2001: a Space Odyssey EVA pod

3Dsf

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Everyone visiting the Stanley Kubrick Exhibition in London - be sure to look up to the ceiling in the 2001 section.

Way up high, in front of the enormous Discovery One, is my hyperdetailed and minuscule model of an EVA pod. Probably the tiniest exhibit on show!

The model has working headlights and a HAL light (ringed in black and underpowered to avoid the bright red light that people often put in) and is powered by the magnet wires used to suspend it.

I wanted to transform the model of the Discovery which, while awesome, looked kind of static before. By adding the tiny pod, its headlights illuminating the command sphere, I felt the Discovery could look more like a diorama, portraying a narrative.

Designed from scratch, 3D printed, and laboriously hand-built and painted by yours truly.

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Not quite finished in this shot. My 65mm tall pod is missing the handmade decals, the LEDs, and the headlight lenses at this point.

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A last-minute change to the pod installation was the addition of my 3D-printed Frank Poole.

Of course I realized after I'd installed him that I'd put Frank on backwards - his head was on the right side in the movie, not the left. So I had to go back and turn him around before the show opened.

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The pod next to Scott Alexander's model of the Discovery One.

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Part of the reason the model took 4 months to build is because I made a full lightable interior for it. Almost all of the interior buttons are in their correct locations.

Unfortunately I dropped the interior from the model for the Design Museum in the end, because it interfered with maintenance and people couldn't see it anyway. But the main thing was I needed to make sure that I could get into the pod (the sides are held in with magnets) and replace any LEDs that might burn out, as the exhibition is on through to September.

Hopefully that won't happen, as LEDs are pretty long-lasting and each one is on a separate 15 mA current regulator. But you never know what might happen.
 
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Great work! I love that you made it all from scratch. I got into 3D because I loved building models and now its circling back around. I really gotta get me a 3D printer, but I want a Form2 (3 now) and they are just a bit out of my reach price wise. Thanks for the inspiration!
 
Thanks for the kind words, all! It was a fun project, if a bit of a rabbit hole to get lost in. I’d never made a full vehicle totally from scratch before, so sitting down in front of the computer and slapping in some spheres and cubes seemed like it’s be pretty easy. Little did I know...

The bulk of the model was printed on a Form 2 using three types of resin - black, grey, and clear. A few details, primarily the arms which needed to be detailed on both sides without the mess that supports cause, were printed via Shapeways using “fine detail” resin.
 
Thanks for the kind words, all! It was a fun project, if a bit of a rabbit hole to get lost in. I’d never made a full vehicle totally from scratch before, so sitting down in front of the computer and slapping in some spheres and cubes seemed like it’s be pretty easy. Little did I know...

The bulk of the model was printed on a Form 2 using three types of resin - black, grey, and clear. A few details, primarily the arms which needed to be detailed on both sides without the mess that supports cause, were printed via Shapeways using “fine detail” resin.
I bet it was quite a modeling task. Much like a pencil doesn't draw a portrait, the computer doesn't build the model, and on top of that modeling for different purposes, render,real-time or for manufacture or printing all have their own workflows. What software are you modeling in? I'm a Max user and Poly modeler by trade and bending polys to print from can be a bear.
 
I was expecting to see the Moebius kit, but this is far more interesting!

Truly amazing work!

I would love to see that exhibit if it ever makes it's way to the states
 
I'm a bit embarrassed to admit what modelling software I used. Basically it's a cloud-based web app that's an educational tool for children. But it was adequate. One of the things about the EVA pod is that it's almost entirely constructed from geometric primitives. There are no compound curves at all!

I don't have any plans to offer it for sale, for licensing reasons. Even then I don't know how many people would really want it, as it's quite expensive to print via Shapeways. It'd be over £200 using the fine detail material!

As for the resin version that came out some years back - I'm operating at a bit of an advantage. :) The 3D print is the first generation object. With resin, even if it's an amazing master, your mould is the second generation, and the resin cast is the third. There's also no risk of deformation that you can run with the flexible nature of the mould.

I was also able to take advantage of some of the more recent material that's come to light. Several awesome books have come out over the past few years, plus I was able to make an in-person visit to the Kubrick Archives and examine a lot of unpublished material, to try to get the model as accurate as possible. :)
 
It's also hard to believe that is as small as it is. It looks just as details as the larger Moebius pod

Thanks! Yes, I spent a lot of time building as much detail as I could - up to the limits of printing technology. I wanted to make it as believable as possible. :)

As for the Moebius kit, it’s sadly pretty weak in terms of details, given its impressive size. I’ve spent a load of time making detail parts to bring that one up to a reasonable level, but it’s tough!
 

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