Replicator 2 – Anthropology of the World's Fairs

This is a continuation of the blog that first introduced the idea of evoking each of the characters in the movie Rear Window rather than trying to directly represent them through figurines or their environments with excessive details (see Part 1).

So the Sculptress has a deck chair that she uses for lounging on her little patch of lawn.

I had three options for the chair: purchasing one, making one out of wood, or 3D printing one. Here is what happened.

I found this chair in my miniature collection, something I bought well before I planned to do Rear Window.

It’s not bad, but like many inexpensive miniatures, the proportions of the components are off: the wood is too thick, the fabric not wide enough.

So I found these wonderful instructions on making a deck chair from the properly scaled wood. Very good step-by-step instructions for those who like to build their own props. Find the downloadable instructions at zooplies.com

Unfortunately, I don’t have the time right now (and probably not the patience) to do that chair so my search continued. While searching online for an alternative, I came across a 3D printable model in Makerbot’s Thingiverse. It was perfect: a great design with hinges that actually worked. I shrank the model down about 5% because the first print was just a bit too big. I printed it in black plastic on my Replicator 2 (the same machine that printed the crows in The Birds last year) then painted it to look like old wood and stained the fabric that I put on. Doesn’t exactly match that in the original but it would take forever to find the match for that. Find the model at: Thingiverse.

The Sculptress has her chair!

When you see the purchased one and the printed one side-by-side, then you can really see the difference.

The jungle gym I printed with my cool new Makerbot Replicator 2 printer just didn’t look night to me. Since I knew it was an issue of scale, I decided to print it again. I once again completely redesigned it in 3ds Max software, making the vertical posts bigger and the horizontal ones just a bit bigger. I printed it using rafts (little plastic disks printed under the design that help it stick to the printing plate) and I increased the thickness of the layers to make it go faster. So, I tried three different thicknesses and designs for my jungle gym pipes and, like Goldilocks, one was too big, one was too small, and one was just right! Now it is on to the painting and adding the birds.