So just saw Paul Lubliner got booted from Hobbytalk over a disagreement on what scale model means...
More important - Anybody got any idea how to purchase a Paul Lubliner kit? I'm jonesing for that 9.8" Gemini 12 he was showing off!
The answer to your question is
"patience please!"
We are talking here about a fully licensed and entirely U.S. designed and manufactured, injection molded
exact and to-scale replica. At 1/5th scale, it is to be an exact,
practical miniature of an actually
filmed, practical (meaning operating) miniature. This referring to a motorized, actually spinning and lighted internal "Fusion Core".
This possibly upcoming item, is to be molded in an easily cemented, but exceedingly strong, Lustran 248 A.B.S. resin and not an inexpensive, filled and therefore flimsy (as in cheap) polystyrene. The tolerances with regard to the original filmed miniature are beyond virtually anything yet commercially produced in this field. --Kindly see the "
Relaunching the Gemini 12",
Part I for other photos of the 3D scanning facility used and images of this work while it was actually being done:
I am not aware of any other original
filmed miniature, Fantasy Space Craft, being rendered as an injection-molded kit using this technique. I hope it is clear that I am attempting to provide absolute credentials for full authenticity.
The issue that I ran into on that other website as it were
, was what exactly is
actually meant by the bona-fide
engineering term: "Scale". The very first known "scale models" were contracted by and used as prototypes for sailing ships by the
British Admiralty beginning I believe, during the
16th century, and perhaps earlier still. Many such examples still exist and I have seen several at the
Science Museum in London, England. They are absolutely incredible, especially when thinking of how primitive the tools used actually were and when they were created.
In the above instance, the term
model is properly used to depict a
forthcoming full-sized vessel. These
Admiralty Models were built in a most precise 1/4 inch to the foot scale, (1/48th) with all the internal structures shown. Why? Well the majority of shipwrights of that era while illiterate were capable of mathematics. They used primitive metal calipers and simply scaled everything "up" by a factor "48" to yield the full-sized components from which the ships were assembled. Think, "H.M.S. VICTORY", a or more correctly,
the definitive "First Rate, Ship of the Line". This hand made "Admiralty Model" of
"Victory" (no "the" in front) is a wooden example of true
Fine Art that's amazingly well over 220 years old!:
We however, are using the inverse definition of the term
scale, where a
prototype is being
scaled-down to the item's finished size. And to correctly use the term Scale in
this manner, the specific prototype by definition,
must be identified.
In other words, what I was simply pointing out to a respondent on that other website was this:
Referring to a 9.6" diameter model kit (exactly
1/5th Scale of the original filmed miniature's 48" diameter) as "1/60th Scale", and therefore a replica of a purported "Full Size" vessel/craft or whatever, for obvious reasons, is
factually incorrect. Another individual there responded by saying "theoretical", regarding a 48 foot diameter "prototype" which is also and obviously not the case as such a ship could and would never be built. Plainly, there has never been an actual full sized-ship of this saucer design (or another very similar type) with a circa 50 foot diameter for it to be reduced by that falsely claimed factor of "1/60th".
The actual prototype being used here is a very real 4 feet in diameter and nothing else. There exists nothing else to be used as a prototype but for the actual miniature prop. This 20th Century Fox, filmed miniature, including the actual interior presented in it, are at this moment, in
the process of being absolutely faithfully reproduced at 20% of "full size" or a 1/5th Scale. I sincerely hope all of this is now clear.
On that other website, I was also taking issue with other commercially produced items in this arena as being listed as "1/350th Scale", "1/125th Scale" etc. These in fact truly are
Fantasy Models (there being no actual prototype for any such subjects). And perhaps more importantly, many of those "models" more accurately fall under the description of
"Caricature" as they are nowhere near scale representations of the actual filmed miniatures. Something else to truly consider when using the term "scale".
So, will we, can we
please agree this is "Fantasy Modeling" (as opposed to "Scale Modeling") and the subjects therefore cannot be described as "Scale",
unless that is, the
actual filmed miniature is listed as being
the very prototype used.
---Can we please agree regarding and with the above concepts?
Thank you.