This Weekend's Project: The Ambassador

Still trying to procure parts for another project, but in the meanwhile, here's something that's been on the drafting stage since late August: The Ambassador revolver. With the revolver, I bring forth some additions to the G-43 standard I've been using.

1. The distance from the trigger to the rear of the stock is 55+/- 1 mm.
   
2. The trigger guard is around 10mm long from front to back.
3. The handle width (in the plane of the barrel hole) is a nominal 5mm wide.
4. The grip thickness (in the plane of a side profile) is around 7mm to be "wieldable" by a 1:6 scale figure. Larger sizes render the model un-wieldable, and smaller ones necessitate special features from the user's hand (spring loaded fingers) or extra tooling (rounding of the grip) of the handle.
5. Rifle grip firearm distance from middle of trigger curvature to inner grip shall be 10mm.
   
6. Pistol grip firearm distance from middle of trigger curvature to the back of pistol grip (where the web of the hand sits) shall be 12±0.5mm
   

I haven't made any pistol grip based weapons with the standard, and this will help make things convenient for future endeavors.

I had to re-scale the original draft done in August down by 85% in order to comply with the G-43 standard. The widths depicted on the upper right are still applicable.

Here's some diagrams of the finalized structure, and some idea of how it was assembled. Pretty sure if you're going to make your own, you'll buy a toy revolver, paint it silver and extend the front anyways. Otherwise, the dimensions aren't too relevant for you for this project.


With the size comparison, the revolver is quite massive. It's about 6.5 cm long, making it a monstrous 39 cm long at 1:1 scale.

This piece implements some small components that I was skeptical on successfully implementing. The cylinder swings out and spins. This is made possible by ample Loc-Tite to plastinate the paper and using paper clips to function as axles.


The cylinder is made of seven hollow tubes. Drilling holes into a semi-solid cylinder laminate was not an option. Making pivoting mechanisms using paper clips as an axle requires a bit of knowledge that is easily overlooked: paper clips are rarely round. The smaller ones usually have rectangular cross sections around a 16:19 aspect ratio. This results in a inner cylinder diameter that doesn't fit as tightly around the axle as a cylinder does, and if it does fit tightly, it doesn't spin easily. Also, paper clips are not always uniform in dimensions across multiple brands, so you may need to specially use one supplier source.

I took advantage of the size difference to make cylinders using smaller rods, resulting in a tighter fit when using a slightly larger rod. The bottom of the cylinder arm uses this to prevent it from swinging out freely.

Here's a detail of the individual components. The frame, held together with Loc-Tite, is a bit more sturdy than using regular Elmer's alone. The thin nature of the frame makes it vulnerable to deformation.

Here is the completed Ambassador revolver. Engraving was not a feasible option due to the fine width needed and lack of a solid substrate to implement it on. Printer paper doesn't quite work. The next best thing was to use a 0.30mm art pen and draw lightly. The small size allowed me to approximate the details since it would look quite dark and cluttered if every detail and line was inked in.

This Weekend's Project: Sniper Rifle V2

Decided to redo the TF2 Sniper Rifle. It's not August 1st, but we'll have to settle for a late celebration. I'm building this rifle to the G-43 standard, and adding an addendum to the standard:

**Rifle grip firearms will have a distance from middle of trigger curvature to grip of 10mm. **

The rifle is larger by a small margin compared to the older model. We'll see how those compare in a bit. First, it's time to show you how the rifle gets made.

The rifle can be broken up into two part types: revolves and extrudes. Revolves are objects that can be made by rotating a 2D view around an axis of rotation to form a solid. In this case, the scope, laser aiming module (LAM) and barrel are revolves. These are made from using the Excel sheet mentioned in this explanation. Extrudes are 2D objects that are made 3D by making them thicker by adding the 3rd dimension, the width. Extrudes in this model include the frame, scope cover, and scope mount. Preparing Magic: the Gathering cards for making extruded solids is covered here.

From the schematic, I've scaled it 1:1 in relation to the final object, and traced out patterns of the frame. I've traced this pattern onto four copies of laminated magic cards, four layers thick. This gives us 16 layers, approximately 5mm thick. The four layers can be seen on the left of the above image.

