As I'm still busy on commission work I haven't made much progress on the cantina, so as a fill in I thought I would show how I make domes and spiral stairs, as a few had thought they looked complicated.
DOME
Step 1 First we need some measurements, as I don't need a full half sphere, I draw the radius larger than I want, and then measure from further up the circle.
as you can see above, I've based the measurements on the thickness of the foamboard I will be using.
Step 2 using the measurements from above, I cut three discs of foamboard and glued them together.
Step 3 next we need to shape the foam, I start with a scalpel trimming to the rough shape, then use sandpaper to finish off.
Step 4 lastly I cover the entire dome in wall filler to give the rough surface that you see on the buildings in Tatooine.
A handy tool for this stage is a card template of the shape of the dome, to make sure you don't get any high spots. You can also sand once dry, if it gets too rough and lumpy.
STAIRS
Step 1 First draw a circle on your foamcore, with a radius of the width of the stairs that you want.
Step 2 mark out quarters in the disc.
Step 3 Once you've cut out the quarters, you need to mark out three sections, the area for gluing and two equal steps.
Step 4 cut out the bottom step, but don't throw away the cut piece. Then repeat for the next stair as well.
Step 5 glue the two sets together, and also glue the cut out piece underneath at the same time.
Step 6 trim the underside to look more level.
Step 7 finally add filler to fill in the gaps.
Repeat the above process as many times as needed to get the height of the stairs you need.
Hopefully this will be useful to someone for their own projects, so until next time stay safe, and have fun !
Cheers Dave
I never thought of making a dome that way, that'll get added to my bag of tricks.
ReplyDeleteThank you SD, glad you found it useful.
DeleteAll good stuff, Dave! :-) I have a feeling model ship builders would refer to your dome construction as the bread-and-butter method - they cut wood sections matching the hull lines (the bread) and glue them together (the glue's the butter) and then cut the solid shape in the way that you've done to match the hull lines (if you look at ship hull section drawings this will make more sense). I had a mis-spent youth making model ships, but mostly out of card and balsa wood (they were probably crap but I enjoyed making them)!
ReplyDeleteThank you John, have heard it called sandwich method as well, so the same sort of thing. I once made the corners of a spoiler for my car using similar method but using balsa wood as a core, as you didn't get foamcore back then ! LOL I wouldn't call it a mis-spent youth, more picking up valuable skills for later projects ! LOL
DeleteThis is very interesting and useful. I'll have to try and remember your technique here. I've never attempted stairs, nor needed to but you never know when that might come in handy!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jeff, understanding how things are built is a great skill to have, and you never know when it may be useful ! LOL
DeleteGreat to see the progress of the builds Dave, thank you. I had you building the stairs in one piece but this way makes so much more sense.
ReplyDeleteThank you Michael, you could do the stairs out of a solid piece, but it becomes more tricky, especially in the thin spots, where one slip with the scalpel and you've broken it, or stuck it in your finger ! LOL
DeleteNice walk through of the steps taken to create the features. 😀
ReplyDeleteThank you Stewart, hopefully people find it useful for their own creations.
DeleteThat's wonderful, I'm noting down the technique for staris for sure! Great job!
ReplyDeleteThank you Suber, that's what these posts are for, to share techniques and inspire others with their own projects.
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