

Section 1



This section consists of an octagonal box with a 1/2" thick plywood disk on top.

The octagonal portion is made from 2" pine lumber, with 1/2" plywood pieces for the top and bottom. The bottom of the box section can be removed to tighten the bolt that holds the lower sections to the main body. The picture shows this section with the bolt protruding from the top.



This section ended up having several differences from the original prop. If you look closely at screen shots from the episode and the more detailed plans at the link in the resources step, you will see that this is actually a 12 sided piece instead of an 8 sided piece. Also, the width of mine is a bit too small relative to the rest of the model.



Section 2



This section is a truncated cone shape. It was turned on a mini lathe. The piece was too thick to make from a single piece of stock lumber, so a 1.5" thick piece of pine was glued to a 0.75" thick piece of pine, to achieve the desired thickness. I used this approach of gluing together pieces of material to get the desired thickness on most of the other pieces that were turned on the lathe, as they were generally too large to be built from single piece of 1.5” material. This worked well, as I could build up the raw piece using standard thicknesses of material. If the overall length is too large, the excess can be easily removed with the lathe.



To create a piece of stock from other thinner stock in this manner, coat the entire area of one of surfaces of the pieces to be joined with wood glue, then clamp the pieces together over night. The result is very strong, with the glue bond being actually stronger than the wood itself.



Section 3



This is the 8 sided main body box. It was one of the more time consuming parts to build, but it is also straightforward.



Notice the 3 groups of small holes drilled in each side as shown. I actually drilled all of these with a drill press. In order to make the uniform pattern of holes, I first drew up each of the hole patterns, printed them out on paper, and taped the pattern to the plywood at the proper location. I then drilled through the paper at each spot on the pattern. These three distinctive groups of holes are present on all four of the larger sides of the body. Drilling all those holes on each of the four sides was tedious, but I was pleased with the result. I suppose that if you don't want to drill all those holes you could just make some kind of a decal of the hole pattern instead, but I wanted to have lights inside that would shine through the holes.



One side of the box is removable to access the inside, as is visible in the photo of the unassembled parts. Note the hole in the center, used to connect the pieces together with a bolt.



Section 4



The top of the main body box in the original prop has several small pieces on it. I did not attempt to recreate these details exactly, as I felt they were secondary in importance to the overall model. I did try to replicate the general appearance of these items, but I know that I omitted many fine details. One of the links in the resources step contains plans that are very detailed, if you want to go that far.



These small detail pieces were mounted on a sheet of 1/8” MDF. This whole assembly then mounts on top of the main body box.



Section 5



This section is just a cylinder, made from 2 thicknesses of 1/2" plywood.



Section 6



This section was probably the most challenging part. This is the large "head" section. I actually made this as three parts, and attached them together when complete. The diameter and length of this section as a whole exceeded the capabilities of my lathe, so I couldn't simply turn it on the lathe all as one large piece. Rather, I had to machine three separate pieces, and stack them up and glue them together after they were all complete. This was challenging because I had to make sure that the diameters matched up from piece to piece, without any visible discontinuities.



There are three “probes” or antennas on this section the original prop that NOMAD would extend and retract in the episode. My model does not have extendable probes. Instead, they are depicted in the retracted position. I created these details with finishing washers, 10-24 threaded studs, and 10-24 T-nuts. The studs have a wood screw thread on one end, and 10-24 thread on the other. They are threaded into the wood, and then the finishing washers are placed on the stud and finally the T nuts are threaded onto the posts. Refer to the pictures below for details.



Sections 7



This section is just two disks, made from ¼ “and ¾” plywood.



Section 8



This is another truncated cone type of section, made on the lathe from a single 1.5" thick piece of pine lumber with a disk of ½” plywood attached on top of that.



Section 9



This section is a set of 5 disks made from 1/8" thick MDF.



Section 10



This is another truncated cone type of section made on the lathe.



Section 11



The final section in the model is an antenna like piece on the very top. It is made from 3/16” and 1/8” dowels of different lengths. There is a small vane like piece on the very top of the center dowel, which I made from 1/8” MDF. The center dowel piece fits into a corresponding hole in the top of the section 10.