The scope will be made of several tubes linked together to form the scope. I went for as exact of dimensions as possible for a good fit. The barrel was made from rolling printer paper around a 3.175mm diameter bamboo rod. I suggest using printer paper for rolled objects of little consequential structural stiffness and small wall thicknesses since the final part will have less of a noticeable seam to need to sand down.


This is the scope, assembled. The cylinders connect by overlapping anywhere from 3 to 5mm. I made the cylinders as thin as possible (1mm thick walls) so I could have a hollow, unobstructed scope. I cut some discs out of a CD jewel case for lenses and inserted them into the cylinders.


The scope mount was made in a similar manner to the frame: tracing a 1:1 scale final part pattern, then cutting out the appropriate number of layers to get the desired thickness. When making curved elements, you need to glue the layers together as they're in the desired final curvature. Bending a laminate is not suggested.


The two parts of the scope mount were connected by a small 2mm diameter rod. I decided to enhance the structural stiffness by running a paperclip rod through the tube and the scope mounts.


The frame needs a 3mm deep recess to accept the barrel. I made one prior to gluing the laminates together, so I have less machining to do.

One of this model's gimmicks is the moving bolt/receiver mechanism. I cut out a slot in the barrel for the bullet ejection port. I carved a 1mm deep groove into the side of a bamboo stick and bent a paper clip into the appropriate shape of the bolt handle. The handle was glued in place with Loc-tite. Things glued to metal using Loc-tite shears easily, but the level of shearing needed is much higher than what this part will see. I'll be using a bead for the handle knob. This part was glued into place.

Bolt completed. Next item of action: heavy Dremel action. Since I've made the frame from multiple cards' worth of length due to it exceeding the length of one card, I have an unsightly gap between cards. I covered the sides with one sheet of 110lb cardstock before proceeding to the sanding sequence. I gave all the lower parts a gentle 1mm radius round, then hacked off more material at the stock and handle regions.

Here's the result of some merciless Dremel action, followed by some light hand sanding.

The second functional part of this model is the front lens cap. I've glued a "U" shaped strip around a circular plate, 3 cards thick. The U part will rotate around the hinge, made of a paper clip. The holes were made from a 1/16" hand drill. I drilled the holes first, then cut the material around it. Otherwise, the material will deform and twist during drilling.

This is the scope lens, attached. The gun is largely completed at this stage.

Here's the final result. The top rifle is the newly crafted "high poly" model of the sniper rifle. It improves from the previous model featured below with added structural stiffness, enhanced scope features and rounder frame edges.

Here's a photo of the bolt action lever. Much better than the previous model which used just a tube.

J.Norad's Guide to Building Stuff With Magic: The Gathering Cards

Time to gather all my development notes and techniques all into one post.

First a primer:
Magic: the Gathering is a convenient, abundant work material in some cases, despite the steep initial material costs. A card costs anywhere from $0.26 from a booster pack to $0.13 from a tournament pack. Found in many a gaming shop and teenager's closet, you can secure large quantities of "chaff" cards for little cost. I shall be dealing with non-foil cards, as I have yet to find a use for the foil "premium" cards.

If the idea of cutting up common and uncommon rarity cards scares you, lands are cheap and practically free from most shops and post-tournament gaming. I use anything that I deem "unplayable" or in gross excess, except lands, which I find useful. I particularly have a hatred for Centaur Veteran, from Torment.

Preparing the Cards:
Magic: the Gathering has a nice sheen/varnish to each card. It is slightly waterproof and resistant to some paints and glues. You'll need some sand paper, about the 80 grit range, to get rid of the coating. Once the card has some white showing, you've sanded enough. You may in some cases leave the surface on one side unsanded to take advantage of the smooth surface. Two unsanded surfaces have a drastically lower friction and wear rate than two sanded surfaces in planar shear. I take advantage of this property when making hinge and pin joints with Magic cards.

Elmer's glue is sufficient for working with Magic cards. Loc-tite can be used for emergency "quick drying" jobs or plastinating sections of Magic cards. That involves applying a thin layer of Loc-tite and letting it dry, forming a hard layer of glue on the surface. This is useful for increasing part thicknesses for joints. If you use Elmer's glue to form boards, they will require 2-4 days of drying time to fully stiffen. While they dry, they are relatively bendable and easy to cut.

