3D Scanning at the Sir John Soane’s Museum

The Royal College of Art and Sir John Soane’s Museum in London have collaborated with Europac3D on a ‘Digital Soane’ competition which involved 3D scanning some of the Museum’s amazing artefacts, including the bust of the man himself which sits in one of the main galleries.

With a drop of around 20 feet below the bust down to a priceless sarcophagus and strict instructions not to touch the bust itself or any of the surrounding artefacts, we had a particularly interesting challenge trying to capture all the detail of the bust whilst being aware of trailing wires and balancing on stepladders to reach the top of the head.

Everything passed off without incident thanks to a careful approach and the kind assistance of the Museum staff. We used a combination of Artec Eva and Artec Spider 3D scanners to capture the bust data. The Spider scanner was used to capture the highly detailed text inscription, while the Eva was used to capture the larger smoother areas on the bust. The two sets of scans were combined inside of Artec Studio software to produce and extremely accurate 3d model of the bust in full colour

Sir John Soane (1753-1837) was a London architect most famous for his design of the original Bank of England building, much of which has now been replaced. He was also Professor of Architecture and an Academian at the Royal Academy. His home and office in Lincoln’s Inn Field became a resting place for much of his extensive art collection and in 1833, he bequeathed his home and collection to the nation. More information can be found at www.soane.org