Hopefully, this'll take care of the picture requirement for now..
This is more of a recreated example rather than the "actual" one I did. The one shown is inaccurate because it's not a dead-on level side view of the end of the flagstaff, so it's slightly distorted.
I took the flag images (plus some more I took) and put them into Autocad 2006. Then I drew over the pics, rotating them as needed.
I also took a spartan character and walked him "into" the flag, to see where the top of his head intersected with the flag itself. I lined up the shot..backed up and then used the zoom ferature to reduce the perspective shifting (forr accuracy), and took the shot from as "perfectly level" with the spartan's centerline as possible. I imported it into AutoCAD and drew a line straight down from that intersection (the top of his head and the flag), straight down to where the ground was.
The scale of the pictures up to that point were unknown, but now I could look at the top of the spartan's head, and say.. ok.. If that was ME standing there, that line would be 6' (he's in a "relaxed pose, and I'm 6-1").. it's by no means perfect, but it's as close as I could get without recreating the pose and measuring from the top of my head at that point.
So I took the picture, and that line and instructed AutoCAD to rescale both so that the line would now be 6 foot.
This made the image into "lifesize" on the computer, in terms of being lifesize if I were spartan-sized.
I then traced some of the flag details... but most importantly, I drew a line across the pole and then measured the line, to get something I could resize all other photos with. The pole changes diameter just under the bottom flag bracket ( to 1.5" diameter), but the rest of the pole is approximately 1.25" diameter (my pole I'm using is like a 1/16" narrower, but I'm not worried about it).
Here's a picture of all the parts of the flag I traced out. I darkened the part in photoshop for clarity in the picture. Each part shown is scaled to the other parts in the image, not to any real world scale.. otherwise the picture would be much too big.
Part 02 is the tube as seen in the diagram, and part 2a is the endcap for that tube. The hole in the endcap is for the flagstaff to continue through these coverings, aiding in alignment and lending strength to the design. It's the same for all the parts listed with an "a".
The one labelled "n/a" is the continuation of the base of the pole (1.5" diameter).. in reality, this SHOULD be approximately 1.625" at this point, but I figured the regular pole diameter would be fine there.. this thing is strong and certainly enough work without looking for additional tasks like that to take on.
I'm undecided about the spike at the bottom of the pole. As you can see in the top picture (on the original fullscaled version), the spike is gone when the flag is in the base. If I want to keep the spike, I'd either have to make the flagstand taller than it is in the game, or add a springloaded spike, which seemed a bit too much work, plus might look odd when I'm carrying the flag. I dunno' we'll see when I get to that stage.
Parts 7 and 8 are for the end of the arm of the flagstaff. 8 is actually an endcap, and 7 is one side of the "point" on it. I'll bend the points and weld them together.. I added tabs to those parts to enable me to nest them on one another as they get welded.
As you can see by part 8, that arm is square tubing, rather than round. I don't have appropirately-sized square tubing for that, so I'm making the arm out of two pieces of sheet metal... Details on that later.
I took those drawings that I pictured above, and saved them as DXF files for the purpose of punching them on my work's CNC Punch machine (Trumpf 260T).
I then went to the computer on the punch and imported those DXF's one at a time, and laid-out the punch hits required to cut-out them out, leaving "microtabs" to hold the parts onto the sheet until the sheet was done being punched. Next, I found some 14ga. sheet metal and laid-out those parts on that sheet.
Then I ran the simulator, to verify that all my hits were going to occur in the right order, and to ensure that it was optimized (using fewer tool changes, and not hopping all over the sheet to cut stuff). Then I exported the resulting NC code to the server.
Then, since I'm still training my old boss to use his machine, I passed the link and the metal to him for punching on Monday. He'll do all the required tool changes and stuff before running the program, and let me know when it's done.
And THEN.. I'll literally "have my work cut out for me" on Monday..
Monday, during work hours, I'll size up and draw the flag stand. Then I'll pass the basic wood portions to the guys out in the wood shop.
Monday after work, the forming and welding will begin, unless my old boss decides he wants to take a stab at starting it without me.
I called around about the flag.. turns out their less expensive than I thought. Still nothing confirmed though.
I still have to figure-out the lighting thing though.. that light in the base pulses.. I might have to get someone from here to look into the issue, but at the moment, I'm planning to put-in a stripped-down pair of battery-powered "tap lights".
@Rob, the art's nice, but it's inaccurate in so far as there's no wording on the flags in Halo 3.. I also need to do it in vector format. Thanks though. I'll handle that part from my pics.
The size? Well you can kinda' see how I came up with my sizing.. That seems dramatically different.. enough to warrant investigation on my part. I'll look at that again, incase I missed something.
*UPDATE #1 (.06.23.08)* to avoid a double post.. here I go:
The size of the flag base was sorely underestimated. I'm no good at visual estimations of size, so when discussing the project with my old boss, I kinda' took his word that it'd be about 32 inches or so, across.
Weeeell.. throwing it in AutoCad, I determined that it's approximately double that size overall. THATS crazy talk.. I can't even store, let alone display one at that size. I also suspect I'd run out of aluminum diamond plate too.
I'm still trying to decide what to do about it. I guess I COULD use a different type of Halo 3 flag base, because they're different in different locales. I just don't have my Xbox here at work, so I can't take any shots until I get home. It sucks though.. I was looking forward to that base. I hate to have to settle for a more generic version, but realistically, if I make it smaller it would have to become proportionally taller, unless the flag doesn't go all the way in, and that's just not going to look right.
Generic, here I come
*UPDATE #2 (06.24.08)*
Found some tubing scraps to replace the strips I thought I was going to have to punch-out and roll-form (in the graphic). That's a relief. I adjusted the punch nest files accordingly, last night, and it looks like we're not going to get them punched until like Wednesday due to some paying jobs that have hopped ahead of it.
