Belugatastic! Beluga Whale, on an Ocean stand with a fuzzy brimmed top hat. Printed approx 200mm (8 Inchish)

A happy story of overcoming all odds and the wearing of fuzzy top hats:

Friends daughter needed a Beluga Whale about 8" long for a science project. Her mom's attempts at purchasing said Beluga resulted in disappointment... so the 3D printer to the rescue. My search for a Beluga stl resulted in disappointment also. Only Paid stls, $200+?!?!?

Fired up Meshmixer and went to work on a whale.. More disappointment. Wife suggested that Beluga's look more like dophins than whales, anyway. Eureka! Grabbed a good lookin dolphin, (Dolphin for Tabletop Gaming (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2930203) by mz4250 ) cut off and re-modeled it's face and fins...
and added some bulk... Adjusted the body and tail to make it printable without any supports. Wala!

• Belugatastic!

Printed in Hatchbox White PLA https://amzn.to/2SpdzMA

While it was printing I realized that:

• a Beluga needs some ocean....

Enter Ocean in a Box http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1781327) by Alexlarkin ! Cut out a chunk of oblong Ocean, and subtracted the Beluga from it .. Instant (almost) stand! Printed it in Hatchbox Blue PLA https://amzn.to/2Tz1OQY

While the Ocean was printing .. even after adding the eye with black paint marker) (Pablo's Choice - https://amzn.to/2sZSJFl

• I realized the Beluga was not very well dressed.

It needed a Top Hat. There entered the problem of 'How would a Beluga wear a top hat?!?' .. And I stretched and adjusted .. and subtracted the Whale head from a small part of it to sit smartly. (Also added a few bits of modeling clay to give the hat some weight and adhesion.) Printed in Hatchbox Black PLA https://amzn.to/2G5PHYP

Boom.

• Beluga with a Fuzzy Brimmed Top Hat.

In the ocean. Waving Hello (Probably at a Narwhal Baconing.) Hopefully a Science fair 1rst place.

Printed all In PLA. No supports needed on the Beluga. Top Hat calls for supports .. but I printed without and got a Very Nice Shiney Fuzzy Brimmed Tophat. The bug is now a feature. 200/60 .15mm layer, 60mm/s

Noticed while uploading that the Ocean in A Box has a few too many faces ;), a bit too high poly. Apparently it could easily be reduced for faster printing, but I'm including it since it's the one printed.

Edit: Thanks for the observation, Freasy, about the original base! ============ I'm sorry that the file was not optimized! For future prints, I've reduced the mesh of that ocean chunk and replaced the Beluga_base with a new version - it's now 20% of the faces of the original from 66 meg file to 4 meg file, and the waves look virtually the same.

If you enjoy it and want to buy me a cup of coffee: Paypal me, Cheers!