Saturday, September 27, 2014

Speeder Shed Mistake

I didn't double-check the measurements before I started building, and I learned too late that my printer once again decided what was best for me -- shrinking the 8.5" x 11" image down to fit in the printer margins. I worked for two afternoons on this model before I checked the size of the footprint and realized I wasn't working in HO scale at all. This is too big to be N scale, and too small for HO.

AARRRGH!



 The details came out looking very good, though. Maybe someone will want it for a forced perspective illusion on a layout.


Friday, September 5, 2014

Ghostbusters' Firehouse in N-Scale (1/160)

In preparation for the upcoming Mini Maker Faire, I built the Ghostbuster's headquarters. In addition to scaling it down, I made a few mods to the original model (found here). I glued the whole thing to some heavy black cardstock and simply cut out the windows rather than building the elaborate window boxen provided. The heavy cardstock added some needed thickness to the detailing pieces.





At this scale tiny boxen tend to look pretty bad because you have so many angles you could get slightly wrong, so in order to make the sign, I laminated several pieces of heavy card and sandwiched the Ghostbusters logo inside some frame pieces. Then I cut the outer edge all at once. It's a solid thing rather than a hollow box.


 One very nice touch from the designer: the detailing pieces function as tabs on the outside of the model -- I thought that was pretty clever.

Also, the cornice details pull the 45 degree mitred edges together very nicely so there's no gap.

 Hopefully some kids will recognize it. I donno, do kids even watch Ghostbusters any more?