[HN Gopher] Scale Model of Boeing 777-300ER, Made from Manila Fo...
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       Scale Model of Boeing 777-300ER, Made from Manila Folders
        
       Author : uticus
       Score  : 538 points
       Date   : 2024-12-27 16:53 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.lucaiaconistewart.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.lucaiaconistewart.com)
        
       | 0_____0 wrote:
       | Someone made a comment here regarding magic recently that this
       | reminded me of.
       | 
       | Sometimes you can make something appear magical by spending far
       | more time on the effect than anyone would ever think to do.
       | 
       | Stunning work. I admire and envy the focus.
        
         | hinkley wrote:
         | The same can be true of magic.
         | 
         | Penn and Teller's Fool Us had a couple of contestants per year
         | that did a trick the hardest way possible. A couple times they
         | gave the person the prize even though they knew how it was
         | done. Like the people who "shuffled" an entire deck into a
         | specific order, and/or used precise cuts rather than using
         | marked cards or swapping the deck.
         | 
         | There have been a couple people they've had back three times
         | even if they knew how they did it, because they're just so
         | good.
        
           | ska wrote:
           | > Sometimes you can make something appear magical by spending
           | far more time on the effect than anyone would ever think to
           | do.
           | 
           | This is as good a definition of stage magic as anything, I
           | suspect.
        
             | hinkley wrote:
             | Comedy has some of the same. Some comedians look like
             | they're just rambling through random ideas that have popped
             | into their heads, when in fact it's a patter they've been
             | practicing for months and months. I have a lot of respect
             | for the ones who can hide the seams between their various
             | jokes and make them look like the funny uncle at family
             | gatherings just riffing off of people or themselves for an
             | hour.
        
               | ajcp wrote:
               | It's funny you say that because whenever I see a standup
               | special and the comedian seems to randomly be prompted by
               | something they see in the audience/off camera that leads
               | them down a bespoke, yet perfect response/thread I have
               | to think they are just making the prompt up.
        
               | thechao wrote:
               | At UT Austin, there was a Physics class called
               | "Pseudoscience" taught by Rory Coker(?). The class was on
               | precisely the topic mentioned; it was a _graded_
               | attendance-based class. (You lost a grade letter for
               | every 1-2 classes you skipped.)
               | 
               | Rory was a master class mentalist -- literally world
               | famous. When other world class magicians were on the
               | continent or passing through they'd come visit him.
               | Invariably, he'd make them do a 10m opener for the class
               | (usually mentalist, illusion, and close up). Did I
               | mention the class average was a C?
               | 
               | Anyways, for the final, Rory did his trick: he chatted to
               | us for a few minutes, drawing a picture; then we all had
               | ~30s to draw a picture. Then, he chatted with some people
               | -- kinda at random -- then picked one person to seal
               | their picture in an envelope. At the end of the class was
               | the reveal: he'd drawn this picture the girl drew. More
               | importantly, _just about everyone_ drew the same picture.
               | 
               | Then he made his point: depending on how he was feeling,
               | there were about a half dozen pictures he could get an
               | audience to draw.
               | 
               | Eye opening.
        
               | WalterBright wrote:
               | If you ask a person to guess a number from 1 to 10, most
               | will guess 7. 7 appears to be more "random" than other
               | digits.
               | 
               | I keep dice on my desk for generating random digits.
        
               | glenngillen wrote:
               | I'd estimate about 20 years ago I saw a British comedian
               | called Ross Noble who did this. He almost acts like he's
               | got some form of ADHD where he is permanently
               | distractible, will switch topics mid-sentence because
               | something else gets his attention. Someone came in late,
               | so he asked them what took them so long. Someone wearing
               | a hat catches his eye and he makes a comment and goes off
               | on some tangent. Those tangents can be minutes long.
               | Eventually he always goes "right, now where was I?" and
               | resumes the scripted/rehearsed part of his show.
               | 
               | And then... in the final minute or so of the show all of
               | those seemingly random distractions and tangents come
               | together to tie up the various stories and jokes he'd
               | been telling! Decades later when I think about it it
               | still blows my mind. They can't have been random at all.
               | I've no idea if the various distractions were plants, or
               | maybe they never existed at all and everyone in the
               | audience just thought we were all too far away to hear
               | whoever he was talking to? It was such a flawless
               | execution though, only heightened by the fact he'd
               | convinced you he was a rambling unfocussed mess for most
               | of the night.
        
