Heroes

“… I won’t say a hero, ’cause, what’s a hero?”

Heroes are big right now. Super heroes mostly. Marvel, DC, Star Wars… Our screens are filled with them and looking at the social media feeds we see them coming by regularly. So we printed our own heroes. Not for the first time and  not for the last time. And we like to print BIG! So we printed all these busts on various Stacker 3D Printers with our signature PLA Economy filaments.

PLA Economy is a great all-round high quality 3D printing filament, available from stock. Only available on large spools it is perfectly suited for the maker making large, long or a lot of prints and in need of reliability and quality.

Meet the heroes

We’ll start with the Merc with the Mouth, Deadpool himself:

Printed with PLA Economy Red, 32 cm high

And yes, we have printed Mr Pool before… This 32cm print, designed by David Östman, is nothing to scoff at, but the smallest of the prints we made for this occasion.

Next up: Everybody’s favorite neighborhood Spider-Man was printed with PLA Economy Red as well on the Stacker S4 and it measures almost 46cm:

Spidey was also designed by David Östman, known under his online moniker Eastman (not to be confused with the chemical company). You should definitely check out his collection of amazing designs on MyMiniFactory and give it a try yourselves. The large Jon Snow bust we printed a few months ago was also designed by him.

 

Finally we have the most recent hero: beloved bounty hunter and Baby Yoda’s surrogate dad The Mandalorian:

It took 120 hours and a whopping 3.5kg of PLA Economy Black filament to print this 49cm high statue. This print was designed by Rober Rollin, who – like David Östman – has a terrific collection of super hero, game and Star Wars related designs on MyMiniFactory.

 

Design credits

The amazing designs of these heroes were made by:

 

About PLA Economy

PLA Economy is available on 2.2kg, 4.5kg and 8kg spools only. It is very well suited for the maker who needs quality filament at an affordable price. It is a perfect material for large volume and small series production, made with the guaranteed colorFabb quality that we are known for.

PLA Economy is now available in six of the most popular colors. ColorFabb PLA Economy is not a standard PLA. It has been modified for better layer adhesion and flow properties to get better performance over other basic PLA filaments. Because it’s made with the same processing technology used for other premium colorFabb products, this PLA Economy will be just as reliable.

Not sure if our big spools fit on your printer? Check out the dimensions here or print XL your own spool holder!

 

nGen_LUX on Ultimaker S5

In December we published that the base material of our widely popular nGen 3D printing filament, Eastman Amphora AM3300, had been added to the Ultimaker Market Place. In the Market Place Ultimaker users can download print profiles for tested filaments. We already added woodFill, Color on Demand PLA and XT-CF20 (more about that here) and were glad to have AM3300 added so the all-round nGen was part of the family as well. Read the full posts below:

Some testing over the Christmas holiday found that the amazing nGen_LUX prints excellent with the AM3300 settings as well! And we could not resist and printed everybody’s favorite scoundrel Han Solo with nGen_LUX Diamond Black on the Ultimaker S5:

Design by Toshi Tne: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/art/han-solo-bust

nGen_LUX is a unique development based on our best selling co-polyester nGen, made with Eastman Amphora AM3300 3d Polymer. The excellent clarity of the base AM3300 makes this material uniquely suited for the extremely rare pigment used in nGen_LUX. It is our new standard in how a 3D printed object can look. It is the filament for the users who wants to bring something extraordinary their work. It is the filament that needs to give that added value.

At colorFabb we are always looking to meet our customer’s needs and offer filaments with added value. The aesthetics of nGen_LUX allow for a new step in production and prototyping, especially for cosmetics, packaging, interior parts, electronics housings and many more applications.

Choose AM3300 as your prefered print settings for nGen_LUX

The “Lux” not only stands for luxurious – which is definitely the look of the prints – but also refers to the unit of illumination used worldwide. And light is what makes this filament truly special. The material uses diffuse reflection to scatter light in all directions. For the eye it’s nearly impossible to spot layering, even at 0.2mm layerheight. nGen_LUX allows users to print visually appealing models without the need of post processing. nGen_LUX features all the characteristics of our regular nGen: good chemical stability, elevated temperature resistance (85C) and thus allows users to print creations that are functional, durable, efficient and attractive.

nGen_LUX is the first special filament based on nGen and the second one in our range of co-polyesters after XT-CF20, our carbon fibre enforced filament based on colorFabb_XT.

