Earlier this year we were challenged by the popular television program ‘The Gadget Show’ to attempt to break the world record for the tallest 3D printed human. Naturally, not being folk that run from a challenge we said, “YES!”.
Presenter Jon Bentley (really nice chap!) popped over to our studio and we took quite a selection of 3D scans of him in our scanning rig before choosing his favourite pose to turn into the final printed figure.
After spending quite a bit of time with our artist detailing the final scan we ended up with a digital model we were happy with, so we started the long task of printing it in 3D.
The whole print took around a month to complete and is made up of around 30 pieces and over 50,000 layers – each around as thick as a single human hair! Like our smaller 3D figurines we printed big Jon out in full colour using our ProJet 660 printer, so other than disguising some of the joins we wouldn’t have too much trouble making it look as real as possible. We made the model hollow so it wouldn’t be too heavy and we’d be able to move it around without too much trouble. The print itself is made from a composite containing mostly British gypsum then infiltrated with cyanoacrylate (superglue to you and me) to make it solid and bring the colour to life.
The current record was set at 2m so that was the target to beat. The lovely folk at Guinness World Records had arranged to meet us at the Gadget Show Live event to take the official measurement – so we nervously packed big Jon into a large box and set off for the NEC.
The bubbly Yue Xu brought a Gadget Show film crew along to capture the official Guinness World Records measurement and we held our breath while the measuring took place…
… We did it and are now the Guinness World Records holder for the tallest 3D printed sculpture of a human – measuring 2m 5cm!
Finally – we just want to say thanks to a few people for all their help and support during the project!
The awesome guys and gals at FizzPOP (Birmingham’s Makerspace (public open night every Wednesday from 7pm *cheeky plug)) for keeping us going during the late nights, early mornings and long weekends.
The Gadget Show team – Richard, Chris, Anton, Karen, Lucy, Laura, Mark, Gordon, Ben, Tim and of course Jon and Yue for their support and motivation throughout.