Hi, folks. I recently completed this Ark play set for my daughter (6), and thought I’d share. More attachments can be found a few posts down. I had a few goals for the project: -Low Cost- The thing is made of cardboard and hot glue, mainly, plus some rare earth magnets, Lego, and other stuff from around the house. -Durability- It is structurally strong and coated in gloss paint and gloss clear coat. -Functionality- Internal spaces are easily accessible, chairs are removable (strong magnets) to accommodate those transformers incapable of sitting (most of them), space for the paper craft Teletraan I, bridge screens with replaceable scenes. Info: -It’s based on the cartoon model for the Ark. -I found out early on that making it curved was going to drive me insane, and so moved to lots of angled surfaces…which was only slightly maddening. -I put the axial trench (taken from several Star Wars ships, naturally) in to break up the hull a bit. -I opted to put the armaments on the fronts of the ‘wings’ rather than on the nose like in MTMTE. I got the idea from the Transformers Ultimate Guide book which had the weapon clusters on the sides. -Computer screens and controls contain a lot of subtle (and not so subtle) references that she will miss, but that we nerds understand (Star Wars diagrams, Battle Beast logo, HAL’s eye, pong, Gobotron, Veritech diagram, Soundwave’s starship plans from the cartoon, more). -My daughter’s collection mainly includes Animated toys (mostly Activators). Much of her collection is actually able to sit in the seats pretty well. The Activators are actually small enough that the ramp could have two lanes. -The roof of the top chamber, bridge, and main section, as well as the back wall are held in place by magnets. The sides open via hinges (large hinges, I know, but I liked the heavy-machinery look they added). The ramp is held in the folded position by magnets. -The ramp looks like it is bending at the middle due to weight, but that’s just how it looks (even without a load). Fully loaded, the ramp looks the same. -The doorways off of the main chamber lead to the side chambers. One leads to the ramp, while the other to a storage space, prison, repair bay, what have you. Shortcomings: -I would have liked to spend more time making the surfaces more plated-looking, but I was using rubber cement to avoid warping. It just doesn’t hold well and is frustrating to work with, for me. The last thing I wanted was a lot of plates falling off when my daughter was trying to play. I did enough plating to give the impression of the way it’s built and that was enough for me. -I would have added more techno-detail to the ship if I had been willing to part with more of my Lego. Again, the minimal additions were enough for me, just breaking up the hull and adding some detail. -The landing gear could have looked a lot cooler, but I didn’t want to mess around with their durability at all. Minor damage or weakness of other parts won’t impact play nearly as much as the thing falling over constantly. They are made from poster-printer paper rolls. The cardboard is like .25” thick. I needed a saw to cut them. They’re heavily glued to 6” of two interior walls as well. I usually carry the ship by one or two of the gear. -Given the materials, it looks a little rough. This doesn’t bother me. The ark, along with almost everything Transformer-built, has always looked rough in the show. The Ark may have been pretty nice when first constructed, but it didn’t stay in mint condition long. Places where the cardboard surface was slightly rough or dented just seemed to fit. If I was making this for myself, I might have taken the time to cover the cardboard with card stock or taken the time/money to build the ship from plastic, but when it comes down to it, I wanted it for my daughter to have fun with, not to be used as a display piece. I would love to see such a thing created, but I’ll have to leave that to you expert modelers out there! Note: Not sure if this should be in Radicons or General TF Discussion. If it needs moved, I apologize, and please do so. Thank you.
OMG you have just won the internet. this is amazing! you have the luckiest daughter in the world I mean this is amazing. IT looks like the ark, it's big enough to hold the original autobot team from g1 and it has a ramp big enough for magnus, it has teletran one and It's made out of card board thats is just the definition of resorsfull OH and don't worry you posted in the right place
dude that thing is just filled with awesome i am so glad i took the time to look in your photobucket.
yes, as per Radicon's Guidelines, please attach them so they are viewable in the thread and also preserved for future viewers!
Now with more attachments Pics are now posted, to comply with guidelines. Sorry about that. First time posting in Radicons. I also wanted to give credit to the design of the actual papercraft Teletraan I to Mandingo Rex. http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-toy-discussion/178970-ark-playset-teletraan-1-a.html The idea for the photo of the Autobots standing on the top of the ship came from either the old comics, or a storybook. The Autobots stood on the top of the Ark and shot the asteroids to pieces that threatened Cybertron.
wow that's freakin awesome. i've been wanting to make the ark for some time, and that thang freakin rocks! i love the size
Okay i was doubtful at first glance, seen a lot of Ark's that plain sucked, but WOW. Yours ROCKS! Friggin awsome doesn't even begin to describe it. You did an outstanding job on this. And the generational pics are some of the coolest ever.
heck yeah that's awesome, and thank you for attaching your images. If this could be made from cardboard, it sure as heck could be made with styrene, and that'd actually be easier to make curved surfaces with, too. I'm surprised that since you used that file for the Teletran-1, that you didn't cover the walls and floors with sections of that printout for detailing's sake. (thanks for sharing thoughts with me on this part, sq7 )
Thanks for attaching your images! I just wanted to post again to say how awesome I think this has turned out. Rock on, man RL, it's been my pleasure to share my thoughts with you on this one. As I've said, this has really turned out well
Thanks for the kind words, all of you. Redline, I completely agree that different materials would have opened up more possibilities. I would love to see a more accurate and ‘finished’ Ark built, or to attempt it myself some day. For this particular project, I really wanted to keep cost at a minimum. I already had a good amount of cardboard, and a heap of glue sticks (got them for next to nothing at a surplus store years ago), and so I went with those materials. I had some rare earth magnets, and so just had to buy a few. The only real cost was spray primer, paint, and gloss coat…some of which I already had. I originally wanted to coat the interior with Mandingo’s Ark tiles. Then I realized that the outside might look weird with a different color/texture. I wasn’t willing to wrap the hull in the tiles to make it match (I don’t even like wrapping presents). Also, the tiles would look strange with all of the angles and such. I did begin creating the properly-shaped/deformed tiling pieces on the computer for printing/gluing, but finally just went for the actual plates. Teletraan I does look a little out of place, color/texture wise, but my daughter doesn’t let it interfere with her/our adventures. Thanks for the thoughts and ideas, everyone.
Best. Dad. Ever. This is INCREDIBLE. I love all the details... you can tell a lot of work went into it. Now do it again in styrene! zmog