How We Printed the Corgoň Statue

When a client approached us with a request for a 2.6-meter replica of the Corgoň statue, we knew this wouldn't be an ordinary commission. It was a challenge unlike anything we had faced before — and that's exactly why my wife and I were so excited about it. No ready-made model, no simple file to download. Just a statue, a phone, and the determination to see it through.

From statue to digital model — photogrammetry in practice

It all started in January, in the afternoon, as the sun was slowly sinking below the horizon. We chose this particular time window deliberately — direct sunlight would ruin the even illumination of the sculpture and disrupt the color accuracy of the shots. And in photogrammetry, that's crucial. Every photo must have at least 70% overlap with the previous one, and the color consistency must be as uniform as possible. Otherwise the software simply loses its bearings.

Armed with a two-meter aluminum ladder and a one-and-a-half-meter phone extension pole, we set about walking around the statue in circles. It may sound comical, but this is how professional photogrammetry is done without expensive equipment. Phone up, phone down, shot after shot. In total, we took around 250 photographs.

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Then came the less romantic part — processing. Agisoft Metashape software was given the task of assembling a faithful 3D model of the sculpture from these 250 shots. It took 12 hours of continuous computing. Watching the digital sculpture slowly emerge from the photographs was fascinating. When we finally had the resulting 3D object in our hands, it was a relief and a joy at the same time.

Split, press, watch as the sculpture grows

We couldn't print the resulting STL in one piece — our Ratrig printer has a print bed of 500 × 500 mm. The Chinese software Luman3D split the model into 25 separate pieces, each thoughtfully cut so that the joints would be invisible and the assembly would make sense.

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And then a month of daily printing began. One piece per day. Every day we eagerly watched as another fragment of the future sculpture appeared on the build plate. We kept the client updated along the way — sending photos, showing progress. That interest and enthusiasm on the other side kept us going.

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It was a strange feeling — each printed piece on its own didn't look like anything special. But as we started placing them next to each other, the silhouette of the famous Corgon began to emerge before us. The tribute this symbol deserves.

Installation — weekend after weekend, piece by piece

After a month of printing, D-Day arrived — the installation at the Young Corgoňi Wrestling Center. The sculpture was meant to occupy a corner of the staircase that had until then lived in emptiness. Exactly the kind of place that had been waiting for something striking.

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Over two weekends, we assembled the sculpture piece by piece, right on site. We glued, joined, and fixed each fragment to the wall with mounting foam — so it would hold firmly and stay in place. It was patient, detailed work. We filled the joints, sanded them, and levelled them so that you couldn't tell where one piece ended and the next began.

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When the statue was assembled and sanded, it was time for a special coating. Its purpose was to give the surface the character of stone — not a plastic replica, but a faithful copy of the original material. We applied it layer by layer, observing the structure, fine-tuning the texture.

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The last step was color fine-tuning. We mixed and applied shades so that the final result would match the original as closely as possible. Dark shadows, light edges, the patina of the stone — every detail had to be right.

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A result worth having

When we took a step back and looked at the finished sculpture at the corner of the staircase, it was one of those moments that make all of this worthwhile. The staircase that had been radiating emptiness suddenly gained a soul. Corgoň stands there firmly, proudly — and no one would ever guess it's assembled from 25 printed pieces.

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This project showed us where the limits of 3D printing lie — and how far beyond them you can go when you're willing to put in the time, precision, and a little bit of madness. We look forward to more challenges that will push us even further.