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 ;)

Step 1: Designing

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.

Step 2: Printing

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.

Step 3: Preparing and Cutting the Pumpkin

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.

Step 4: Decorate

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!

Step 5: Final Thoughts

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 :)