I forgot to look at the other Halo 3 flag stands last night, so hopefully I'll be able to remember to do that tonight. If I can't find one that's appropriate and possible for my budget and size limitations, I'm making a "haloish" flag stand instead.
Still no word back from the flag makers. I'll have to chase down an answer from them in the next couple of days. I'll call them, I guess, in case they missed my email.
I also determined another way to handle the base lights.. A friend of mine (Eldrik) has a small rotating display base that's battery powered. He told me where to find a cheap one locally. I'm thinking about putting a light on it, and then using a metal deflector on one side to block the light from shining that direction. In theory, it'll work much like the spinning lights in the movie "Aliens", but on a much smaller level. By placing it in the base, and using cladding strips of #8 (mirrored) stainless steel all over the interior, and light diffusers, it should create a pulsing effect on each corner in sequence. Even if I make a "haloish" base, I'm still gonna' add the light to it, I think.
*Update #3 (06.25.08)* Well, for some reason I couldn't get an "alternate flag base" to load. I ran into an alternate once before on a film of matchmaking, but when I loaded a CTF game there in customs, it was the same old base. So, I kinda' gave up on that. It's amazing how small the base seems to look when you just look down at it from your character's point of view, rather than running scale comparisons with the Monitor.
But yeah, when you see a spartan standing on it in 3rd person, you get a concept of how large it really is. So.. I decided to go halfway.. I scaled the flag stand properly, and then rescaled it so that the overall distance across was 36 inches. I'm stuck with material thicknesses that are going to look, perhaps, a little odd to someone who's REAL familiar with the stand, but it's still good. By itself it'll be alright.. with the flagstaff? I dunno.. it's small. I was considering adding weight to the base, but if I do that, there's no room for what I wanted to do with the lights. I'll have to test it and then I'll decide what course of action to take on that.
The lighting kits is going to have some significant size restrictions. I'm probably going to have to go back to the rheostat circuit idea if I still want the lights to pulse.. Is anyone willing to help me with that? (lol, assuming anyone's reading this.. EVER.. lol) I don't have a local source on this. If I can't get help here, I'll have to stick with constant lights.
My wood guys are starting on the legs, and tomorrow I'll give them the platforms I drew up for them. When they get those done, I'll take 'em home for pics, I guess. There's other stuff going on out there so it might be a little while before I see anything.
I've got pricing on the flags.. it's $150 each, because they're charging me for two set-up charges, even though all they'd do is print a different color using the same design. It sucks, but shopping around has given me the same results whereever I go. I'm considering getting a credit card to do it on, as I WILL have the money within the next couple of weeks, but I have to get the order placed by like Monday if I want them here with enough time to attach them and stuff. There's a sizing variance on the material, so I'll also be waiting to position the flag holders until the flags are in my hands.
If I do two blue flags, it'll cost $165 total, instead of $300.. but damn what a shame that would be. It's almost not worth the effort of making two if I end-up with two flags the same color. I might sell one afterwards to recoup, but that doesn't do me any good ahead of time. I'm tempted to get one color (the gold) and then dye the remaining colors (one red, one blue) myself somehow.. it would lower the price considerably. I dunno though because they do all kinds of treatments to to flag to get the dyes to stay.. it might affect further dying attempts, and then I'd be stuck with nothing usable with money spent.
ohh.. and I noticed that the "pointy thing" (lol) at the end of the ARM of the flagstaff isn't square like I'd assumed it to be. It's just as well they weren't punched yet because I had to redo it.. It's actually a rectangle for some reason.. even though the rod going into it is square. My arm is slightly skinnier than the proper thickness, to work with the thinner vertical pole.. the pointy thing is the correctly scaled size, but not scaled to the arm.. c'mon.. that'd be pretty anal, right? lol
*Update #4 (06.26.08)*
Eeesh.. using a smaller flag base means there's less stability, and less room to "sandbag" it on the interior. I might end-up putting some big hunks of steel in the bottom, but that sucks for transport and for leaving room for lighting..
No luck on flag money. I was too busy yesterday. today I MUST do the flag vector artwork after work. I'm gonna' get stuck otherwise... lead times suck.
*UPDATE #5 (.06.29.08)*
Ouch! life sucks.. lol money is at an all time low, I just paid off my ex-wife's car two months ago (almost ex-wife.. we've been separated for two years.. I took over the car payments because she was just gonna let the repo man take it). At the time I paid it off, they're like "Hey want a credit card with us?" I'm like.. "hmm.. not now."
So fast forward, and money is tight enough that I'm getting ready to borrow money for food. I say "Hey wait a sec! I'll go get that credit card!" I go back to get it and I can't because my ex has already gotten one from them (due to me paying off the account that was in both of our names). They say, "well sir, you guys just opened a line of credit, and now it's a month past due. We can't help you."
All I have to do is get through this week and everything will be fine. It definately jeapodizes the flags though.
Good news though.. Rob might be helping me out in that respect, where I pay him back later and he get's a couple of extra flags outta' the deal. Vexona came through on the graphics for the flags.. Those flags are gonna' be totally insane.. She gave me two versions, but one version, although cooler, might cost a lot more to print. I still have to find out, but I'm waiting for Rob to give me the contact info on the printer guy that he has an arrangement with.
Deadline is approaching though.. it's got me worried. the lead times on the printing might kill me if I can't get the order in fast. The other printers I was gonna go with told me I needed to get the order placed last week!
arghh.. I'm REALLY hoping these are gonna' be ready for DragonCon.
Well, the other good news is that there's a camera at work now. The guy who's helping me with the pole project is interested in making almost a tutorial on the whole thing. I dunno' about all that, but there will at least be enough to move this WIP forward a bit.
