Behind the Design: Meet the Man Behind the Props— Kirby Downey

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If you can dream it, you can design it— and make it. That’s pretty much Kirby Downey’s design philosophy since discovering SOLIDWORKS and 3D printing in 2009. Kirby has received acclaim for his 3D-printed designs of video game props over the years, and has worked with video game companies, including PlayStation, Bethesda Game Studios, and Activision. You’ve likely seen his work as he’s been featured on the SOLIDWORKS blog and is a SOLIDWORKS Champion who runs the London SOLIDWORKS User Group – London SWUG. Sound familiar?

Kirby with a portal gun he designed and 3D printed.

 

If not, meet Kirby Downey, a designer and maker who has a passion for 3D printing and design and sharing his knowledge with others.

Before I discuss Kirby’s journey with SOLIDWORKS, here are some things you may or may not know about him:

  • He’s from South Africa.
  • Growing up, he wanted to be a pilot.
  • He is a self-taught SOLIDWORKS user.
  • He loves SOLIDWORKS, often spending Friday nights working on projects with friends and learning from each other.
  • His favorite SOLIDWORKS feature is surfacing.
  • He holds a Guinness World record.
  • His website has more than 9 million views.
  • His YouTube channel has over 1 million views.
  • He enjoys doing cross-stitch to relax while watching TV.
  • His favorite game is Red Dead Redemption, but his guilty pleasure is Minecraft.
  • His favorite show is The Simpsons, and he has a tattoo to prove it.
  • He listens to metal and punk rock music.
  • He runs The CORE podcast with Jonny Harrison.
  • He doesn’t have a 3D printer at home now that he has access to industrial-sized printers at work.
  • He is licensed to sail yachts on the open ocean.
  • He got a 100% in surfacing on the SOLIDWORKS CAD Design Professional (CSWP) exam.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane to learn more about the man behind the props.

Growing up, Kirby wanted to be a pilot. He still does. He’s got a home flight simulation setup he uses to work on his flying skills. “I’ve always had an interest in aviation and aircraft, but not just flying them, also the mechanical side of things, how things work in terms of the mechanisms, and how the landing gear folds out. I was always fascinated watching a plane take off, thinking to myself, ‘how do they take those big wheels and actually make them fold up?’”

Kirby flying in a professional flight simulator.

 

Kirby was also a fan of LEGO, and he continues to embrace his childhood, building and making things with his hands.

Kirby’s introduction to design and 3D printing started in 2009 while studying industrial and product design at the Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa. The university had a lab with a 3D printer, where “I realized whatever I make on screen, I can make in real life—I can make whatever I want,” he said.

Kirby’s first 3D-printed design of a mechanical character designed in SOLIDWORKS.

 

To fulfill his vision, Kirby uses SOLIDWORKS. He is a self-taught SOLIDWORKS user who was introduced to the software by a buddy who was studying mechanical engineering. The university was using NX software, which Kirby said was “over the top complicated,” so he started using the student version of SOLIDWORKS, and his professors were impressed with his renderings, and the school started using SOLIDWORKS in their curriculum the following year.

Once he discovered SOLIDWORKS, Kirby said he was fixated on learning how to use it. “I was a student. I had all the time to mess around and play around, and it was what I would call a hyper fixation, like an ADHD trait. Here’s this tool that I really like, and I want to be the best in it.”

His fixation turned him into a SOLIDWORKS whiz kid, as he could get most projects done within a week, while it took most of his peers two or three weeks to complete. With that extra time, he helped others with their 3D models, which in turn helped improve his own modeling skills.

Around 2014, after university, he moved to London and started working for a 3D printing company called MyMiniFactory, a 3D printing platform that offers files for 3D printing.

When he saw that the video game Destiny was coming out, a lightbulb went off, and he decided he was going to make video game props. “I thought Cool, I’m going to jump on this trend, and I did, and it was wildly successful.” Not only was it fun, but it also suited his love for video games.

In 2017, Kirby said everything snowballed when he got more involved with the SOLIDWORKS user community. He met Rachel York, a fellow gamer and “massive Destiny fan,” who worked at SOLIDWORKS for the user advocacy team at the time. Rachel was interested in featuring Kirby on the SOLIDWORKS blog, and from there, he started sharing his SOLIDWORKS journey with the user community and was invited to SOLIDWORKS World. The next thing you know is he’s running a user group in London, after being encouraged to start it by Richard Doyle, the SOLIDWORKS user group manager at the time. “I didn’t even know that was a thing,” said Kirby. “I said, let’s go for it!”

