MIDWAY STATION - Prototype build

[Marco Scheloske]

Recently I was asked to create a new papermodel form the german Perry Rhodan scifi novel series. My choice was a classic from the series, a space station called "Midway Station": To be able to invade the milky way the methan breathing "Maahks" build a series of gigantic space stations between the Andromeda galaxy and our star system. With the help of these stations they could cross the large empty space between the galaxies.

The first appearance of Midway was in the cycle between issue 200 and 299 of the novels, but it still exists in the most recent novels and the current timeline (issue 2728 is the current one. Yes, it really is published for over 52 years now, week by week, without a single exception!).

It is LARGE, so the scale for a papermodel would be small - 1:250.000 in this case.

Here is an old drawing that was one of the two starting points:

The other one was a 3D rendering a friend of mine who did a short animation movie with it:

 

[Marco Scheloske]

My goal was to create a model that catch the look and feel of the rendering and the old drawing, while being not to complicated to build. The target group are the readers of the series, not advanced modelers. So I choose to simplify the model here and there, creating the illusion of detail with textures.

I started with the three large platforms (which have a diameter of 40 km in the original, being 8 km thick). The model will be printed in DIN A4, so the sidewalls of the platforms had to be seperated into 2 pieces:

Both were connected with the separate tabs to create a seamless wall:

To add strength, and to make sure that the platforms will be really round, inner formers made from 1 mm thick "Finnpappe" were added:

The formers were hidden with circular textured pieces:

 

[Marco Scheloske]

My personal build will feature transparent domes in the middle of the platform top sides, but the fans should be able to build a complete station using just the material that comes with the kit, so I had to create paper domes.

I construct my models without the use of any kind of 3D program, calculating everything "by hand", and drawing it in Adobe Illustrator. So my prefered method for domes is the one with "stacked cones".

The little domes for this model are made from 3 cones each, one circular top piece and an inner former for the base to keep it in shape:

The finished dome has to be glued into the middle of the textured top piece:

 

[Marco Scheloske]

All this has to be done 3 times to build the 3 platforms. When finished they have to be glued together, forming a triangle:

So much for today - more to come.

 

[Rogerio Silva]

It's cool, and I wanna see more, please...

 

[bgt01]

This is a great project! I love the epic sci-fi stuff. Keep it up!

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

This is an interesting concept for a space station. It looks really good.
It looks like you are off to GREAT START!!!
I will be following this thread.


KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!

 

[Marco Scheloske]

Thanks for the kind words!

So here is the update for today:

As mentioned above I wanted to have clear central domes for my personal, enhanced version of MIDWAY STATION. I got some matching cleear domes in a nearby hobbyshop, and I added central towers and some other structures from my greeblie box as details. This is the result:

By the way, the main tower is from the AMT Deep Space Nine kit (from the main reactor core), and its base is a landing pad from the Revell USS VOYAGER model kit. The other parts are from various 1:700 battleship kits.

Now that the platforms are done it is time to focus on the central spine. While constructing it I had to keep in mind that the complete model will be printed onto 170 g/sqm paper, so I needed an idea how to make the spine, which will have to hold the complete construction together, and which have to withstand the weight of the model once it is completed and resting on its stand, which will be attached to the spine. The following pictures is showing the result of my thoughts:

What you see is a gluing tab that will also work as an inner tube, and an outer skin to surround it. That way the spine is not made out of 170 g/sqm, but out of 340 g/sqm at the end - more than sturdy enough to fulfill the needed purposes. In addition to that two inner formers and two skins for the ends of the tube were created.

The large gluing tab / reinforcement part was glued half way under the skin, then rolled and glued under the remeining half. The inner formers were added, and this is the result:

Finally the two circular end skins were added.

 

[Marco Scheloske]

When you look at the old drawing of MIDWAY which I posted at the begining you'll see that the spine should go all the way through the gap in the middle of the three platforms, touching all of them. Well - this won't work with the diameter given in the technical data, as the spine would be to thick.

I choosed the same solution my friend used for his 3D rendering: A smaller spine between the platforms, and thicker areas above and beneath it. So now that the inner one was done it was time to create the thicker parts:

A tab, two formers, a textured tube, an end ring, and a cone. The tube was rolled and glued together, the formers were glued to both ends from inside, reinforced with 1 mm thick "Finnpappe":

This element was no pushed onto the middle spine. It is important to position it correctly, it has to be placed exactly at the edge of the texture of the inner tube:

The other side shows a little step when the position is correct:

 

[Marco Scheloske]

The little step between the outer and inner spine was covered by the conical part I mentioned before:

The grouped parts are now placed between the three platforms:

The other side is still "naked", and will be covered by a second outer spine part, an exact twin of the one shown above:

This is it for today. Next update will be about the main tower... stay tuned.

 

[Octoman]

Fantastic work! Can't wait to see it finished!

 

[Marco Scheloske]

Next Update: The main tower.

The large cone that acts as the base of the tower is the most obvious simplified part. While the blue glowing slits should be deep recesses I choosed to construct it as a flat part, simulating the recesses with texture:

Using the formers the cone is easy to build:

On top of it a smaller cone has to be placed:

Four additional cones, smaller and smaller, were constructed:

The top cone features a textured circular "roof":

 

[Marco Scheloske]

These cones were stacked to form the tower. No glueing tab were used, as i prefer to glue such parts edge-to-edge:

The sphere on the top isn't a paperpart (how could a 1 mm diamter spere be constructed from paper?), but a needle with a glass head:

All this has to be repeated for the second tower, which will be mounted on the other side of the main spine.

See you tomorrow!

 

[Marco Scheloske]

Time for the next update. Six flanges have to be added between the central tower and the platforms, three on the top side, and three on the bottom.

This is how the part looks cut and folded:

...and glued together:

All three flanges glued into place:

This has to be copied for the other side. The final step for the model itself is to mount the two towers onto the central spine:

That's it for today. Next update will be about the displaybase.