Laser Cut Maruoka Castle

[tossedman]

I've always wanted a Japanese castle on a layout but didn't want to pay for a Woody Joe kit. I stumbled across Maruoka Castle this week and thought “I can make that”. Obviously totally over-estimating my abilities I'm sure. Maruoka Castle is a small castle that'll fit nicely on my small layout. I've got access to a laser cutter now so here goes nothing. Probably should have started with a shed or a torii but no, I'm jumping in head first on this one. Going to try cutting it out of Polybak. I've got three thicknesses, 0.011",   0.020" and  0.024". It cuts and engraves well and apparently takes paint well as well.

 

I'm starting with a paper craft model and converting it to something I can cut. It's going to take a lot of drawing using Adobe Illustrator to get it right. Here are my initial efforts. Spent a good part of the day in front of the computer today and have a long way to go before I cut anything. The red lines will be the cut lines and the black will be engraved. I've barely started on setting the colours. I'll be adding small pieces of wood or Polybak instead of folding paper beams and whatnot. Wish me luck!

 

 

 

Here's the subject.

 

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

Edited December 30, 2020 by tossedman
Fixed video link

[cteno4]

Great project todd!

 

jeff

[tossedman]

Spent a few more hours this morning working on a couple of walls. Experimenting with ideas as to how to make the  walls look more 3D. Here's the result so far. This is going to take a while. Red lines are cut lines. Back lines are engraved.

 

 

[cteno4]

Todd, I expect after a bit you will get it down to units you can cut and paste and resize to do the basic stuff fast. You are starting with a good challenge! But that's a great way to learn. Luckily not much of a loss but time experimenting, but it's a good investment!

 

best of luck and excited to see the results!

 

jeff

[tossedman]

Yes, I’m getting quite efficient now Jeff.  Two of the walls above are just reflected images of each other. There are multiple parts where I’ll just need to do the work once. This is what I love to do though, learn new things; hence, my signature. 

 

Going to try a test cut in the morning before work. Biggest problem is the down arrow key has crapped out on my laptop. Need a new keyboard. I’ll post pics. 

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

Edited December 4, 2017 by tossedman

[cteno4]

Going to start a business and give woody joe a run for their money?!

 

someday I'll be following you down this road here!

 

might look at some of the cheap 1/300 papercraft castle models on ebay for some details and such.

 

jeff

[tossedman]

Nope, no business allowed on this machine.  Now, if I had a few tens of thousands of dollars lying around...

 

Actually, I am basing this on a papercraft model. And, it’s 1/150 scale! Here it is. http://www.papercraftsquare.com/maruoka-castle-free-building-paper-model-download.html. Found some great detail pictures here. http://japan-web-magazine.com/english/fukui/maruoka-castle/slide/1.html

 

Might have to make two. One with snow. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Keep_of_Maruoka_Castle_3.jpg/800px-Keep_of_Maruoka_Castle_3.jpg

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

Edited December 4, 2017 by cteno4

[cteno4]

Well if you get enough templates done then maybe you can afford the investment in your own cutter! May not need to be so beefy  for doing these guys! Sell the templates!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[tossedman]

Well, squeezed in a few minutes on the laser cutter this morning when students weren't vapourizing plywood. Here are some test cuts. Firstly though take a look at some of the real details here. http://japan-web-magazine.com/en/fukui/castle/maruoka-castle Look at the second last image on the page and compare it to the image below. The more I look at the real thing, the more ideas I get. Like curving the eaves below.

 

 

 

 

 

Lots more to go.

 

Todd

Edited December 5, 2017 by tossedman

[cteno4]

Foul! Having too much fun! Wow, that's great detail!

 

is this just the heavy scrapbooking cardstock or a laser stock of some Kind? 

 

jeff

[tossedman]

That’s Polybak. AKA Laserboard. 0.011” thick for the fine details and 0.024” for the wall. 

[cteno4]

So have you tried painting it and then cutting?

 

jeff

[tossedman]

Not yet. I’m told it takes paint well but have yet to try it. What’s your reasoning behind painting and then cutting?

 

Todd

[cteno4]

Curious how  the paint holds up to cutting andnthen you can also get the different colored etch lines.

