The heat can make you think crazy things. Lately, I’ve been having this crazy idea for a new paper model. Actually, it would be an addition to an existing paper model. I have a craving to design the berm that holds up the Main Street train station. It would include the well-known floral Mickey, hand cart, the two side tunnels, and the stairways. Considering the length of the station model, the berm would be longer—certainly long enough to accommodate a full-length train assembly in the future. But that’s just crazy talk . . . isn’t it?

And for those of you waiting for the Sleeping Beauty Castle model to reappear, you might be in for a little surprise. I’m currently updating the stones and tiles, using photo sources. I also plan on adding some depth to the model with Photoshopped shading. In the end, the castle should look more realistic and far nicer. I may even auction off my current castle, complete with lighting.

Filed under: Paper Models, Papercraft, Personal
Comments Off

To recreate the spinner for the Jack Sparrow Compass paper model, I referred to a photo of the film prop, which was temporarily on display at Disneyland’s Disney Gallery when the first film debuted.

When I saw the second “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, one thing that I noticed was that the spinner in Jack Sparrow’s compass has a different design from the first movie. That threw me for a loop, since I’ve seen a couple different versions floating around the Internet. Could I have goofed? Since Hollywood has a habbit of changing things from movie to movie (blueprints get lost, props need to be adjusted to suit the film’s needs, etc.), I’ll just assume that’s the case. After all, I did use a film prop as reference.

The second film gives the compass a lot of screen time (compared to the previous film) and a lot of good close-ups, so it’s only a matter of time before I create a new spinner for the paper model. Now I’ll have to build myself another compass with the new spinner, but first, I’m gonna give the first film a quick once-over . . . just in case I really did goof.

Filed under: Paper Models, Papercraft
Comments Off

Over at Cardmodels.net, Kevin G has started an excellent photo documentation of his build of the Wicked Wench paper model. He documents not only mistakes, but also alternate building suggestions, and recommendations. All-in-all, it’s very informative and helpful if you plan on building the model yourself.

Filed under: Paper Models, Papercraft, Review
Comments Off

The Wicked Wench is a wild success! But, it’s coming with a hefty price. Yes, you guessed it: bandwidth, and lots of it. It’s only been 1 week, and I’ve already exceeded my monthly limit of free bandwidth (20GB). Of course, I’m sure the Jack Sparrow compass that was released yesterday did its fair share. By studying the situation, I think I may have discovered how to decrease bandwidth on the older models by about half.

The older models were compressed with Photoshop 5 LE, which is a stripped-down version that catered to those who couldn’t afford a full version. But with Photoshop 7, I’ve been able to decrease the file sizes by about 50%. I use the same compression techniques on the latest models, so those are as small as they’re gonna get right now.

Within the past month or so, three new paper models have been released, and bandwidth has suffered. That’s why I normally spread out the model releases. I think I may have to take another model offline. We’ll see. I’m not finished looking for solutions.

Filed under: Paper Models, Papercraft, Website Status
Comments Off

Today (July 7) is my birthday, but YOU get the present!

With all of the hype from the Pirates of the Caribbean, a person could easily get lost in it. Not to worry though, because you can have Jack Sparrow’s compass to guide you through it all. Or would it just drag you farther in?

The compass is a non-working version, though the spinner does freely spin and wobble. I designed my own compass with a working dial using two magnetized needles, and the results are less than spectacular. Balancing the spinner is crucial, and it needs help pointing in the right direction. I don’t know if the effect of the needles is wearing off or if the spinner can spin freely enough.

Filed under: Paper Models, Papercraft, Personal
Comments Off