Gruffalo Characters

We made a Gruffalo, fox, owl, mouse and snake to be used with the book “The Gruffalo." It took some trial and error figuring out percentages to make each item so that they would be the correct relative sizes (i.e the Gruffalo being the largest, down to the mouse which is the smallest) and then ran into problems reducing the size of the mouse. (Click on each picture to see the corresponding web address for the stl file. All files were found on Thingiverse.)

We wanted the Gruffalo to be as big and imposing as possible and made it as big as we could for the size of the printer (70% of the original file was the largest that would fit on the printer platform).

We had to choose between two Gruffalo files – one where there was a large rock that also prints, with the Gruffalo(1) standing on it – and the other where the Gruffalo(2) was split down the middle and laying split side down on the platform. Option 2 required gluing the two halves together, which might be difficult to glue and less likely to hold up to wear and tear. So, we chose the standing Gruffalo – a 13-hour print (5 hours of which were spent printing the rock the Gruffalo is standing on!). If we were printing this again, we would definitely try to alter the rock so that it isn’t so big and time-consuming to print. Otherwise, we were very happy with the result. We found it next to impossible to pry the large flat print off of the painter's tape. We ended up taking all the tape off along with the object, and then adding new tape to the platform.

This was a print that had a lot of printed supports. Jewelry-making flush cutters and pointy pliers were very effective in removing excess pieces of plastic.

Some areas will need sanding. We are not sure whether or not to paint the eyes, teeth and claws. It would be fun to try.

We tried twice to print a standing fox, first at 100% and then a bit bigger. Both times the back legs (very thin) lifted off of the platform mid-print.

We tried a sitting fox (with a larger base) next and this worked better (no supports).

The snake turned out pretty well. But the very tip of the tail lifted off the printing platform. So the tail is a little rough. It might help to sand it.

The mouse turned out beautifully but was way too large (nearly as big as the fox). So, we tried 3 times to reprint it at 70 and 80 percent. However, the piece kept failing to stick to the blue painter's tape. So, for now we have a rather large mouse.

The owl, printed at 60% (no supports), and turned out well with no problems during printing.