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Monolith from 2001


Mike

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I'm thinking of making a monolith from 2001 from scratch, as I have got some superbly black paint that almost eats light - not quite Vantablack levels of blackness, but not far off.  I'm wondering what material would be best to use as the substrate for the monolith discovered on the Moon would be.  I know the proportions are 1:4:9, and in the book the actual size is stated as "11 feet high, and 1¼ by 5 feet in cross-section. When its dimensions were checked with great care, they were found to be in the exact ratio 1 to 4 to 9—the squares of the first three integers." (some slightly iffy maths, I believe?) so what's best material to get that crisp squareness of the edges and parallel surfaces.  This is a list of the methods I've thought of so far.

 

  1. I could fabricate one myself from styrene, but getting it perfectly square is going to be tricky, and the edges are likely to be soft.
  2. 3D printing would be slightly harder in some ways, as although it's a simple shape, most 3D printed items need lots of priming and sanding to remove the tiny ridges between layers.  That could again lead to softer edges and not-so-flat planes.
  3. Milled metal or modelling material.  This probably the most expensive method that would give me the ultimate in shape with lovely smooth edges and parallel/perpendicular planes, but it's also probably the most expensive and I know not where to begin looking.
  4. There are a couple of "models" of the monolith available, but I'm loathed to pay £22 for a small bit of plastic from China, and the shipping of the slightly larger one would be ridiculous.  They're also mass-produced, and I have no idea whether they'd be crisp enough for my needs.

 

Any other ideas, suggestions or "I know a guy" comments are welcome :)

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Err... do you want it 1:1 or some other scale? If it was me, I’d be looking for some cut and polished perspex from a sign maker or exhibition booth company. If you’re happy to set your “scale” by the “1” thickness, you’re then just looking for a finished Perspex rectangle “4” x “9”. Or get some foam core board that you cut to slightly under-size and skin with plastic card. Is it the acrylic “Black 3.0” by any chance? I was looking at that for this very purpose only yesterday...

best,

M.

Edit:

These guys

https://www.hlnsupplies.co.uk/

will do you a 12mm x 48mm by 108 mm piece of polycarbonate with polished edges for a couple of quid...

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24 minutes ago, cmatthewbacon said:

Is it the acrylic “Black 3.0” by any chance? I was looking at that for this very purpose only yesterday...

It is.  I'm just doing a comparison between 2.0 and 3.0 as I type this.  The first coat of 2.0 is just starting to dry now, and although I need another 2 coats, the 3.0 seems to be blacker. :hmmm: I'll post up the results later :)

24 minutes ago, cmatthewbacon said:

do you want it 1:1 or some other scale?

:lol: definitely a scale.  Possibly 1:35 or maybe 1:12.  Not sure yet :)

 

24 minutes ago, cmatthewbacon said:

finished Perspex rectangle

Now to have a shufti at that.  There are companies on eBay that do that sort of thing, but I'll be starting from scratch. :hmmm:

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The test is complete.  I used the usual plastic card blanks I always use, masking off between sessions although I only prepared the 2.0 side by flatting the plastic a bit to improve the surface "key".  The two paints involved are Black 2.0 and the new Black 3.0, which is touted as the blackest black that you can buy on the open market.  It's designed and made by an artist called Stuart Semple as an easy-to-use non-toxic alternative to the much vaunted Vantablack, which some other artist has bought the rights to use exclusively.  It's also really toxic and doesn't stand up to handling, as well as having to be applied using excessive heat that would melt your plastic model in a few seconds.  I have had a bottle of 2.0 for a while now and it is a very black black, and was skeptical that 3.0 would be substantially better, but having now carried out a side-by-side test, it really is!

 

The picture below was taken in my photobooth with lights on and the card as close to perpendicular to the lens as I could manage.  I haven't processed the shot at all other than adding the captions so you can tell which is which.  Both paints were applied by brush, but can be sprayed (haven't tried it myself yet), and I laid down three coats each, carefully laying off the brush-strokes as I went.  It's quite thick out of the bottle, but spreads well and is incredibly pigment rich.  The finished article has an almost velvety black finish after three coats, and the paint has been scented to smell nice while it dries - IIRC it's strawberries, but whatever it is I quite like it.

 

spacer.png

 

I got a little of the edge lifting on the 3.0 sample as I had to mask over it and hadn't keyed the surface at that stage, but it makes the demarcation even more visible.  I've applied it to a clear canopy as a brief test when it first arrived, and it even managed to cover that in three coats and was just as black.  With the surface keyed, the adhesion is good, even after only a few minutes and poor prep as shown above.  Despite it being 16mm tape and making no preparation, only that little bit was pulled away.

