This Week’s Top 3D Printable 3D Share Models: No Naked Ladies!

This week’s top 3D Share models reveal a slightly refreshing change from the world of nude jello wrestling (see last week’s article for details.) In the category of tasteful mild nudity with an intellectual purpose beyond knee-jerk shock value, for this week’s nude selection we have an Imperial Storm Trooper bust that wields much in the way of critical commentary in these frequently not so heady days of 3D print mania. We also have more fun/ctional models: a device to change your water bottles into watering cans; a potato chip slicer; a smashed head sculpture; and, just when the geometry nerds thought they were being left out, a Penrose Triangle comes through for them!

Smashed Head Sculpture

The designer, Bassna, created this sculpture in Z Brush after a trip to the beach where someone apparently built a sand castle with hands about to smash someone’s head in. Cool. Especially since, in this case, it’s coming out of the sand. Well, it could also look cool coming out of your workplace desktop. Available in half and full versions for a 99 cent download, one only wonders if there will be a sequel to this sculpture: what does it look like after the smashing is done?

Bottle Watering Can

I go through phases where I get sick of watering my houseplants. But maybe, just maybe, a cool device like this would inspire me to water them on a regular routine basis and not the fly by night schedule they have grown accustomed to. This looks practical enough for anyone with houseplants and a 3D printer. It’s a 170 x 170 x 160 mm water bottle contraption that changes your old bottles into a nifty watering bottle for all of your neglected houseplants! The design, from Fabricatelab, is available for a 99 cent download.

EcubMaker Potato Chips Strip Cutting Cutter Machine

The lengthy name of this machine alone makes me want one: how redundant can you get? Beyond the enticing name, have you ever had homemade potato chips still slightly warm with your favorite seasonings (garlic salt and dill anyone?) sprinkled liberally on them? It might be time to start! Carl F’s machine will work better if the blade is changed to metal (I imagine so) and this free download looks like a great project for all of your micro-batch artisan potato chip weekend “let’s outdo Lay’s in the flavor category” plans.

Amazing Geometry 2.0

If you don’t want to 3D print your own potato chip slicer, there are still plenty of other projects for you to tackle. One example of other weekend hobbies is wrapping your mind around the im/possibility of the Penrose Triangle. Also known as the “impossible triangle” because its 3 dimensional sides continually flow without end to make a complete shape, the Penrose Triangle is a prime example of an optical illusion. Well, now you can download and 3D print one for 99 cents, and ponder its existence thanks to designer ooscar8. To print or not to print? That is the question.

NAKED TRUTH II – The Beauty of an Imperial Storm Trooper

Bon Garçon’s creations are here to remind us that this technology, like any other, is embedded in material relations of power that should not be ignored in favor of a readily available techno-imperialist triumphalism. I appreciate that in this week’s selection, Bon Garçon has chosen to represent the subtle, classic high-art Greek nude, as a nod to pornographic imagery’s omnipresence on 3D Share and in society at large. His Imperial Storm Trooper motif carries on and says so much with such a small amount of material. The truth? Women’s bodies are always under aesthetic (and real) negotiation: and this is intimately linked to other signifying (and real) chains like guns, money, machines, etc. From the same designer who brought us Imperial Storm Trooper Mickey and Minnie, this time the Storm Trooper helmet tops a classic sculpture. I think I will put this one on my shelf next to my ongoing series of nude jello wrestlers… Merci, Bon Garçon.

The top five designs this week from 3D Share include an impressive array from the functional to the sculptural. Let us know which is your favorite in the 3D Share Models forum thread at 3DPB.com.