Comment on Is it possible to 3D scan a motorcycle helmet and make smaller replicas?

squaresinger@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

The scan is the easy part. The easiest option is photogrammetry (here are phone apps for that), but it’s also quite bad in terms of quality.

Some iPhone models have special hardware in there that allow for better 3D scanning (they originally added it for face unlock), which is probably your best cheap option.

You can also get a professional 3D scan, they aren’t that expensive. I’d guess it should be doable with <€100.

The real problem is reproducing this. Most 3D printing technologies only allow for a single color or maybe 4-8 colors at max, with no color mixing.

The only technology that comes to mind that can do full color 3D printing and is somewhat widely available is MJF, but that technology is firmly professional-grade only, and even small prints are really expensive. Also, depending on how small the prints will be scaled to, the resolution of the color texture and the finish of the final print might not be satisfactory.

All MJF prints I have seen so far had a low-saturation fuzzy look to the printed colors.

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