3D Printing Dinosaur Skull

My friend Alex and I made this super cool skull with 3D printing and basic coloring skills, let’s check it out step by step and I hope this instructable will help you create your own fossil-looking skull ;D

Thingiverse is an ideal site where you can find or share loads of models for 3D printing. Search [T-rex] and you’ll got different designs.You can choose a whole skull to print or [T-Rex Mask](already divided into several parts) according to the maximum size of the 3D printing machine.

Before printing, you need to use Cura to slice the model. The parameters are for references only.

Patiently print the models piece by piece ,then carefully remove the support and file the surface a little bit.

(If you print it as a whole skull, you can go directly to Step 6.)

Now we’ve come to the most exciting part! When all the parts are printed, you start assemble them together, just like the way the archaeologist deal with their newly-found fossil debris! It’s a good idea to use both sticks and strong adhesive to ensure a stable connection.

When two parts are put together, there’s always a crack. And they're so annoying! So I fill them with putty and use the fingers to smooth the surface as possible. It turned out pretty nice!

[Tip] Substitutes for putty: hot-melt adhesive, glass cement.

Now it’s time to turn our T-rex model to a real skull, paint it in yellowish brown as the base color of fossil, then add some white to simulate the texture of bones. I also added a little dark brown stain to its teeth.

When all the coloring works are finished, it looks just like a real fossil of a dinosaur. COOOOOOL, isn't it？