Borderline Trek Film

[Potemkin_Prod]

Our pitfall was the joints, no doubt about it. Probably the weather conditions down here caused it, but we ended up using some bondo, some sheetrock compound, and gorilla tape on every seam. What worked for one station didn't necessarily work for another. Tonight I get to repaint all six stations and have my fingers crossed for them--even though our camera operators say it won't be noticeable.

Funny you're using buckets. When I built my small Classic Trek bridge for the 10" characters, I used large,styrofoam, Chick-fil-a cups for their chairs.

But you're right. The construction being done at the same time is incredibly mutually beneficial.

 

[Melonpool]

I know what you mean by the joints -- I have no idea why mine aren't lining up, either! My plan is to use a small piece of flat rounded moulding on each seam once the whole thing's painted. I want to make sure that these things are still sectional, since my plan is to transport it to a nearby studio when we shoot. Not knowing how long it's going to take to build, I didn't want to build it onsite and have it be in his way for months on end.

My plan is to make all of the set sections in my garage, then truck them about 20 miles to the studio -- which has a lot taller ceiling and a lighting rig -- something that my garage sorely lacks!

 

[Melonpool]

I found this picture of the door before it had the "skin" on it. Hopefully, it'll shed a little light on how I made it:

Basically, the wall is built with a curve to it, ranging from about 4 inches at the bottom to about 18 at the top (over a 4 foot span). You should be able to adjust this to your specs.

Since I have 8 pie wedges, each of my sections has a 22.5 degree side. I think you said yours has 10 sections -- if, so then yours are probably at about 20 degrees, right? Whatever they are, these curved vertical risers are built so that they plug into one section of the pie. You then make 2 identically curved sections that you can put at the opposite angle from the outside -- that is, if your sides are at 20 degrees out, your door cut out vertical risers are at 20 degrees in. The beauty of this design is that you only have to find one curve, instead of making a different one for the cut outs.

I put a flat door piece at the back of the door cut out to make it 90 degrees again (since the door is at 90 degrees). A trapezoid-shaped header goes in at the top of the door cut out. And a "doorskin" or 1/16th inch MDF skin goes over the curved wall. I would think on yours, you wouldn't have to make the curve go all the way to the floor -- maybe about 3 feet off the ground up to the ceiling would be good.

Here's a quick sketch -- hopefully, it'll make sense!

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Thanks for the info. Ours has 12 sections, and the cut is usually 15 degrees or 30, depending on what we're cutting. I think we're just going to have to try one this evening and see what our results are going to be.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

I know what you mean by the joints -- I have no idea why mine aren't lining up, either!

I think its the MSD/TSB that we're using. It's so thin in both our cases that the humidity causes it to buckle ever so slightly, so the joints just can't line up...

We're at the point in our production that we can't go back and resurface the panels with actual plywood, but it's something we're going to have to look at for our subsequent ones (unless it really doesn't show up when we film, as our director of photography is suggesting it won't).

 

[Melonpool]

It looks like you could use the slant of your console tops as a guide. I don't think they absolutely have to be curved to get the same effect -- you could probably get away with using the same angle as your console tops as the angle for the cut-out hood of the door.

By all means -- use the angles you've already figured out. It took me forever to figure out the 22.5 degree angle. I made a foamcore model of the doorway to help me visualize how to make it -- it might be useful for you to do something similar if you have the time.

And do you have any pics online of your model set that you used cups for the chairs? I'd love to see it!

Steve

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

I'll see if I can get a few tonight and upload them.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Okay, here's how to make chairs out of Chick-fil-a styrofoam cups, a wooden dowel, four pieces of balsa wood, a balsa plank, Elmer's glue and two thumb tacks.

(URLS removed -- non functional-- sorry)

 

[Barbreader]

Your links didn't work for me when I tried them in the middle of the night EDT...

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Your links didn't work for me when I tried them in the middle of the night EDT...

I'll try again this evening. Thought there was a problem with the http:// showing up twice, but now I'm not even sure the pics are there.

 

[Melonpool]

Looking forward to them!

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Let's try it again:
http://www.fastcopyinc.com/orionpress/chairs01.JPG
http://www.fastcopyinc.com/orionpress/chairs02.JPG
http://www.fastcopyinc.com/orionpress/chairs04.JPG
http://www.fastcopyinc.com/orionpress/chairs05.JPG
http://www.fastcopyinc.com/orionpress/chairs06.JPG

They're not perfect; but they serve their purpose.

 

[Melonpool]

They look great!

I'm hoping to get cracking on the chairs again soon. I'm out of town next weekend, but I'm hoping that this weekend I can get two more walls up and maybe start roughing out some kind of stand for the helm station. One of the things that's different about building a set for puppets is that you have to engineer everything below the "floor" as well, so that the furniture will be suspended roughly four feet off the real floor.

They get awfully wobbly, awfully fast. I'll post whatever I have done on Monday!

 

[Melonpool]

Here's a couple of quick shots showing the progress on the set. Five out of eight wedges are up in place, now -- and the remaining three are the viewscreen (like I said earlier, this is not intended to be the Enterprise -- just a ship heavily-influenced by Star Trek and other Earth science fiction).

http://blip.tv/file/3723731

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Cool! Looking forward to more!

 

[Melonpool]

In case anyone was wondering, these are some of the puppets for this project -- actually, all of them are being rebuilt, but these are the basic gist of them.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Cool! I like the guy on the right. He reminds me of a character from "Home Movies."

 

[Melonpool]

After several weeks of inactivity, I got a lot done on my little project. I think one more day of prep and I can finally start getting some paint on the walls!

No pictures of the set yet -- most of the stuff I've been working on have been from an engineering standpoint (figuring out how the false floor and monitor mounts are going to work), so it doesn't look all that much different than the last time I posted. It will, soon enough, though!

One thing that I've been working on for the last few weeks are some new puppets. One -- a robot pop star that is the closest thing to a human in the film -- is coming together nicely. Here's a shot of the latest prototype -- which may or may not be the the puppet we use in the film:

She's a rod puppet that can open and close her mouth, widen her eyes and cock her head similar to the way Data used to do it in TNG. I've never built anything like this before, so it's definitely been a learning process.

Enjoy! -- oh and if you want to see what she looks like under her skin -- this is what the mechanics look like:

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Looking good there! I was noticing the outfits on the puppets in the window sill look somewhat reminscent to those of the old cartoon, The Galaxy Trio. Coicidence or intentional?

 

[Melonpool]

I've never heard of The Galaxy Trio. I'll look at them, though. Most of the characters from this project were created as far back as 1978-1983. Just one of those side projects that has a life of its own.