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Onward. I haven't posted in a awhile for fear you folks will be bored as I refine the design. I'd planned on painting the surface with acrylic or doing decoupage, but I've become fascinated with the structure. Every time I build I think I can do it better: simpler, fewer pieces of paper, easier...

I like the Star Trek TV shows but haven't seen many of the movies. They seem to rely mostly on action sequences and special effects for interest, but this doesn't interest me, so I wasn't aware of Borg spheres. Following your comment I looked at the images. Borg spheres seem to be structured...

I've held off on posting out of concern that my work is getting repetitive and might be boring as I refine design. Here are the stringers going on. I use a pin as the center of each pentagonal stringer to get them to align correctly. The triangular stringers get sandwiched between arms of...

I've been thinking about the space station idea :-) I'm tempted to give one to some kids and have them throw it around. The PVA glue I'm using dries to a rubbery consistency. I think this flexibility would make it hold up fairly well.

I started over again. This time I'm production-lining the parts by scoring and cutting as a batch. I can fit six at once on my drafting table. Hey look a not yet assembled Metal Earth Star Wars model in the back peeking over the top of a sphere. Here are the ten parts of the frame daisy...

That appears to be a plastic Christmas ball. You can buy them in several sizes in craft stores. They are generally available in the autumn and you've got to snap them up when you see them since they usually sell out before the holidays. It's likely that he designed the model to match the size of...

Onward. I worked up to skinning the model and after trying some different approaches discovered the design needed more stingers. They ended up with a interesting sort of shape. Here is the structure before the new stringers. And partly skinned. The little glowing hole is in the door to the...

That looks great for metal or heavy stock. My stuff is still enough small scale that I can make the folds quickly and accurately by hand. The cutting seems to be the most tedious part of the process

I changed design and rebuilt. To allow for the difference in size of struts I made some of the bends over a #5 knitting needle. This puts in a curve which gives enough allowance for the difference while still building the unit out of a circle. I'm pleased with the result. I think it looks like...

V2 seems the best for the purpose of providing solid support behind the surface of a spherical map. As the number of facets increases so does the production time and materials. The increase in roundness doesn't seem worth the increase in materials and time. I'm after designing the best...

SCEtoAUX, That's just what I needed. I probably should have Googled geodesic domes before building but what fun would there be in that? Equilateral and iscosceles triangles are synonyms, but you're right not all the triangles are equilateral thus the gaps or spirals in my model. What the site...

I've taken several different approaches. I built an icosahedral framework and then fit the four-triangle units inside each of the 20 triangular spaces. I put in the units across from each other and skipping triangular spaces so that I wouldn't get accrued intolerance. (one part pushing the next...

I've got an aspect of geometry which I'm puzzling over. This model is an icosahedron (20 equilateral triangles) projected on sphere with each face of the icosahedron subdivided into four triangles for 80 triangular faces. When I scaled up, the subdividing pieces came out too short. I have two...

Nice. How did you do the water under the craft?

My second science fiction book , The Stud and the Sperm Thief, comes out next week. Actually it's already available through Amazon, Kindle, and CreateSpace. But most of my sales though are from my briefcase which I always carry around. I also carry postcards with the cover on them and...

I'm thinking through the battle/boarding scene. By mid book things get complicated. Dr. Ellen Clark the protagonist discovers that the population of the station is inbred due to the irresponsible behavior of space pilots. The situation has been exacerbated by attempts to crack down on vice by...

This is the 8" scaled up globe. I put in the light. It's a 3" wire stem LED sold for use in corsages and wedding supplies. They come is a package of 6. Here's the model with the stringers in place. And lit up.

Onward with scaling up. It goes slower than a 2" model since each part goes as a separate page to be printed, scored, and cut separately. I've been looking at the Glowforge for cutting, but I'd prefer using someone else's machine instead of putting out the money to buy one. I've been putting...

I didn't realize that Zathras was from Babylon 5. Hmm I don't know if it will work for a planet name. The reference might be confusing.

I've been thinking about use of a Legrange point for the location of the station. I take it that the station would be anchored to a large gas planet similar to Jupiter. I'm guessing that when a ship approached the station after dropping out of warp it would locate that planet and possibly pivot...