I've experimentally determined a few ideal card thicknesses for use in construction. A minimum of 4 (four) cards is needed for a rigid structure of small size. For larger components like doll joints, 8 (eight) layers is recommended. Four layers conveniently is the thickness where you can still manage to cut the stack of cards with regular scissors. If you wish to cut cards with a tool, I would suggest cutting four layers at a time, gluing the stacks together, then work on the part as one solid piece for sanding/finishing purposes.

Material Properties- Thicknesses
A Magic card is approximately 0.012 inches thick, or 0.27mm. Depending on how well you apply glue (a thin coat spread evenly is recommended: excess will cause warping when drying), the thickness of the glue is negligible. With the sanded cards, I like to glue four cards together to form Magic: the Plywood. I keep a stack of these boards around for quick access. I do most of my work in increments of four cards for simplicity. Less variance in stock materials.

I have a chart to assist in gauging how much material I need to use for making a solid object.

With this, I can quickly gauge how many times I need to trace a part out before I achieve the required thickness. Keep in mind: Magic cards are not incompressible, nor are they static in thickness. You can easily thicken the edge of a 4-card board with aggressive Dremel sanding by up to 0.5mm. Significant, considering it's 1.2mm to start with. This occurs by delaminating the card's individual layers with frayed edges. This is why you should Dremel AFTER gluing laminates together.

Tooling and Cards
Now you have some 4-card boards, you're ready to make stuff. Treat these boards like wood. Really bad wood. Do not inhale the dust generated from cutting. The dust is a fine particulate.

For making holes, hole punches work for 2-3 layers deep before you encounter significant resistance. This allows you to make 1/4" and 1/8" holes with ease and precision. For other holes, you'll need a drill. Start off with a manual 1/16" drill to make a pilot hole. Don't bother making a hole in a material deeper than a couple millimeters by hand, otherwise it won't be perpendicular to the plane. A pilot hole is key to prevent edge fraying. With a Dremel, use your desired drill size and drill halfway through the material using the pilot hole as a guide, and repeat for the other side. Going straight through causes the other side to flare up like a volcano.

Material Properties: Stiffness
You may find yourself making something longer than the card is. In this case, put the necessary length of cards together and alternate the break between cards with a solid card, like a brick layer. Except, in this case, you want to alternate where the breaks are so they're not all stacked near each other. This weakens the structure significantly. Refer to the figure below for proper stacking.

Material Properties: Bend Radius
A 4-card board can be bent to some degree to form a curved surface. For smaller bend radii, you'll need to roll the card around a dowel first to prevent cracking. You can achieve small cylinders with Magic cards, but anything smaller than 1/4" is difficult. Magic cards are not recommended for tube making, unless the surface finish must be smooth as possible.

This post will be edited as necessary.

Developing and Constructing the Team Fortress 2 Force-a-Nature Shotgun

In developing the Force-a-Nature shotgun, I had to get some standardization in how I scale up my reference images to 1:6 scale. There isn't much sense of scale from an in game object, since we don't know what the exact size of the in-game surroundings and models are in Team Fortress 2. However, we do have one handy bit of insight on how big to make something: ergonomics and established design.

I have established a few set of rules based on observation of other model firearms in 1:6 scale. I've referenced a few model firearms, notably ones with fixed stocks. The sample pool included a SPAS-12 (folding and fixed stock, Dragon), an M-1 Garand (Soldiers of the World), AK-47 (ZACCA), and the De Lisle carbine (21st Century Toys). I've compiled my observations into the following standard I will now be using for all future endeavors: The G-43 standard.

Figure 1: The Gewehr 43

I chose the Gewehr 43 as the basis of the standard due to the initial similarities with the Force-a-Nature's construction, and that it was a handy representation of a wooden stocked firearm. First off, from Figure 1, I've taken note from the sample pool that the distance from the trigger to the rear of the stock was about 55mm, with a tolerance of around 1mm. This measurement is useful in approximating the size of weapons with fixed stock lengths.

The G-43 Standard encompasses the following principles:

1. The distance from the trigger to the rear of the stock is 55+/- 1 mm.
   
2. The trigger guard is around 10mm long from front to back.
3. The handle thickness is a nominal 5mm wide.
4. The grip thickness is around 7mm to be "wieldable" by a 1:6 scale figure. Larger sizes render the model un-wieldable, and smaller ones necessitate special features from the user's hand (spring loaded fingers) or extra tooling (rounding of the grip) of the handle.