               | ethbr1 wrote:
               | Think about it this way: for comedians who write their
               | own material and are prolific, their brains already work
               | like that.
               | 
               | So it's a bit different, but not _that_ different, to
               | just riff off the cuff in realtime.
        
               | bb88 wrote:
               | What if you can do that with magic and comedy both at the
               | same time? You get someone like Markobi.
               | 
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJX-z0O9TOE
        
               | sneak wrote:
               | It takes a huge amount of skill and talent to effectively
               | ape Lennart Green.
        
             | ethbr1 wrote:
             | Penn referenced it in an interview somewhere, with the
             | impression he was citing a well-known stage magic quip.
             | 
             | Essentially: there are two ways to make something appear
             | magical.
             | 
             | - One is a gimmick (physical or otherwise), which is
             | performed so well as to be invisible to the audience.
             | 
             | - The other is simply doing something effortlessly that
             | seems impossible without spending years of practice... but
             | having actually spent years of practice on it.
             | 
             | He cited some Teller trick that Teller brute forced by just
             | practicing the movements for an entire year until he could
             | do them reliably and flawlessly.
        
           | the_af wrote:
           | To be clear: if they absolutely know how the magician did it,
           | they do NOT award the prize.
           | 
           | They do award the prize if they know there's more than one
           | way the person could have done it, but they cannot tell for
           | sure which one was it.
           | 
           | And they make it clear their show is not about the prize
           | anyway, it's about the wonder of watching cool magic acts.
           | The prize is a gimmick (but still, it's always fair and never
           | staged).
           | 
           | They always celebrate good magic, regardless of whether they
           | can figure it out or not.
        
             | WalterBright wrote:
             | Offering a prize tends to bring out the best in people.
        
               | the_af wrote:
               | > _Offering a prize tends to bring out the best in
               | people._
               | 
               | If I remember correctly, the prize is a hook _for the
               | producers_ , it's how they got approval for the show.
               | It's not for the performers, which I guess are simply
               | thrilled to perform for P&T and their audience.
               | 
               | Interesting that I got downvoted for stating what Penn
               | has stated again and again in their podcast.
               | 
               | I guess people find it hard to believe these two guys
               | truly do what they claim to do: award the prize to people
               | who truly fool them, and celebrate all magic acts
               | regardless of whether they are fooled.
               | 
               | They've also stated the prize is an excuse for the show.
               | 
               | They are _on record_ stating this, it 's not my
               | guesswork, yet somehow saying this earned me a downvote.
               | 
               | Oh well.
        
             | hinkley wrote:
             | The prize was an appearance at their Vegas show in addition
             | to the trophy. They have broken their own rules a couple
             | times.
        
               | the_af wrote:
               | Like when? Without a clear cut example where they admit
               | it, this is just a rumor. Why would they break their
               | rule?
        
           | stevage wrote:
           | Yeah or the guy who can pour a whole deck of cards onto the
           | table and grab the right card out of the air. It's not a
           | trick, he's just insanely practised at it.
        
             | WalterBright wrote:
             | I was chatting with an elderly friend one day, and a
             | housefly buzzed by. He casually snatched it out of the air
             | and crushed it.
             | 
             | I was amazed. Howinell did he snatch a fly out of the air?
             | 
             | He replied that he spent a couple years in a bed in the
             | hospital recovering from war wounds, with nothing to do. So
             | he practiced catching flies.
        
             | the_af wrote:
             | And in the show he picked a bunch of cards because he got
             | nervous, which kinda spoiled the trick.
             | 
             | Apparently in other sessions he was able to pick a single
             | card. Insane!
        
       | lisper wrote:
       | The detail on this thing is just insane. The amount of time and
       | effort put in is comparable to what it takes to build an actual
       | aircraft.
       | 
       | [UPDATE] Just to clarify: building an actual jetliner is
       | obviously orders of magnitude harder than building this model.
       | But I think building this model is probably comparable to
       | building a light aircraft like this one:
       | https://www.vansaircraft.com/rv-14/
        
         | wslh wrote:
         | Your point was clear to me, we can say that at the individual*n
         | (n>=1) level of effort is comparable.
        
