Globe of the Earth
04/22/2001
I was requested by a friend to build something nify for Earth Day, April 22, 2001. Of course she asked me to do this on April 21st. So, I had 24 hours to build something neat. I decided to build a globe, similar to what Eric Harshbarger had done. I made mine 48 bricks across and 40 bricks tall, and uses green land on blue water, just like his, but that's where the similarity ends. I made mine with the concentric circles coming in from all 6 poles, which is a difficult way to do it, but it looks really nifty when it's done.
My model for this was a series of slides from a NASA presentation of the topology of earth, presented from various different angles. Printed out to the right scale, it was just a matter of measuring the features and building land masses. Of course, it wasn't that easy, and I made a couple of missteps (which is what happens when you do hardcore building for long periods of time) but I managed to complete something. I am relatively content with the results, though it could've been a little more spherical. Ah, well, 12 hours of work, and it's good enough.
The globe is hollow, with a wall thickness that averages 4 bricks. It's supported in the middle by a cross brace built of 1x4's and 2x2's. It was built in two halves and then squished together. I included a picture of the bottom half of the globe while it was being built so you can see the guts. Enjoy, and happy Earth Day!
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