The Eiffel Project
- Thread starter Tonino
- Start date
Wow!Now a look to the inner railings,
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In the back you can see the original Schreiber piece. Obviously the openings are not intended to be opened. No human hand could do it.
But the laser can... and so the railing is done...
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... and placed, with good eye satisfaction...
same thing for the outer railings
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In the back the original one and in front the laser cut one. I also modified the railing drawing to resemble the little columns that form the original one
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the four sides once joined
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The union of the roofs left big gaps so I realized four strip to cover them and give a better look to the part.
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Now the platform is completed. The balcony is just placed, not glued, tho be able to take it away it when I'll have to deal with the next stage.
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This is the actual state of the work. Now a new BIG tracing work are waiting... See you soon with the second stage
The work on this model will set the bar for all architectural models in the future for sure! Something for museums and an educational piece. Definitely makes me want to see the real thing sometime. Never knew about the names on the side of the Eiffel Tower before. This is really educational on the subject itself plus your methods in assembly really will up everyone else's techniques. Amazing work with the laser.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful, expert techniques.
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Whenever you say that a laser cut out those tiny things I always imagine a little @Rhaven Blaack sitting in a hidden corner of your workshop. Great job mate! 
All of you friends are too kind to me, I confess at first I was feeling as I was cheating using laser so intensively in this build, but now I realized there is a lot of work to do even with this "technical support", only the tracing and refining work to prepare all the files to send to the laser is just like re-drawing all the thing from scratch, so I don't feel too "guilty" for this way of building my model.
)
I am too old to understand all those acronyms so I had to make a search on the web to understand if OP was a good or bad thing.... Now I think you was complimenting me... so thanks! (I'm jocking, your intentions were crystal clear!
)It would be nice to have an assistant like @Rhaven Blaack by my side during work... I would be willing to give away my laser to have in exchange a companion like himWhenever you say that a laser cut out those tiny things I always imagine a little @Rhaven Blaack sitting in a hidden corner of your workshop. Great job mate!
- Apr 5, 2013
- 14,277
- 10,915
I had to ask my son what "OP" meant and it means overpowering, so, it's definitely a compliment these people are saying, and rightly so.
Using a LASER is not cheating. I have a Cameo paper, thin metal cutter. The reason I don't use it is because it is a pain in the A$$. You have to draw the outline path of what you want to cut. On the models I design for myself, that isn't a problem, but for anything else, that means pushing a line around the picture to give an outline of the parts you want cut. It can take a very long time. It's literally brand new. The 1st one was defective, and it took them weeks to figure that out. The next one worked right, but after cutting the model, I found that it didn't cut so much faster than drawing each model, and cutting it was adding another layer of complexity.
I think it would be unreasonable to try a model like this "Eiffel Tower" without prior cutting. Most people have lives, and this is a hobby, not a life. IMHO.
Using a LASER is not cheating. I have a Cameo paper, thin metal cutter. The reason I don't use it is because it is a pain in the A$$. You have to draw the outline path of what you want to cut. On the models I design for myself, that isn't a problem, but for anything else, that means pushing a line around the picture to give an outline of the parts you want cut. It can take a very long time. It's literally brand new. The 1st one was defective, and it took them weeks to figure that out. The next one worked right, but after cutting the model, I found that it didn't cut so much faster than drawing each model, and cutting it was adding another layer of complexity.
I think it would be unreasonable to try a model like this "Eiffel Tower" without prior cutting. Most people have lives, and this is a hobby, not a life. IMHO.
Here I am with the second section of the tower. This time the work has been more complex as the surfaces are not straight as in the first section but curved to ensure the progressive narrowing of the structure. The strategies to position the parts during glue setting had to be rethought and new "devices" were prepared to help me to achieve an armonic shape.
As before the first step was to trace all the pieces on the Schreiber scan. This phase occupied several session and a LOT of mouse work...
At the end the shape was refined to keep all the strips over the 0,5 mm limit that, after some lasercut experiences, I concluded to be the limit not to be exceeded to have solid paper beams.
After the lasercut the work is not finished: many of the little pieces didn't drop spontaneously because the cut lines was interrupted in several points. Maybe my laser fault, the device is not a gold-standard but an entry level one and the cut, in the littlest shapes, is often defective.
After a LOT of work with the scalpel this is the first piece perfectly cleaned.
... and this is what remains on the table ...
This was repeated for all the pieces that will form the middle section of the tower.
Those little semicircular shapes on the sides are not glue tabs but temporary folding references.
As I said before those pieces are not straight but curved along the sides. To have a good fitting the folds need to be perfectly aligned between the pieces.
Once the folding work is done the tabs can be removed
Now to the painting...
As before the first step was to trace all the pieces on the Schreiber scan. This phase occupied several session and a LOT of mouse work...
At the end the shape was refined to keep all the strips over the 0,5 mm limit that, after some lasercut experiences, I concluded to be the limit not to be exceeded to have solid paper beams.
After the lasercut the work is not finished: many of the little pieces didn't drop spontaneously because the cut lines was interrupted in several points. Maybe my laser fault, the device is not a gold-standard but an entry level one and the cut, in the littlest shapes, is often defective.
After a LOT of work with the scalpel this is the first piece perfectly cleaned.
... and this is what remains on the table ...
This was repeated for all the pieces that will form the middle section of the tower.
Those little semicircular shapes on the sides are not glue tabs but temporary folding references.
As I said before those pieces are not straight but curved along the sides. To have a good fitting the folds need to be perfectly aligned between the pieces.
Once the folding work is done the tabs can be removed
Now to the painting...
After having painted the pieces the challenge was how to position the pieces to glue them edge to edge in the correct position. As the surfaces are not straight I'll have to glue one section at the time and to help me I built these two shapes that I weighted with some metal nuts inside.
Ths way every section, kept in place with little pieces of Scotch Magic Tape (very good for this purpose), was glued with a fine line of CA placed with a little dropper. The operation was repeated for every linear section.
Sometimes the positioning requires some effort of creativity. This image explains why I put weight inside the jig.
The little cube was used when the jig has to be placed inside the structure like in this case.
Gradually the middle section gains its shape
And, after several glue and wait and glue and wait and glue and wait.... the work is done! All the four legs touch the floor without any gap, so the structure is straight and not warped, I'm very satisfied. This phase of the build worried me somewhat but fortunately all is gone well.
And this is a view of the whole thing at the present state. The sections are not glued but only placed one over the other. I'm thinking about some way to keep the model disassemblable to make easier to transport it around.
That's all for now, soon I'll start to make the second platform
Ths way every section, kept in place with little pieces of Scotch Magic Tape (very good for this purpose), was glued with a fine line of CA placed with a little dropper. The operation was repeated for every linear section.
Sometimes the positioning requires some effort of creativity. This image explains why I put weight inside the jig.
The little cube was used when the jig has to be placed inside the structure like in this case.
Gradually the middle section gains its shape
And, after several glue and wait and glue and wait and glue and wait.... the work is done! All the four legs touch the floor without any gap, so the structure is straight and not warped, I'm very satisfied. This phase of the build worried me somewhat but fortunately all is gone well.
And this is a view of the whole thing at the present state. The sections are not glued but only placed one over the other. I'm thinking about some way to keep the model disassemblable to make easier to transport it around.
That's all for now, soon I'll start to make the second platform
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