What Santa Does 5-Days Before His Yearly Travels:

mbauer

Cardstock Model designer
Creating a diorama of what Santa does before his famous travels.
There are a couple of Big surprises in store! Here is a long write-up of what the diorama will eventually show.

The last week usually catches Santa performing quality control checks on some of the presents he will soon deliver. Needless to say, it has been a hettic year since his last overnighter.

The elves are done with their chores and the goodies are ready for delivery! They still have a few last minute items to catch up on, but the pace is quite slower than the prior 51-weeks!

Santa has his Sleigh in the tune-up shop for a last minute once over. While the local speed guru is checking it out Santa has plenty of time to enjoy his favorite week!

One huge surprise was shown in the drone photo.

Bet you all thought that the reindeer do all the flying work to get the Sleigh in the air. Actually I just found out that the Reindeer actually do fly once he gets to where his travels take him, however for the long distances between stops, he uses a retractable Saturn V F1 engine!

The Reindeer are used to guide the long distance craft through the various course changes, they also perform all takeoffs and landings.

Soon you’ll see the first ever photos of the F1 Install!

Before the photos from the build start showing up, like to mention a few things about how this all came about.

Four years ago I saw a Halls Christmas Ornament of Santa launching a model rocket. I decided to build a paper model of the ornament!

As I was picturing what it would like, in my minds eye, I started adding things, finally deciding that a Diorama was the only way to get everything together.

I started looking for misc items to add. As such, I want to say a BIG Thank You to a Free resource!

Canon Creative Park Supplied the Santa, Reindeer, and Sleigh. Also downloaded a bunch of other models to build, but ran into an issue with my base foam poster board! Several items will be added next year when I modify my first try, that I’m about to show you.

Here are couple of links to get the Santa, Reindeer and Sleigh:
http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/CNT-0010097/index.html

http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/CNT-0011992/index.html
Don’t forget to change the download for the correct size of paper you will be using! Easy to do before you download.

Found the instructions to be easy to understand and follow the build. Part fit is outstanding!

I did change from the instructions on the sleigh: I glued the runners together before forming them, this is a little different than the instructions show.

Do recomend that you edge color everything. There is so much coloring to do that I cut the tips off of a few of my markers!

Most of the other “props” used are some of my own drawings.

Before I get to the photos, please understand that two weeks ago I underwent surgery for Nasal Polyps. This was a three hour procedure! Using a stealth guided operation that used Cat Scans to map what need done. The surgeon was not able to complete the whole surgery. Seems that I bled more than normal, loosing enough blood that he had to stop, at about the 2/3 done mark.

This gave me time to start the actual building. I was off from work 13-days, yesterday the 18th was my first day back to work. I wanted to have everything done. That just didn’t happen.
Issue after issue:
  1. 1) The baseboard foam poster sheet is entirely too small for everything, had to drop the plans to show the coal mine, for that bad’uns! You’ll also see I ran out of room for everything. Some models aren’t shown at all, some have been downsized or modified to fit what little space was available. This leaves everything looking busy, and not the right looking scale. Sorry!
  2. 2) The Canon models are way bigger than I thought they would be. To try and scale everything properly meant changing whole building to just a side panel drawing, and chopping the Tune-Up shop in 3/4 showing only ¼ of it for this year. Yes, I know it doesn’t look right, I did use the “hanger” door for the mechanic instead of the normal shade-tree…
    I would not recommend downsizing the Canon models. It took 12-hours to construct the Santa and 8-hours to do the sleigh. Was able to get my fingers inside to perform all of the gluing tasks! Once again the part fit was outstanding! This is the first time I’ve tried a figurine and was very impressed with the model construction!
    Ran out of time to build the Reindeer, that will have to wait until next year. Plan to modify the Reindeer to show how they actually fly. Might be a surprise to some. Will have to wait until next year to see the how part!
  3. 3) Mentioned that yesterday was my first back to work. Well I did a full 8-hour day, got home last night thinking I would be able to get everything done by today, so that I could post the completed build. Well that didn’t happen. My figuring that 4-5 hours would see it all done was way off mark. I started at 6pm last night, finally decided to take a break at 6:30 am this morning. Its now 8:46 Am (typing this much takes time too).
  4. My secret for the all-nighter. When I get tired, my mind starts looking for shortcuts. It doesn’t go through all the steps, thinking/rethinking, it goes straight to the best answer usually. When I sit down to design, I’ve been known to start on Friday night and go to Sunday night without sleep. Very little food, but plenty of water and restroom stops.
  5. Thinking that the lights are going to be the final item added, also know that they are going to be rather difficult to rig up. 50-ft string of small LEDs!
    Ok, having said all the above; time for some photos!
  6. Will start on the Sleigh, next posts will show the other builds. Not done yet, but have over150mb of photos!
    Thank you for checking this project out!
    Best regards,
    Mike
  7. Time For Photos-Sleigh Body First. Pict0074.jpg Pict0077.jpg Pict0082.jpg Pict0084.jpg Pict0085.jpg Pict0089.jpg Pict0093.jpg Pict0095.jpg
 
