Project: Rivendell

[artoodeeto]

Haven't forgotten about that offer, let me get back home (currently living away from home because of doctors) and I'll box up what I have and send it to you...

Awesome, thanks so much!!! PM me when you're ready and I'll resend you my address.

Looks like an ingenious arrangement! Should help you in construction too (theoretically) as the case and hardware can be worked on pretty much independently with your nifty drawer design!

I have the Rivendell pics open as I'm writing this and by God I wouldn't know where to start... The trouble is it's all one big complex so it's either all or nothing and to rebuild that much fragile elven architecture in such a small scale would be a killer.

How about the large building in the first image? It's been a long time since reading the book or watching the film so please forgive my ignorance but is that a stand-alone structure? It's still breathtaking and very intricate but working on just one structure like that would allow a larger scale and more scenery (and scenery is easier than buildings lol)

Tell you what would be a very easy (but far less impressive) construction project. Weathertrop... It's one of LotRs most recognisable scenes and I know plenty of wargamers have built it before!

But sorry I'm hijacking your thread, I'd much rather see Rivendell than something as dull as stone ruins! Think I may dust off my trilogy boxset and watch the scenes that show these buildings. Keep us posted with any more designs!

EDIT : Just checked the Google Warehouse for sketchups of Rivendell and found a few of varying loyalty to the film. Bearing in mind the film is of varying loyalty to the book I think that makes any one of them fair play!

The results are here http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehou...=m&btnG=Search but the one that looks most like your screen caps is too new for me to load as I only have V.6 and it was made in 7.

Check out the ones by Sauron89 for a film faithful but unfinished larger structure or 2 by wiccan for finished, low-res clusters of some very attractive elven structures.

Thanks!! I’m quite grateful for the links to the building models – it’ll at least help with planning the layout, and the stuff by Sauron89 does look pretty close to the film model. What I’m envisioning right now is that the buildings will stretch nearly from one side to the other, with mountains climbing up behind them and the cliffs and building supports coming down the front of the case. As far as where to start…I have some experience constructing landscapes as I’ve built several large aircraft dioramas, and I have an excellent reference book on model railroad scenery construction that has yet to lead me astray. My plan is to make the scenery according to the “water soluble” methods in that book, but then rather than finish it I’ll instead mold it in latex (probably), and cast it in epoxy. I want the scenery to be as strong as possible, and while model railroad scenery looks amazing, it’s not especially mobile if one needs to, say, move. Once the epoxy cast is done, then I’d add details like trees, dirt, the buildings, etc etc.

Nice to see I'm not the only one that takes a long a$$ break from a build lol

Heh yeah…I *really* wanted to get the sandcrawler done first. Which I did Then I wanted to work on the piano computer (see my other worklog) because it’s way simpler, and I figured it’d be good practice for the box portion of the Rivendell build. Which it was – when I sat down to design this case I was able to envision exactly how I’ll put it together.

Looks good and at least you're looking to round UP case size instead of down! Should be no problem if you've got spare material! I'm undecided on material to use for my case at the moment, was thinking of getting my hands on some styrene sheet and building out of that. I won't need much but the base will need to be sturdy as it's quite long and only about 4cm deep lol What are the most common materials used around here by people building a case from scratch ratehr than modding?

Thanks! Yeah, I want to round it all off to make it easier to measure with an aluminum yardstick. I figure I can leave it the way it is or make it easier on myself. As for construction materials, let’s see…if you have the tools and skills, aluminum or steel are preferable materials depending on what you’re building (Waynio’s Stealthlow build for instance is metal). Acrylic is another one, Boddaker used that in a number of his builds. Wood too is popular – it can be very basic (both this build and my piano computer case) or gorgeous (see anything by Filimon). My sandcrawler build a few pages back is made from MDF, and I know it’s not the only fiberboard mod in existence. Advantage with MDF is it’s cheap, cheaper than styrene, and very easy to work with. However, if I had it to do over again I’d use styrene. Not that I want to do it over again LOL…took me long enough the first three times I made it Anyway, styrene is a bit more durable than MDF, cuts much more cleanly and takes paint better. My main issue with finishing something in MDF is it’ll absorb paint which alters the paint’s appearance. I prevented this on my crawler by covering it in posterboard paneling before painting.

PS - if any admins see this, can we move the sandcrawler from WIPs to the Finished subforum? I'd have requested it at the end of the crawler thread but it's locked now. Thanks!

[Munty]

Glad the links helped, the way you've described the layout sounds really great. I'm away from my project now so I'm going to use this time to source materials and it sounds like you're a good person to chat to about it!

I know I need styrene sheet to trim my screen later so I'm wondering if I may as well get enough to do the case as well. It's only a laptop so whatever I use I won't need much but I think I'll need something more sturdy for the base itself to keep all the hardware and the rest of the build stable.

I went to the model shop round here today and they have lots of wood sheet that I can get but although that may be a good material to put strength in the base I'm not sure if it's what's best for the rest.

The case itself is going to be similar dimensions to a standard laptop base but the keyboard and touchpad will all be gone and instead I'll be detailing the top in a similar way to yourself. That means it doens't need to be level or uniform but I do need to replicate grass, dirt, trees hedge etc.

So your book on model railways and such would be a great help lol

[artoodeeto]

k...now that I'm thoroughly intimidated....i found this link while searching online for more/better reference material. Even if you don't normally follow links from worklogs, check this one out. Whoever built this did an AMAZING job:
http://www.gidian-gelaende.de/Materi...ruchtal/album/
If I can make mine even half as well as that, I'll be happy. I haven't any idea how big it is, but it's likely fairly sizeable to get all that detail in there. Mine most likely won't be as large as that. I also found this reference shot; and my model will be the area immediately surrounding the buildings. I was heartened to see how far below the buildings the river is; one of my concerns was that my case design was so tall at the front that I'd have to make the river way farther down than it appeared in the film, but after viewing this shot I think my design might be pretty spot on.

