Susie The Symmetrical Flexi Starfish

This is Susie the symmetrical flexi starfish!  She is sister to Sally and Lucy.  She's a complete remodel from the ground up, designed to reduce the size and print time, and to introduce a more interesting top surface that encourages your artistic flair in terms of colour choice.

If you are feeling brave you can print three of these at a time if you have a P1S, for example.

An AMS is not needed to get this fantastic circle and spots effect, you just need to pause at the appropriate layers and change filament colour.

I started my journey designing flexi starfish after trying a couple of others and being dissatisfied with the way they flexed; a starfish has five legs and trying to make one flex by cutting it in to right-angled cubes just does not work.  Hence this diamond shaped cut, which works great!

Please note this is a challenging print; you must calibrate your flow rate and clean your build plate thoroughly.  That said, I didn't calibrate or clean mine for a while, and it printed fine with Bambu Basic and Matte PLA :-)

I've included a print profile for a small test print that takes only 20 minutes, which you might want to try first.  There is also an A1 Mini compatible profile, and a separate model for the display stands used on the photos.

Filament

I've used both BambuLabs Basic and Matte PLA successfully.

Colouring the model

For my prints I change colour at the following heights: 4.6mm, 5.6mm, 6.6mm, 7.6mm, 8.6mm, and 9.6mm.

Print settings:

I use a 0.2 layer height and 0.4 nozzle, I reduce the print speed on the first layer to 30mm/s, I set the z-seam to “back”, and orientate the model as shown in the photos.  Z seam to “back” and the given orientation avoids small strings that otherwise can connect adjacent cells.

I hope you enjoy Susie as much as you enjoyed Sally, and feel free to come back and share your colour schemes in the comments!