I've previously used the last two pieces of information after purchasing my ZACCA AK-74 in making my StG-44 and M60 models. Those turned out ok, much to my surprise.

Figure 2: Rough Schematic for the Force-a-Nature Model

Armed with the knowledge of what makes a comfortable and usable stock-gripped firearm, I figured out the scale of the Force-a-Nature. The results of my measurements can be found in Figure 2 above. Units are in millimeters, because Imperial units are the fancy of a king's foot fetish.

The top part demonstrates ideas of building the hinge locking mechanism. The actual mechanism I copied can be found and better understood here. The sketch covers my implementation of the locking lever, but naturally, I tend to store 50% of the information on a sketch, 20% by the finished product, and 30% in my head. Not a good way to document things. The aforementioned link does a good job of explaining what the notches and recesses in my barrel are used for. The actual lever itself is a "Z" shaped paper clip section that rotates and obstructs the square cornered part of the hinge from swinging out.

Figure 3: The Blueprints for the Force-a-Nature

In my attempt to better clarify how it works, I drew up rough sketches of all the major components to the Force-a-Nature. The bottom right shows an idea of the rotating lever locking mechanism. Should have drawn that in isometric view. Oh well. I hope you have a good idea of mechanics and a good physics engine in your head. For those of you who can't mind-read, here's some photos of the mechanism.

Figure 4: The Barrel Notch

Figure 5: The Sliding Lever

The sliding lever is limited to an overall travel of 9 degrees. I originally chose for a larger range of 18 degrees, but centering the lever exactly to lock the barrels was a silly idea, unreliable and tedious. The lever end in Figure 5 is barely visible due to the nature of the size involved. There is a bit of play with the barrel assembly, even with the superglue trick to thicken the parts involved. However, post painting, I found a little bonus that corrected that problem.


By sheer luck, I designed the barrels to accept Dragon shotgun rounds. Placing these in the chamber filled up the gap causing the play, making the model a bit more solid to handle when locked.

Regarding the stock curvature and contours, I achieved this by laminating approximately 20 layers of Magic: the Gathering card together, then using a Dremel to shape the stock. Not also do you get a nice shape, but post painting, it looks like wood grain!

Making Simple Spheres and Tubes Overly Complicated

Personal math reference time! Today's post deals with making revolved solids out of paper. This post will assist you in building your own tubes, cylinders and spheres for use in making ball joints, miniguns, and staves.

If you have a good understanding of math or don't care about the proof, skip to the end. If you're curious to the method behind the result, keep reading.

The basis of this method lies in the formula for a circle based on the diameter:

EQ. 1: Circumference = π* diameter

What we're doing when we roll paper into a tube is stacking a lot of thin walled tubes together to form a solid one. The goal is to make a formula to add up all the lengths of paper that consist of each individual tube together, so we can simply measure a length, roll it up around an object, and make a tube of the approximate dimensions.

I've been making my ball joints out of 3.175 mm (1/8") diameter bamboo sticks. For this example, I'll be using that as a baseline inner diameter for my measurements. You can choose to use other inner diameters later on. My goal for this example is to generate an 8mm diameter cylinder/sphere. First, I need to calculate how many times I'll need to wrap my strip of paper around this stick. Unfortunately, I need a vital measurement that most of you will be hard pressed to find: the thickness of paper. Fortunately, I've done that work for you.

Thickness of 110lb cardstock is roughly 0.252095 mm (or 0.009925"), calculated by a series of measurements, averaged to compensate for the lack of a digital caliper. (Dial calipers do have their drawbacks, but I love watching the spinning dial when I use mine.) Regular printer paper is roughly 0.004" to 0.005" for reference. You may notice, I kept all the decimals as far out as possible. I did this since the later part is going to vary a lot based on how accurate my values are.

Now. To the formulas! Time to pay attention to the equations, page skimmer! The number of revolutions your strip will need to make is:

You'll get a non-whole number. That's fine. Your revolved solid may be a bit thicker on one side than the other, but if you're aiming to make precise paper Rolexes, you shouldn't be learning from a guy who inhales Magic: the Gathering card dust on a daily basis.