 

What use is it to modellers?  Dunno.  Monoliths aside it's an interesting colour, and I'm planning to test it compared to one of the modelling specific brand at some point.  It'll be great to use on bulkheads to hide their appearance, could be handy to give the impression of an intake/exhaust where it's not possible to ream it out for real.  It should also be incredibly efficient to use inside a lit model to avoid leaks through thin or light coloured plastic.  It could also be useful for backdrops to hide a supporting rod in some circumstances.  Over to you, modellers.  You're in inventive ingenious lot, so go & get some.  It's not as cheap as a pot of model paint, but it's also 150ml, so the equivalent of well over 7 pots of model paint so works out about the same price.

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59 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Plexiglass, glass, Lexan, or natural polished stone ? 

All good ideas, but I've yet to figure out the best way of getting something made up. I've never had much to do with metalwork, milling etc.

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Hi Mike - diamond polished acrylic (Perspex is a brand name) is what you need - here is a link to fabricators (people who - cut / polish / bend plastics).  I saw some black paint on breakfast telly a while back that absorbs up to 99% of light or something similarly crazy - when you look at it is like looking into a black hole - mind bending stuff...

 

It would be great for the inside of gun barrels or exhausts - where we drill a dimple and want it to look like it is completely hollow.

 

just a thought - Steve

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I had one turn up at home!

 

IMG-6152.jpg

 

 

... one of a load of packs of insulation boards I'm using on a garage build. The similarities were too close to not get the camera out.

 

Half an hour beating the drive with a buffalo bone and I stopped and got on with the garage.

 

Tony.

Edited by TonyW
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On 10/24/2019 at 11:01 AM, BIG X said:

I saw some black paint on breakfast telly a while back that absorbs up to 99% of light or something similarly crazy - when you look at it is like looking into a black hole - mind bending stuff...

Strangely that came up in conversation a couple of days back. Any idea who made it?

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I am trying to remember the brand of a particular paint that I used for props when I was involved in stage magic in the seventies (Ring 35, International Brotherhood of Magicians). It was such a dead black that even with harsh stage lighting it was invisible to the audience. A lot of flat blacks were so so, this one was like painting a hole in space.

 

Having the correct ratio (1:4:9) the the Monolith to me is more important to matching the film prop- it is such a wonderful set of numbers to signify universal mathematics from an alien culture!

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34 minutes ago, SleeperService said:

Strangely that came up in conversation a couple of days back. Any idea who made it?

Sorry I haven't a clue - I was half asleep at the time...

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The stuff that’s been in the news recently is called Vantablack:

https://www.surreynanosystems.com/about/vantablack

 

It’s a coating, quite specialist to apply, and is licensed to specific uses (and users). Mike is testing out “Black 3.0”, which is paint, available to anyone by the pot, and claims to be almost as light-absorbing as Vantablack. Paint for 70s magicians is not my special subject, so I’ll leave that for someone else! IIRC, though, the control wires for Anderson effects and puppets were blacked to avoid glint under studio lights...

beat,

M.

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1 hour ago, Richard Baker said:

Having the correct ratio (1:4:9) the the Monolith to me is more important to matching the film prop- it is such a wonderful set of numbers to signify universal mathematics from an alien culture!

Agreed :)

 

1 hour ago, cmatthewbacon said:

The stuff that’s been in the news recently is called Vantablack:

https://www.surreynanosystems.com/about/vantablack

That's the stuff that the rights have been bought by an artist so no-one else can now use it.  It's very specialist, and the substrate that you're depositing it on has to be capable of withstanding around 150oc, so it's a definite no-no for modellers, providing it was available anyway :shrug: IIRC it was also very costly to make/use, and it can't be painted or sprayed on.  It's applied by some sort of deposition, almost "grown" on the surface.  Completely impractical for us normal(ish) persons.  I'm staring at my Black 2.0/3.0 test card as I type this, and 3.0 is absolutely streets ahead of the rearlier one, even though both have now been handled, scuffed and dust has accumulated on them.  I painted some Lifecolor black next to it, and it's positively grey by comparison.

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Iirc, you couldn’t actually touch the surface, just like the the paint on Disaster Area’s stunt ship. All you need is the RAL code...

Quote

"It's so ... black!" said Ford Prefect, "you can hardly make out its shape ... light just seems to fall into it!"

 


Zaphod said nothing. He had simply fallen in love.

The blackness of it was so extreme that it was almost impossible to tell how close you were standing to it.

"Your eyes just slide off it ..." said Ford in wonder. It was an emotional moment. He bit his lip.

Zaphod moved forward to it, slowly, like a man possessed - or more accurately like a man who wanted to possess. His hand reached out to stroke it. His hand stopped. His hand reached out to stroke it again. His hand stopped again.

"Come and feel the surface," he said in a hushed voice.

Ford put his hand out to feel it. His hand stopped.

"You ... you can't ..." he said.

"See?" said Zaphod, "it's just totally frictionless. This must be one mother of a mover ..."

 

Edited by Rob998
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