Lastly, here's a sketchup showing Sauron89's partial Rivendell model, which I'm starting to rework to more closely match the film version in the pics above. Placement on the case is not final yet. The building cluster really is surprisingly compact in area.

[x88x]

Wow, this should be good...just don't take as long as you did on the Sandcrawler, eh?

As far as the design goes, have you thought about having the drawer come out one end instead of the back? That would make it easier to support the platform above it, plus it would make it a lot easier to access the components when the desk is against a wall.

[Munty]

Wow, this looks like a much smaller scale than I'm working in right now so I really don't envy you!!! That is a very impressive model in the link too. Hard to judge size without knowing what size that flooring is but while I think it's bigger than yours will be it might not be too much bigger... You can do it mate, lots and lots of planning

[artoodeeto]

Wow, this should be good...just don't take as long as you did on the Sandcrawler, eh?

As far as the design goes, have you thought about having the drawer come out one end instead of the back? That would make it easier to support the platform above it, plus it would make it a lot easier to access the components when the desk is against a wall.

Ya…it should DEFINITELY take me less than 4 years LOL. I’m realizing now I should have mocked up the crawler in sketchup first, it’s SO much easier. Now I know better. I did consider having the stuff slide out the side, but ruled it out for a couple reasons: 1) I needed to leave depth space for a larger video card, since they’re all 11” long these days, but I didn’t want to make the entire length of the case deeper, and 2) even pulling it all out from the side I’d still have to unhook everything from the back anyway. I may see at the hardware store about getting a couple of metal drawer handles I can bolt to the sides to make picking it up easier.

Wow, this looks like a much smaller scale than I'm working in right now so I really don't envy you!!! That is a very impressive model in the link too. Hard to judge size without knowing what size that flooring is but while I think it's bigger than yours will be it might not be too much bigger... You can do it mate, lots and lots of planning

Thanks!! I’ll definitely be doing a LOT of planning before I sculpt anything. Heck, it’s taken me who knows how many iterations in sketchup to finalize just the case itself. I’m planning, at this point, on re-making the Rivendell sketchup model rather than modifying the one by Sauron89 that I used in the design mockup. There were a lot of inconsistencies between his model and photos of the film model, and if I remake it then I’ll be much more familiar with it. It’ll also allow me to design all the pieces which should make construction of the real model much easier.

Ok, now on to the last set of sketchup pics before I go out and get a sheet of plywood and some screws. I modified Sauron89’s Rivendell model so the building locations more closely matched the film model. There are still other issues with it (portions of it are too wide, some of the bridge roofing is incorrect, etc) so as I said above I’ll start making a new model to use as a 3D blueprint for the actual model I’ll build. The first pic below shows the Rivendell model I downloaded on the left, vs. the re-arranged version. It’s obviously nowhere near complete, but enough of it is there to allow me to figure out the basic layout. I’m sure I’ll be scooting it around a bit when I finalize my own model.

This shot shows how I’ve raised the buildings up so they’re not sitting right on top of the case. This will allow more freedom for sculpting the landscape and gorges under them. You also may notice that I made the rear panel (against which I’ll do cliffs/mountainside) about 6” taller. I didn't want the building tops sticking up above the cliff wall behind them.

This shot shows the front – I added a short wall down where the river will be. That wall may or may not stay there, since I’m sure I can sculpt one to hold the water in. But, I figured I’ll be working with the plywood now, and I don’t want to have to hang on to scrap material so I may as well make the piece now, put it in, and I can remove it later if it’s not needed.

X-ray shot sans Rivendell buildings so you can see the final layout of the computer parts. Note that while it shows a full length vid card in there, the computer currently has 2 shorter video cards. I’m just leaving space for future upgrades

Lastly, the part layout. The purple squares are the sheets of plywood that I have and need to get. The white parts of course are the case pieces. Pretty handy to be able to do that before I buy any more, eh?

Over the weekend….construction begins on the case anyway…buildings and landscape will have to wait for now

[Munty]

Looking really good, can't wait to see your sketchups! You're going to get the jump on me but I should be building my case just after the weekend too! Got some 4mm wood for it which should marry strenght and weight nicely Mine is much simpler than yours though so I should easily catchup haha

Good luck over the weekend, hope you get on ok!

[Waynio]

Sign me up on this really ambitious project good luck with it artoo .

[artoodeeto]

Thanks guys, I'll post some pics later today. I'm going to, in a few minutes, start putting some of the case together. When I was jigsawing yesterday, I neglected to cut an opening in the side for the PSU to vent out, so in a couple hours (too early in the morning for the jigsaw right now) I'll cut that vent hole.

If you look back at the sketchups, you'll see that the side walls extended out to the very front of the case. I'm going to cut those extensions down so they're the same height as the front wall (about 2"). The goal is to make it look like the river area extends beyond the edges of the case, and it wouldn't look like that if I leave the walls as-is.

So yeah...I can put some other pieces together in the meantime. Getting all the screwholes in the right places is such a PITA, wish I had a drill press...

[Waynio]

So yeah...I can put some other pieces together in the meantime. Getting all the screwholes in the right places is such a PITA, wish I had a drill press...

I recently started using a spot drill bit for when I use the normal drill & would say it's more accurate than my drill press, it's a drill bit but with a 90 degree sharp point works excellent for drilling precisely where you want to drill infact I've barely been using my drill press since getting the spot drill bit lol.