U.S.S Cygnus 1/700 scale… a study in insanity

[mrchester]

I wasn’t sure if the link will work. Above is a video shot by the CultTVMan himself ( or one of his minions…I remember when I had minions, oops, focus). Cygnus got a lot of attention and questions. Those in the 3D printing know were surprised at the medium the the Cygnus parts were printed in. I think that it is the rarest subject in Sci-fi modeling. Yes, there is the MPC offering (notice I didn’t say hateful) but, I know about 90% of the first time buyers of the kit opened it up and said “how the hell do I make this thing look halfway decent? Then, twenty plus years later, it crosses your mind and you think “I think I can handle this kit now” only to open the box and realize it is worse than you remember. How do I know this… because that was me. This precludes my effort’s displayed on my MPC Cygnus thread. However, that was a lot of work. That’s my rant, next episode: Modelpalooza results and what the hell do I build next?

 

[mrchester]

 

[mrchester]

The Black Hole gets some love at Modelpalooza… thanks Dennis

 

[mrchester]

 

[mrchester]

Had a drained battery for some of the stern lights in that last picture.

 

[mrchester]

I’ll keep it short because I have a wicked headache. I was the top of the bronze category… which I actually expected. While this is a great subject and very well engineered, there are some drawbacks. I’ll give my thoughts on that later. I also knew where certain areas went sideways and I could not heal the issues completely. However, several of the show officials and Steve from The CultTVMan told me that there was a lot of interest in Cygnus. Never had that for any of my other entries…I’ll take it. The last picture was taken at shows end. Monique would come on awards day but would stay home to garden on Saturday. Oh well, close enough.

 

[publiusr]

The Cygnus always reminded me of the Eiffel Tower, in space.

View attachment 1867905View attachment 1867906

What it might look like near a black hole:

Dynamic 3-D printing process features a light-driven twist

The speed of light has come to 3-D printing. Northwestern University engineers have developed a new method that uses light to improve 3-D printing speed and precision while also, in combination with a high-precision robot arm, providing the freedom to move, rotate or dilate each layer as the...

phys.org

 

[mrchester]

I would like to thanks those who posted the model show and this model on YouTube. I’ll eventually give my thoughts on the engineering and construction of the project. I’ll try to list the target posts that are relevant to acquiring the parts to this model, however, I have no insight on repairing damaged files… I’m looking at you Lower Center Spine section. I would like to give a shout-out to Evan’s Lighting design. There is one of their CHIP string LEDs in each section of my Cygnus to supplement the standard LEDs that I put in. The docking elevator in the bow benefited the most from it. I met a guy who has a plastics shop in Longwood. I’ll getting a custom case for this bad boy. That’s a big NYET! to dust bunnies.

 

[modelerdave]

I would like to thanks those who posted the model show and this model on YouTube. I’ll eventually give my thoughts on the engineering and construction of the project. I’ll try to list the target posts that are relevant to acquiring the parts to this model, however, I have no insight on repairing damaged files… I’m looking at you Lower Center Spine section. I would like to give a shout-out to Evan’s Lighting design. There is one of their CHIP string LEDs in each section of my Cygnus to supplement the standard LEDs that I put in. The docking elevator in the bow benefited the most from it. I met a guy who has a plastics shop in Longwood. I’ll getting a custom case for this bad boy. That’s a big NYET! to dust bunnies.

Until you get the case, a can of compressed air is your friend to keep dust away.

 

[Analyzer]

Wow...just...wow

 

[Laspector]

Has there ever been a cross-section view done of the Cygnus? I just rewatched the movie and this is one of those ships that seems to be bigger on the inside than on the outside.

 

[animek]

You model is magnificent, the work done on it is just astounding, with the lights and all.......I am also very sorry for your loss.

I've notice a few discussions here and there about the Palomino ship not being on your landing platform, the free 3D files available of the ship does seem to have all the details like the real model. But this person seems to have the most accurate one available, 3d Files Palomino, but it is not free.

Here's a few pics I took back in the year 2000 when the real model was stationed at MGM studios at WDW. (using an old Kodak DC265)

Palomino (Pic2)
Palomino (Pic 3)

What my 10 year old self thought what the Palomino ship looked like in 1979, with no reference photos . using cereal box as main material.

