Building interior assets for my 4' (Studio Scale) Jupiter 2

[spclfxguy]

So, years ago, I was approached by Planet Hollywood to refurbish one of the original, Studio Scale Jupiter 2 filming miniatures they had acquired, and then make a copy of it that they could hang in one of their restaraunt facilities.

One of the byproducts of that request was the mold we had to make, in order to generate the copy for them. I offered my company's services to do the job, in exchange for my keeping the mold, which they were more than happy about.

Years later, I FINALLY managed to get around to making a casting for myself. And, it has sat, unfinished, in my garage, for a few more years until about a month ago, when i got this insane idea in my head... Why not build an interior for it?!

On the surface, it seemed simple enough. Just grab a bunch of research material and have at it!

Only one small problem: The top and bottom parts of my casting have been joined together, and I am not about to try to cut it open -and- I really don't want to cast up another one in halves.

Here comes the part where I think I may have lost my mind.

So, I thought, what if I made all of the interior assets so they could be fed through the main viewport (and/or the engine core opening) and assembled in place??! Kinda like a ship in a bottle, in a way.

It's not like the level of effort wouldn't be enough of a challenge to get the interior to look right, just building it, by itself. But now, just to keep it interesting, let's try to squeeze it all through a tiny rectangular hole!

I'm not sure if I can pull this off, or not, so this project may die on the vine, if I run into a problem that i can't resolve, or i go broke, but I shall attempt to post my progress here, and welcome any feedback/input/ideas you may wish to share!

The first order of business in my process is to mock up as much as necessary, to determine what kinds of things might be a problem, how to resolve them, etc. Also, it serves as a bit of motivation/inspiration when you can get a hint of what the outcome will be (conversely, it can also be a bit of "are you sure you really want to do this?")

Here are some photos of my Jupiter 2, fiberglass hull(shell), unpainted. Also, some photos of my first iteration of the interior, as I attempt to figure out size, location, how things relate to each other and to the hull. Most of the assets for the interior are made using various paper/card stock, matte board, railroad board, and foam core. There are a couple pieces of styrene and Acrylic, but nothing yet to write home about...

I'm currently working on my 2nd version, and have already started thinking about version 3!

I hate it when you think you have things about figured out, and you just finish up making a bunch of parts and.. BANG! It occurs to you a better solution! But, that's why we do mock-ups!

 

[joberg]

This is not a simple project...it's just that you'll have to decide which pieces/greeblies to glue first and which to glue last (for easy access purposes).
You have all my sympathy

 

[spclfxguy]

This is not a simple project...it's just that you'll have to decide which pieces/greeblies to glue first and which to glue last (for easy access purposes).
You have all my sympathy

It is not simple, that is for certain! Thanks for the kind words, as well! I'm hoping I will be able to build out "clusters" of walls and other things, and make it so that they can be sort of slid into place and then attached either through adhesive or mechanical. Also contemplating using strong magnets, and lots of connectors/jacks for electronics, where applicable.

Right now, I'm working on a way the floor can be easily assembled, using some kind of puzzle-type shape configuration. I would like to be able to assemble an outermost ring, for example, and then be able to come up through the core to place walls, do wiring, etc. Once all of that is finished, the center-most part of the floor can be assembled and keyed into place, and locked to the outer ring.

I am going to pull the mold out of the garage here, in a few minutes, and use it to start laying out whatever support/sub structure will be needed to support the floor.

I may use pins or keys on the bottom of each column, to have the columns penetrate and capture the floor (between the columns and their corresponding sub structure...

 

[spclfxguy]

This is my first time posting ANYTHING, so please excuse any mistakes in format, or whatever. Quite new to this.

 

[drusselmeyer]

Daunting task. You may end up regretting not throwing a divider into your mold and casting it again

Good luck with the build.

 

[rbeach84]

Sometimes what seems the most extreme route is actually the easiest. If I had been in your place, I'd probably have cranked up the ol' Dremel and started sawing it apart... or perhaps just removed the 'roof' so could more easily access that interior.

But this is me, I've done this a few times, hacking off a portion of a build model so I could do some interior detailing, putting some mileage on the Dremel all the way... ha! Of course, I've never tackled something of this size so perhaps it looks more feasible at the scale you're working with... looking forward to your progress!

Kind Regards, Robert