Decorating Carved Pumpkin (3D Printable Models)

You know, everything changes when you have a 3d printer, and pumpkin carving makes no exception!

I think this is a totally cool way to decorate your pumpkin, and it has some advantages over traditional carving:



1. Next year, you can reuse what you already designed/printed
2. You can take advantage of what others design and publish
3. You can have really great results even if you are not a super skilled hand artist!


Now that you are totally interested, keep reading and let me know how it goes ;)

I used Fusion 360 to design the missile and the eyebrows. The other models were designed using Sculptris, which is a free "artistic" 3d modelling software. I think that the horns came out particularly well ;)


The only model I didn't design is the Velociraptor Claw, which I got from Thingiverse.

If you have some experience with your 3d printer, then you won't need this step.

Anyway, this was my printing setup:



• PLA, 180°
• No support, no raft
• 40mm/s
• 2 layers shell thickness
• 10% infill


Before printing, you should consider the dimensions of the pumpkin for which you are printing the models, and scale them accordingly. With this scale, they look awesome on a 40cm diameter pumpkin.
At the end of this step you'll be able to download all of the models.

If you have any doubts, just ask me in the comments.

Before cutting, I recommend to draw on the pumpkin the position of the various parts. This will help you making a symmetrical composition.

Then you can just use a knife and cut the holes. Honestly, my first idea was to carve a little bit the surface and then add the elements from the outside. Instead, I decided to make full holes and push the parts from the inside. This removes the need for glue and I think makes the composition look better, like if everything just popped out from inside of the diabolic pumpkin.

Well, this is the easy part. Be careful not to break the pumpkin! That's particularly easy while you're pushing the horns from the inside...

The pumpkin I had was not particularly big, so the final look was absolutely cool. If you are using a bigger pumpkin, then you may want to add some decoration, otherwise it may look a bit "empty". And don't forget to scale up the models!

It was an interesting project for me, I really had fun designing the parts and, in the end, the result was pretty cool, I think. My friends liked it, so it's at least OK.

If you design more features, let me know in the comments, so I can put a link to your designs on this page!

Hope you enjoy, let me know how it goes the printing :)