 

[mrchester]

Has there ever been a cross-section view done of the Cygnus? I just rewatched the movie and this is one of those ships that seems to be bigger on the inside than on the outside.

Not sure about any cross sections but there it a Japanese magazine/book that has cut away drawings of Cygnus, Maximillian, and Vincent. Don’t know about if there are dimensions, I’ve only seen the pictures and the info is in Japanese. However, using my ship as the sample it would be 2,450 feet long. They actually got the central core section pretty close to what it would be… a lot of open specs, though. The reception area is a little short, but the area that the Command Tower elevator is first seen might be a bit big. I’m doing some upgrades the model but I might do a size and location posting later. I do have an idea in which section the robot funeral was held.

 

[mrchester]

You model is magnificent, the work done on it is just astounding, with the lights and all.......I am also very sorry for your loss.

I've notice a few discussions here and there about the Palomino ship not being on your landing platform, the free 3D files available of the ship does seem to have all the details like the real model. But this person seems to have the most accurate one available, 3d Files Palomino, but it is not free.

Here's a few pics I took back in the year 2000 when the real model was stationed at MGM studios at WDW. (using an old Kodak DC265)

View attachment 1874849

Palomino (Pic2)
Palomino (Pic 3)

What my 10 year old self thought what the Palomino ship looked like in 1979, with no reference photos . using cereal box as main material.

View attachment 1874848

Thanks for the kind words and the Palomino pictures. I grew up in Orlando and my wife worked for Disney the first 11 years of our marriage. We made one trip to the studio park but had to leave early because of a prior commitment. I find out decades later that the Black Hole hero models (except Cygnus) were on display out there. I was annoyed about that. The pictures will help when I build my big Palomino. I’ll find the scale but I think it’s 1/196 scale. It was sold at Kremmen’s shop at the former Shapeways. This is the guy who is the guy who helped with Primitive Dave develope Cygnus.

 

[mrchester]

Okay, I’m going to move on. There are a couple of things that I can improve on my Cygnus model, first of which is the battery/control box. The box I made was made from 1/16” sheet styrene, with the top plates being doubled up to 1/8”. As I was working out the logistics of the battery drawer (there are seven batteries), wires, and switches, I would use white glue to attach the two top pieces to the box. Over the two weeks before the model show, I would remove either of the plates several times. The finished result could have been better and I’m sure it cost me a few points in the show. I acquired 2-1/2” square acrylic tubing. After cutting off a piece of tube, I chucked it up in my shop lathe and faced the ends true. The lathe I run has a six jaw chuck on it. I removed jaw #1 and #4 so I could chuck up the square tube. Enter machining pictures.

 

[mrchester]

I took the faced tube over to one of the milling machines that has a digital readout. I used it to drill the hexagon pattern that the switches for the interior lights would mount. The holes for the engine switched are drilled to the left of the hex pattern. I turned the tube on to the next side and, using an end mill, I cut out the hole for the drawer. After one final turn, I cut a large hole in the bottom for the wiring harness. Had to keep the air hole on the cuts to clear the chips out of the way. Acrylic will wad up if you don’t.

 

[mrchester]

I fitted styrene plates into each end of the tube. Once dressed, the box will have a cleaner look. The only exposed lines will be from the battery drawer. The included pictures show the holes that are mentioned in the last post.

 

[mrchester]

You model is magnificent, the work done on it is just astounding, with the lights and all.......I am also very sorry for your loss.

I've notice a few discussions here and there about the Palomino ship not being on your landing platform, the free 3D files available of the ship does seem to have all the details like the real model. But this person seems to have the most accurate one available, 3d Files Palomino, but it is not free.

Here's a few pics I took back in the year 2000 when the real model was stationed at MGM studios at WDW. (using an old Kodak DC265)

View attachment 1874849

Palomino (Pic2)
Palomino (Pic 3)

What my 10 year old self thought what the Palomino ship looked like in 1979, with no reference photos . using cereal box as main material.

View attachment 1874848

I’m afraid that link for the Palomino files go nowhere… thanks anyway.

 

[animek]

Ya! If people keep changing their links none stop on their web site, this will happen unfortunately. here's the update. Palomino

 

[mrchester]

Ya! If people keep changing their links none stop on their web site, this will happen unfortunately. here's the update. Palomino

Wow! I’ll definitely be exploring that.