- Apr 5, 2013
- 14,226
- 10,846
I'd call your "building jig" quite well thought out. The progress so far is masterful. A Cat's dream!!
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The Eiffel Project
- Thread starter Tonino
- Start date
Thanks God no animals in my house...
What's the fun in that?Thanks God no animals in my house...
well I'm awake now... ... let's go back to work ...
The main base structure is now almost complete. I should give her shoes now lo let her stand up on her legs.
But there are two problems:
1) the contact points between the base and the "leg" are too little and discontinuous
2) the curve beam doesn't reach the base block where it is supposed to be joined
To front the first problem I realized four squares with the same texture of the base and the exact dimension of the aperture inside the "leg". Those can be joined with the structure much easily putting the glue along the edges and creating a solid base.
Once glued to the base the new added pieces are barely visible.
For the second issue I was forced to create little sections of beam to prolonge the short ones. This is a detail not very realistic but I wasn't able to think anything better
And so this is the point I reached so far. I'm satisfied with the result: I was afraid the thing to be too fragile, the pieces are so delicate... but once joined in this complex structure they form a very light and strong base, just like the real counterpart I think.
The main base structure is now almost complete. I should give her shoes now lo let her stand up on her legs.
But there are two problems:
1) the contact points between the base and the "leg" are too little and discontinuous
2) the curve beam doesn't reach the base block where it is supposed to be joined
To front the first problem I realized four squares with the same texture of the base and the exact dimension of the aperture inside the "leg". Those can be joined with the structure much easily putting the glue along the edges and creating a solid base.
Once glued to the base the new added pieces are barely visible.
For the second issue I was forced to create little sections of beam to prolonge the short ones. This is a detail not very realistic but I wasn't able to think anything better
And so this is the point I reached so far. I'm satisfied with the result: I was afraid the thing to be too fragile, the pieces are so delicate... but once joined in this complex structure they form a very light and strong base, just like the real counterpart I think.
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This is looking realy great I like the way how you fixed the junction with the base block. It still looks realistic.
You are making GREAT PROGRESS on this project! That is a GREAT FIX to the problem.
- Apr 5, 2013
- 14,226
- 10,846
I think (know) we're looking at a future M.O.M. here.
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I concur!I think (know) we're looking at a future M.O.M. here.
Love the fix!
I'm sure that Mr. Eiffel is grinning somewhere in heaven!
Hi my friends, I start this new modeling year with a rich update to my Eiffel Project. Last weeks I was very busy trying to resolve several little problems in one of the most interesting spots of this build. When I was in front of the real thing I was very impressed by the details surrounding the structure under the first platform.
This is a part of the model that, in the Schreiber interpretation, was a little underestimated. It was represented by a flat piece with approximative drawings of the details to give a sort of 3D feeling with little success, in my opinion. This was not enough for my purposes.
To give it a real 3D structure I had to face with several problems. First of all I had to figure how to realize the curved walls that you can see in the photo. Not a complex piece to do but to figure how the walls intersecate in the corners it was necessary to draw the part in a 3D drawing software (a task I'm not able with). My friend Nando was happy to help drawing the walls for me and exporting the shapes in a form I was able to manage.
Resolved the first problem there was another one ready to be examined. The supports with those decorated "curls": how to reproduce them in cardboard?
I first cut the main shapes in a 1,5 mm cardboard (always with a little help from my laser)
Then I put little pieces of plastic rod (2 mm lenght and 0,5 diameter) in the hole previously provided for this purpose and blocked them with CA glue
Then i lasercut the side walls in thinner cardboard (200 g/m2)
The idea was to push outwards the curls to give them the right shape, this way:
...and the plastic rods do the work perfectly...
The thing is taking shape...
This is a part of the model that, in the Schreiber interpretation, was a little underestimated. It was represented by a flat piece with approximative drawings of the details to give a sort of 3D feeling with little success, in my opinion. This was not enough for my purposes.
To give it a real 3D structure I had to face with several problems. First of all I had to figure how to realize the curved walls that you can see in the photo. Not a complex piece to do but to figure how the walls intersecate in the corners it was necessary to draw the part in a 3D drawing software (a task I'm not able with). My friend Nando was happy to help drawing the walls for me and exporting the shapes in a form I was able to manage.
Resolved the first problem there was another one ready to be examined. The supports with those decorated "curls": how to reproduce them in cardboard?
I first cut the main shapes in a 1,5 mm cardboard (always with a little help from my laser)
Then I put little pieces of plastic rod (2 mm lenght and 0,5 diameter) in the hole previously provided for this purpose and blocked them with CA glue
Then i lasercut the side walls in thinner cardboard (200 g/m2)
The idea was to push outwards the curls to give them the right shape, this way:
...and the plastic rods do the work perfectly...
The thing is taking shape...
... and, just to add troubles to my work, I thought it would be nice to add the decorative leaves...
The laser did the hard work but also I had my part: to manipulate and paste those little things was not an easy task with my big fingers...
I thought to be at a good point and ready to do a test paint...
But the worst of the issues is just around the corner... the paint was absorbed by the cut surface, the cardboard has a porous structure in the cut side and the result was horrible... I had to figure out how to fix this...
The only solution was to realize a new front side for the supports, taking the opportunity to adding further details to the front of the "curls"
This way all the surfaces will take the paint in a regular way
Now there is a last thing to do: the plates with the names of the French scientists that surrounds the four walls. The names in the Schreiber model were not correctly written: I found the right form and sequence of the names in a wikipedia page specifically dedicated to this argument. Drawing the plates and exporting them to the laser cutter was not a difficult task.
A little more complex task was to place them one by one along the walls...
Now, after a new paint job and with some touches with a gold pencil to enhance the embossed names, the walls are ready to be mounted in place.
The laser did the hard work but also I had my part: to manipulate and paste those little things was not an easy task with my big fingers...
I thought to be at a good point and ready to do a test paint...
But the worst of the issues is just around the corner... the paint was absorbed by the cut surface, the cardboard has a porous structure in the cut side and the result was horrible... I had to figure out how to fix this...
The only solution was to realize a new front side for the supports, taking the opportunity to adding further details to the front of the "curls"
This way all the surfaces will take the paint in a regular way
Now there is a last thing to do: the plates with the names of the French scientists that surrounds the four walls. The names in the Schreiber model were not correctly written: I found the right form and sequence of the names in a wikipedia page specifically dedicated to this argument. Drawing the plates and exporting them to the laser cutter was not a difficult task.
A little more complex task was to place them one by one along the walls...
Now, after a new paint job and with some touches with a gold pencil to enhance the embossed names, the walls are ready to be mounted in place.
