Napoleon Crossing the Alps - Filament Painting

About the print

I adapted David's Napoleon Crossing the Alps as a 200 x 200 mm filament painting, 1.12 mm thick. The reds, browns, skin tones and greys come from thin layers of filament. Nothing is painted on.

My print used damp filament. A dry-filament print comes out cleaner, especially with dry Translucent Red. I like it lit from the front. It is not a lithophane.

Printer and changer

I tested this on a Bambu Lab X1 Carbon with an AMS.

This is not a layer-swap print. Every colour layer has several filaments in different spots, so the printer must change filament automatically during the print. No pause or manual swap is needed.

Other Bambu printers with AMS or AMS lite, Prusa MMU3, Prusa XL tool changer, Prusa CORE One with INDX, Creality CFS, Anycubic ACE Pro and similar automatic systems should work, not tested by me. They need a suitable slicer setup. I have only included the Bambu project.

File

napoleon-bambu.3mf is the Bambu Studio project. The slots and layer heights are already set. Keep its height-range modifier.

It also opens in OrcaSlicer, which should work, not tested by me.

A plain generic 3MF is not included.

Filament slots

Keep these project slot assignments. Matte Charcoal is the first filament printed, even though it is in slot 2.

Slot 1: Bambu Lab PLA Basic Yellow (10400).

Slot 2: Bambu Lab PLA Matte Charcoal (11101), for the base.

Slot 3: Bambu Lab PLA Translucent Red (13210).

Slot 4: Bambu Lab PLA Basic Jade White (10100).

Substituting a filament can change its transparency and the resulting colours. A different red, yellow or white can shift the layered reds, browns, skin tones and greys.

Layers and setup

Print flat, face up, at 200 x 200 mm. Do not scale, rotate or re-level the plate. The stepped surface is the picture.

Start with a 0.56 mm base of Matte Charcoal, the first filament printed, then use 0.08 mm colour layers.

The Bambu project uses two 0.28 mm base layers. Keep its layer heights and height-range modifier.

In another slicer, use a first layer that is a multiple of 0.08 mm, such as 0.16 mm, followed by 0.08 mm layers. A layer boundary must land exactly at 0.56 mm before the colour layers begin.

Use a 0.4 mm nozzle, 100% infill, 2 walls and no supports.

I recommend a clean, level textured PEI plate. Let the print cool before lifting it.

Keep ironing off, Avoid crossing walls off and the prime tower off, as set in the project.

Time and material

About 8.5 h on my X1 Carbon. MakerWorld lists 44 g: 3 g yellow, 30 g charcoal, 6 g red and 5 g white.

Credits

Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps, 1801, Charlottenburg version. Public domain. 3D adaptation by Goldwin Stewart.