       | Liftyee wrote:
       | I cannot begin to comprehend how this was put together.
       | Unbelievable amounts of dedication must have been involved.
        
       | ComputerGuru wrote:
       | (2014)
       | 
       | I remember seeing this when it was first making the rounds
       | (though I thought it was earlier than '14, but that's what all
       | the press links date to). Incredible.
        
         | mzs wrote:
         | He's been at it since May 2008 and the latests updates on
         | instagram are from this year:
         | https://www.instagram.com/luca.iaconi.stewart/
        
           | ComputerGuru wrote:
           | Thanks for (possibly) vindicating my memory! I recall seeing
           | this circa 2010 +/- a year or so.
        
       | polishdude20 wrote:
       | How does he come up with the 2d designs? They need to all fit
       | together right? I feel like there some missing step between the
       | reference material and the 2D illustrator designs.
        
         | gavmor wrote:
         | I'm interested in this, too! I've been mulling over the design
         | of 3D puzzles from 2D, laser-cut MDF.
        
           | gibspaulding wrote:
           | Look into Fusion360. I've used it for similar projects in the
           | past with some success.
        
           | noduerme wrote:
           | I've never tried it, but I wonder if designing in 3D and then
           | printing out UV maps would be a good way to go? You'd at
           | least end up with all the polygons and an outer shape to cut
           | out, although whether you could fold paper along the edges is
           | another story.
        
         | SvenL wrote:
         | On one page he mentioned that the airline supplied material
         | which he used to create the designs in Adobe Illustrator.
        
         | gibspaulding wrote:
         | This threw me off too. Sure Illustrator is probably a better
         | tool for this than pen and paper, but it seems like far from
         | the best choice. I guess that just makes this all the more
         | impressive.
        
       | ninalanyon wrote:
       | If only I had this degree of focus and willingness to work so
       | hard on all the boring bits!
        
         | fsckboy wrote:
         | > _all the boring bits_
         | 
         | your problem is not focus or willingness, it's being motivated
         | by excitement rather than perfection. it's about the object,
         | take yourself and how you feel out of the equation.
        
           | berkes wrote:
           | This is also a personality trait. Where ADHD has this in the
           | extreme.
           | 
           | I, having ADHD, cannot do any task if it's not motivated by
           | excitement and newness (or forced by raw discipline, which is
           | extremely energy consuming).
           | 
           | Your comment sounds like "it's just a matter of changing your
           | mindset". Maybe I read that wrong. But I know it's not just
           | mindset changing. It's, e.g. with ADHD fundamentally wired
           | into a brain.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | For people that enjoy this type of work, what you call the
         | boring bits are the exciting parts.
        
         | 0_____0 wrote:
         | The act is the reward. If you can convince yourself this is
         | true for various things, you get really good at them fast.
        
       | BillSaysThis wrote:
       | If he adds AI, can he make it fly?
        
         | SAI_Peregrinus wrote:
         | With the application of sufficient force, any object can be
         | made to fly at least once. No AI necessary.
        
       | froggertoaster wrote:
       | Humans are just amazing.
        
       | qwertox wrote:
       | This is the kind of work billionaires should pay millions for as
       | if it were a painting, and display it proudly.
        
         | foxglacier wrote:
         | I'm sure he'd have plenty of offers if he was going to sell it.
         | As long as it really requires a decade of work to produce,
         | somebody might value it at the labor cost as a kind of proof-
         | of-work. But what if he does another copy in only few months by
         | reusing all the part designs? Its value could be destroyed.
         | Probably has to become famous then die so that there's no
         | chance of the same creator flooding the market.
        
       | hk__2 wrote:
       | At first I was confused by this "Made from Manila folders" which
       | I didn't know; I thought these folders were some kind of
       | information from something that happened in Manila, and that the
       | author did the scale model based on what he had found in them
        
         | loloquwowndueo wrote:
         | Yeah and goldbeater's skin is not literally the skin of the
         | actual person who beats the gold :)
        
         | lizzas wrote:
         | Like Manila is some tax haven that has had a wikileak?
        
