The large-scale fabrication work we produce at Blue Rhino Studio has to combine artistry with technical perfection. A prime example is our contract with the Field Museum in Chicago, one of America’s leading natural-history museums. They are launching a traveling exhibit called “Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age,” for which they need life-size replicas of the skeletons and casts in their permanent exhibit.

Our studio’s old way of fabricating a project like this requires hand-carving of gray sculpture foam, working to scale. In this case that might be a 13-foot-tall Colombian Mammoth, considered to be the heaviest land mammal in history. That hand-carving process is basically prohibitive now, due to the recent steep rise in the cost of the foam.

We turned to 3D digital scanning as a way to switch from extremely expensive sculpture foam to an inexpensive material, extruded polystyrene—that’s roofing insulation—that we buy in sheets and cut into 3-inch thick pieces. We start with a hand-sculpted small model—on a scale of one inch to a foot. That gets approved by the Field Museum paleantologists and then it’s ready to scan. The entire figure is divided into about 20 parts for scanning, and each part is assembled from a cluster of CNC-milled strips or chunks.

As project manager, I was Blue Rhino’s liaison with 3D Digital. We’ve had the EScan unit for about four months now and gained some great advantages through using it. Taking scans of the small models is very satisfying, because the individual scans look great and you know you’ve achieved accuracy.

The merges get a little tricky, but whenever I had difficulty I was able to speak with Satish at 3DD right away. I was probably on the phone with 3D Digital about a dozen times. Each time I was able to get my issue solved and continue on with the work. Because of the detail and accuracy we need, I hand-finish the merged 3D file with a software called Zbrush. All the figures we’ve completed and sent over look great. The museum curators have been thrilled with them.

On smaller figures, the time required using the scanner is about equal to hand work. On any figure larger than an average-size horse the time savings using our scanner is dramatic. Cost savings is significant no matter what size figure we’re building, because we’re able to work with polystyrene, instead of sculpture foam. The other advantage we’ve gained is increased capacity. Jobs that in the past we may not have bid because they were too big to complete in timely fashion, we can go after now.

We take great pride in our work at Blue Rhino, which achieves the highest standards of accuracy and aesthetics. Having 3D Digital as a resource helps us run our operation more flexibly and profitably, still keeping to those high standards.

Beth Zaiken
Blue Rhino Studio
Eagan, Minnesota