Last edited:

mbauer

Cardstock Model designer
Time to Do the Sleigh Runners. Not much text, will let the photos speak for themselves.

Runners
Pict0101.jpg

Side View are next
Left Side
Pict0109.jpg

Right Side
Pict0110.jpg

Rear View
Pict0110.jpg

Rear View
Pict0111.jpg

Front View
Pict0112.jpg

Next photo shows what will soon be the next installment: Yep that's right Santa is next. Over 8-hours to finish the Sleigh!

Santa beginning.
Pict0114.jpg

More to follow,
Mike
 

mbauer

Cardstock Model designer
Santa's Head is next. Took over 12-hours to complete Santa.

Face/Beard with hat parts laying around. Part behind Santa is the neck.
Pict0118.jpg

Nose/Mustach
Pict0122.jpg

Neck Installed-Hat is next!
Pict0125.jpg

Side View of Head
Pict0126.jpg

Hat Installed
Pict0130.jpg

Body will be in the next post!

Best regards,
Mike
 

mbauer

Cardstock Model designer
Time to make the Body. Not to difficult until time to attach it to the neck. Great part fit makes this a do-able chore! Any smaller and issues can happen.

Photo 20 Body parts before assembly: Head, Upper Body, Abdomen Suit part and Belt with Loops
Pict0131.jpg

Photo 21 Another view of the parts with the instructions underneath. Notice the actual parts look just like the instructions?
Pict0133.jpg

Photo 22 Upper Body attached to the Neck & Head. This was the most difficult step (until the very last step of the Santa construction).

Not much room to reach through the body and apply pressure to the neck joint while the glue dries. Any smaller and this might not have happened just using fingers for pressure. Now I understand why to look for the tweezers that open when pressed (spring closed type). Will be looking for some!
Pict0136.jpg

Photo 23 Body complete! Easy, easy after the neck joint!
Pict0138.jpg

Next will be the arms. They look hard at first, but, once again perfect part fit makes them easy, OH, they rotate once done!

Best regards,
Mike
 

mbauer

Cardstock Model designer
Arms:
Made a mistake on this phase of the construction. Got lucky and was able to continue this time.
Mistake?
Used parts of the Left Arm; attaching to the Right hand!

Simple & Easy to make sure this doesn’t happen on the legs. Will only form each leg and boot at a time instead of all of the parts for both.

Can’t believe I used the wrong parts, even went so far as to label each individual part per the instructions….

The hardest part? Forming the Ruffles that go between the hand and arm! Still real easy to do, just a few glue joints waiting to cure! Time consumer.

