3D Scan Machan of Sodor's Thomas the Tank Engine Prop Faces

Hi! I'm Covey.

For most of this year, I've been campaigning to 3D scan just about any 'Thomas the Tank Engine' original artefact I can get my hands on.

3D scans are an awesome way not only to preserve one of a kind artefacts, but to make them 3D printable for a huge number of people through sharing those scans online.

My big project earlier this year was to launch the start of a 'face library' of 3D scans of all the character faces I had access to at the time. This can be found here - https://x.com/ThomasModeller/status/1920301786302177469

In the wake of the Prop Store 80th Anniversary Charity Auction, I have continued this push to reach out to as many winners as I can find and ask them if they're open to scanning their winnings. I have had so many great conversations with people that have opened doors to have more artefacts scanned.

Here is one opportunity that has been presented to me. My new friend 'Machan of Sodor' (https://x.com/MachanofSodor) has told me he is keen to 3D scan his collection of 'Thomas' Faces, seen in the first picture of this GoFundMe. We are asking for $1,500 USD to purchase him a 3D scanner so that he can scan these faces and share them with everyone, which is our commitment if the funding goal is to be reached.

We would purchase the scanner upon completion of this fundraiser, and hope to release 10 face scans a month until the collection is fully digitised. It takes 20-30 minutes to scan each face and can be a fairly involved process, which is why we feel the need to space out this release. Additionally, the lot of faces seen in the bottom right of the first photo have been won from Prop Store's auction, and are still being paid off, so they won't arrive in Machan's collection until the end of the year, which is when they will be scanned.

Another benefit to Machan having this scanner is it means any future props he acquires can also be scanned. This is a gift to the fandom that keeps on giving!

I ask that you please support us in this effort! Successful completion of this fundraiser, both reaching the fundraising goal and successful delivery of the resulting face scans will open up more opportunities to do a similar fundraiser for other people with large collections of 'Thomas' props. I hope this is just the beginning!