Remember the 3D Printed Castle? Now You Too Can Print Your Own Mini Version for Free

“When I started out, people struggled to believe this project would progress any further. However, I was lucky to get lots of invaluable input and support from individuals from the RepRap community.” – 3D Printed Castle Mastermind Andrey Rudenko

You may recall back in August, a man named Andrey Rudenko made headlines by creating the world’s first 3D printed castle in Minnesota. Using a 3D printer that he created, and a design put together by Misha Tikh, he successfully 3D printed this 3 x 5 meter landmark which garnered him the attention of various world-wide new sources.

Perhaps it was that fact that a man in America had 3D printed a standing building, or perhaps it was that the building was designed so creatively, but whatever it was, it attracted mass attention to Rudenko, who now has plans to next 3D print an entire house. More than likely it was a combination of creativity and the fact that what he did has the potential to change the entire methodology of construction, which put this man on the map. Either way, it was quite extraordinary and well deserving of the publicity it received.

Now, the man who helped design the castle, Misha Tikh, has made a 3D printable 1:25 scale model of the identical castle available on Thingiverse for anyone to download and 3D print for free on their FFF-based 3D printers. Tikh, also a resident of Minnesota, is a self-proclaimed “builder” and “designer,” and he absolutely did a tremendous job in designing the castle that Rudenko 3D printed.

Just like the original castle printed by Rudenko, this scaled down version also includes files for the castle, sans turrets, along with separate files for these towers and turrets. Also available is a complete 3D model, so that the castle can be printed all as one piece, with no further assembly required. For the real castle, the individual turrets had to be put in place by hand after the castle was printed. This took a lot of man power, and Rudenko told us that he would have printed it all as one if he were to do it again. Apparently Tikh felt the same way, thus he is providing others the option to print the replica as one piece or in several pieces like the real castle was.

“It took seven guys and a lot of improvised rigging to lift the largest tower to its location on top of the wall,” explained Tikh.

It should be interesting to see if anyone tries and create their own concrete 3D printer like Rudenko, and then scale this model back up to its original size to 3D print the exact castle that Rudenko printed months back. What do you think? Have you 3D printed this scaled down version of Rudenko’s famous castle? Discuss in the 3D printed castle replica forum thread on 3DPB.com.