Calidragon 2.0 - The reimagined project

The Story behind this model…

The original Calidragon is a dope print! I really love the original and i printed really hundrets of them… lets say a couple of thousands LoL.

They are the perfect giveaway and hey, it´s dragons! 

Due to permanent calibration my filaments i needed tests and the classic benchy…. nay… it´s nice but not really cool, Dragons are way cooler. But the original Calidragon is missing a couple of things i thought and so i bought nomad sculpt and tried to get my own interpretation of what my favourite model was able to give us. Believe me… im so bad in modelling and sculpting that this first, really printable result, makes me more than proud.

I hope you will have as much fun with this little guy, like i had with the original one that already made so much kids happy! 

Whats new on this?

My own Calidragon was a way harder to print chin. You can use the chin to test the Supports too. Also the spikes on the tail offers a second position for possible stringing. The model itself is a bit more chubby than the original one, so it´s not that elegant but i think it´s a bit cuter that way. 

I tried to match the original look but with my own interpretation. I got a lot of feedback that the dragon had a too spikey tail and parents were afraid of giving them to their children, so i smoothened that a bit out. The Chubby cheeks help showing the gloss of silk materials a lot more. Also you can see if rounded parts get printed as good as they should!

For extended testing of layer strentgh and material strength i also made the horns a bit thinner. The model is meant to be printed without any infill! All the prints i made are completely made without infill!

What to see from this model and how it helps with print Quality?

Most of the parts of this model are like the original Calidragon when it comes to talking about the print quality, but theres a couple of things that are individual. First thing that you have more surface for shiny materials and more positions for overhang printing. 

The hands are small and simple overhangs, the chin is a hard overhang that really only works with good quality filament and autocalibration or if you calibrated perfectly. If you just want a good print of want to test the Support Settings also, there´s a secon print profile for a supported chin. Here you can change the Z-Offset Setting for the transfer layer to test how far away your supports need to be to achieve a good result.

The more surface is not only good for easier ringing and ghosting detection or better shine control. It also helps seeing if your material needs to be dried. In “normal” climate drying of especially PLA is not necessary but silk filaments can get wet, especially in summer cause they have a tpu part.

Also there´s a small Text on the bottom of the model (3 layers high) if you do not change the Settings or scale anything. This should also be printed perfectly and look sharp and even. This idea comes from the original benchy. Especially for people that brand their prints it´s recommendet to see if these brandings work fine. I used 2 different sizes at the bottom, a smaller one and a slightly thicker.

The only thing i was not able to replicate was the structure of the original dragon. I had an idea for cool dragon scales but unfortunately everything i made looked horrible.

Was the original model involved in this?

NO, there was no moment i would have loaded the original calidragon into my projects. This is not a changed copy of the original, but i think that attempt had been much easier rofl … but i didn´t want to make a remix, i wanted something i created myself. So please do not judge me im a hughe Fan of the original Calidragon and will continue using the original one cause i already have my collection shelf. But for giveaways and kids i think this new version is way cuter ;-)

ALSO i will let this model exclusivly published on makerworld…