For some time now, I’ve been thinking of making a desk ornament using the Earth. The globe will be printed in full-color gypsum while the stand will be made from laser-sintered black nylon. I might eventually have the stand printed from polished brass, but the $110 price is a bit steep for my limited budget. However, it renders better than the plastic 
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Rather amazing to be able to fabricate that globe in color; isn’t technology wonderful! 
Looking great!
It reminded me of this project:
Thanks for the input, @filibis I’m adding an accessory to my desktop globe …
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It seems to be a summer globe, to judge from the size of the polar glacier.
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That’s actually a cool idea! How did you come up with that?
I’ve always liked the various Earth globes I’ve encountered, so it was only natural to model one. Here’s a reference:
Shapeways (the 3D print vendor that printed this) requires a one-inch hole in the bottom to allow them to clean out the inside. I also toyed with the idea of using two 1/2" holes at the poles for a more traditional stand. However, the single hole seemed better and the stand aligns it a to 23.4 degree tilt and also allows you to pick it up and play with it.
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Wow, that’s amazing! Very creative. How long did it take you to finish this? I’d be really curious on that.
Not very long … about twenty minutes total once I had a good idea of what I wanted. Here’s how the globe was made at 1000:1 scale in inches:
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