Nate Mangion

The Elyden Globe Project

Added 2019-07-07 19:05:01 +0000 UTC

So after months of faffing about and doing research on the internet I've decided to abandon my original idea of making my own globe from a polystyrene sphere covered in plaster due to various problems.

Instead I've bought I cheapish globe from eBay. There was an unsightly ridge running along the equator, where the two hemispheres were glued together. I sanded this down and sprayed the globe, before sanding it again. I'll do this a few more times to make sure it has an even coat before sealing it with Matt varnish.

I tried drawing gores onto it, but the margin for error is too big and I wasn't happy with the result. So I'll be printing out gores and pasting them to the globe. I've tested one and it seems doable, but I need to be vigilant when gluing them down, as any errors add up exponentially and the last one may end up overlapping the first, or coming short, either of which is very bad news.

I'll be ordering a few extra globes just to have spares for when the one I'm currently using gets messed up from all the trail-and-error work I'll be subjecting it to :)

Of course my fascination with Bellerby globemakers will make things difficult, as I'm a bit of a perfectionist and tend to give up if the first few attempts are unsuccessful.

I found a good tutorial here that corresponds with most of what my research has revealed, so I'll be using this to help attach the gores.

Which leads to - the design of the globes.

I have worked out the sinosuidal projection for the map, but need to add labels and markers. I won't bother with this until I've succeeded in attaching blank gores as a test.

Hopefully I can get the globe ready within a week, ready for affixing the gores soon after...

I'll keep you updated :)