Hendrik Haak's site features some great Megaminx mods by Jurgen Brandt.
http://www.puzzle-shop.de/start-shop.html

I have long admired the icosahedron-shaped one in particular. Here are some pics of my progress to duplicate one for myself.





The white material is Magic Sculpt.

It looks wonderful Carter. I admire your ability to create such precise work in everything you do and make is look so easy. The megaminx transforms into the icosahedron shape so beautifully. I can't wait to see it finalized.

Wow!
Because of the same inspiration I built the truncated Icosahedron some months ago. I haven't published any pictures because despite looking quite good its almost impossible to twist the puzzle.
Turns your puzzle good? Is it easy to hold the grip?

Nice effort anyway.

Andreas

It turns okay. It would be no good for speed cubing. The rounder they are, the harder they are to turn.

Now that you've told us about it Andreas, you're obligated to show us pictures because I'm sure everyone is curious.

thanks in advance - mike grimsley

I think you can partially remedy the situation of it being hard to turn by having some kind of grip surface - holes like in the Dogic, or grip tape on the outside, something like that. Although even at the best it will be hard to turn.

I like the pictures though. It looks very well-done and uniform.

There is still plenty of work to be done before it will be ready to sticker.

I woudl have given in to laziness long before finishing a project like that (laziness. How familiar). I grow impatient if I can't finish a particular project within a certain amount of Time. Which explains why my Mastermorphix languishes at an eternal 85% complete state.

I hope, I didn't promised to much. I will start a new thread on this.
Carter: I'm sorry for stealing attention.
Andreas

Hello,

Wow, it is very well done, and a lot of work!
Felicitation.

Will you paint the with surfaces or sicker it?

See you

Etienne

Hi Carter,

I'm curious about how you handle the color of the magic sculpt - i.e. making it black like the rest of the puzzle. Do you use paint? If so, what kind, and how do you apply it? Is there another way I don't know about?

Thanks,
Ben

There are a couple of ways to color the parts. In the past I used automotive touch-up paints - one coat of primer, two coats of color, and two coats of clear coat, sanding between coats. This process is expensive and time-consuming. And the automotive touch-up paints were not always easy to find when I needed them.

On my last puzzle, I took a tip from Joshua Bell:
http://twistypuzzles.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1866
and used a permanent black marker (a Marks-a-Lot) to color the epoxy and all of the plastic that you can see when the puzzle is assembled. Then I coated it with two or three coats of high quality, clear fingernail polish. After it dried thoroughly, I rubbed it with very fine (0000) steel wool to degloss. This whole process gave a surface that is pretty durable and looks very very similar to puzzle plastic.

After that, I will cut stickers out of sign-maker's vinyl. The way I like to do this is to make a pattern out of a single sheet of paper. Remove the single shapes from the pattern, and let your pattern be the big sheet. You will have narrow portions of paper on your pattern between the individual stickers. Be careful not to tear them. Test this pattern by holding it to the finished puzzle, and make sure it will work for every face. Tape this pattern to the vinyl sticker material with scotch tape. Then cut the stickers with an Exacto knife, cutting through the vinyl only, not throught the paper backing. Use a straight edge. If you are really particular about quality, round the corners. You must have a good pattern to have a really nice looking puzzle at the end. If the pattern is geometrically correct, and you apply the stickers carefully, a lot of flaws in the puzzle will be invisible.

Thanks Carter! That's going to make things much simpler for me once I finally get my current project to that phase.

Ben

Great, Ben. Post some pics. We want to see.

If anyone would like to try a virtual version of the icosahedron puzzle, I have one at my web page...

http://fishcrow.com/puzzles.html

I really like the GigaMinx. I wonder what would be the best way to make such a device... I want one.

Hmm... I bet you could make the centers more circular so they can rotate on their own and then build up the MegaMinx. That would be fun/hard.

You don't need to have one. You can download the code and play it on your computer. All you need is FORTRAN and a Postscript displayer.

Hey, I like that name...Icosaminx.

You don't need to have one

Heh... You don't understand! It's the act of holding the puzzle, turning it, looking at the different sides... Sure, you can simulate a 6x6x6 cube, but wouldn't you like to have one of your own?

>Sure, you can simulate a 6x6x6 cube, but wouldn't you like to have one of your own?

No. It would probably have so many parts that it would weigh too much to pick up!

I actually prefer puzzles on the computer because they don't break and it is easier to try out ideas. On the other hand, I was thrilled to obtain my first Megaminx. I had the (obvious) idea for this puzzle 25 years ago, but I didn't realize it actually existed until a few years ago.

Just curious!!! What program did you use to make the I GigaMinx AmazonMike? That looks awesome and I hope someday I'll actually hold one in my hands to play with.

The program is right there on that web page if you want to download it. It's a FORTRAN code that I wrote myself.