My Little Pony – Rainbow Dash

For the six year old’s birthday, I decided to print and assemble all of the Mane Six from My Little Pony, based on the models by plenet. The models are fantastically designed, but while the body of each of the ponies is easy to print, the manes and tails are a minor nightmare. It took half a dozen test prints before I found a working solution, involving the experimental Tree Supports introduced in Cura 3.2.

The body for Rainbow Dash was fairly easy to print:

After working out the details on how to print the mane and tail, the final assembly was just in time for the six year old’s birthday, with the glue drying only a few hours before presents were unwrapped.

Completed Rainbow Dash:

The mane and tail for Rainbow Dash are fairly complex, detailed in their surfaces, and moderately fragile. Most of the mane pieces were printed upside down, except fo the pink mane, which was rotated 75° around the X axis before printing.

  • Source: Rainbow Dash – MLP:FIM
  • Maker: plenet
  • License: Creative Commons – Attribution – Share Alike
  • Model: All Files
  • Material:
    • Body: Inland Turquoise PLA 1.75mm
    • Mane Blue: Inland Egyptian Blue PLA 1.75mm
    • Mane Green: Inland Peak Green PLA 1.75mm
    • Mane Orange: Tianse Orange PLA 1.75mm
    • Mane Pink: Inland Ping PLA 1.75mm
    • Mane Red: Hatchbox Red PLA 1.75mm
    • Mane Yellow: Inland Dandelion PLA 1.75mm
    • Tail Blue: Inland Egyptian Blue PLA 1.75mm
    • Tail Green: Inland Peak Green PLA 1.75mm
    • Tail Orange: Tianse Orange PLA 1.75mm
    • Tail Red: Hatchbox Red PLA 1.75mm
    • Tail Yellow: Inland Dandelion PLA 1.75mm
    • Eyes: Prusa White PLA 1.75mm
  • Scale: 250%
  • Print Date: 2018/02/07 – 2018/03/22
  • Assembly Time: 3 hours
  • Print Time: 31 hours 40 minutes
    • Body: 18 hours 47 minutes
    • Mane Blue: 38 minutes
    • Mane Green: 32 minutes
    • Mane Orange: 1 hour 29 minutes
    • Mane Pink: 45 minutes
    • Mane Red: 1 hour 21 minutes
    • Mane Yellow: 1 hour
    • Tail Blue: 1 hour 15 minutes
    • Tail Green: 1 hour 52 minutes
    • Tail Orange: 53 minutes
    • Tail Red: 53 minutes
    • Tail Yellow: 1 hour 55 minutes
    • Eyes: 20 minutes
  • Estimated Print Time: 33 hours 33 minutes
    • Body: 20 hours 8 minutes
    • Mane Blue: 40 minutes
    • Mane Green: 34 minutes
    • Mane Orange: 1 hour 34 minutes
    • Mane Pink: 45 minutes
    • Mane Red: 1 hour 24 minutes
    • Mane Yellow: 1 hour 3 minutes
    • Tail Blue: 1 hour 17 minutes
    • Tail Green: 1 hour 55 minutes
    • Tail Orange: 54 minutes
    • Tail Red: 56 minutes
    • Tail Yellow: 2 hours
    • Eyes: 23 minutes
  • Estimated Filament: 31.3 meters
    • Body: 19.6 meters
    • Mane Blue: 0.5 meters
    • Mane Green: 0.5 meters
    • Mane Orange: 1.3 meters
    • Mane Pink: 0.7 meters
    • Mane Red: 1.2 meters
    • Mane Yellow: 0.9 meters
    • Tail Blue: 0.9 meters
    • Tail Green: 1.5 meters
    • Tail Orange: 0.6 meters
    • Tail Red: 0.7 meter
    • Tail Yellow: 1.5 meters
    • Eyes: 0.2 meters
  • Slicer: Cura 3
  • Slicer Settings:
    • 0.06mm layers
    • 20% infill
    • Supports
    • Mane, Tail, Eyes:
      • supports from everywhere
      • tree supports
      • raft
      • raft air gap 0.3mm
      • experimental tree support