With Star Trek: Picard’s third and final season upon us, there’s no better time to dive into the world of Star Trek’s Earl Grey drinkingest captain. This third season is a marked improvement on the previous two and while it’s clearly trading on nostalgia, we can certainly live with that.
To commemorate what’s probably the captain’s final voyage, we’ve rounded up some rather excellent 3D printer designs from both Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Even better, all of these are absolutely free so, not unlike Star Trek’s replicators, you can create them in the comfort of your own home.
Most of these can be printed in one piece and the others require minimal assembly. We printed these on an Anycubic Kobra 3D and an Ender 3 V2, though any PLA or resin printer should do. Or if you’re considering trading up, check out our list of the best 3D printers.
If you’re also a fan of Star Wars, or just space in general, we have you covered with the best free Star Wars 3D prints and best space 3D prints for you to enjoy.
Spoiler warning: You might want to watch the first 2 seasons of Star Trek: Picard before reading any further.
1. USS Titan-A
- Show: Star Trek: Picard
- Download from: Thingiverse
- Creator: FrostyBird
Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard may have got the Next Generation gang back together, but it’s the USS Titan-A, not the Enterprise that serves as the crew’s vessel of choice. That said, as a Constitution-III craft, it’s essentially the Enterprise’s bigger, badder brother. And now, you can have it boldly going –okay, sitting – on your shelves.
We recommend you print this vertically, saucer side down. Use raft mode as the build plate adhesion type to ensure it doesn’t topple over. Also, use tree supports because in this case they’ll be easier to remove than normal supports. The bigger you can print it the better, just be careful when removing the supports. The nacelles (the engine bits), in particular, can break off if you’re too rough with it.
2. Facepalm Picard
- Show: Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Download from: Cults3D (registration required)
- Creator: Rob_Jedi
Star Trek: The Next Generation saw Captain Picard facepalm on multiple occasions, exasperated by either a crew member or the show’s interloper-of-the-week. However, it’s the episode “Deja Q” that went on to spawn the infamous meme and there are no prizes for guessing which near-omnipotent entity had Picard resorting to this.
This printable turns Picard’s gesture into a true work of art and puts it on a plinth for everyone to admire. We’d recommend you scale the base down by around 5% and print it without supports. Picard’s torso, on the other hand, will need printing with regular or tree supports.
You should be able to balance Picard atop the base, or you can use a dab of superglue to secure the two pieces.
3. Jurati’s hypospray
- Show: Star Trek: Picard
- Download from: Thingiverse
- Creator: ThePlanetMike
Jurati’s hypospray, as seen in Star Trek: Picard (season 1, episode 7), absolutely had to be on this list. Why? Because the “replicator” she creates it with is a 3D printer. No, we’re not talking about the similarities between 3D printing and Star Trek’s replication technology – it’s literally a 3D printer!
True, it’s not the only episode where a 3D printer doubles as a replicator, but it undermines what’s supposed to be a dramatic and heroic scene. So, why not take Agnes Jurati’s lead (minus putting yourself into a coma) and print your own hypospray? Print this with the grip facing upwards, and “touching buildplate” supports.
4. Captain’s chair
- Show: Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Download from: Thingiverse
- Creator: ThePlanetMike
Jean-Luc Picard (now an Admiral) may not be doing an awful lot of captaining in his current series, but he’s put in plenty of time on board the Enterprise. The Enterprise D met an undignified end, but you can bet that, in-universe, the captain’s chair is in a museum or in the hands of some private collector. In the real world, it’s apparently the latter.
You can celebrate Picard’s glory days with your own 3D printed captain’s chair. Or, alternatively, put another action figure in the seat, just to mock him. You’ll need to print this with supports and we’d recommend needle nose pliers for removing the plastic from the middle of the seat back.
5. USS Enterprise-D
- Show: Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Download from: Thingiverse
- Creator: outcastrc
Speaking of glory days, you can 3D print the USS Enterprise-D itself. This is the vessel where all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation took place (Oh, and that one movie, but the less said about that the better). We remember watching the pilot episode and grinning as the saucer and body separated, a spectacularly cool sci-fi moment that will always stick with us.
