Giant Skeleton Minifig (10X Scale!)

by ossum

16K12932

Intro: Giant Skeleton Minifig (10X Scale!)

Introduction

The classic LEGO skeleton was always my favorite character when I was a kid.

When I moved into my first apartment with my wife we found one on the floor, missing a leg, so he was placed on the highest shelf in the kitchen, then when we moved to our first house he was brought along, but lost an arm along the way, so I figured I'd better measure him up before while he had at least one of every limb.

The default scale of my print is a massive 10:1 but it has been successfully printed at half that scale (and smaller) too.

Tools Needed
  • 3D Printer
  • Spanner/pliers (to to match the nut on threaded rod)
  • Scalpel/Knife to clean up prints
Material Needed
  • Threaded rod
    • 265-272mm long depending on bending etc.
    • 4mm or less in diameter (M3 is ideal)
    • 2 nuts
    • 2 washers
  • Filament
    • White PETG is my preference but anything will do (please someone make a glow in the dark one!)
    • With 6 vertical walls and 10% infill (on the large pieces) I used about 1.15kg, going down to 4 walls should bring it under a kilo.
  • Glue (I used superglue for my PETG)
Files Needed

STEP 1: Printing

  • All of the parts except the head can be printed without supports (see attached images for orientation)
  • There are two options for the head, one with the face as a recess which can be painted, the other is blank and you can print the supplied stencil to spray-paint it as in my video.
  • Since the parts are almost all cylindrical you can still get a very nice finish at layer height as big as 0.2mm

STEP 2: Assemble

See the video for a full assembly guide

  • Sections of arms are joined with glue
  • Sections of legs are joined with glue
  • Shoulder pins are inserted with glue
  • U-shaped threaded rod holds the whole torso and spine together
    • provides extra strength
    • aligns the vertebrae segments
  • Neck is glued on to hide bolts

STEP 3: Share

MyMiniFactory

Please do share comments and pictures of your make at MyMiniFactory, I really appreciate it

Facebook

I have an Ossum Facebook page where I post my latest projects and a Facebook Group which is a great community of makers who have built and modified my projects.

20 Comments

Aaaecm 2 years ago

I have finally joined the party and bought my first 3D printer. This will be my first big project. I have a question about the "supports" for the head. How do I find out more about doing that? Do I print them ahead of time? Are they part of the print and then I trim them off? Oh, and after the plain white version, I will make a glow in the dark model. My Granddaughter insists! Please advise about the supports for the head.

ossum 2 years ago

The supports are printed along with the main object and then snapped off (usually by hand, but some stubborn ones may require careful persuasion with a blade of pliers)

The supports are generated within your slicer (The slicer is the tool that converts a 3D file, such as an STL, into a set of instructions for the 3D printer, called Gcode).

Have a look for some tutorials for your particular slicer regarding supports, if you are using a popular slicer like CURA there will be oodles of them.

onua5280 3 years ago

The pins for the arms are at a slight angle and for the life of me I can’t figure out how to get them straight up and down again. Can anyone help me?

aloran666 3 years ago

if you use cura, you can select the model and select "rotate" on the left side, there is an option to "lay flat". Im sure other slicers would have similar settings

Extra Fox 3 years ago

For anyone making this at 50% scale, M2 hardware works great. I had to buy mine from McMaster-Carr here in the US because I couldn't find any less expensive resources. The 1-meter long brass threaded rod cost me more than I was happy to spend, but such was my desire to make one of these. The upshot is that I can make more now. I picked brass because it handles bending fairly well, but you definitely don't have to use brass and you probably only need about a 8" (200mm) section of M2 threaded rod to make one at this scale.

ossum 3 years ago

Thats good feedback thank you. I'm sure one could even do it with just glue, but 2mm brass threaded rod is super useful stuff. I used some of it to make u-bolts on my 1:10 Jeep project too.

doodlecraft 6 years ago

This is the greatest thing I've ever seen. I want one.

ossum 6 years ago

Since its a LEGO thing I don't think I'd be within my rights to sell it (I also live in South Africa, so shipping is terrible). There is no problem in paying someone for their time and materials to make one though... just find someone local with a 3D printer.

A1000 6 years ago

wish I had a 3D printer! Any one know how this can be printed for someone in the uk?

ossum 6 years ago

You could try a place like https://www.3dhubs.com/ or just look around for someone in your area who has a printer (there are facebook groups etc). It might be pricey given how big it is, so you might just decide to get one of the $200-300 printers and do it yourself :-)

DIY Hacks and How Tos 6 years ago

This is so awesome. My kids are really into all the lego video games and they would go nuts for something like this.

WiseSageBum 6 years ago

Wouldn't it be fun to surprise them with a 3D printed LEGO lightsaber at some point?

ossum 6 years ago

Thanks :-) I actually forgot to mention that in my description, my final excuse for doing this project was to make it for my 4 year old, he loved it.

inconceivable1 6 years ago

wow impressive plus its lego so dubble awesome!

EtienneA3 6 years ago

This is great, projects like this make me want to have a 3D printer.