Tiny Galactica models

[stephen.irl]

[FONT=&quot]Recently I have been test building miniature masterpieces for Gearz which he mentioned here:

http://www.zealot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=167041[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
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[FONT=&quot]I came across his Mk1 viper in Ekuths TOS galactica built thread and I was hoping to do something the same for a 3foot galactica I built and Gearz has been kind enough to design a few more models from the new series. They really are incredible and I can't say enough about them. Thanks Gearz.

Enjoy. More pictures to come[/FONT]

 

[bulldogowner]

Where in the world did you get a ruler that size???? It's HUGE!!!! Honestly though...I don't know how you guys build that small...I've got patience, but.....simply incredible!

 

[Millenniumfalsehood]

P'shaw. It's obviously photoshopped. How else did he build them that small?

sign1

Just kidding, dude. Those look awesome! I'll have to design a mini-hangar to display them in.

 

[stephen.irl]

Cheers guys. I think I've found another cool side to paper modelling. Making these tiny guys is great. Really satisfying making something that small and getting it to look right.

oooo.... Mini hanger bay! That would be cool. Have to make a whole squadron then. Do you think a cockpit edit like commander adamas or silveroxides would be possible for these? :mrgreen:

 

[Tirick]

Now that is a brilliant exercise in scaling!

Did you say these were to scale with a 3 ft Galactica?!

Wow. You could really do some incredible things if you wanted to do the hangers and landing arms; cutaway or view openings.

Tirick

 

[Gearz]

No worries Stephen! excellent builds I think at this scale, designing is definitely the easy part ~ They ARE tiny...

 

[stephen.irl]

Now that is a brilliant exercise in scaling!

Did you say these were to scale with a 3 ft Galactica?!

Wow. You could really do some incredible things if you wanted to do the hangers and landing arms; cutaway or view openings.

Tirick

There not quite on the same scale. They're close though, 1:450 ish and the 3 footer is 1:500 ish. I have one sitting on the edge of the side pod runway (I'll have a picture of that uploaded tomorrow) and it looks just a little to big so the good news is I'll probably have to make them again slightly smaller :mrgreen:.

Brilliant idea though. That would be some model having a cut away into the side pod with a hanger bay. I'll probably leave that up to someone with a little more experiance. I'm still pretty new (3-4 months would still be considered a newbie right)

 

[Tirick]

I've been doing this for a few years and I still consider myself a newbie at times. I've not tried anything quite so large either; I prefer the 1:50 scale or so, but that is still quite impressive!

 

[stephen.irl]

As promised, here’s a picture of the mk2 "taking off". I think it's a little on the large side so I'll probably reduce it a little again (please ignore the gaps in my galactica... first model).

Here's a few pictures of the Mk2. Hope you like em :thumb:. The mk2 was a slightly easier build then the mk7. The mk7 was a bit tricky but manageable. Sort of like TOS raider (pictures of that to come to but nothing you haven’t seen in ekuths thread).

 

[Retired_for_now]

Indicators you have finally gone round the bend:

Constructing models using a microscope,
Making models with parts that consist of a single paper fiber,
Growing and shaping your fingernails to provide "an extra pair of tweezers,"
Creating finely detailed models that fit on top of a piece of small change (you know who you are!).

So Stephen - you can have any color straightjacket you like so long as it's a dirty white (and then I expect you'd be building these little masterpieces holding the tools in your teeth).

Yogi (remain calm until help arrives)

 

[stephen.irl]

Remaining clam... (Insert crazy laugh). I don't think I'm quite up to the level of the list. Getting close though (especially thinking what if I build the 1.5 foot Galactica. How small would the vipers have to be then) :mrgreen:

Hoping to have a few pictures of some raiders soon (not including the one below). Ran out of ink so so far I've only built the original series one and I'm waiting to print the new series version.

I've a question for any original series Galactica fans. I'm a big fan of the new series but haven’t really seen any of the original stuff. As you can see I've built a tiny version of the viper and raider and the raider seems to be a good bit bigger the viper. Was the raider really this much biggerr? I vaguely remember seeming three Cylons in a cockpit so I'm thinking it could be. Or else I've just printed at the wrong scale. Anyone know?

 

[bulldogowner]

Uh-Oh!! That sounded like a challenge?!?! :twisted: Is it possible??

 

[theo]

Uh-Oh!! That sounded like a challenge?!?! :twisted: Is it possible??

Yes but it's very simple shaped.
Just be patience.:twisted:

 

[Commander Adama]

Awesome little ships.

 

[Kjev]

Gads. I'm definitely going to have to do some sort of dexterity exercises before I start these. But ooooooh the ideas they give me!

 

[Gearz]

Stephen ~ newbie shmubie, I recon you building like a seasoned modeler. Great job on the TOS Raider, it may be a tricky build, but you guys did a brilliant job of it. Baltar would be Proud !

 

[stephen.irl]

Gearz just got me a new raider so heres a few more pictures. Thanks Gearz

 

[stephen.irl]

Just a few more pictures because I got snap happy.

By the way, for scale, each box on my matt is 1cmX1cm.

 

[Kjev]

OK, I really have to ask. HOW do you physically put these together? I'm fairly dexterous, and I still feel like my fingers are clubs, even when I'm building a larger-scale model.

Do you use a magnifiying glass? How do you make them look so good?

Really, how?

 

[stephen.irl]

Tips for tiny building

Here are my tips for tiny models. I am by no means an expert. These are only tips I've picked up or learned for myself so there is probably more and better tips out there already so here we go:

1. Tools
The tools in the picture are the only ones I've used for these tinys.

- Knife blade is very important. I use no.11 swann-morton surgical blades (usually a new one because they're really sharp and a new blade won't buckle the paper when you’re cutting. Also the tips don't break off. If you have blades with the tiny tips broken off you might get away with it for bigger models but they're useless for cutting out small parts). Handle is your choice. Any really that you like. I like my cushy xacto. You really do need good blades though.

- I have two pretty fine tweezers. Mostly use one for holding small parts and placing them. I use the second one sometimes when the part I'm gluing things too are also really small.
**A handy thing I do when working with tweezers and small parts is I rest the heels of my hands on my matt as opposed to holding the tweezers and lifting them up to eye level. This stops my hand from shaking. Any shake in your hand at this size makes putting these small parts together pretty hard.

- I use the pointy thingy with the blue handle for scoring usually but you can't really score at this scale. For the tinys I use it for shaping and curving. The toothpick also does the same job but the blue handle thingy is better. The tweezers also have a curve on them leading down to the point. I use them for shaping too.

2. Paper
I don't use card at this scale. I use regular printer paper, 80gsm. Just regular paper. I'd never use it for normal models because I like stronger card but at this scale thicker stuff is just too hard to work with. The ordinary paper is the easiest to work with.

3. Glue
I use PVA glue. Can't really offer much help here. Whatever you like using as long as it doesn't leave marks. I know the PVA can leave marks but I only use really tiny amounts. That’s important too. Don't use too much or else you'll cover the whole model.


A lot of it is down to the models themselves. Gearz has done a really good job designing. Most of these don't have many parts and there pretty manageable (with patience). For now, only the original series stuff are available. There new stuff are still at the test phase. The original stuff is here on Ekuths thread:
http://www.zealot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=155567&page=3
Give them a go and post you pictures here.

Think that covers everything. I don't use a magnifying glass but I suppose you could if you wanted to. My eyes are ok at the moment. Haven’t wrecked them.... yet! If I think of any more tips I'll add them to the list or if you have more questions give me a shout.