Armed with this number, we're going to mess with arithmetic series. As we add a layer of paper, we're incrementally adding a length of paper proportional to the thickness and a constant. The thickness of paper is the change in diameter we're adding, and based off our formula earlier for the circumference, we're changing the circumference with each increment of the diameter. That gives us:

Where C is the circumference, N is the number of revolutions you need to make. Each revolution generates a length of paper that we'll have to add up to form our overall length to cut. So, if N=10, we'd add up C1, C2, C3... all the way to C10. Great for small values, terrible if you discover N=100. Arithmetic sums to the rescue!

The sum of an arithmetic series is simply:

With this, you just need to input your thickness, inner and outer diameters into the formulas above, and get the sum. That is the length of the strip of paper you need to cut out and roll around to get your tube.

Armed with this length, you can now control the size of the following revolved objects!


For small ball joints, the reference labeled "triangle" suffices. For large ones, you should probably just buy wooden beads or modify the "convex" one. I'd recommend using sandpaper to smooth out the spheres to be less octagonal.

For the socket part of a ball joint, I'd suggest using a sphere with a diameter larger than the inner diameter of the tube by 0.254mm (0.01"). That will give you a snug fit. You can always enlarge the sphere by adding a thin coat of superglue over it, and sanding it to fit when dry. I highly discourage adding material to the inside of a tube. It's too messy.


EDIT: Here's a microsoft Excel file for the formula for the extra-apathetic.

Just go to the proper tab and fiddle with the settings. And if you delete a formula, just download it again!

Doing Some Remodeling

I'm loving the Dremel. Greatest tool I've bought. What once took several days of sanding and settling for mediocrity, now becomes several days of quick and decisive milling and shaping with great results. Admittedly, if you haven't thought so already, I've really half assed making Lia. Then again, that implies you've been around for a year to know who that refers to.

Nevertheless, I've reworked Lia's face a lot. No more conical point for a nose, no more odd cheekbone structure, no more round puffy face. Still the same messy hair. What wonders a Dremel does for sculpting. It's like giving an amish man power tools.

I've personally favored Hotaru over Lia for the reason of me not doing as well of a job on Lia as I could have. Lia has resulted in being the test subject for later improvements: shoulders, hips, hair. I didn't mind if Lia suffered some irreparable changes: gave me an excuse to fix her up properly.

I went ahead and remodeled her legs. They were ugly. Practically cylinders with some creases resulting from bad construction. However, when making Aelia, I developed a proper method of doing limbs by adding a sheet of Magic card for the skin to reinforce it. Dremel magic smoothed out the surface, making a much sturdier and smoother finish. Well, relatively smooth. 110lb cardstock isn't as magical as Magic in smoothness.

For some reason, I spontaneously realized that I knew how to braid hair. I remember learning how to braid hair at one point in my life around 2nd grade. Must have been the side effects of ingesting Magic: the Carcinogenic Dust. Magic powder sure does wonders for the mind! Why, just look at what I've made by inhaling that stuff in large quantities. Anyways, I went a bit overboard with the braiding and ended up with a Swiss Alps/southern looking Kris Mage. Since I don't have 1/6 scale hair decor, electrical wire will suffice.

I haven't taken a lot of photos of Lia ever. She was just too unphotogenic back then. Now, she's my new favorite photo model. Too bad I've forced her into permanent Kris Mage status due to a lack of clothing variety.

I've also modified Hotaru's face, but that one didn't end up as great as Lia's. I'll keep working on that. After these cleanups are out of the way, I'll get back to working on Aelia's armor.

This Week's Project: A Less Creepy Looking Head

Arguably, Aelia's head sculpt is one ugly one. I could have done a lot better than that. Rather than deal with an ugly face, let's finally move away from the Mizuirogakuen Ruri head template and onto better prospects. But where to start? I first need to find a suitable model to base mine off of. The plan was to create a duplicate of the head entirely by coating it with paper and flattening it out into a template. Luckily, I had some assistance in securing a volunteer.

Ze Doktor eez een!

