks good even at .2]
• No supports of brims required   [YMMV, I don't know your printer]
• Scaling 70% or greater. Any lower and the links will fuse. If scaling below 100%, seperate the model into Parts and the slicer will not merge the parts, though they may touch. They do touch slightly at 70%, but break away easily. 100% has no touching parts.

ATTRIBUTION

Thanks to sunset, sunset_3d_design and MZ4250 for making and uploading awesome models! Attribution of them and myself required if relinking this model elsewhere.

COMMERCIAL RIGHTS

I purchased commercial rights from sunset3d for the dragon model. So I now have commercial rights to my derivative models. Commercial access provided by joining my Printables Club. I will be adding an exclusive maker coin to show you are a club member when selling the dragons. The club membership will cover all models I create. I plan to make more than dragon variants, but these are what I enjoy making right now.

FILES

Og - The original head, the frills/horns are thin and a little hard to print. If you don't mind supports, it looks great.

Smooth - Thick version of those horns, less likely to fail without supports.

Bumpy - When first making the smooth horns, I thought they looked a little too smooth.  So made them buldge as they “grew”. Think they look good big, but a but repetitive when shrunk.  But variety is the spice of life. 

Let me know if you like them, would like me to try something different. Or especially if you find an issue.  I actively monitor comments and will fix any issues found as soon as I can.

HISTORY

5/7/2023 - Corrected some rendering issues on the OG model of the print. It is version 1.2.  All others render fine, so will stay v1.1. Happy Printing!  

4/11/2023 - Special thanks to Miguel_358621 for finding a fused segment on the model. All models have been corrected, to version 1.1. I actively monitor comments, so feel free to provide feedback, suggestions, or most importantly, let me know of issues.  I will fix them as soon as I can.

I realize it has been a month with no updates. I have plans for this model, just juggling projects at this time. Glad you guys like him.  He kindof killed my plan to try out lots of dragon heads, because I can't find any I like better than this one. 

3/8/2023 - Added ‘smooth’ variant.  Thickened the horns, but left them smooth. Looks closer to OG but prints easier. Shown in the pictures as the green model. 

Replaced head with head from stationary model, made significant updates to head to allow it to fit and be printed on bed surface, made significant modifications to the body to blunt the spikes, correct rendering issues on the arms, smooth and standardize links, correct geometry on the tail and connecting pieces, separated pieces so they properly articulated, many other correction listed on my spirit dragon model.