My girlfriend, Samantha, and I have been playing a lot of Animal Crossing New Horizons on the Switch lately… like too much. But with the stay at home order, I honestly can’t think of a better way to waste time!
The Animal Crossing bug has bit us hard enough to want to make our own figurines to decorate the game shelf. Unfortunately, we don’t own any amiibos… but we do own a 3D printer! We found this great model on Thingiverse of one of our favorite characters and star of the game right next to Tom Nook, Isabelle.
We warmed up our FlashForge Inventor II printer and it took about 4-5 hours in total to print out both the figure and the base at the highest detail. In order to polish up the design and get it looking fresh, we sanded it with 220 and 360 grit sandpaper.
Though I managed the printing process for the most part, Sam the real artist took care of the fancy brush work, painting Isabelle to the max. We wanted to do some craft shrubbery on the base, but we decided to go with the flat grass design which is honestly more akin to the Animal Crossing aesthetic. Sam followed Isabelle’s design closely to get the rest of the details and did a swell job mixing the colors just right. She looks just like the real thing!
We don’t normally use our printer for more decorative things as to not waste PLA on doodads we might get tired of, but I think think this one is a keeper.
By the way, let me know if you’re interested in visiting our island, Ohana. I’m a bit picky with who we send our friend codes to, but I could be persuaded otherwise.