THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

Tater Schuld's Descon-14 Entry

Quoted from D.J. Nock at http://www.dvdmaniacs.net/Reviews/A-D/day_earth_stood_still.html:

"If you ask any serious film buff which sci-fi flick they love the most, many would no doubt choose Robert Wise's seminal classic The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Unleashed upon a troubled world in 1951, this highly influential picture legitimized sci-fi in its decade, a period that delivered many memorable films, and gave birth to what is commonly known as "quintessential science fiction". The Day the Earth Stood Still is certainly quintessential; a movie that helped to lay the ground works for the genre, providing many of its archetypes and conventions."

Kind of odd that no one has entered one of these in descon before? I had watched the movie about a year ago and thought this would be an easy saucer to build, plus a little challenge in the curved dome on top.

After taking the image from http://www.tauspace.freeserve.co.uk/day_the_earth_04.htm and dumping it into AutoCAD I was able to scale it from three quarters up to full size, then I took and matched the radiuses and angles. Notice that there are parts that don't match due to the camera being at an angle.

I then shrunk the outline down to a useable scale (which came out neatly at 1/200th full scale) to give me a 8 in saucer. would some of the details die off in such a shrinking process?

As you can see, the outline is still recognizable, so I decided to start cutting parts. I used foamcore for the 8 and 5.5 inch rings (your try to measure to a .0001 of an inch!) and manilla folder for the angled transition, three bt-20 tubes in standard motor mount configuration, leaving the dome to do.

The dome I made by cutting another upper ring, cutting a tennis ball in half, wrapping a latex rubber glove over the whole thing (i really wish I had pictures of this....) I then painted a 50/50 water/wood glue mix and layered toilet paper for make the dome. after about 8 layers of this I had an acceptable looking form that could get the irregularities filled or sanded out.

Then I did as Dick Stafford suggested, I went on an extended vacation. A full week at Oshkosh (with Burt Rutan!) (http://www.airventure.org/), then a road trip to Boston for a wedding and sightseeing tour.

This of course completely took my mind off Descon, and it has been a struggle getting back to it (the deadline is WHEN?!?)

Get all the parts glued together, start using drywall compound to fill in the contours. bake in oven to speed drying, drywall cracks. Sand, do over, more cracks. Futz with it one more time, ignore cracks. Then paint.

Note: the saucer looks like brushed aluminum in the movie. I thought I would use Krylon Chrome which usually dries poorly to look like brushed aluminum. Didn't this time giving it a shinier look than I would expected.

OOOO! I forgot to add.

I wanted to try to make this a night launch, or at least add some lighting effects, so I grabbed some light sticks and attached them to the bottom of the saucer. only the photos will tell how well it comes out.

Launch report:

08/30/04 (day after Zak Orions launch) weather looks ok, will be driving out to the launch area at dusk, get everything set up, and launch before someone thinks UFOs are in the area. (hmmmm, colored lights, saucer shape, out in the country....)

ok, get everything set up, crack the glow sticks and install. seem a little dim but we'll work that out later. borrow battery, fudge electrical hookup and other last minute mayhem. then wait to get dark to launch.

Well, the glow sticks didn't seem to work too well, will have to try something else another day.

3...2...1...LAUNCH

Should have done this in the daylight, well another day...