Minecraft Creeper Pencil Cup

You are a Minecraft fan and could need a little help to organize your desk? Let's print a Creeper that holds your pencils together.

This pencil cup in the design of a Minecraft Creeper allows you to store your pencils and other accessories while being a eye-catcher on your desk. The head can be rotated and the body is one part to make sure it won't tip over easily. The overall height of the model is a little bit under 16 cm and pencils should be longer than 11.5 cm to stick out.

Printing

The model can be printed in PLA. It only requires support for the area between the legs like it is shown in the picture. The pattern on the sides of head and body are designed for a line width of 0.4 mm and will overlap, so no support required here. All parts are already stored in the correct orientation.

The applications - eyes, mouth, feet - that should be printed in black are rather thin to better match with the rest of the body. In case you have problems printing the thin version that consist of only 2 to 4 layers, the thicker version should be easier and more sturdy as it uses 3 to 6 layers.

Top Layer Orientation

The orientation of the top and bottom layers should be parallel to the sides and alternating for a nicer effect. The light will reflect differently and therefore highlight the pixelated surface better. In PrusaSlicer the setting for this is called “Fill Angle” and has to be set to 0°. In Cura it can be configured via “Top/Bottom Line Directions” by setting the value to [0,90] for the green parts and the thick version of the black parts. In case you print the thin version of the black parts use [0,90,45,0] instead.

When printing the black applications, make sure both eyes and feet have the same orientation so that the top layers are aligned.

Print Settings

These are the print settings I recommend:

• Layer Height: 0.2 mm
• Extrusion Width/Line Width: 0.4 mm
• Perimeters/Wall Line Count: 4
• Solid Top/Bottom Layers: 4
• Orientation Top/Bottom Layers
  • PrusaSlicer - Fill Angle: 0°
  • Cura
    • Head, Body, Applications (Thick Version) - Top/Bottom Line Directions: [0, 90]
    • Applications (Thin Verison) - Top/Bottom Line Directions: [0,90,45,0]
• Infill Density: 20%
• Infill Pattern: Grid
• Support: Required between the legs of the body

Required Parts

Some parts for the Creeper have to be printed twice. Print the amount shown in the list: 

• Color: Green
  • 1x Head
  • 1x Body
• Color: Black
  • 2x Eyes
  • 1x Mouth
  • 2x Foot

Assembly

Putting all parts together is rather easy. You will need a little bit of glue and a steady hand. Finding the correct place for the feet on the body shouldn't be a challenge. Eyes and mouth have to be placed onto the correct side of the head. One side has flat spots that match the contour of these three parts and the orientation has to be right. Have a look at the picture to get a better idea.

The assembly consists of the following steps:

1. Glue mouth onto the head
2. Glue eyes onto the head. Corner with raised section should face the mouth.
3. Glue feets one after the other onto the body. Make sure the black part is aligned properly with the bottom of the green part to prevent that the model gets wobbly. 
4. Stick the head onto the body (no glue needed)

Have fun printing the model and post a make of yours!