A Reddit post showcasing a 3D printable Massasauga rattlesnake’s rattle caught our attention last week. It’s an excellent model, one that serves both aesthetic and educational purposes, thanks to its enlarged, detail-enhancing design – and, of course, its ability to actually rattle.
Its creator, Lincoln Savi, is the owner and operator of Savi Made, a Windsor, Ontario-based business that creates 3D models of animals and other wildlife. Fish, birds, beetles, frogs, salamanders, bird’s eggs – the models run the gamut, and most, like the rattlesnake rattle, are for sale as STLs on the Savi Made website. Predominantly, however, Savi’s creations are modeled, printed, primed, and painted as commissioned orders.
“[My customers] are usually either researchers or public educators who work for zoos, museums, or conservation authorities,” Savi said, in an interview with All3DP. “They reach out to me via my website, ask if I can make a species, and I decide if it seems feasible for me to do it or not.”
Savi, who has a master’s degree in biology, has been 3D printing since 2017, first using a Tevo Tarantula before scaling up with two Creality CR-10S and two Anycubic Photon LCD resin printers. All FDM models are printed with PLA – the color of which depends on the need for paint or transparency.
“I usually use grey resin or Black PLA for printing anything that’s going to be painted, but I also often use clear resin or transparent PLA if I want part of the models to have some transparency to them,” Savi said. “I’ve found that controlling things like sheen and transparency adds a lot of realism to the finished models.”
His model of an American tree frog is a good example of that, with an inflated throat sac that looks nearly identical to the real thing – a striking print compounded by Savi’s pitch-perfect paint job, and resulting in a high-quality final product worthy of any museum or research lab.
For Savi, selecting projects to take on is typically an interest-driven process. This, he says, keeps the undertaking fun – a fact that shines through in all of the models on the Savi Made website. In terms of the future, he’s toying with the idea of “experimenting with animatronics,” as well as creating a YouTube channel with tutorials for those interested in taking their first steps into the animal-model-making arena. Overall, however, Savi’s plans are less concrete than they are big.
“Currently, the largest thing I’ve done is a three-foot spotted gar for the Toronto Zoo,” he said. “I’d like to someday make something huge like a narwhal for someone with space to hang it on their ceiling.”
To support Savi, buy one of his designs on Savi Made. Or, if you have room for a narwhal, we have a feeling that he’ll take your commission.
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License: The text of "This Redditor’s Wildlife Models are Museum-Quality – And You Can Buy Them" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.