Summary

I sliced the Birth of Pegasus model posted by artec3d for easier printing. The original model is created from a scan of the sculpture by artist Alexander Bourganov. There is more information on the original page.

Instructions

My goal was to slice the model into as few parts as possible to enable printing without support. I spent a while looking at the different parts of the sculpture to see how I could minimize overhangs. Ultimately, I cut the base/pedestal into a separate piece, and then the main sculpture into two pieces.

Note that the cut is at a bit of an angle to the "face" of the sculpture. It was necessary to reduce overhangs.

Print the three parts, scaling if desired.

Even in PLA, the the bottoms warped a little bit. I ended up sanding down the mating faces and it helped a lot.

Glue together. I used super glue for my PLA prints, but you can use acetone for ABS. I tried to align the most prominent features, such as the foot/ear.

I painted the seam to hide it. The white paint actually matched the white PLA fairly well. It is probably worth painting the entire thing, especially if you can't match the color.

When I sliced the model with Skeinforge, I ended up getting a few solid layers inside of the print for some reason. It didn't affect the appearance.

I used a low infill to save time/material, since it is a large print. This had the unintended consequence of causing the front part of the sculpture to be lower density than the back, since the narrower wings has relatively less infill. As a result, the final print is poorly balanced and wants to tip backwards. It does stay upright on a flat surface, but it is far from ideal. I can't think of a better solution than increasing the infill on the front half. I suppose you could model or drill a hole and fill it with something heavy.

Overall, it turned out great and it is one of my favorite prints. Thanks again Artec, Alexander Bourganov and the Moscow State Museum!

Birth of Pegasus from A. Bourganov - Printable