I have designed a dragon which prints without supports or need for assembly. Took a while to get the design right and battle with overhang as I didn’t want compromise shapes too much. Aggressive cooling required. The printer used is my Ordbot and the filament a gold 1.75 PLA printed on a heated bed using hairspray as a fixative.
Model can be found on Thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:246198
Pretty snazzy!
Nice. What are you using as a modelling tool?
Blender for sculpting. I also use MeshLab and NetFabb for clean up, shell refinement and completed model scaling (Blender is a great art tool but a bit weak at STL exporting).
Ah yes, I forgot you were one of those blender types 
I never got over the crazy UI when I tried it, but that was years ago and I hear it’s much nicer now. Have you tried Zbrush? It’s amazingly powerful once you’ve got to grips with it.
saw this … signed in just to PLUS ONE … and plus one here again. very nice
Looks great! What kind of things are you running into with the Blender export markets cleanup?
@Louise_Driggers just curious as to why you find Blender weak at exporting Stl’s?
BTW, love the model and I’m planning on printing it for my wife! Thank you!
I would like to make it clear up front that I think Blender is an excellent piece of software. Considering the results it can yield and the fact it’s free makes it awesome in my eyes. Once you get used to the interface, you can create pretty much anything. I wouldn’t use it for precision work alone, (like creating threads etc although you can do that) but it’s not designed to do that anyway:-)
Often Blender produces STLs with errors if the build process is ‘untidy’. If I am experimenting with a new idea or method and I have messed around with a model a lot, it probably means I’ve messed the geometry up too. When I was building a hurricane lamp, I decided to re-model a part from scratch and because I had worked out what I needed to do beforehand, my model was ‘clean’ and without problem. I can’t really blame Blender for this though - even super expensive bits of software like Solidworks can produce messy STLs if your build process is not methodical.
So far, what I have pointed out is user error and it is unrealistic to expect Blender to perform complex mesh refinement when you consider there are whole applications devoted to doing just that. I don’t believe in the Swiss Army knife approach to software because often results in bloatware. However, one thing I wish they would fix is the STL export scaling. In Blender I am free to assign Imperial, metric or ‘in-house’ scaling (Blender units), but as soon as I export to an STL, each unit of measurement becomes one mm regardless. So, I build a model 10 meters high, it will produce an exported STL of 10 mm. It’s simple enough to accommodate for, I just use something like MeshLab or Netfabb to scale up afterwards, but as Blender is starting to provide tools to help with 3D printing and seems to be moving into that area, they may want to rethink this a bit. It’s a small issue in what is otherwise a great program but it made me scratch my head for a while. On reflection ‘weak’ was a bit harsh and it boils down to software purpose more than anything.
Of course, if there is something I haven’t enabled which fixes this, then I will eat my slice of humble pie:-)
I hope your wife enjoys my dragon. Do upload a picture of the print:-)
In regards to the scale, after setting the units to metric, in the field below it, set the scale to 0.001. That will resolve the scaling when exporting.
As for the errors when exporting, do you use the 3D Printing Toolbox? I’ve found it helps me find a number of errors in the file. Also recalculating the Normals helps a bit too 
I was just curious as to your experience as its’ the only software I’m using at the moment, including for precision modelling!
Once printed I will share a photo!
@Tim_Rastall Zbrush looks great but isn’t cheap:-)
@Daniel_Porter
Yes that will work and thanks, but imho it shouldn’t be necessary . I just think it would be nice if I build a model to be 5 inches high, then that is what is reflected in the STL.
The 3D printing toolbox is useful and yes, normals recalculation is something I have used a few times:-). I like to run my models through something like MeshLab though to see if I can get the file sizes any smaller and the mesh more refined. Also, Netfabb and Meshlab are great at picking up on problems I may have missed.
For things like building screw threads or any parts that need to fit together with precise measurements, I would use something like OpenSCAD. I use Blender for the ‘pretty bits’ and then combine the two models. I’ve no doubt this is an inelegant way to do things, but it does mean I can produce what I want with software that costs me no money (except what I choose to donate).
I did use the 3D printing toolbox overhand feature when building this model as I really wanted to create something that people could just print in one piece. That said, my printers are pretty well calibrated (Thank you @John_Driggers ) and I can push things.
In regards to Blender vs STL. It’s because the STL file doesn’t allow the generator to specify a unit, so 1 in Blender = 1 in STL, Which is why you need to do the scalling.
As for screws/bolts etc, you are aware of the Bolt Factory? http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Add_Mesh/BoltFactory
Just need to copy it in to a scripts folder and activate it the same way you activate the 3D Toolbox.
@Daniel_Porter I had worked out what it was doing, I would just like to not have to scale because I am lazy:-) Solidworks can do it afair, but then Solidworks is jolly expensive (and a professional manufacturing tool).
I shall have a look at the bolt factory. For my hurricane lamp, I just needed the threads, so used a library in OpenSCAD (because I knew I could do it in that).
To be honest, I am just so happy I can sit down int he morning , draw/sculpt a model and then HOLD THEM IN MY HAND; feasibly all in one day. 3D printing is the most addictive of all my hobbies:-)
Very impressive!
Wow, that is amazing. Nice job!
Louise thanks for your info on your Blender use. Yeah… I think you’ve hit the proverbial nail… Blender can do anything, but You need to set up a lot of stuff yourself, which makes it unfriendly for some.
Awesome design. I printed one lastnight
THANK YOU