3D print Nelson's Column
A free, printable model of the tall column, its stepped pedestal and statue, with the paved square, two pools, roads and large buildings around it, generated from real map data in your browser.
Free, in your browser. Exports a slicer-ready 3MF.
About Nelson's Column
Nelson's Column stands in Central London's Trafalgar Square, which lies in the City of Westminster. It commemorates Horatio Nelson, the British Royal Navy officer whose decisive victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar cost him his life: a French sniper killed him there. Construction ran from 1840 to 1843, to William Railton's design, and cost £47,000. The column follows the Corinthian order and is built of Dartmoor granite. Edward Hodges Baily carved the statue of Nelson on top from Craigleith sandstone.
The pedestal carries four bronze relief panels, each 5.5 m (18 ft) square, cast using French guns that had been captured. The scenes are the Battles of Cape St. Vincent, the Nile and Copenhagen, and Nelson's death at Trafalgar. Measured from the base of the pedestal to the crown of Nelson's hat, the monument is 51.59 m (169 ft 3 in) tall. The statue is 5.2 m (17 ft), almost exactly three times the height of Nelson, who was 5 feet 6 inches.
The first stone was laid on September 30, 1840, and the stonework was ready for the statue by November 1843. Plans first called for a column 62 m (203 ft) high, but concerns over stability led to a reduction to 52 m (170 ft). The four identical bronze lions at the base were not added until 1867, and Sir Edwin Landseer designed them. During the 2006 refurbishment, a survey showed the monument to be shorter than supposed, by 4.42 m (14 ft 6 in).
How it prints
Make this print opens the generator on a 600 m square around the landmark. Buildings print at close to true scale, so the landmark grows with the print size.
| Print size | Landmark height | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| 160 mm default | 14 mm | 1:3,750 |
| 200 mm | 17 mm | 1:3,000 |
| 256 mm | 22 mm | 1:2,344 |
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North
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East
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South
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West
- Tall, slender column
- The fluted shaft is long and thin next to its wide base. Print slowly with good cooling, and use layers of 0.12 to 0.16 mm to keep the capital and the statue on top crisp.
- Tiny statue and panels
- The statue on top and the carved panels on the pedestal are very small details. Print friendly adapts them to your print scale; Full detail keeps them, best on a larger print.
- One piece with the ground
- Nelson's Column is joined to the ground in the exported file, and the four-side check found no floating parts, so nothing needs gluing.
- Pick the detail for your nozzle
- In the Buildings settings, set Landmark detail to Print friendly to adapt thin parts and small details to the print scale. Full detail keeps every modeled feature, for larger prints or a finer nozzle.
- Colors
- Buildings, roads, water and ground arrive as separate filament slots in the 3MF. Nelson's Column takes the building color.
- File format
- You get a 3MF for Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer. Any of them can save it as STL if you need one.
About this model
Nelson's Column is one of more than 2,300 landmark models in Mini Skyline. They are made with AI, and each one is checked from four sides in its real surroundings before release. Everything around it is built from OpenStreetMap and Overture map data. If you would rather print the shape from map data, turn off Landmark models in the Buildings settings.
Common questions
Is there a Nelson's Column STL I can download?
Mini Skyline builds the file for you in your browser and exports 3MF, which every major slicer opens. If you need an STL, open the 3MF in your slicer and export it from there.
How big can I print it?
Any print size from 40 mm across. Nelson's Column grows with the print: about 14 mm tall on the default 160 mm print. For a model larger than your printer bed, Project Mode splits the area into tiles.
Is it free?
Yes. Generation runs in your browser, with no account and nothing behind a paywall.
