Sculptural Scan Enlargement
Fine Art · Sculptural Scanning · Bronze Casting · Foundry · Nashville
Hand-Sized Maquette.
Monumental Bronze.
Same Artist's Hand.
A Nashville sculptor created a humanoid abstract maquette approximately 300mm tall — the scale at which artists work out form and gesture before committing to a final piece. The finished bronze needed to stand approximately 1,500mm tall. Schimmel Engineering scanned the maquette at full metrology resolution, cleaned the mesh to foundry-ready quality, and delivered the files to Duchâteau Sculpture in Colorado. $470, local, one session.
The Challenge
Enlargement Without Losing the Artist's Hand.
Traditional sculptural enlargement — pantographic or hand-built — introduces dimensional error and loses the subtle surface quality that defines the artist's original gesture. At 5× scale, small inaccuracies in the maquette become large inaccuracies in the finished bronze. The texture of the artist's hand, the irregularity of worked clay, the character of the original surface — these are what make the piece.
High-resolution 3D scanning captures all of it. Every tool mark, every surface variation, every intentional irregularity in the maquette is preserved in the scan data and scaled faithfully to the final dimensions. The foundry receives a digital file that is mathematically identical to the maquette — just larger.
The artist requested anonymity. The work speaks for itself.
Original maquette — approximately 300mm tall — scanned at full metrology resolution
The Workflow
One Session. Foundry-Ready Files.
The artist brought the maquette to our Nashville location. One hour of scanning with the Creaform HandyScan Black Elite captured the complete exterior geometry of the piece at ±0.025mm resolution — a level of detail that captures surface texture most scanners cannot resolve. Two hours of mesh cleanup in VXModel produced a watertight, clean STL/OBJ suitable for direct use by the foundry's digital enlargement workflow.
Raw scan capture — full exterior geometry at ±0.025mm resolution
Cleaned mesh — watertight, full surface detail preserved for foundry
The resolution of the HandyScan Black Elite at this scale captures surface detail smaller than a human fingerprint. The foundry receives the artist's hand — not an approximation of it.
The cleaned files were delivered to Duchâteau Sculpture, a Colorado-based art foundry specializing in digital enlargement and bronze casting. Their workflow takes the digital file directly into CNC foam cutting at the target scale, producing an enlarged positive that is then used in the lost-wax bronze casting process. The artist's surface — every mark, every texture, every intentional irregularity — is preserved at the final monumental scale.
The Result
From Maquette to Monumental Bronze.
Finished bronze — cast at Duchâteau Sculpture, Colorado
Bronze detail — surface character of the original maquette preserved at full scale
Project Summary
Scope & Cost
| Client | Nashville sculptor (anonymous) |
| Subject | Humanoid abstract maquette |
| Original Scale | Approximately 300mm tall |
| Target Scale | Approximately 1,500mm tall (~5× enlargement) |
| Scan Equipment | Creaform HandyScan Black Elite, ±0.025mm |
| Software | VXElements, VXModel |
| Deliverable | Watertight STL/OBJ — foundry-ready |
| Foundry | Duchâteau Sculpture, Colorado |
| Scanning (1 hr) | $130 |
| Mesh cleanup (2 hrs) | $160 |
| Mobilization | $180 |
| Total — files delivered | $470 |
| Foundry work | Separate engagement with Duchâteau Sculpture |
Why 3D Scanning for Sculptural Enlargement
The Digital Path from Studio to Foundry.
Sculptors have always worked at maquette scale before committing to monumental work. Traditional enlargement methods — pantographic pointing, hand-building from measurements — are slow, expensive, and introduce error that compounds at scale. The larger the final piece, the more distorted the original intent becomes through manual enlargement.
Metrology-grade 3D scanning collapses this problem. The maquette is scanned in a single session. The mesh is cleaned to foundry standards. The file is delivered to the foundry, who can enlarge digitally to any scale with perfect geometric fidelity. The artist's hand is preserved exactly. The foundry has everything they need to start cutting foam the same day the files arrive.
For Nashville sculptors, artists, and art directors working with foundries anywhere in the country, this is the fastest and most accurate path from finished maquette to finished bronze. One session. Files you own. Foundry-ready output.
Working on a Sculptural Project That Needs Scanning?
We work with sculptors, art directors, and foundries. Local sessions in Nashville. Mail-in available for smaller pieces. Consultations are free.
Start a Conversation Mail-In Scanning