Today I’ve been asked to 3D map and then 3D print an entire Scottish estate! The bloody place is 30 KM/2 !!! I’m not even sure it’s possible!!! But I’m going to give it a go! Have reached out to some industrial scale 3D printer services for quotes! They want a desktop sized model 3ft x4ft ish of the 7000 acre estate!
All this started from me pissing about with Pix4Dcapture and a cheap 3D printer for fun!!!
Give us a shout Glenn if you need some batteries
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or a hand
Time to invest in a LIDAR setup. 
I’m actually investigating if I can just pull in a lidar GIS data set and texture map satalite imagery over top to print that! Wouldn’t even need to visit site!
But the challenge of drone mapping it, just to see if it’s even possible is pulling me!
Sounds like a fantastic opportunity, with more that could follow
I do like a challenge!
The guys that own these places are million/billionaires, they saw the little model house I scanned and printed and said “I want one of the whole estate but bigger”. Course you dont say “no” you go work it out 
and crap yourself!
Right now I’m thinking of scanning the detailed areas with a drone, getting LIDAR for the boring big stuff (hills and mountains), merging it into a combined model. Then slice that model into pieces that I can print on my little amazon 3D printer (20cm x 20cm!) and then glue it all together again into a big model.
THEN… turn that glued model into a latex mould, make some plaster models and paint them… OR get a bronze cast model of the whole estate!
Think they’d go nuts for a bronze estate! I would if I was a billionaire!
Bronze? Cheapskate!
Diamond encrusted gold!
Just seen this on my YouTube page Glenn
Looks like fun to play with!!!
Before DJI came on the scene with amazing quad copters, these were the future! Great effeciency and flight times! In modelling they used to be called “zaggys” I think!
I think the Mavic 2 Pro is probably best suited for the scotland job due to flight time!
This is so exciting! I’d love to land something like this post April once I’m qualified
Is that going to be your payment for the job or more? 
Wow! What a gig! Let me know if you need someone to hold your bag for you.
Use a technique called ‘cold cast bronze’.
You can use anything you like actually it doesn’t have to be bronze, but bronze has a warmth and patina to it.
Basically it’s mixing bronze powder with resin, pouring a thin layer into the mould, allowing it to set then infilling the mould with anything you like, plaster, old nuts n bolts, to give it weight, and pouring more resin over the infill. Glue a green beize cloth to the back so it doesn’t damage whatever it’s placed upon when you turn it over after it’s all cured. Remove the mould and rub over the surface to polish the bronze to a patina.
Someone I knew many years ago made large statues from moulds this way. (Venus de Milo, Lions for gate guardians etc)
A bunch of idiots burgled his work place one night and thinking they gotten away with a load of bronze statues attempted to melt them down.
You can imagine the smell when the resin caught fire and all the metal junk inside the statues came out.
What software do you use for your 3d mapping? My Parrot Anafi comes with a trial of Pix4D, the full version is a whopping £2,000! I’m wondering if there are cheaper alternatives out there
You can get pix 4d “modeler” for £40 a month cheaper than “mapper” which is £200 pm.
There are some open drone map freeware tools you could try?
WOW
Good luck with that Glen
@Brian that bronze cold cast technique is the business! I’m def using that! So little update, the client wants a 2mx1m table top model (now I’ve promised bronze!!! Ha ha).
I’m never going to map 7000 acres by drone so I grabbed some lidar data online for the general area, and I’m going to drone map just the interesting detail like the house and farm etc then over lay it onto the lidar model.
Then, to print 2m x 1m I’m going to need to cut the model into 3D printable chunks, like this house test I did. Then glue together, create a latex mould, then bronze cold cast it!!!
Wish me luck!
Your bed could do with a clean…just saying Glenn 
Oh er!!! That’s all dried pritt-stick! Seems to help detach prints!
Fabulous. That’s exactly how it’s done by making a latex mould and casting a model.
You can buy any type of ‘sintered’ metal powders to mix with resin or even stone to create models.
