3D Printed Faux-Bronze Rancor Statue

My 3D printer has been humming almost non-stop since I got it a few months ago. I posted earlier about the Disney Infinity Jabba that I printed and painted, and I have done quite a number of other prints, both Star Wars-related and not. But this is by far the largest project I tackled. Geoffro is a 3D modeler who often posts things to Thingiverse, and when I saw that he had added this model recently, I knew I had to print it. You can download the model here. It’s available as a one-piece version, which you could use if you wanted to print it off all at once, but if you want it to be large, you’ll want to use the multi-piece version.

I determined that the torso was the largest piece, so I scaled that up as large as I could for my printer (the Dremel 3D Idea Builder). It turned out that I could make it 125% the original size, so I scaled all of the other pieces up by 125% as well. That resulted in a final model that was around 12″ tall, or very similar to the AMT/ERTL vinyl model kit I made a few years ago.

I glued the pieces together and used some Bondo automotive body filler to fill in any cracks. Then I sanded the joints and the piece overall to smooth it out. I attached it to a wooden base, both because it looks nice to have a base, and because it wouldn’t quite stand up on its own without it. I used sand, gravel and pebbles mixed with white glue to texture the base.

Then I painted it using a faux-bronze technique that I came up with a while ago. I think it turned out pretty well. Although you can still make out some of the horizontal banding that is typical of 3D prints in a few places, for the most part the effect is very convincing.

Geoffro apparently has a Gamorrean Guard model in the works to go in the rancor’s hand, and has also designed a Jabba model that I hope will be released soon. I made a YouTube video about making this piece which you can see here: