Star Trek IV:- "Delivering Humpbacks" Diorama - micro build log

linweseregon

Senior Member
The probe is out of the question since at 17km it would be 8.5m long even at my scale! I found Golden Gate Bridge plans on skyscraper.com and I've started on them. I considered cutting round all the girders for all of 2 seconds - I would be drawing my pension before I finished that. The two supports will be 4" high giving a total length of around 0.75m. I'll be using spaceagent-9's Klingon bird of prey for the Bounty. I was thinking that I would need a couple of 5mm humpbacks until I remembered that George and Gracie weren't released until the Bounty crashed in the bay. So this will be a long, thin diorama of the HMS Bounty swooping under the central span of the Golden Gate Bridge. This is what I have so far:-
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Rhaven Blaack

!!!THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!
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It looks like you are off to a good start and it sounds like you have put quite a bit of thought into this diorama.
I will be following it!!!
 

Revell-Fan

Co-Administrator
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Too bad. I would have loved to see an in-scale space probe. :(

*****

Just kidding! :p:D:p I'm looking forward to this project! On a side note, if you would like to build the space probe you could make a forced perspective dio with a smaller probe in the background. I'm doing this with my Moon dio (larger scale astronaut in the foreground, smaller scale astronaut in the background = larger depth of field).
 

linweseregon

Senior Member
@Rhaven Blaack I put a bit of thought into it; mainly I just have a really good memory - when it's in gear ;)

@Revell-Fan Dinnae worry ;) - I found a proper K-7; the one in my links list was actually a mis-labelled K-47! o_O Memory Alpha suggest that it is about the same size as a connie so it should be interesting to see if I can shrink one down to 2" - insane laughter ensues! :D As for the probe, I don't know whether it would work with a 3" wide diorama, but I'll certainly think about it and mibbe adapt my tiny Borg sphere - it's about time us humans did a bit of adapting back.

In the meantime, the Golden Gate is coming along and I have an empty champagne bottle box to mount it on (parents' Golden Wedding Anniversary). An aerial photo of the sea stretched across 3 sheets of A4 paper should give enough length.
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Now I'm off to find "Silicon Avatar" online - my crappy Chinese DVD stopped 10 minutes before the end. Grrrrr :mad:
 

spaceagent-9

Right Hand Man and Confidant
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it looks good!
I used to sit down at the south east bottom of the gate at the presidio ft. ort, where really good waves break for surfing on my lunch hour, [protesting scab iron workers] and was all over that area the movie shows! the waves are tricky though, they get really big, and the under tow will shoot you out to the middle of the bay! a 15 foot wave breaks in abou 1 foot of water on rocks. yeah, surfers get smashed there all the time. also jaws is a big worry too.
 

Rhaven Blaack

!!!THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!
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@linweseregon Just to let you know, there is a K-7 model in the RESOURCE Section that was designed by D-WHALE that looks GREAT!!!
Now with that being said, I do not know how well that will scale down to your needs, but it is still an option if needed!

KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!
 

D-WHALE

Utopia Planitia Engineer
Just to let you know, there is a K-7 model in the RESOURCE Section that was designed by D-WHALE that looks GREAT!!!
...

actually it exist 3 version of the K-7 station:
-my one (very old, but i saw, that one guy built it in 1/5000!!!)
-MTK´s with alot intersections, what need extra work
-Gary Pilsworth´s version at Papermodelers.com, what is based on the AMT model, but the AMT version has mistakes in the design to the original TOS model!
 

linweseregon

Senior Member
@Rhaven Blaack @D-WHALE I'd downloaded Gary Pilsworth's K-7, but if there are mistakes in it I'll head to the resource section for yours Marco. I won't be starting on it for a few days as I'll have to spend a lot of time with red thread to build the suspension cables for the Golden Gate. Thanks for the info guys :).

The bridge is now mounted and awaiting suspension cables:-
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as well as a couple of other supports...
I've also started on Jim's bop:-
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I'm not 100% sure about the size I've printed this one - I can always shrink it again if it turns out to be too big. 110m should roughly equate to 50mm (2") so I think I'm fairly close.
 

D-WHALE

Utopia Planitia Engineer
... I'd downloaded Gary Pilsworth's K-7, but if there are mistakes in it I'll head to the resource section for yours Marco....

the mistake is simple: the original K-7 (physical and also the CGI) has a cylinder pod on the side of the main saucer! the AMT (and Gary´s too) has a cube pod!
 

linweseregon

Senior Member
Work on the bridge is painfully slow. I have a guide to position everything and I'm using tape to keep the wire and thread roughly in position. Each thread has to be tied off individually and secured with a dab of PVA. Once the top is dry the bottom also has to be secured with PVA. So far I'm about half way along the first side:-
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It's also exceptionally boring so I'm working more on the bop as well:-
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Thankfully Jim has posted a build log for this as well and I've been making frequent use of that :D.
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I'll be fitting two insulated LEDs inside this one - assuming that I can wrap the neck around the wiring - so the torpedo launcher and rear engine (and nothing else!) should be red-lit.
 

spaceagent-9

Right Hand Man and Confidant
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run a rod of clear plastic from the engine to the nose for the torpedo light. great work on the thread cables, brings back memories of that place.
 

Rhaven Blaack

!!!THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!
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@linweseregon It looks like a very labor intensive project! o_O
You can also strengthen the threads with superglue, once you have everything in place.
 

spaceagent-9

Right Hand Man and Confidant
Moderator
you really got me thinking on this,
I could use two e-candle les for the engine,
run a red plastic rod up to the nose cannon, along the belly of the neck too,
and then put a fauceted bead at the end,
with a clear green led in front of it,
with trigger all its own,
and have a really easy effect for the warm up and fire sequence of Krug's bop. thank you!
I was just going to use a massive amount of blinker leds.
 

linweseregon

Senior Member
@Rhaven Blaack It's mental! lol I have a horrible feeling that the wire I'm using for the main cable is going to turn into a spring when I cut all the tape tomorrow - that'll be fun ;)

@spaceagent-9 I've already connected the two LEDs in a wee bullet. I was thinking of encasing it in a black tube to avoid light spillage in other areas. There are a few tiny cracks that aren't obvious when looking casually, but would be exaggerated with an unshielded bulb. I'm glad I could inspire you with your lights :). You have a bit more scope with a model that's bigger ;).

I'm just going to write a progress report - there's not been anything worth taking photos of today - lol. I've completed the suspension cables for one side of the bridge and I'll attempt to attach them to the supports tomorrow. I like Rhaven's tip about using superglue to stiffen the threads, but it would have to be done once everything was in situ to avoid having fluff from the card guide adhering to the thread. I've also done some surprisingly time-consuming work on the upper body of the bop. The curved sections in my version are only 2mm across and have five edges on each side which have to be individually glued and allowed to dry. It's taken nearly an hour to build up just one side! I also need to work out a modification that will allow me to have the wings slightly tilted upwards - shouldn't pose much of a problem :).
 

spaceagent-9

Right Hand Man and Confidant
Moderator
I totally admire your skill and dedication to a project. I like the bullet idea, and collect coffee stirrers all the time for that kind of light shield. bottle caps for supports and spacers, the bottoms of plastic jars for cut out domes, and even some bottles for the rims ] for support and windows. im switching to decaf because im just getting too jittery on 2 cups of coffee now. volunteering 3 days a week and still peer supporting my friends until the job I was promised comes thru. if not im taking anything I can for money, I even am thinking of doing people's wash just to accumulate funds. ink hits me hard every few months. back to your stuff- the bridge is fantastic! what craftsmanship to do all that thread work, I shudder at the thought of it! your work is very inspiring.
 

linweseregon

Senior Member
@spaceagent-9 Thank-you very, very much Jim :D

I've finally finished one side of the bridge! There's a lot of extra wraparounds to hold it in place just now; they'll come off when I have the other side running parallel. I'm going to try attaching the thread directly to the other side. I thought that using wire for the upper cable would be a good idea, but if anyone decides to build one of these I would recommend using embroidery or darning thread instead. A suspension bridge needs weight to be suspended from it and the card road spans are nowhere near heavy enough to pull wire into the right shape. I would also recommend attaching the main support cable directly to the buttresses to avoid all the tangles that would inevitably be produced when moving a mass of threads.
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Learning all the time! ;)
The bop is progressing nicely as well. Jim's build log has been a huge help :D.
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The second LED has still to be wired in - I had to disconnect everything and start again as the wires + tape were too thick to wrap the neck around.
 

spaceagent-9

Right Hand Man and Confidant
Moderator
humpback.jpg

HUMPBACK DELIVERY!

seriously though, great work! that is a small bop! looks good too!
those ''humps'' for the warp drive are hard the first time.
that's a lot of work you got there, I bet you cant wait to build another one, lol.
 

linweseregon

Senior Member
@spaceagent-9 lmao - aye, it's the Forth Bridge next! ;)

The bridge is finished! The bop is finished! The diorama is... ...not finished ;).
I didn't take ant photos of the bridge - that can wait until the bop is suspended from it and the probe is added. Apart from anything else, the Golden Gate Bridge isn't really very sci-fi or fantasy related - lol.
I scrunched up the warp drive gubbins (another highly technical term) and glued them so that the wings are raised, leaving the other bits - guns and... I haven't a clue what they are - to be attached:-
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I then greened all the white join lines before attaching the guns/disruptors:
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A final touch was the renaming to HMS Bounty:-
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Lit up it looks like this:-
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I pretty much packed the body with garbage - offcuts of card and insulating tape - to cut down light spillage, and I'm really pleased with the result :D.
Now I'm off to find some texture for the probe and mibbe a soundbite - I'm sure I saw one somewhere...
 

spaceagent-9

Right Hand Man and Confidant
Moderator
fantastic !!
I just watched rise of the planet of the apes, and the gg bridge was in that too!
looking forward to the next post you make.
 
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