Earth vs the Flying Saucers 3D Print Project

Now this is what I'm talking about! Here is a nice little 3D model recipe (click this link: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2865997) you can download for FREE from a site called Thingiverse showing a famous scene from one of Ray Harryhausen's more iconic films “Earth vs the Flying Saucers” (1956). Admittedly the film was pretty much a snooze fest (except when the titular alien space craft were on the screen) but it foreshadowed the destruction of our nation's capitol forty years later in Roland Emmerich's “Independence Day”.

Anyway, the download also includes a larger, stand alone saucer recipe with it either raised up on its cylindrical pedestal or with it retracted. The belly ray gun is also included. I should mention that you can scale these object recipe either larger or smaller with the only limitation being what your printer is capable of size wise.

I decided to try out the mini-scene of a saucer plowing into the Washington Monument. I didn't mess with the dimensions so I ended up with saucer roughly 2 inches in diameter and a monument 8 ½ inches tall. The print took a little over seven hours and came out perfectly which speaks to the skill of the designer. At a later date, I may increase the print size by 50% or so but the build time then becomes +25 hours so I'll have to set a weekend aside for that project.

I used gray primer from a rattle can on both pieces and then hand painted the monument a light gray with darker greys around the destroyed areas. The spray painted the saucer a high gloss silver and then came back with a very light blue tint brushed on.

As you can see from the pictures, it came out very well. It may have used fifty cents worth of material (PLA) and maybe ten hours of my time, eight of which was in the print portion of the project. 12/10/18