Flexi Squid

This is a cute, articulated, flexi squid. After making my cute worm, (which you should see if you haven't already), I tested my newly learned skills by making this. If you look closely, you'll find that this is the exact same chain (with some tolerances adjusted to make it flex better.

I was inspired by the flexi octopus and decided to make this.

Print Settings

• Printer brand:

  ELEGOO

• Printer:

  ELEGOO NEPTUNE 4

• Rafts:

  No

• Supports:

  No

• Resolution:

  0.16-0.2 mm (I used 0.16)

• Infill:

  I used 20% infill, lightning pattern, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter

• Filament brand:

  Elegoo

• Filament color:

  Any (although if you use black, the eyes will be a bit harder to see

• Filament material:

  PLA

• Notes:

  Any printer should be able to print this (the tolerance is 0.2 mm). All it takes are the right slicer settings.

  DO NOT use horizontal layer expansion. These walls are adapted to exactly fit a 0.42 line width. If you use a negative horizontal layer expansion, you'll find that the walls will be brittle, thin, and weak.

  However, you should adjust the initial layer expansion to something like 95%.

  You can adjust the flexibility of the tentacles by changing initial layer flow and expansion. When I used 90% flow on the inital layer, I got very flexible tentacles, and when I used 93% flow on the inital layer, I got posable tentacles.

Making the Eyes

I printed the eyes in black PLA, and then painted over that with acrylic. Then, I made a tiny white dot with a Gelly Roll ballpoint pen (the only one I could find that had white ink) to make the reflection dots.

I wouldn't recommend painting the mouth, though.