After completing my papercraft building, I wanted to build some better and more refined (some of you guys have seen some of these pics already but wanted to start from the beginning). Being the Macross fan that I am, I wanted to build one of Macross Quarter's elevators from Macross Frontier:


I used the above screen shot to give me the overall size of the opening. Unfortunately, it's not a direct overhead shot so I guesstimate a bit, but came up with this general shape:


The larger pieces had to be split accordingly so that everything could fit on 11x17 paper. To make sure that every part was scaled properly, I used 11x17 rectangles as boundaries as you can see in the pic.

After everything was laid out, I began with the initial design of the elevator platform and add details:

I tried to stay true to the original design but size restrictions required me to compact some of the features.

Started to add colors taken from the screen shot. I am not too crazy about how plain the design looks but I will add more detail later.

Stay tuned for more.

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Nice!

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i'm digging that!

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Looking good so far.

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Next up are the the Wall sections. I've wanted more of a randomness to the placement of the armored plates on the walls, but added the cable conduit jumping between the sections to pull everything together.


Here are the walls colored in. At first, I wasn't sure about using the Brown for the details but I think it complements the Gray well.



I thought that my initial design was a bit too plain so I added the same plate pattern I used on the walls with a smaller one for the actual elevator platform.

Sections printed out for size comparison.

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Love it so far.
Still would like to see it's got lights and working elevator.

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You will see the latter first. I can still try messing with the lighting later.

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Very cool indeed!

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Like I said on yahoo, I thought you were linking screenshots of the toon. You should totally sell dem things on ebay or somethin, make some mad cash.

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That's always a possibility.

Ok, here are some actual WIP pics.

I used the black foamboard instead of the white to avoid anything showing through. I decided to use spray on adhesive instead of a glue stick for the ease of use and better adhesion.


To avoid any at all to show through I decided to actually wrap the designs around the foamboard. I should have printed out another set to cut the foamboard to size but, since I didn't, I had to adapt.


I used the blunt side of the exacto to lightly score the lines where the sheet should bend to avoid some of the issues I had with my Papercraft Building. It actually worked too well on some spots but nothing a piece of scotch tape couldn't fix. At the end the pieces looked like this:


I then used the foamboard as guide to make sure each wraparound was bent properly. After applying the adhesive all that was left to do was add the foamboard and glue down the ends.


And here are some of the finished pieces. This technique is simple but the results look great.

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Oh,,, yeah and dont forget my cut of the profits for the idea of ebaying

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You've certainly got my attention.

Good work thus far!

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Very very impressive. A great subject matter.

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Next is the actual construction of the elevator.
First up are the two elevator halves cut to size and then I carefully cut the platform away from the other surface. I added several layers to strengthen the elevation platform.



Another size check just to make sure everything is on the right track.


I was eager to to do a dry run with all the sections in place so I decided to use some scotch tape and put everything together.




To say that I am happy how everything came together so far is an understatement . But there are still a few kinks that I have to work out:

1. In order for the platform to be inline with the surface I will probably have to loosen the wraparounds of the surface and walls and the wrap them beneath the surface so the elevating platform has flush travel surface.
2. I need to figure out a setup where I can add the elevating mechanism underneath the elevating platform. I probably get a plastic container and cut a hole in the top to accommodate the lift bar and attach the rest to the container so that nothing can shift when elevator operates.
3. I still am contemplating to make the whole thing collapsible due to it's size but that will depend on how much of the raise and lower function I want to keep.

In the mean time here is a little stop motion photography.


Edit: Google Sites sucks when it gets to gifs.

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Yeah, so I decided to make the whole thing static and functional. I loosened the wrappings and redid them. This made the transition of the elevator platform smooth. But since it's not 100% aligned and the tolerances I have the platform is chafing were the vertical meets the horizontal.

So, in other words, it takes some effort to align the horizontal surfaces of the two. But otherwise I am very pleased how well the project came together.

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