Quick facts

Material: colorFabb nGen_LUX

Diameter Tolerance: ± 0.05 mm

Density: 1.2 g•cm-3

Glass Transition Temperature: 85C

Printing with the right settings is easier than ever. Download Cura 3.6 and select the right material profiles to start printing right away. The colorFabb materials have been extensively tested by both colorFabb and Ultimaker, ensuring the best possible experience and results. Now this is something you have been looking for.

Click here to go directly to our webshop.

Darth Revan

Earlier this year we launched PLA Semi-Matte Black as an addition to our regular PLA colors we have been offering for years. Our semi-matte PLA filament eliminates the glossy appearance seen on most PLA 3D prints. The highlights on the surface will be less visible, resulting in an overall cleaner and much higher quality look. We came across a design of Darth Revan by COLOR3DJP which was a perfect match for this high quality aesthetical material.

Design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2699572

We made this print on the new Ultimaker S5 with a 0.14mm layer height and standard PLA settings. It took approximately 3.5 days to print.

Darth Revan has been a fan favorite ever since being introduced in The Old Republic video game. Star Wars figurines and 3D printing have been going hand in hand ever since the first Star Wars fan got his or her hands on a 3D printer. This bust is a great addition with a very nice finish.

When developing our semi-matte PLA we’ve been looking for a solution which doesn’t involve fibers to achieve a less glossy surface finish. We did not want to loose the ease of use our PLA and keep print settings and parameters as close to regular PLA setttings. For a full matte finish our XT-CF20 and PA_CF Low Warp do the trick, but they need a hardened steel nozzle to print with. The brand new PLA Semi-Matte Black will bring a new aesthetic quality to our range of PLA filaments.

If you’re looking to upgrade your 3D printed projects to the next level, our PLA Semi-Matte will do the trick.

Left: PLA Economy Black / Right: PLA Semi Matte Black

This filament contains no fibers and prints at regular PLA temperatures and settings. The material is as reliable and easy to work with as any other PLA type material.

PLA Semi-Matte Black is available now. Click on the image below to go directly to our webshop:

XL spools and samples are available as well.

BB-8

We have all seen 3D printed Star Wars gadgets before. Ever since 3D printing took off years ago, Star Wars memorabilia have been printed by the community. Popular YouTuber and avid 3D printer Dave Bagnall (online known as DaveChaos) has taken this to a whole new level by printing a full scale BB-8! When he recently posted on Twitter that he finished the project we got in touch with Dave and asked him for more details, knowing he had used quite a bit of colorFabb filament while making the replica of the beloved Star Wars character.

Dave is a true maker and obviously a Star Wars fan. He was kind enough to share a lot of pictures of the proces with us.

Without any further delay, here is the final result, which is frankly awesome:

The finished BB-8 by Dave Bagnall

For a project of this magnitude, Dave needed a lot of quality filament, which lead him to colorFabb’s PLA Economy. Our low cost PLA Economy filament was used for 95% of the prints.

You can find Dave’s playlist of the build on YouTube here:

We’ll let Dave talk a bit more about himself and the project:

So a little about myself, I’m a home dad and I’m also a Youtuber. My channel is here I have been making videos on Tech for quite a few years. I originally reached out to Ultimaker to review their 2+ printer but I decided to pitch them my grand idea of 3D printing BB8 and they agreed to loan me their Ultimaker 2+.

In July last year I joined the BB8 Builder Club and started printing.

All the BB8 body files are provided by the club, the drive train that I’m working (but heavily modified) on for him is designed by Ed over at Ed’s Junk

I had a few ups and downs of bad decisions (like the time I spent a 1000 hours on a inner sphere only to trash it in favor of an aluminium one) and failed prints but ultimately I finished all the printing spread over 12 months. all in all it took me  a total of 2500 hours of print time and an unspeakable about of PLA. I used the colorFabb Economy while on about 95% of the project.

I worked on the project in bursts as I was busy with my regular YouTube videos and looking after my two children it took me 12 months to finally finish him as a static droid to the tune of £3000 (this figure includes all PLA, material cost of primer, paints, glues, nut & bolts and all the parts needed for the dive)

I have a drive train for him that I have been working on on and off for the past 6 months.

