We were approached by the Organisation that has taken over the running of the Neolithic site in Orkney that is also major tourist destination. They wanted 3D printed models of three of the five thousand year old skulls that were found when it was excavated, the originals were becoming very fragile, hence the models.
The originals were scanned in the museum storage and then after some tiding up of the data they were printed. We did some tests earlier to find the best settings for the print as the gentle slope of the top of the head was a particular tricky area to print well.
The next stage was for them to be painted, and for this we called upon the talents of Jack Hopkins, who made a splendid job of the skulls, painted as they were found, the current darker colouring of the original skulls is due to the years of handling and exposure, so it was decided to show the models as they were found.
