How I Designed the World’s Smallest FDM Articulated Turtle We all love minis — they’re trendy, collectible, and satisfying to print. Most of the designs I develop are full-scale articulations with well-sculpted details and refined geometry. But for a long time, I’ve wanted to create a true miniature — something tiny yet mechanically functional. The problem? I was never satisfied with the detail and articulation quality when scaled down. While I was sculpting the standard articulated turtle, an old friend reached out. He uses a 120mm print bed exclusively for research purposes but always wanted to try printing an articulated model. That stuck with me. As I worked on the full-size turtle, I kept the X and Y dimensions within 120mm — though it eventually crept up to 126mm. After releasing the full-scale version, I began researching how to scale it down without sacrificing clearance or articulation integrity. That led me to revisit one of my older designs: the ball-joint links from...
How I Designed the World’s Smallest FDM Articulated Turtle We all love minis — they’re trendy, collectible, and satisfying to print. Most of the designs I develop are full-scale articulations with well-sculpted details and refined geometry. But for a long time, I’ve wanted to create a true miniature — something tiny yet mechanically functional. The problem? I was never satisfied with the detail and articulation quality when scaled down. While I was sculpting the standard articulated turtle, an old friend reached out. He uses a 120mm print bed exclusively for research purposes but always wanted to try printing an articulated model. That stuck with me. As I worked on the full-size turtle, I kept the X and Y dimensions within 120mm — though it eventually crept up to 126mm. After releasing the full-scale version, I began researching how to scale it down without sacrificing clearance or articulation integrity. That led me to revisit one of my older designs: the ball-joint links from...