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

[rifleman]

good to see this build coming on thats looking great well done so far nice touch with the wolf cutter all the best

[gotham]

Haven't been on for some to have look at progress. Wow, that it some work. 🙀 I tried to build a 6ft Gundam, but had to admit defeat, much to my wife's delight. Trying to reach all those awkward areas to glue.🙀 I can't wait to see these models ( can you call them models ? - sculptures in card ?) when they are completed. You'll need a suitably moon-like surface to stand them on for completed stage photos.
Keep going, is all I can say, the trials of this build are worth the results.😸

[beckychestney]

Originally Posted by Algebraist

Hi Becky

As always great to hear from you. Many thanks for taking the time to explain all your information and tips, it was really useful. Just making sure I understood, was the type of foam you used for Big Thunder Mountain, a type of squirty "Big Gap Filler" foam from a can?

Regards and take care

Kevin

Yes, exactly that kind. You can find it just about anywhere with a hardware department.

[Algebraist]

Thank you Becky.

Regards and take care

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Originally Posted by rifleman

good to see this build coming on thats looking great well done so far nice touch with the wolf cutter all the best

Thanks for the kind comments and encouragement rifelman.

Regards and take care

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Originally Posted by gotham

Haven't been on for some to have look at progress. Wow, that it some work. 🙀 I tried to build a 6ft Gundam, but had to admit defeat, much to my wife's delight. Trying to reach all those awkward areas to glue.🙀 I can't wait to see these models ( can you call them models ? - sculptures in card ?) when they are completed. You'll need a suitably moon-like surface to stand them on for completed stage photos.
Keep going, is all I can say, the trials of this build are worth the results.😸

I know what you mean about the awkward angles gotham. At times the only way I have found it to have very wet card with glue and almost form the part like paper mache.

If I do manage to finish it would be really nice for Buzz and Neil to stand (at least once) on a realistic lunar surface. If you have any advice on how to try and make such a scene it would be gratefully received.

Thanks for the compliments and I am glad you are enjoying the build.

Regards and take care

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Dear all

I have been thinking about how I would eventually join the shins to the knees to the thighs etc.

I need a method that is not permanent (at least in the first instance) since otherwise I could not get Buzz and Neil out of the room! After considering a number of ideas I came to the conclusion that a system made purely out of paper and card was not feasible (at least for me). So after considering any material I hit on the idea of using bull dog clips like these



As you can see there are 4 easy to source sizes (though you can probably get more). After trying some things out I settled on using the largest of the sizes shown. So I did a test of joining shins to knees to thighs to torso of Neil. Here is a photo looking down through the neck hole of Neil



The method was manageable (which is important) and seemed to work well. I then decided to assemble Buzz too, really just because I wanted to see them together. Here they are



The clips are holding the parts together well. Form that point of view I think this method will work. I think I will need 50 clips per astronaut and at 17 g/clip, that is an additional weight of 850 g (1 lb 14 oz). This will need to be factored into the strengthening.

There was one thing I did notice, which was, on both Buzz and Neil the torso and the thighs did not rest flush together (as shown below)



It seems as if the bottom of the torso and the top of the thighs are not planar. That together with the formers I made being totally rigid around the cross members, seems to be why these gaps have happened. Although there is enough flex in the parts, so that with clips in the correct place, the torso and thighs can be squeezed together, this causes to torso to distort badly out of shape. This is no good. So the next job will have to be to "fill" these gaps.

Despite the above issue, I am very please how they look. This is simply down to what a well designed model Ken West created, and I am sure I will say that again!

Regards and take care

Kevin

[Vermin_King]

How many folks are going to look that closely when these are displayed? Won't most people be looking at them from a distance where they can see at least half?


I did not notice the gaps in the photo of the two together until you mentioned it. Will hoses and paraphernalia distract folks from seeing this? I am not sure the viewer will find this to be as much of an issue as it is to the builder who sees things close up

[Algebraist]

I think you are right Vermin_King, now you point it out, that should anyone ever see these models "in person" (though I don't see that ever happening) I am sure they would not notice the gaps. So it is probably a waste of time trying to correct them.

However before reading your post, I had already started having a go filling the gaps!

Regards and take care

Kevin

[Algebraist]

Dear all

So I have been working on filling the gaps between the thighs and the torso on the life-size models of Buzz and Neil. I started with Buzz.

The gaps vary in thickness up to just under 5 mm. I decided to use card of 2 mm thickness and 0.5 mm thickness to make "filling" parts. Using the 2 mm card to start with I filled "big" sections. Here is the first part being glued down



Straight away a second layer of 2 mm card could be put on top of this.

My method is as follows. I two "feeler gauges" of the thickness of card I am using (in the pictures below they are 2 mm thick), to get section that will take a 2 mm thick "insert" (noting bothe width and depth "in"



I then mark these point on the thighs and then transfer the marks to a template of the "rim of the former"



Once the points are marked on the template I mark them out on card of the correct thickness and cut out the insert



Finally I can glue the insert into place



When I can get no more 2 mm feeler gauges in, I will move onto 0.5 mm feeler gauges. Slowly I should be able to build up the inserts so any gap is less than 0.5 mm

I can already tell this is going to take a long time. But on the plus side I think it is going to work

Regards and take care

Kevin