Second attempt: X-Men Arcade Six-Player!

Get a cup of coffee or a pop and a snack, this is going to be a long one.

About a month ago, I saw on eBay a listing for "X-MEN 1/12 Scale MINI ARCADE MACHINE MODEL," "Brand New, Hand Crafted Artisan Model." Having plunked a lot of quarters into that game back in the day, I sprang for it; and it came last week. (It was an overseas listing.) It's very nice, except for one thing: it's not 1/12 scale.

1/12 (or 1:12) scale would break down as one foot in reality would be one inch in scale. It's the same scale Marvel Legends and DC Universe classics use, where a six-foot tall character would have a six-inch tall action figure. (More or less, putting aside size creep.) A six-player arcade console is seventy-seven inches tall, so not quite six and a half feet.

In-universe, Nightcrawler is 5'9", and Deadpool is 6'2"; and both of the figures of them I have handy are right about six inches even. So, it's not always consistent; but even then this model is too small. Time to take matters into my own hands, then!

Step one, as with the Star Wars model, swipe! With a little searching, I was able to find a papercraft model, created by "AtomicThumbs," with a link: http://members.shaw.ca/jato/x-men.zip. (I scanned that with an anti-virus program before opening it: check it again!) It was for 3.75 inch scale, but we all know 1/12 is the one true scale (I tease, it's merely my preference!) and did some conversion. I am 90% sure the model I bought used the same papercraft template. The marquee piece, with the X-Men title, isn't as high resolution on any version I've seen, but more on that later.

Step two: scale it up! My wife suggested I do it my damn self I try GIMP, which I downloaded and started playing with. And I'll not quite done with it yet: things I print at home came out differently than when I printed them at Kinko's! Let's look at my first attempt:

Not quite there: trying to use the folds like a papercraft model usually would, while trying to bodge together an interior to hold it together. So, for my second attempt, I measured everything out, and bodged together an interior base, out of cardboard, foam, glue, and tape. So much tape.

Still no idea how my first try is bigger, but I do prefer the laminated side panels on it. May have to redo those on the finished one with the joysticks; which are your basic stick-pins.

I'm not 100% sold on my second one, either: I had to use way more tape than I wanted to force the panels to lie flush. I do like the way the screen sets, though, since I might try to swap in alternate screens. I also am still trying to find a better resolution version of that marquee so I could redo it, but haven't seen one yet.