           | JBiserkov wrote:
           | http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Papers
        
         | numpad0 wrote:
         | Yup, it's name of a thing, what gave icons of "file folders" a
         | distinct notch and tan color.
         | 
         | They were stored in "file cabinets", which can be still seen in
         | Windows .cab file icons.
        
       | fnord77 wrote:
       | hope this ends up in a museum
        
       | ffitch wrote:
       | it's very inspiring!
       | 
       | I wonder why manila envelopes. does envelope paper have
       | properties uniquely fitted for this kind of modeling, or is it
       | just nice color and suitable weight?
        
         | idlewords wrote:
         | These are folders, not envelopes. They are pretty stiff and
         | hold their shape well. I bet any light card stock would do, but
         | everyone of a certain age has experience with these folders;
         | the fact that they're so basic makes this achievement extra
         | special.
        
           | ffitch wrote:
           | I meant the folders, sorry!
           | 
           | Is age the factor here? feels like they're just as ubiquitous
           | today as they were when the author was in high school.
           | 
           | I certainly appreciate the idea of crafting something special
           | out of seemingly boring material, but the remark that they
           | were taught to model with this paper in school made me wonder
           | of it does have advantages over basic paper or cardstock.
        
             | 0_____0 wrote:
             | I think it may be that it's a fairly uniform thickness
             | across manufacturers, whereas if you are getting cardstock
             | from different places you would need to pay attention to
             | paper weights (gsm).
        
       | pseingatl wrote:
       | The model looks cleaner than the aircraft's business class IRL,
       | if recent videos are to be believed.
        
       | idlewords wrote:
       | To restore balance we need someone to make Manila folders out of
       | a 777.
        
         | UniverseHacker wrote:
         | And then a full scale flying 777 from Manila folders
        
           | datavirtue wrote:
           | Elons next project.
        
           | lizzas wrote:
           | And fly it to the Philippines
        
         | PaulRobinson wrote:
         | I don't think Boeing need more ideas to cut costs and quality
         | in engineering right now...
        
       | delichon wrote:
       | "The Ultimate Paper Airplane | WIRED"
       | 
       | Ahem. https://newatlas.com/great-paper-airplane-project/21961/
       | 
       | IMHO the actual flight characteristics of the aircraft are inputs
       | to the `ultimate?` predicate function.
        
       | kepler1 wrote:
       | Made out of manilla file folders is approximately correct for the
       | state of Air India's fleet right now.
        
       | polairscience wrote:
       | I'll comment on something different. His website is clean and
       | awesome. Attention to detail just like the model. Love it.
        
       | sema4hacker wrote:
       | Exactly how many millions of hours did this take?
        
         | stevesimmons wrote:
         | The Singapore Airlines clip says that one took 750 hours and
         | had 3000 parts.
        
       | aaronax wrote:
       | For something vaguely similar, as in a meticulous way of making a
       | 3D object out of 2D materials with fine details, I recommend the
       | Metal Earth products (puzzles?) as I find them to be quite
       | rewarding. The complexity is probably two orders of magnitude
       | less--think 10-20 hours to assemble the pre-designed and cut
       | pieces.
        
       | einpoklum wrote:
       | I sympathize with how he must feel thinking about the 777-8 and
       | 777-9 entering service soon, displacing the 300ER...
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_777X
        
       | exabrial wrote:
       | These planes are incredible to ride on. AA runs a Charlotte <->
       | Munich flight... the Premium Economy exceeds expectations for the
       | money, like sleeping in a lay-z-boy.
        
         | foooorsyth wrote:
         | Premium economy to MUC out of CLT always annoys me because the
         | legs that hold the seats up can _possibly_ be right in the
         | middle of your under-seat space, making putting a briefcase
         | under the seat in front of you impossible (the legs are
         | unevenly spaced throughout the row so not all seats lose the
         | space). They also have those fold-down footrests that I never
         | actually use and take up more space. Paying more for a seat in
         | which I might not even be able to access my work laptop is a
         | bit annoying.
         | 
         | Man, I sound like a diva.
        
