I've been fascinated by pulp magazine artwork from the 1930s-1950s and have saved many with the intention of making 3D models.
This is my second cover art to 3D - "The Flying Wing of Pluto":
"Although Pluto has no atmosphere, this plane can travel above the surface of the planet using an electro-magnetic force for propulsion." Don't know what magazine this came from, but the story is on page 238. I
really hope they serve hot beverages on that flight!
On to the model. I bought a
Silhouette Cameo cutter, with the intention of using it to cut both paper and plastic (which it does well). Other hobbyists have used this cutter to good effect, so I slipped in a sheet of 0.020" (about 0.5mm) styrene, loaded up the wing shapes in the very nice graphics program that comes with the cutter and started cutting.
I should have read the instructions
first and experimented with paper, etc. so my results were less than great (I sliced right through the sticky carrier sheet - they're cheap though), but still far far better (and less exhausting) than cutting the shapes by hand.
I laminated the plastic to build up the wing and tail. More on that, later.
One of the issues with pulp cover art is that the artists are not making isometric projections or accurate engineering drawings; they're trying to make a buck. The result is that the drawings don't always translate well into 3D and this artwork is no exception.
I translated the cabin about as well as I could into Rhino3D and scaled it to what I guessed 1/350 would be. I just didn't like the results; it looked squat and odd. I lengthened the cabin a bit, then sent it to Shapeways:
I laminated five of the cut shapes for the wing (to make a wing 0.1" thick) and other parts, added a thin strip to the edges, then rounded them off.
Here's are the laminated wing bits all together. The Silhouette can do
much better and precise cuts than I did for this first try (I read the instructions and cut another test sheet that came out well). The curved leading edge was my "artistic" input. It looked better than a straight edge.
For the extension of the tail section over the wing, I used the tiny ship in the background for reference:
I still need to add some details to the wing, but the Cameo made the job much easier. It can cut up to 0.020" styrene and the parts just pop out of the sheet. Some people have cut 0.30" sheets, but I'll try to get some experience with the thinner materials first.
I may finish this this weekend, or make the wings at Shapeways.
