my parents recently bought a sweet, solar-powered, hot-air-balloon, garden ornament. It’s quite sweet, and looks great, hanging on the shed. There was one problem, nobody was in the basket! My dad decided that it needed a person, with a Lego Minifigure not being big enough, I offered to print one. After a few design ideas, mulling through my brain, I came up with Bill!
I started with an idea of making a free-standing silhouette that would stand in the basket. The idea began as a straight edged person, with a hand waving. It turned into a larger gentleman, somewhat like Sir Topham Hatt from Thomas. I made sure the hat was high and the bow-tie, added. I measured the basket and got the modelling.
The end result was this, Balloon-Man-Bill, a happy sky traveller, perched beneath his rainbow-coloured, balloon. It was tight, at first, but with a jig, it sat in, perfectly. I did think I was going to have to re-print it in a smaller size. Nope, it was spot-on! I originally thought it shouldn’t take up the entire height of the chains, but it turns out to have been the a good choice. What do you think? Here is the .obj file, if you want it, click to download the STAND PLATE and BILL.
