Sally The Symmetrical Flexi Starfish

Introducing Sally, the symmetrical starfish!

NOTE Sally now has two sisters, Susie and Lucy!  You should check them out too!

I tried other models, but I was dissatisfied; I wanted all five legs to flex in the same way, which is impossible when they are sliced on a rectangular grid.

Sally is sliced in to diamonds, meaning all five legs are identical and flex the same way.

She is really flexible - she can tuck all five legs under her body, she can drape herself over the top of a glass, she can slither over the edge of a table, and she can curl up in the palm of your hand!  She's also pretty robust in my experience; most of the diamonds are attached by four independent links, so if the odd one breaks over time it is unlikely to have much impact.

There are a lot of small parts on the first layer of this model, so a well tuned printer and clean build plate are a must.  I've printed several on a textured PEI plate on my P1S with no trouble what so ever.  I'll include a second print profile for a test print, which is just part of one leg.  You can print this first to check it flexes ok before going for the full model if you wish.

Print settings

I have changed the z-seam position to “back” in my print profiles, which eliminates the small strings that sometimes connected some of the diamonds for me.  If you still see this issue you can try reducing Travel distance threshold in the retraction settings, as described on the wiki, here: https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/software/bambu-studio/parameter/retraction  I had success reducing it to 0.5mm, before I found that changing the z-seam to “back” was equally effective.

The only other non-standard settings I used were to the reduce the initial layer line width to 0.42mm, and to change infill type.

I have printed in Bambu PLA Matte.

Colouring the model

If you want to experiment with colouring the model, note that the pattern on my print was achieved simply by changing the colour of specific layers.  The identical curved surface on each leg result in the nice five leaf pattern.  I recommend using a lighter colour for the hi-lights as darker colours tend to bleed through lighter ones.