Josh Ajima shared his search for a printable Martin Luther King, Jr.-related 3D model with the Adafruit G+ community, Makers, Hackers, Artists & Engineers. He shared some more details about his search at his blog Design Make Teach here, including a model of the MLK Memorial that you can now download from Thingiverse here (see photo below!):

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a school holiday in the US. I decided to 3D print a likeness of Dr. King to honor the legacy of the civil rights activist. I had recently 3D printed a life mask of Abraham Lincoln from a file published by the Smithsonian. It made sense that I would do the same for Dr. King. A quick search of Thingiverse.com revealed 0 relevant hits. Searches for a selection of other historic figures also gave 0 hits. A search for Yoda gave 66 results.

I broadened my search using both Martin Luther King, Jr. and MLK as keywords and eventually found a model on the Autodesk 123D site by Discovery Outreach. It a simplified model that prints nicely with support. A second model by Autodesk Premium appears to be a remix….

While researching the MLK memorial, I found that Direct Dimensions, a 3D solutions provider, had scanned an original 4′ model of the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial for a commercial. I have contacted Direct Dimension via @dirdim and they are seeking permission to make the high quality 3D scan available to the public. The detail on the scan is amazing. Every public memorial should have a 3D model available in the public domain….

Read More about his investigations, and more links to MLK related models here!