Articulated Talonflame

Articulated Talonflame

Talonflame #663:
"In the fever of an exciting battle, it showers embers from the gaps between its feathers and takes to the air." ~X Version Pokedex entry

Talonflame is one of my favorite designs from Gen6 and one that I've wanted to model for a long time. I was inspired by the card above to make a poseable model that captures it's beautiful design in 3D. This was originally the pokemon I developed my mechanical flapping mechanism for (which tells you how long I've wanted to make this). However I eventually decided that to truly capture the range of motion that bird (and pokemon) wings are capable of, I'd need a different kind of design. This Talonflame has 6 rotation points across its 510mm (20") wingspan allowing it to extend, fold, and flare it's wings, mimicking (as best I could) natural bird wings. The head swivels and the knees also rotate forward to allow the model to stand and back for "flight mode".

All joints are composed of a "core" and "collar" unit, plus a "lock" unit to hold everything in place. 0mm of tolerance separates the lock and collar units to ensure a tight fit and reduce the chance of slippage. These units have additional wall loops and infill and are oriented on the build plate to maximize strength. Talonflame is a really colorful bird, and that made me immediately think about filament purge requirements. I always try to reduce purge as much as possible, but I took it to the next level with this model. Most pieces are separated into their individual colors (stomach and thigh spots, eye components, talons and feet) and can be glued together. There are only 8 pieces that need an AMS (6 wing sections, beak, tail) and the wings are oriented flat on the plate to minimize the number of layers and filament swaps. As for the gray and red body sections, I was able to separate them but maintain tight enough tolerances that the 3 body pieces could be held together without glue (wouldn't be a bad to add a little to the flat gray faces though).Aditionally, all pieces can fit on the A1-mini build plate. To keep track of all the pieces I've included an assembly guide.

I'm really proud of how this model turned out and I hope it soars beyond your expectations. Happy Printing!