 

friend use to do a lot of fancy house models (was put out of that business by large 3d powder printers) and would use laser chipboards that had colored outer layer and the different core color that you could etch into. Some gave different shades depending on the laser speed and power used. Let him do stone and brick work well.

 

jeff

[tossedman]

I'm slowing chipping away at this project. Was off work today nursing a bad cold and played around in SketchUp designing a base for the castle. I've also experimented with engraving the rocks into some Polybak. 

 

The base will be made out of 3mm plywood. It's not yet complete but I'll give it a test cut tomorrow.

 

The Polybak rock face will attach to the curved parts of the base. Here's a test. It'll need some paint.

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

[tossedman]

Got a bit more done on the castle base. I've discovered a SketchUp plugin that lets you export faces from SketchUp as an svg file that you can laser cut by importing into Illustrator or use with your Cameo Silhouette cutter. There are lots of buildings in the SketchUp 3D Warehouse that could easily be cut out. Of course I'm doing it the hard way and flying by the seat of my pants. I do love though how measurements made to the tenth of a millimetre in SketchUp are accurately produced on the laser cutter. Everyone here needs to go buy one!

 

Here is Castle Base Mk. I.

 

As soon as it was done I realized that I wanted more support for the paper rocks. Back to SketchUp and I came up with this.

 

Here's the laser cut version of Mk. II.

 

I've had to adjust the size of the rock faces and will engrave and cut those tomorrow. Stay tuned!

 

Cheer eh,

 

Todd 

Edited December 22, 2017 by tossedman
Had a second thought!

[cteno4]

Todd, so how does the software do the large etch space on the rockwork, jsut tell it to etch outside the rock outlines?

 

jeff

[tossedman]

Jeff the cut lines are red hairlines. It will etch any black lines the thickness of the lines that are drawn or any shape drawn in black for that matter. The rocks are all drawn in black. I initially just used an image of the rock face for the lines but then vectorized them in order to make them easier to resize. I’ll post some images tomorrow when I’m at my computer. I’m on my iPad now. 

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

Edited December 22, 2017 by tossedman

[tossedman]

Here's how I did the rocks. I traced them in Illustrator so all the lines are vectors. Not that that matters as I have told the laser cutter through the Job Control software to engrave any black lines and to cut any red lines. Here is the file I engraved and cut. I've made the red lines thicker for visibility here but when cutting they are 0.001 pt wide.

 

Here's the base with the rocks mocked up. Just held on with masking tape at the moment so they don't follow the curves of the base sides.

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

 

[cteno4]

Todd,

 

gotcha! Well done.

 

i can’t wait till life gives me the time to play with a lasercutter like this. It’s really my mindset, probably from the tons of exhibit and architectural models done in my youth, this just sings to me!

 

gotta play more with the cameo more to at least do a little!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

Ps you gotta start a woody todd or toddkai biz!

 

jeff

[tossedman]

Jeff, I have to tell you that it is definitely addictive. Start designing stuff for your Silhouette! I use Illustrator for both the Silhouette and the laser cutter designs. You'll be up to speed for when you get your laser.

 

I only get a chance to squeeze in a few minutes here and there working on the castle as I'm learning lots of new stuff. Have to stay one step ahead of the students. And this teaching thing interferes a lot with my play time. Grrr! We've made some neat things so far though. The dragonfly and box of gears are downloaded files just to explore what can be done but now students are designing lots of neat things. Here are some examples:

 

This one is acrylic. It has a strip of LEDs in the base to light it up. It's powered by a USB plug.

 

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=aH8Rx9NCqdk

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

 

Edited December 24, 2017 by tossedman
Added a picture.

[tossedman]

OK, back to the castle. More drawing in SketchUp this afternoon. Started on the stairs.

 

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

[tossedman]

Well, I mucked up on the base and made the top plate 4.2mm too short. I redrew it and will have to adjust three of the supports accordingly. In the meantime I've started working on the supports for the walls. Here's the initial result. Doesn't look like much without all of the fancy roof tops does it?

 

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

 

Edited December 26, 2017 by tossedman

[tossedman]

Well, after 3 years of looking at the parts I'd made, I've finally decided to revisit this castle and hopefully get it done. Been doing some research as I feel as though I'm starting over again. I've got lots of new ideas and will hopefully have regular updates.