Life-Size Buzz and Neil (enlarged 1/4 Ken West "Apollo Astronauts on the Moon")

[Algebraist]

Originally Posted by VinceM

If you're planning to paint the entire suit when it's completed, maybe coating it in paper mache would work? Strips of newspaper soaked in plaster of paris, or thinned out glue. The strips will come out wrinkly, but that's exactly the effect you want. It will probably still need an inner support, but paper mache (should) create a sort of exoskeleton.

I do not have any plans to paint the model VinceM. However I currently plan to put a paper "top layer" to make the model look like it is made of cloth. My current plan is to try the method as outlined in the instructions of the model kit (see post 34 of this thread). However your mention of paper mache makes me think that it might be possible to make the wrinkled cloth effect using something like that. I shall have to experiment nearer the time.

Thanks for the comments

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Dear all

So I have now completed Neil's right thigh. If you are following this build step by step (and if so I admire your patience up to now) you will know the sequence of construction. Some photos of its creation in order































Phew!

So at last ready to start joining thighs to make the model start looking like a human form.

Regards

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Dear all

So building the thighs has been a bit of a task for me as I want it to get on "more interesting" shapes. However it is a necessary part and process of the model.

To keep me going I have been trying to find out about the real apollo space suit. I can across this interesting video which some of you may not have seen before



Regards

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Dear all

At last! I have now managed to move onto joining Buzz's thighs. So the part between the legs was made of two parts



which I joined first to the right thigh



I was a bit disappointed to find that the parts did not quite match up (as you can see)



It is between 3 to 4 mm out.. I could not see easily where I had gone wrong so decided just to blend the difference in, which is along the small of the back of Buzz



I then joined on the left thigh



This was tricky since the whole part is big and cumbersome and it is tricky getting into a position where you can do a proper glue for the relevant tabs. I found it was essential to do a "dry run" for each glue (how to pick up the piece and where and how to rotate it etc) in order to do this glue.

Blow me if it did not fit when I got towards the end!



This was very frustrating. It was about a 2 to 3 mm discrepancy but it still shows up.I was not sure why this had happened. Fortunately with some "flexible" gluing, I was able to absorb the difference



And here are the thighs joined!



I am pleased

Regards

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Dear all

I was so pleased that I had managed to join Buzz's thighs that I wanted to get a feel for the size of the model as soon as possible. So I added some internal supports for the formers at the bottom of the thighs



Then here is my Apollo 11 mug



along with the 1/24 model astronaut Gene



together with the 1/4 model of the legs



I then added life-size Buzz's legs (just resting the parts on each other) which is lower legs (shins and knees) and upper legs



Strangely I was surprised by the size of the model (which is odd since it is life-size human so that should be a "familiar sized object")

I think the model is starting to come to life. There is still quite a bit of work to do on Buzz's upper legs but it does feel as if a bit of a bridge has been crossed.

Hope the above pictures have made up for the long haul through the making of the legs.

Regards

Kevin

[JohnGay]

One technique I found helpful when putting together large models is to alternate the tabs at each edge. Then they interlock and force the edges to align properly.
This worked quite well when I was putting together a life-sized Deadpool head from a Pepakura file I found.
Interestingly enough. Even though it was a pepakura file designed from flat polygons, I was able to get pretty natural curves in the final model.
Of course Pepakura gives you the option to re-assign tabs if you can open the model in edit mode. Not entirely sure how you could move tabs on a printable file instead.
But that's just an observation from a large size model I made.

[Algebraist]

Thanks for the tip JohnGay. I have had a little experiment and found (at least for me) that you do need to be very accurate with the spacing and cutting of the "alternating" tabs. However the end result was good. As I do everything by hand (though I wish I knew how to use Pepakura and other software) I found this is doable for straight line joins (in the same plane). However for curved line joins even in the plane, let alone twisting in 3d space I just found it too hard to do unfortunately, which is a pity.

Regards

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Dear all

So the next thing I have done on the life-size model is to join Neil's thighs. Given the errors I made when doing this for Buzz, I decided to do Neil slightly differently

The joining part is spead over two peices of paper, so I decided to keep them separateand join them to the thighs individually. I also allowed for a good amount of overlap



I joined the right thigh at the front first



Bt when I started the second piece to join at the back, in order to make the curves "fit" there was again a discrepancy which did baffle me.



Still I handled it as I did with Buzz. As you can see there was a healthy overlap



The second thigh was the joined



and I added some internal supports for the formers



and the overall result looked like this



There now needs to be a former for the waist and then the whole upper legs reinforcing.

Regards

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Dear all

Whilst working on this model I am often thinking ahead, considering upcoming parts (usually turning over ways to try and make them!). I have been thinking about the flag and flag pole. The thing is the height of the flag pole specified in Ken West's model, when scaled up to life size is 5 ft 6 inches from surface to top. However this looks too short when looking at the photos like this for example of Buzz Aldrin



(from https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/)

So I have been trying to find out the actual size of the flag and pole for Apollo 11. It got me to thinking about the lunar flags. Were they all the same size for example (which I now know the answer and it is a nice touch).

I came across an article which some of you may be interested in. It is from the North American Vexillogical Association https://nava.org/ (I have now learned vexillogy is the study of flags)

It has an article by Anne M Platoff called "Six Flags over Luna"

http://nava.org/wp-content/uploads/2...v24platoff.pdf

The 62 page article covers 2 things. First it totally discredits all the "hoax theories" that contain things about the lunar flags in their so called theories. But also the second half of the article covers the actual design, manufacture, testing etc of the lunar flags and flag poles (to which I have learned has more to it than I ever realised). It contains many interesting photos, everything is referenced and has an extensive appendix. Included are the actual design drawings of the flag and pole (pages 42 to 45 inc).

Hope you enjoy the read

Regards

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Dear all

At the top of the upper thighs is a former. In the 1/4 model there is a paper part for this which is backed by cereal card. For the life-size model I decided that this former would form a major structural component of the model. So I wanted maximum strength and to be as light as possible

So first up I need to get the paper template which was so big it was spread over two sheets of A3 paper which needed to be cut out and joined to form the template



As you can see the two parts did not match up when put together. This surprised me as they were made by using the "take snapshot" in adobe pdf reader from the original Ken West model pdf. It is as if there has been a slight "stretching" of one of the images. Perhaps it is the was the printer works. Anyway, one thing is for sure, I do not have the knowledge to work this out. I merge the two parts and hope that the difference is slight enough not to really affect the model. Perhaps this is what happened with the discrepancy in joining the thighs.

I decided to make the former using 3 mm thick card (cutting the overall shape from an A2 sheet. This is the thickest card I cut. I have to have the former as a "ring" (rather than a disk) since I need to access the inside of the thighs to reinforce them, as well as gain access to join the knees. Even at 3 mm thick I do not think that the former will be strong enough (the top of the thighs is a big span) so will support it with fabricated cross struts. Here is the former and struts being marked out



I am being very accurate here as I am going to make 4 (hopefully) identical formers and use 2 of them for the upper legs and two of them for the bottom of the torso (for both Buzz and Neil)

I needed my toughest solid "stanley" knife to get through the card and it took a while (curves are particularly difficult)



The long hip to hip cross stuts are made of 4 2 cm deep pieces and the front to back centre strut is made from 3, 4 cm (notched) pieces. Here is the long strut being made



then the short strut




trimmed and glued to the former



The former is very strong and overall weighs 255 grammes (9 oz)

Finally it was glued to the thighs



The former worked well to not only keep the shape and strengthen the model, but also to use it as a frame to hold and twist the thighs which will be very helpful when it comes to reinforcing them (shortly)

Regards

Kevin