And finally a video showing BB8’s dome working with audio:

BB-8 and his proud creator

We thank Dave for sharing this with us. Don’t forget to follow Dave on Twitter and YouTube.

 

About the filament

PLA Economy is a fantastic PLA grade which we launched in November last year. Initially we released four colors: white, red, black and silver.

Recently added the always popular Dark Blue, which is similar to our very own Ultra Marine Blue that we offer in our portfolio of PLA/PHA filaments.

PLA Economy offers a great value for your money. One spool consists of 2.2kg of filament for a dirt cheap price of a little over € 35 (ex VAT and shipping). It is a different grade than our range of PLA/PHA, but we guarantee the same colorFabb quality. Our filaments are readily available from our webshop.

Here are some print settings to get started:

Adviced 3d printing temperature: 195C-220C

Adviced 3d print speed: 40 – 100 mm/s

Advised Heated bed (if you have one, not strictly necessary): 50-60C

Cooling fan: 100% fan cooling for best aesthetics, this gives best performance on overhangs and small details. For best mechanical performance try printing with the least amount of cooling needed, for optimal layer adhesion.

Or: You can use the standard PLA settings if your printer has these pre-defined and these should work fine.

You can also opt for the PLA Economy Value Pack: order four spools as a value pack and receive an immediate 10% discount!

Buy PLA Economy                                      Buy PLA Economy Value Pack

PLA Economy is very well suited for the maker who needs quality at an affordable price. It is a perfect filament for large volume and small series production, made with the guaranteed colorFabb quality that we are known for.

Low Poly R2D2

This is the droid you’re looking for!

We see a rapid rise of dual extrusion prints: two colors or even two materials in one single print. BCN 3D, makers of the Sigma (one of the highest rated printers on 3D Hubs) and our distributor in Spain and Portugal, was kind enough to send us a new set of 0.6mm full metal hot-ends and take them for a test drive. We chose Agustin Flowalistik‘s low poly design for R2D2 and printed with nGen White and Light Blue.

Design: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/low-poly-r2d2-and-c3po-dual-extrusion-version

After installing & calibrating these we saw great results with nGen on the Sigma. We printed at a 0.2mm layer height at 40mm/s. The bed temperature used was 85C and we kept the hot-end temp at a steady 230C.

Agustin shares a lot of high quality models and is also very good at designing dual extrusion parts. We’re fans of his work! Check out his page and Twitter feed for his latest designs and low poly work!

nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, visual prototyping being one of them! It has become our default, all-round filament for printing all sorts of prototypes and prints just have to look damn good!

nGen is an all-round filament which has many advantages over PLA. The temperature resistance is over 80 degrees C and it works on most printers with a heated build plate.  nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range. With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

Ever since launching in november 2015 (and later in a big way during the CES Show early 2016), nGen has been a bestseller and a material that has been adopted by users worldwide very rapidly.

nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

nGen is available through our webshop and our network of distributors and resellers worldwide.

Death Star ornament

That’s not a moon, it’s a … Christmas ornament. Lighten up the Christmas tree with some Star Wars holiday spirit! A perfect material is our nGen filament and a touch of glowFill.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:117733

Designed by plainolddave (based on an original idea by Galen Erso, but without the weak spot), the files can be found on Scarif itself, aka Thingiverse. There is no need to go on a dangerous mission. Just click the link and transmit the files to your own rebellion stronghold. We printed the ornaments with nGen light gray and gray metallic for the most part and the trenches with glowFill on the Ultimaker 2+ at a 0.12mm layer height.

nGen is a great all-round filament for every day use.

nGen is made from Eastman Amphora™ AM3300 3D polymer. Like colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT and nGen_FLEX, it is part of Eastman’s Amphora range of copolyesters for 3D printing. Find more about co-polyesters, what they are and what the advantages are by visiting our previous blog.

nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range. With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste.

Amphora 3300 has been made into high-quality filament that exhibits advanced overhang ability, excellent looks, and large printing temperature range—empowering large panel of users to create durable and useful items. With the unique combination of a low processing temperature and an elevated temperature resistance, nGen can quickly print creations that are functional, durable, efficient, and attractive.

You can find more information about nGen by clicking here. nGen is available in many great colors.

glowFill was launched over 2 years ago and is part of our range of special filaments. It is a fantastic filament to lighten up these dark, wintery days. Great to make a full print with or perfect to accentuate a print like we made to give it an extra special touch!