Magnetic Pigeon Head is so excited to have turned the cardboard cutouts of the Town of Queen Creek’s mascots into 3D printed statues.
Creating Quail and Cactus
Using the above photograph of cardboard cutouts of the characters as reference, we began by 3D modeling the mascot statues in Blender. Once modeled and scaled, we sliced up the pieces to fit on our printers and began the long process of printing and sorting the pieces.
Fun Fact:
This statue set used 33 lbs of filament and took almost 300 hours of printing.
Once the statues were 3D printed, we embedded the necessary magnets so some of the statue parts are detachable for transportation and storage. Then we started the fiberglassing process. We used multiple types of fiberglass and several gallons of resin to create a durable shell on their bodies.
After sanding, using reinforced filler to smooth the surfaces, sanding again, and then priming, we decided we needed more fiberglass for strength. We started over by adding another layer, then re-sanded, re-filled and re-primed. It was worth the extra effort to do it right, and we are pleased with the results.
Once the statues are printed, assembled, fiberglassed, filled, sanded, and primed the fun stuff begins –according to Lisa– painting.
Using a very cool NASA technology additive, we painted the statues according to the illustration. This coating will allow the statues to remain as cool as possible in our Arizona sun. We also used deep pour resin to create the reflective lenses of the Cactus’ sunglasses, and a magnetized sand-coated base for the Quail was made to give her a more sturdy stance.
A final UV protective clear coat was used to protect the finish, and the statues were ready for delivery!
