So it's too cold to spray paint outside. Therefore, I'm back inside whittling styrene.
This winter, it's everyone's favourite galaxy-roving Rubik's cube, TARS from Interstellar. I saw the film over the New Year weekend and liked it and TARS enough to make a model. The scale is about 1/11 - 16cm. As he's based on repeating cubes, That means everything is in round centimetres making the build super easy. I used a rotary cutting board to score the 1mm styrene sheet. The segments aren't exactly the same size - a fraction of a millimetre off. But I'll be putting him into a walking pose so it won't be noticeable.
Flatpack TARS
Glueing lots of batons!
The square rod was big enough that right angles weren't an issue, although getting these bang-on 90 degrees in each corner is difficult and I didn't quite manage it. As it was, I had to scrap quite a few rectangles and only pick the ones that had the least variance. With some attention, it will be close enough that no one will notice.
And already looking a bit like TARS after a single evening of work! He needs some filling and sanding, but only a few edges need attention. The wide angle of the iPhone camera is making it look wonkier than it is - the tops are fairly flush. I've already cut some clear vinyl sheet to form the glass of the screens. The big work on this is scribing of his panels. For some of the sanding and for the detail work, I'm going to attach them together and treat it as one piece to get the lines matching up.
I'm considering getting a die cutter. That would both sort the scribing and get all the pieces square. For the time being, I'm stuck with the old fashioned way!
This winter, it's everyone's favourite galaxy-roving Rubik's cube, TARS from Interstellar. I saw the film over the New Year weekend and liked it and TARS enough to make a model. The scale is about 1/11 - 16cm. As he's based on repeating cubes, That means everything is in round centimetres making the build super easy. I used a rotary cutting board to score the 1mm styrene sheet. The segments aren't exactly the same size - a fraction of a millimetre off. But I'll be putting him into a walking pose so it won't be noticeable.
Flatpack TARS
Glueing lots of batons!
The square rod was big enough that right angles weren't an issue, although getting these bang-on 90 degrees in each corner is difficult and I didn't quite manage it. As it was, I had to scrap quite a few rectangles and only pick the ones that had the least variance. With some attention, it will be close enough that no one will notice.
And already looking a bit like TARS after a single evening of work! He needs some filling and sanding, but only a few edges need attention. The wide angle of the iPhone camera is making it look wonkier than it is - the tops are fairly flush. I've already cut some clear vinyl sheet to form the glass of the screens. The big work on this is scribing of his panels. For some of the sanding and for the detail work, I'm going to attach them together and treat it as one piece to get the lines matching up.
I'm considering getting a die cutter. That would both sort the scribing and get all the pieces square. For the time being, I'm stuck with the old fashioned way!
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