Star Wars Episode 5 - 74Z Speeder Bike Paper Model

Beautifully detailed paper model of the speeder bike used on the moon of Endor in "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back." This specimen is from Noturno Sukhoi's site which features models from the Star Wars universe.

Z74 Speeder Bike

Check out all his projects at: Sukhoi Night: Star Wars Papercraft. Look around: there are other sci fi features and all of them look great.

Educational Earthquake Paper Models

In the wake of today's unusual occurrence of a 5.9 earthquake across the northeast, I thought it might be of interest to children on the East Coast to discover how an earthquake happens. Educators (Hello, Carrie!) may find some great educational tools on the State of California Department of Conservation website. Explore them here: Educational Earthquake Paper Models

Paper Model of Plate Tectonics from Canon

Canon also has an animated model on their website, pictured above. Canon is a great source for many teaching aids, as well as craft projects.

Star Wars Episode 2 - Jango Fett w/ Jet Pack

Seeking models to fuel my Star Wars addiction, I recently found this incredible looking model of Jango Fett from the Episode Two film, "Attack of the Clones." Remember the fight scene on the planet of Kamino between Obi-Wan and Jango? This remarkable model depicts the bounty hunter using his jet pack to rise above his opponent and fire his pistols. It really looks great and is brought to us by the Print, Cut & Paste website. The PDF/PDO template can be downloaded for free.

Jango Fett

Space Shuttle Atlantis Trip

Well, I've returned from my Space Shuttle Trip to Florida. I'd like to say it was spectacular, but we didn't have the best viewing location. I was only able to shoot a few of photos. None of them were very good. But, here are couple anyway. We were on a boat in Port Canaveral in 4 foot swells about 7 miles NNE of Launch Pad 39A.

There are many great sites for quality video and pictures on the net. I'm going to include a few links to sites I've found since my return. There are some fabulous images here; many more can easily be found. Post some of you favorites in the comments. I'd love to see what you come up with.

Video:

360 Degree Video of Shuttle Vertical Assembly Building (VAB)

Pictures:

360 Degree View of Atlantis Flight Deck

Jeffery Ross Photography

The Last Shuttle

My last post included a site that specialized in Shuttle Models from every flight over the last 30 years. I'm planning to do a build in the near future to commemorate STS-135. I'll keep you updated. 

At least I can say that I saw the final space shuttle launch. Congratulations to the crew and all of NASA on a safe and productive journey, and for a successful end to the shuttle era. On to the future!

Space Shuttle Paper Card Models

On Friday, July 8th, at about 11:30 am EST, the final NASA Space Shuttle mission, STS-135, featuring shuttle Atlantis, is scheduled for launch. And I'm gonna be there! I've never been to a launch, so I'm very excited. This will be historic! In searching for information on past flights, I came across this little gem of a website: AXM Paper Space Scale Models: The Site for Space Shuttle Card Modelers.

This highly detailed site contains International Space Station models, international satellites, capsule models from Russia, America, and other countries, and of course, space shuttle models, including reference documents to individual missions. Models include different external tank configurations, crawler transporter and mobile launch pads, and even the 747 jumbo jet carrier shown below.

This site is great for everyone interested the shuttle program, with bits about the crews, histories, mission goals, and payloads from various missions, from test flights from the '70s to present. When I get back, I'm planning to build a model to commemorate my trip. Man, this should be fun! I'll post about the experience when I get back. Have a great Independence Day!

HP Blackbird 002 Paper Model

Hey. Guess what? I finished one. I finished a model. I know. Pretty hard for me to believe, too. It's a pretty simple one. But, alas,I made it harder than it had to be. This model was published as an advertisement on the back of one of my Maximum PC magazines. The paper wasn't the strongest, so I figured gluing it to a piece of card stock would shore it up a bit. Well, this was a rather foolish idea.

As I cut out the parts, each one wanted to curl, leading me place the pieces under a heavy book to flatten them out. This added about a week or so to the build time. Good thing I wasn't in a hurry. Also, I applied the adhesive unevenly, resulting in bubbling on the surface, and unsealed edges. Fixing these, of course, added time to the project as well. But, I persevered and the results are not great, but OK.

Fortunately, you are spared the toil of my past mistakes, thanks to a gracious individual who scanned the page into an Adobe PDF file and submitted it for download on Media Fire. Something I really should have thought of. The link has a different case design than mine. Too late now. Sorry for that. I blame the meds.

The model has three main parts; the body, the base and a removable side. If you're looking for a glossy finish like the magazine edition pictured above, I would try printing the template out on photo paper.

Blade Runner's Police Spinner by Daumier Smith

As a fan of this 1982 film, I've seen models of this flying car vehicle before, but this has to be the best one yet! Highly detailed, free download. Thank you, Mr. Smith!

Police Spinner by Daumier Smith.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Found this little gem of a blog this morning. No models here, but brilliantly crafted paperwork.

People as old as me will remember "back in the day" doing Shadow Portraits; you would set up a light by the side of your face to leave a shadow of your profile onto a piece of paper taped to the wall. Someone would trace the outline of the profile and then it could be cut out, pasted to a background, and framed. A famous example of this are the pair of portraits of President's Washington and Lincoln found in many classrooms.

This artist has taken this technique to the next level.

Visit "Paper Cuts" by Olly Moss for wonderful Profile Portraits of many pop culture icons and well known personalities.

Take a look at these two and I think you'll see what I mean:

Back to Work

Health issues have kept me away. For far too long. Longer than I care to think about. But I'm back at it, determined to make up the time I've missed. Here's what's cookin' on my workbench at the moment.

Click pic to enlarge

You may recognize one of them; I started the Ghost House over 2 years ago. There's also an 'N' scale train that I foolishly started about 3 months ago (more on that some other time). And a quick build HP PC Model from the back of Maximum PC Magazine. So I'm trying to catch up on old projects and finish what I started. I've also had some time to catch up on some Blog browsing. There's a lot more of you out there! Showcasing some great work, too. I'll point you to some of the more interesting projects I've seen lately; some are bound to familiar to you, but to me, they're brand new! So once again I ask you to bear with me. I really do have some neat things I'd like to try. So stay tuned!