This download lets you print the USS Enterprise-D as a complete vessel or as its component parts. We plumped for the latter, printing it vertically, saucer pointing down, with a raft and tree supports. But, if you want a big shelf-dominating model, printing the parts and gluing them together is the way to go.
6. Q’s business card
- Show: Star Trek: Picard
- Download from: Thingiverse
- Creator: Gertmm
What would you do if a business card just turned up in your house or office? Call the number, maybe? That’s what a few fans did when, during Star Trek: Picard season 2, Q’s business card was spat out of antagonist Adam Soong’s 3D printer. And, as it turns out, this U.S. number puts you through to Q’s voicemail.
It’s a neat touch, certainly, and while we wouldn’t recommend you start ringing every number you see on T.V., you can print your own copy of Q’s business card. It’s as flat as a real, non Q-continuum business card so you don’t need to use supports or even a raft. Though for the best results, we’d recommend you print in high quality mode, with a layer height of around 0.1.
7. Mini Locutus
- Show: Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Download from: Printables
- Creator: Wekster
It may not have figured into every episode and movie, but turning Picard into Locutus of Borg was one of the smartest things Star Trek: The Next Generation did. The specter of his Borgification has never really gone away, and we can just picture him shuddering every time someone mentions Wolf 359.
Sure, you could argue he wasn’t really in control, but, even so, being instrumental in the destruction of 30+ Federation vessels is a hell of a thing to carry. So, why not commemorate that traumatic act of annihilation with just the cutest mini-Locutus?
You can print this little guy in one piece, using supports, or print his individual parts in different color filaments.
8. USS Stargazer
- Show: Star Trek: Picard
- Download from: Thingiverse
- Creator: Monitor42
Who’d have thought that integrating Borg technology into a starship would have a downside? Absolutely anyone with half a brain, that’s who. But that didn’t stop the Federation from creating the USS Stargazer, which shared a name with the first ship Picard captained. It blew up in the first episode of Star Trek: Picard season 2, with the crew saved by Q’s intervention.
Hopefully, the version you print will be slightly less cursed, though with four nacelles you’re going to have to be extra careful when removing its support. As with the Enterprise-D and Titan-A, print it vertically with tree supports, saucer touching the build plate.
9. Combadge
- Show: Star Trek: Picard
- Download from: Printables
- Creator: UnimatrixRed
Star Trek: The Original Series’ flip communicators were cool, and marketable with it. However, we were still glad to see the crew get something that couldn’t just be smacked out of their hands. Like Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Picard features wearable comm. badges. And, while there’s probably the odd washer-related incident, it’s a smart solution.
This printable Picard combadge can, with the aid of a magnet or pins, take pride of place on your own shirt. Or, if you’d prefer, you can mount it on the rather snazzy display stand. Whatever you choose, it’ll happily print without support, though we do recommend you use a raft.
10. Captain Picard bust
- Show: Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Download from: Thingiverse
- Creator: tristangrimaux
What better way to end this list than with a bust of Captain Picard himself? At least, one where he’s not got his face buried in one or both hands. No matter where you stand on the Kirk vs Picard: Who is the best Star Trek captain? debate, you have to admit that the writing and casting of Picard was just what Star Trek: The Next Generation needed. We could have easily got Kirk 2.0, but Captain Picard was worlds away.
Printing this bust is a piece of cake, because it’s pre-split into three pieces, all of which print without supports or a raft. You can glue them together, but if you hold the two halves of Picard’s head together you can squeeze them into his neck hole.
Printing advice
The two things to watch out for, to ensure that these Picard prints don’t go horribly wrong, are speed and temperature. Different brands of PLA (if you’re using PLA) have different minimum optimal temperature ranges so make sure your slicing software is set to the correct temperature.
Secondly, while the faster you set your printer the quicker each model will print, you’ll likely see a corresponding dip in quality. Go too high and the print may fail partway through. So, if you’re having any problems printing these, be sure to check your temperature and print speed. But, barring any such incidents, you should end up with a respectable shelf full of Picard prints.
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