           | exabrial wrote:
           | I feel like any class of seating except business suffers from
           | that "near seat storage shortage". I tend to carry a soft
           | sided satchel instead of a case for the reasons you state: it
           | can be jammed pretty much anywhere
        
             | foooorsyth wrote:
             | Well in this case on the return flight I'm usually booked
             | regular economy, and regular economy has no under seat
             | space loss. I'm able to work the entire flight back from
             | Europe on the cheaper ticket.
        
       | datavirtue wrote:
       | I would get a high from the first two or three seats...and
       | then....I would abandon the project.
        
       | zombiwoof wrote:
       | Amazing
        
       | andrewshadura wrote:
       | I've looked up what the hell is a manila folder, and it turned
       | out to be a paper folder looking exactly like a Windows folder
       | icon, even with a matching yellowish colour. Maybe I grew up and
       | lived in all the wrong countries, but I've never seen such a
       | folder in my life.
        
       | matthewmcg wrote:
       | This is wonderful. The loving dedication to getting the details
       | right reminds me of the engineer hobbyist that built a functional
       | scale model of a Ferrari 312PB race car as shown on this classic
       | Top Gear episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeUMDY01uUA
        
       | mNovak wrote:
       | Would love to see the files or precut sheets released as the
       | ultimate scale model kit. It'd be really awesome to take these
       | files to a laser cutter and make the model out of thin aluminum
       | sheets.
        
       | blt wrote:
       | Excellent choice of aircraft. The 777 is one of the greatest
       | engineering achievements of all time.
        
       | tedd4u wrote:
       | Posted here 4 years ago (885 points / 200 comments)
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23749821
        
       | netfortius wrote:
       | Looking at the picture captured in the youtube link, I wonder
       | what kind of bolts are being used for the door?!? ;-)
        
       | wasabinator wrote:
       | This is amazing. I'd feel safer flying in this than the original.
        
       | cloud-ranger wrote:
       | There's obviously a high level of skill involved... However, if
       | you want to experince the late 80's, change the playback speed of
       | the landing gear video to 0.75 :D
       | 
       | I'm assuming the guy doesn't have kids or cats, I can't even make
       | a cup of coffee most days without one being in the way!
       | 
       | I used to love to make things when I was younger but I was never
       | this dedicated. I stopped at radio controlled models. I'm glad my
       | mum bought me a TI99/4A when I was a a kid, so my hobby turned
       | into my career.
        
       | globalnode wrote:
       | 1:60 scale model... i got excited for a moment based on the
       | (misleading) title.
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | This is an awesome project!
       | 
       | Someone (with copious free time) is just a _wee bit_ obsessive.
       | 
       | Hate to say it, but I can sort of relate (but I don't have enough
       | free time to do something this intricate).
        
         | fasa99 wrote:
         | For sure, a lot of hard work and energy went into this project.
         | Some say that if Boeing had that kind of energy, their planes
         | might even fly!
        
       | nelblu wrote:
       | The amount of dedication, passion and art is absolutely amazing.
       | It reminds me of https://www.phildragash.com/ where he did a
       | complete audio of the Lord of the Rings book along with music
       | edited from the actual soundtrack. I believe it can still be
       | downloaded from here https://archive.org/details/the-fellowship-
       | of-the-ring_sound...
        
         | hurtmyknee wrote:
         | This is terrific, thank you for sharing!
        
       | timnetworks wrote:
       | Doing this all by hand shows immense skill, but printing directly
       | onto manilla folders is talent and ingenuity.
        
       | xiphmont wrote:
       | My God, that model is utterly beautiful.
        
       | nunez wrote:
       | Wow; this is amazing. I was looking into who makes their seats
       | for business/first (I usually assume it's Rockwell Collins but it
       | might not be) and was shocked to see how old their product is on
       | this aircraft. The business class seats look like those from the
       | 90s!
        
         | rayiner wrote:
         | Air India... The 777s were purchased new in the early 2000s and
         | not upgraded since then. https://www.businessinsider.com/air-
         | india-economy-cabin-i-fl...
        
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       (page generated 2024-12-28 23:01 UTC)