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IndustriesArts & creative industries
Large-format 3D printing for sculpture, art and display
A 7 ft Lemmy for the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas, foundry patterns for life-size bronzes and showpieces for flagship shop windows. We print big, detailed SLA pieces without the heavy build lines FDM leaves, so they need far less finishing.
- Sculptors and fine art foundries
- Museums, galleries and visitor attractions
- Retail display and shop windows
- Film, TV and exhibition prop makers
- Artists, estates and collectors
- 7 ft
- Lemmy, printed for the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas
- 800 mm
- largest single SLA piece, bigger work printed in sections
The Punk Rock Museum, Las Vegas
Lemmy, 7 ft tall
Andy Edwards’ bronze of Lemmy stands in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, the town where the Motörhead frontman was born. We 3D scanned that statue with an Artec Leo, capturing every detail of Andy’s work.
The Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas wanted Lemmy too. What went to the museum is a 7 ft 3D print of him, a copy of the bronze printed on our large-format SLA machines and painted up for display.
- Height
- 7 ft
- Process
- Large-format SLA
- Original
- Bronze by Andy Edwards
Why sculptors print
Better than milled foam, with far less sanding
- 01
More detail than milled foam
Large bronze patterns used to be milled in foam, which loses detail, so the sculptor had to rework the surface by hand. A print keeps the detail of the original, so the foundry takes a mould straight off it.
- 02
About the same price
For the sculptures we work on, printing costs about the same as milling the pattern in foam. You get a much better pattern for the money, and the reworking time goes.
- 03
No weeks of sanding
Most large printers are FDM, squeezing plastic out of a nozzle in thick, visible lines. Getting that to a finish fit for a shop window can mean weeks of sanding. SLA cures fine layers of liquid resin with a laser, so the surface comes off the machine smooth and needs only light finishing.
- 04
Any size, any scale
Scan a maquette or an existing statue, then print it at full size, life size or bigger. Pieces larger than the machine are printed in sections and joined.
What we print
Large, detailed and ready to finish
Patterns for bronze castingFull-size prints the foundry takes a mould from, in place of milled foam. Life-size and larger, cut into sections with the foundry.Read more
Museum and gallery piecesCopies of statues and artworks for display, like the 7 ft Lemmy for the Punk Rock Museum, printed and painted to look like the original.
Shop windows and retail displayBig, eye-catching characters and showpieces for flagship store windows, with a smooth finish that needs only light preparation before paint.
Scaling up a maquetteWe scan the sculptor’s maquette, scale it and check proportions on screen before anything is printed.Read more
Props for film, TV and exhibitionsLarge props with a far better surface than milled foam and no tool marks to fill.Read moreSculpture we have scanned and printed
Jobs we did ourselves, written up with the people we did them for.
What it is printed in
Standard White SLA resin for large, detailed pieces. PA12 nylon on HP Multi Jet Fusion for smaller runs, such as limited-edition statuettes.
Figures and sculpture from our portfolio
Photographed in our own lab, with the machine that did it.
Large SLA for your own studio
Printing big pieces in house? These are the large-format UnionTech machines we supply.
Questions we get asked
Something else? Ring 0330 229 0175 and an engineer will answer it.
Not answered here?
Ask the engineers who run the machines. We answer the same working day.
Why print a bronze pattern rather than mill it in foam?
A milled foam pattern loses detail, so the sculptor has to rework it by hand before casting. An SLA print keeps the detail of the original sculpture, so the foundry can take a mould straight off it.
Is printing more expensive than milling foam?
For the sculptures we work on, printing costs about the same as milling the pattern in foam, for a much more detailed result. Tell us about the piece and we will quote both ways if you want to compare.
How big can you print?
A single SLA piece can be up to 800 × 800 × 550 mm. Larger work, such as life-size figures or the 7 ft Lemmy, is printed in sections and joined.
Do the prints need sanding?
Not the weeks of sanding an FDM print needs. SLA layers are fine and smooth, so once the supports are removed and their marks tidied, a light finish gets the piece ready for mould making, priming or paint.
I only have a maquette or a finished statue. Can you work from that?
Yes. We 3D scan it, scale it to the size you need and prepare it for printing.
Can you keep a retail or brand project confidential?
Yes. Much of our shop window work is for brands we cannot name, and we will not show or share your pieces without your agreement.
Tell us what you want to make
Describe the maquette, scan or model and how big it needs to be. We will tell you how it prints, in how many sections and what it costs.