12 Foot Long 3D Printed Spacecraft From the Film ‘Interstellar’ is on Display at London’s BFI IMAX Cinema, from 3DPrint.com:

…All three ships in the movie were created with the help of 3D printing in some way or another. Instead of using pure CGI effects, Christopher Nolan decided that the best way to truly provide a realistic film experience was to rely on miniature versions of the spacecraft for filming, relying on Nathan Crowley in collaboration with New Deal Studios. When we say ‘miniature’, that term is rather misleading, as one Ranger spacecraft model had a length of 46 feet and was large enough for an IMAX Camera to be mounted inside, allowing the filming of incredibly realistic action shots. This was just one of the many larger produced models of this craft.

As the film now opens in IMAX at the BFI IMAX in London, one very special prop from the movie will be on hand. A 1:15 scaled model of the Ranger spacecraft, measuring 12 feet in length and primarily 3D printed, will be on display at London’s biggest screen cinema, in the lobby at BFI IMAX.

Cowley and his team, along with New Deal Studios, relied heavily on the use of sophisticated 3D printers to produce extremely precise details and ensure that this miniature (often referred to as a ‘maxature’ on the set because of its staggeringly large size) would match up nearly perfectly to the actual ship. It was very important to the team that the texture of the miniature version of the spacecraft would look exact to that of its full-sized version, when placed in front of various spacescapes used for filming. Thanks to the intricacies made possible by 3D printing, the film’s effects turned out quite amazing.

For those in the London area who wish to check out this ‘maxature’ used within the film, they can do so from now until November 17….

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Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! We also offer the LulzBot TAZ – Open source 3D Printer and the Printrbot Simple Metal 3D Printer in our store. If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!