Customizable Squishy Kirby Figures

I recently got really into speed running old Kirby games, and thought I should make myself some little Kirbys for my desk while I play. This was also an excuse to try out resin printing, since Kirby's round shape is not ideal for traditional 3D printing. These turned out better than I hoped given its my first resin print, and I'm very happy with the translucent color I got on them. These can be made endlessly customizable with their pose and face. This tutorial is a general modeling and finishing guide.

You will need

1. a resin printer (I used a form labs in my university maker space)
2. resin
3. a resin curer
4. access to fusion 360, blender or solidworks
5. alcohol based markers like copics in desired colors
6. pliers
7. sandpaper

Get some reference material. I had some Kirby figures from a blind box toy, but you can use any pictures or renders of Kirby you like in poses you would like to make. I prefer a 3D reference for a project like this, but Kirby has a simple enough shape to do without.

Open up a new Fusion 360 file and click on the Surface tab. In Create, click on New Form.

It should take you to an isolated create screen where you can create a sphere that will be the base of our Kirby's body

First add another sphere to your workspace to be the base of Kirby's arm. Make sure the sizing is right, I used a ratio of 5:2 with the body. Move the smaller sphere to the desired pose for your Kirby, I placed mine just under the middle so he's in a casual standing pose.

Click on the Modify tab and open Edit Form. Click around the side faces of your arm and stretch them out toward the body. You can also bulge out the faces around where the arm will connect to get the orb look Kirby's hands have.

Select the form for your first arm and under Modify, select move/copy. Copy the body and move it to the other side of Kirby. You can keep both arms in the same pose, but I rotated the second arm upwards.

To build the feet, I started with creating a cylinder form in the general height and width i want the feet to be. You can modify the feet in a similar way as the arms with the modify tool, first selecting the end edges of the cylinder and pinching closed for an enclosed form, then pulling around the faces of the form to match the shape of Kirby's feet. I ended up with this shape i was happy with. Remember to flatten out the bottoms of the feet to allow the figure to stand.

move this body to under the Kirby body where you want it to connect

Repeat the copy body tool on the foot and position into a stance for your Kirby figure. Another way to do this would be mirroring the body along a plane perpendicular to the center of your figure. Check the shapes and position of your new friend and make any edits you see fit before the next steps.

Start a new sketch facing the front of your Kirby figure but some space in front of the actual body. Using your reference material, draw out the face you would like Kirby to have. I used the ellipse tool for his eyes and a circle for a cute surprised look. You can make any face you like, there will be more examples later on.

Once you're happy with the face, finish the sketch and in the Solid tab, click on Create and select Emboss. Emboss with apply the sketch along the target body at an even distance rather than along a flat plane like extruding. Select the profiles of the face, I started with just the eyes, and select the body of Kirby as the target body. I wanted the eyes to stick out just slightly, so I chose a distance of .01in.

Make copies of the body, arms and feet of your Kirby figure and position them in different poses. Here I've moved his arms and feet for sitting, squatting, sleeping, and shifted weight poses. I find it useful to look at existing Kirby figures for easy poses that will stand well.

For some poses, you will have to edit the forms. Such as the sleeping pose, I altered the sphere body to lay flat so the figure would sit well on a desk.

Now you have a few figures you like with embossed faces. I made six poses with different faces to try out, From left to right, waving, sitting, blocking, squatting, celebrating, and sleeping.

The next step is to combine all the bodies involved in each figure. Use box select to select all the bodies in a figure and click combine, then ok. This will merge the separate arms and leg pieces into one form to print. I suggest making a copy of each separate body in case you want to make more or edit them later. This is also a good time to name your figures to something you recognize.

Lastly, you will want to scale and position the figures for printing. Using the scale tool, I scaled down each figure to about an inch diameter. This solid figure will take a good amount of resin and so I want to keep the figures small. Position your figures they way you want them printed now before uploading to slice software, since it is more difficult to move bodies other than rotating in form labs software. Remember to check your bed size when positioning in this step

Export your file as an .stl into your slicing software and prepare for printing. I arranged my figures in a 2x3 grid to fit on the build plate and ended up with an 8 hr print with 83mg of resin. I used the form labs clear flexible resin to give my Kirby a slight squish.

After your print you will need to cure your print, but this is not a long process.

Your print will come out covered in supports. Using pliers, carefully cut off supports around the body until only nubs remain. With such a round print, it will be hard to get the supports off. Do not pull off the supports as this will leave indents in your print. This was my first time resin printing and I made that mistake.

You will need to sand off the remaining nubs with sandpaper. preferably a lower grit to start and get off larger chunks and moving to higher grits to polish it off. When you are done sanding, wash off your print to get the dust off and let dry

I had conflicting ideas of coloring in Kirby, paint couldn't be used as it would crack when squished, and cover up the cool clear look. I settled on using alcohol based markers to give a translucent color effect on the Kirby's after the ink dried. I used one figure that did not stand well as a test. I did get a lot of ink streaks, but these were minimized with more layers and spearing ink as i went. For face details i used sharpie and white gel pen for the eyes.

I decided to color each Kirby a different color combo like in Super Smash Melee, with pink, green, blue, yellow, and grey. I used on figure that did not stand well as a color test, then colored each Kirby in with marker, light for the body and arms and a darker color for the feet.

once your marker ink dries you're done! you should have squishy, custom Kirby figures with a cool translucent color finish! enjoy your new friends!