Kirby celebrating winning the 2025 Michelle Pillars Award, an award for someone who has made a lifelong, long-term impact on the SOLIDWORKS community.

 

He then left prop making behind and decided, “I’m enjoying 3D printing so much I’m going to make a career out of it.” Kirby is now the Senior Production Technician at 3DPRINTUK, where he manages and assists 3D printing processes, which consist of producing about 20,000-25,000 parts a day using 25 industrial-grade 3D printers.

Instead of props, Kirby now focuses more on 3D printing things for house projects, which his wife is keen on. He continues to work with SOLIDWORKS and the SOLIDWORKS User Group Network (SWUGN) and spends a lot more time advising and giving people tips, showing them cool things he’s done, which he hopes will inspire them for their own projects. He sometimes spends late nights, even Friday’s, working on design projects with others while in a Discord chat.

 

Kirby with his wife Sarah

 

One of the latest projects he was involved in was working with SOLIDWORKS and other collaborators to build a 6-foot-tall, 40-foot-long dinosaur for the 10th anniversary of the SOLIDWORKS Largest User Group Meeting Ever (SLUGME) event, designed and brought to life using SOLIDWORKS and the xApps.

When asked about his go-to tool in SOLIDWORKS, Kirby said he’s one of the “mad” people who loves surfacing, but believes going simple is better. His workflow involves starting with the basic shape of the design and cutting away as if he were using clay or adding and removing material using the extrude, revolve, and fillet tools. “If I need to get fancy, I’ll play around with surfacing.” It depends on what I’m making. If it’s a helmet, I’m going to spend hours in surfacing, creating the shape. If it’s a mount, I’ll probably just be doing modeling.”

His least favorite tool is also, well, surfacing, but he said that’s what makes it fun: “When you get it right, it’s so satisfying seeing your hard work come together.”

Of all the cool stuff Kirby’s worked on, I could see why asking him to pick his favorite would be hard. He humbly mentioned having a Guinness World Record for the largest 3D-printed video prop created by himself and Zac Shing and 3D printed by MyMiniFactory in 2016. It’s a 3D-printed model of the BFG gun featured in the DOOM video game, commissioned by Bethesda for the relaunch of the game. It is constructed from 75 individual 3D-printed components and is so large that it typically requires three people to hold it. The BFG is also the heaviest 3D-printed cosplay prop, weighing 15 kg. It was built for Bethesda for the launch of the 2016 reboot of DOOM.

Kirby with the BFG Gun he designed, which won a Guinness Book World Record for the world’s largest video game prop in 2016, pictured with Sarah Wade who painted the prop.

 

His favorite, however, is a model he did of an Imperial AT-AT walker from Star Wars. This model consisted of 34 parts and was one of his first projects in SOLIDWORKS. Another notable design of his, he mentioned, was the full-sized Bo-Katan Helmet.

 

What inspires Kirby today? Other people. He is inspired by watching others create and seeing how they turn an idea into the final product. This inspires him to create and take what he’s learned to improve his own skillset and hopefully inspire others.

You can catch Kirby at 3DEXPERIENCE World, where he really enjoys coming together with SOLIDWORKS users from around the world. He plans to share his story on how someone with ADHD could use their unique differences to their advantage to help further their career and their personal life. He’ll also be helping with user group activities and filming the happenings of the event on behalf of The CORE podcast.

“I’ve got my fingers in almost every piece of the pie at World, because I enjoy being part of that, organizing things, and arranging. It’s the user group leader in me.”

Check out Kirby’s latest blog “Using SOLIDWORKS and 3D Printing to Design Custom LEGO Wall Mounts,” and visit his website to see more of his work at https://kirbydowney.com/. Follow Kirby on his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@KirbyDowney.

Rita Stange

Rita Stange

Rita Stange was born and raised in New Mexico where their state question is “red or green (chile)?” She is a freelance writer and has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of New Mexico and has been covering design technology including CAD/BIM for 19 years. In addition to the SOLIDWORKS blog her work has been featured in publications including Engineering.com, Engineers Rule, and Albuquerque the Magazine. She is a dog (and cat) lover and her side gig is teaching Zumba Fitness.