3D Printing a Knight

A while ago we discovered sketchfab, a site where people can share 3d models and other content. It's a great source for both inspiration and actual models/textures. While looking through the many amazing models there, we got the idea to try and 3d print one of them. So here is what we did.

We liked this model of a knight, so we downloaded and rendered it using its textures.

The artist who made the original model probably didn't have printability in mind, so the first thing we did was to change its size to something that fits on our desktop. Next we went on 3dhubs, a site that offers 3d printing service. Before placing an order you can check your model for printability.

There can be problems with wall thickness, non-manifold edges, intersecting faces and boundary edges. As our model was not made for print it had all kinds of problems. We tried to fix as many as we could while also getting feedback from a 3dhubs technician but ultimately we couldn't make it. Here is an image depicting all the problem areas of the model.

While researching how to fix the model we found this service MakePrintable that is specialized on fixing 3d models for printing. It identified the same issues as 3dhubs and we paid 2$ to have them fixed. Here are the issues that were fixed in the process.

And here's what the model looks like before (left) and after (right) fixing it.

Finally we could place a print order. There are different materials to choose from when 3d printing. We went with polylactic acid (PLA) because it's a popular low-priced option. Here's a picture of our print result. If we find the time we'd like to smooth and paint the model in the future.