Photo 24 All of the Arm parts formed and ready to assemble.
Sorry, forgot to take pictures while attaching the parts to each other, easily distracted by my mistake! Guess forgot to use parts of the wood block on my shoulders….
PICT0142.JPG

Photo 25 Arms in place, they easily rotate!
PICT0143.JPG

Photo 26 Another side view
PICT0144.JPG

Legs are next!
Best regards,
Mike
 

mbauer

Cardstock Model designer
Legs are next.
Once again big time consumer are the ruffles. Boots look hard but are actually fairly easy: Once again great part fit! Glue time will be needed though.

Photo 27 Left Boot/Leg completed! Notice didn’t even cut out the right side yet! Look how hard the right boot looks! Real easy to make though, same for the buttocks part.
Pict0146.jpg

Photo 28 Additional view with body parts in the background.
Pict0147.jpg

Photo 29 Legs are now attached to each other, once again real easy construction. Buttocks formed and ready to attach.
ALMOST Done!! No more forming any parts for Santa!
Pict0152.jpg

Photo 30 Inside view looking into leg assemblies, This is a rear view…Yes, I really said that!
Pict0153.jpg

Photo 31 Buttocks attached, only 1 step left at this point, attaching lower legs to body!
Pict0159.jpg

Photo 32 Additional side view of Butt/Leg assemblies.
Pict0161.jpg

Final step photos next, attaching Upper body to legs!
Best regards,
Mike
 

mbauer

Cardstock Model designer
Done! Final Assembly Step.
Attaching Upper Body to Leg assembly = Final step!!!

Photo 33 Done!!!!!
Pict0162.jpg

Photo 34 Problem area = Happened when performing the very last of the last glue attachment operations. Can you believe it?
Rushed the step after the attaching the Buttocks. Glue seam was still wet and split wide open when gluing bottom assembly to the body! Very last part of gluing!
Not noticeable unless looking at the angle shown.
Also shown is Santa’s outside sitting stool.

Hey! What’s that in his mitt?
Pict0172.jpg

Photo 35 Notice the 3-glue tabs used to attach lower legs to body? This is the bottom view of completed Santa! Also showing off build mistake "white" glue seam. Oh, well one mistake deserves another.....
Pict0175.jpg

Lots more photos of completed Santa as more of project gets done.

Next post deals with foamboard base and trim.

Best regards,
Mike
 

mbauer

Cardstock Model designer
Mercury Redstone Liberty Bell Rocket Launch.

Rocket is a downsized stomp rocket I make.

This little project took several hours to create. At first thought it would be easy to use a short piece of 1/8” aluminum fuel tubing left over from my Pulsejet powered paper airplane project.
That just didn’t give the look I wanted.
Found these “Fuzzy” sticks shown in the photos below last summer, decided to give them a chance.
Tried to use them by twisting several together. Rocket kept leaning over, looked like a wet spaghetti noodle.

Problem solved finally as an answer popped into my head.

Used a bamboo skewer, super gluing Fuzzy Sticks to the outside. They kept coming loose as I added more sticks. Problem fixed by getting 4 Fuzzy sticks to at least stay in place, although not perfectly, and wrapping with some white sewing thread. As you can see problem solved!
Lower smoke rendition was attached the same way!

How to do the Red Exhaust Flames from Redstone?
Bent one the red fuzzy sticks back and forth until created the shape shown. Stuck in hole bottom of missile, used super glue to attach and then used thread/superglue to insert into top of smoke trail.

Glued the whole assembly to a small model rocket launcher pad, that I drew Friday night when did the all nighter.
Photo 37 Santa with thumb on launch button.
PICT0177.JPG

Photo 38 Redstone Liberty Bell, Fuzzy sticks, Santa with launch controller, flame and smoke trail.
Pict0193.jpg

Photo 39 Side View of assembly on leaving launch pad.
Pict0194.jpg

Photo 40 Additional View looking down.
Pict0198.jpg

Photo 41-Clear view of Santa’s sitting stool.
Pict0204.jpg

What do think, does the rocket look ok?
Best regards,
Mike
 
Top