The support struts on the outside of the skull required for 3D printing can be removed after the resin has cured. Finally, they are filled with insulating foam to simulate the brain mass. In the ETH ...

A 3D skull model of the false gharial Tomistoma schlegelii; the bones of the braincase are in colour. The specimen is from the collection of the Zoological Museum, Moscow State University ...

But as luck would have it, surgeons in recent years have been experimenting with a new technique for removing skull base tumors ... their procedure using 3D replica models that were created ...