Astronaut Hex Tiles

These Hex Tiles take inspiration from the hex tiles often shown off by Matterhackers' social media pages as part of their Hex wall project.

I created this project to test out multicolour printing techniques and to create a piece of art that can proudly be displayed.

Test it out for yourself and be creative.

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Prusa

Printer: 

Prusa Steel

Rafts:

No

Supports: 

No

Resolution:

0.2

Infill: 

30%

Filament: Cron PLA Black & White

Notes:

Due to slicing difficulties I was unable to print more than two alternative colours on the low height of the tiles themselves. I may reprint the files at a layer height less than 0.2 mm, or increase the height of the surfaces to be printed.

Post-Printing =============

The tiles are easy to print and can easily be scaled to obtain larger or smaller tiles.

Due to the difficulties that I faced with the slicing (specifically the pause at Z height plugin) I had to colour the lights and the visor of the astronaut using yellow and gold permanent markers respectively.

Other than that no post processing was required. The tiles can simply be laid out on a back plate of your choosing. I am considering fixing the panels to a layer of plexiglass (acrylic) with an LED strip used to back light the tiles. This would create a sci-fi looking effect and allow the stars to appear with a feint glow as one would see looking up into the evening skies.

How I Designed This

The model was created in Fusion360. A design of the astronaut and the background was drawn up on a planar surface. Various features of the design were extruded to different heights which would during printing allow for the print to be paused at a specific Z-height, the filament colour to be changed and the print to continue, inevitably creating a multi-colour layered print.

The design was then broken up into hexagonal pieces by extrude cutting away the hexagonal design.

Category: 2D Art