Model of the Week: Your Very Own Pangolin [It’s Like a Armored Anteater!]

You can stop looking for the endangered animal you want to 3D print, because I found it for you. It’s a Pangolin. “A pango-what?” A pangolin. It’s a small, nocturnal mammal covered in protective scales and native to parts of Africa, China, India and Malaysia. Not only is this a 3D printed pangolin, it’s a 3D printed, papercraft-style pangolin, which makes it extra cute and not so creepy looking as a real pangolin.

What do you do with a 3D printed pangolin? Me? I want to print 50 of these, walk down a crowded street, fall on the ground and pretend they’re escaping from my stomach cavity. What? That’s not gross. “You’ll scare children!” Impossible. It’s a know fact that all children LOVE pangolins.

This model was made by Taiwanese designer and art creator, Chen Xuejian (Amao). He learned about 3D printing in 2015 and applied it to his interest in papercraft. Since then he has translated a few paper shape works over to 3D geometry to print them out. The pangolin is the most aggressive of his efforts, creating an articulating body which allows the model to stand, squat, raise its head and roll into a ball.

Amao used SketchUp to model the creature and an Up Plus 3D printer to print the model in ABS with a Z-resolutions of 0.2mm (0.25mm suggested for Cura users). All .stl files are provided.

A lot of people in the comments are raving about this print so really looking forward to this one. You can download the 3D model on Thingiverse or over on MyMiniFactory.

Have a model you think everyone needs? Share the link and details with us here!