This week’s selection is the brilliantly finished Crater Lake topographical model by Australia’s Conor O’Kane.
This print is derived from two different sets of topography data: the land area was obtained by a Space Shuttle mission to a resolution of 30m, and the lake bed itself was described by a separate bathymetric survey.
Evidently O’Kane combined the two sets of topographical data together to form a 3D model of the lake itself and the surrounding terrain.
But then the really interesting stuff happens: finishing.
O’Kane finished the lake in a most realistic fashion. He explains:
After printing I painted the lake-bed area, and filled it up to the correct water-level with transparent resin. Once the resin was set I painted the surrounding landscape with acrylics and inks.
The result is particularly amazing. O’Kane transformed this raw, monocolor 3D print:
To this finished version:
Printing parameters included a 0.1mm layer size to make a reasonably smooth surface, with no less than six top layers to ensure the top surface was entirely gap free and very solid.
I find this model particularly interesting because of the incredible finishing job. All too often decorative 3D prints are left unfinished, but in this case, O’Kane took the extra steps to use several techniques to create a truly beautiful topographical model.
Via Thingiverse