After a few stabs later... we've secured our base to model a new head off of. Behold, the miracles of science... and malice.
The usual process of paper and tape shell making begins. I've made sure to capture as many details on the face as possible but not too many to render the template complicated. The Ruri template consists of four elements, each with a simple assembly. I ended up with three with a slightly complicated assembly.

Clockwise from top left: Original shell, templates for the new head, assembled head, and the original base.

I ended up spending a week working on the revised head sculpt, then entirely scrapping it and redoing it. The third from the left was the one I was previously using for Aelia. The fourth from the left was too fat and reminded me of Jimmy Carr. I have no idea why he came to mind. The fifth one was actually a test build to get the scaling right. Oddly, the test builds I went through were the better looking of the lot. I aimed to replicate the test build with the second try, pictured on the far right.
So far, this is the current end result. I'm still not happy with it. The nose needs rework. For those who have noticed, this build required a lot of after-work on it than simply cutting and gluing the pieces together. I added three to four layers of 110lb cardstock over underdeveloped regions and taking a Dremel to it to get the right shape. Without a Dremel, this would have ended up very bad looking or have taken a lot of manual sanding and X-acto knife tricks.

I do however like how the eyes and eyebrows came out. The mouth needs work. Unfortunately, in her armor, she looks really fat. It's not as bad now with this thinner head, but the first one was atrocious. Practically heavy weapons girl. I'll properly finish the head sometime this week, then return to constructing the armor.

J.Norad's Tool Rack

Finally decided to organize my tools. I spent a few minutes trying to find my hand drill, which was buried underneath a pile of markers and my scissors. However, the local Target was less than cooperative in supplying me with a desk organizer that wasn't utterly useless or made of pastel Easter colors. Well, considering I have on me several large boxes of the world's greatest building resource, that's not a problem! Time to bust out those LEGO.

I've now sorted my tools by shape and function. The back row has my cutting and scoring tools and markers. The middle row has all the odd elements: tweezers, screwdrivers, scissors and my special set of tube making rods. On the far right is my drying rack for stuff that I'm painting, held up by a set of bamboo sticks. Lastly, I've added a small section to hold all my heavily used Dremel bits. No more hunting down things for five minutes.

The local Target was more than cooperative in assisting me with obtaining a set of pliers. These were the Stanley 6 pack of assorted pliers. Unfortunately, one came with a defective spring that I had to replace. Got to love quality American tools. I rarely work with wire, but when I do, it's rather delicate. I've been cutting my paper clips and wire with regular scissors, which is a really bad idea. Diagonal cutters to the rescue!

I already own a set of beadmaking jewelry pliers for shaping those rounded elements. However, for the next task of making belt buckles, I needed a better, square shaped tool: needle nosed pliers. These aren't too bad, but I could have probably gone for a finer tip.

Making belt buckles is like making miniature paper clips. You sure don't want to have to make a lot of them. These buckles will be used to hold the skirt flaps in place for Aelia. I won't be putting them together until everything's been painted unfortunately.

Hail the Return of the Almighty CUBE

I've previously discussed the arm construction process at length before. That was then, and now I have some more things to discuss the third time around.

Turns out, the 1/4" paper hole punch makes a much smaller hole than the 6.35mm you'd expect. Something around 0.238 in (6.04mm) . For pins, that amount of difference is significant for a tight fit when you're designing around that. I've specially made a 0.225 in (5.7mm) diameter dowel/rolling pin for creating the sockets. After human error, it still gives a good fit. All the pins the almighty CUBE creates are roughly 5.8mm in diameter. Still good, since it also makes them relatively uniform.

I'm considering making a separate cube or a metal version. However, I'd have to ensure that the dimensions of that cube makes the same parts as the older one. This one only accommodates 12mm or longer pins and 4mm to 8mm pins. Really odd range, and only one or two at a time. I'm really concerned about losing this cube, since making another one's annoying.

I've come into possession of a large quantity of building materials today, thanks to my friend. A lot more than I can handle, actually. I've pretty much doubled my stock reserves. How many does that entail? Well, let's see.

Quite a lot, it seems. I may have to start using land cards for fuel/fodder now. If you're wondering, I've separated the cards into four distinct piles: Lands, useful, semi-useful and fodder. Fodder's about 150 cards, which wasn't as much as I expected. These cards will allow me to continue building things like this...