1. The new episode. Good god. I don’t even.
2. So when Korra said “all out of water” I thought of Blood Bending, and said to my sister “I wonder if blood bending will make a comeback.” And then there was Blood Bending. True story.
3. That new car.

But most importantly… I’ve realized a full size Sato is entirely unrealistic for now. I don’t have the skills or the money. So for now, I’ll settle on a scale model of it (perhaps with working lights as a consolation)… and then scale models of other vehicles from the show. That would be cool, too (and reasonable).

Also:

inb4 dramatic scene where Tarlock kill/seriously messes up an important character by stopping their heart.

The end of the school year is coming up, and I am working on a few major projects on my house, so progress will be delayed until I have more free time. I’m about ready to purchase materials for the scale model, though (just some wood).

Next time you appreciate the colors of a painting or the vividness of your video games, you had better be thankful that color didn’t go away forever. Some unknown cataclysm in the mid 1940’s nearly stifled our interest in colors. They were plain, outdated, color’s popularity was sharply reducing. Only recently have we come to re-appreciate our tiny, visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Also purple is an unpopular color. So is orange.

Via Google Ngram, one of the coolest web… thingies… out there. Take 10% of history’s books in digitized form, liquidate them into raw data on frequency of words by year, and you have Ngram.

itbegins.jpg

Engline block height is 26” as per image one.

Front view dimensions, including the width of the car, are in image two.

I can now ascertain any dimension I need to use. Will start modeling the body in upcoming days, and then I have to design a chassis/frame.

Hot damn she is a BAMF.

No work got done today on the project. Was busy with chores. Will start modeling the car sometime this week.

I was considering that, and it certainly is plausible, not to sound naive. But I won’t ask for any donations or sponsorships until I have a robust cost estimate, and am far enough into the project such that it doesn’t look like some sort of scam.

Alright then.

I was wrong about the 21” wheels. I measured from one side of the TIRE to the other side of the TIRE. But, when someone says a “21 inch wheel”, they mean the rim is 21”.

So, I measured the rim’s diameter and found it to be 165pix, giving 7.85pix/in. With the cabin being 521pix tall, this gives us a car that is over six feet tall which is a rather tall car.

This is *the* affordable, dependable, and consumer-friendly car in the Avatar world: a world that is also based off of Asian cultures, not cultures like the USA where big tall cars are the norm. So, a 6’ tall car doesn’t work. By reducing the rim diameter to 15”, the cabin height changes to 47.4” tall, which is a lot more believable.

The second image is a screencap from episode one. The car there is not the same model, but it is certainly extremely similar. It has two windows, instead of three, meaning it has a shorter cabin. Other than that, it appears to be identical. The cabin/rim proportion also matches pretty well (521 height/165 rim to 63 height/21 rim).

I guesstimated where the cabin would be if it was the same model, and measured the dimensions. With a 15” rim, we get 1.4pix/in, for:

• 45” tall cabin
• 61” long cabin
• 66.4” wheelbase
• 57” overall height
• 27.1” engine length

which are all pretty logical. I thought the wheelbase length was sort of short but after some searching there are cars with similar wheelbases. Like this one, which is pitifully small. But, that is by today’s standards. Fortunately, pic number three is available, a screencap from episode four, showing a man right next to a Sato. Assuming he is an average adult of 6’, the car does indeed look rather small, and my dimensions look correct. But, there are two doors, thus two rows of seats, thus this car is meant to seat four which is just silly. I’ll have only one row, and the second door will not function, or something. I’ll figure it out.

First, I have to do some research and calculations on the Satomobile, to see its specific dimensions (also, I was wrong on those wheels. I was measuring the tires… not the rims, which are what count when someone says “21 inch wheels”).

Second, I’m going to design the Satomobile, part by part, in AutoDesk Inventor, an incredibly powerful design software. With a digital version of the vehicle, I can perform various tests to see if the real world version is stable.

Third, I’ll make a scale model, likely on a 1:4 scale. This is for proof of concept purposes.

Fourth, I acquire cash somehow. Perhaps if my model is high enough quality some rich cartoon lover will buy it.

And finally, I’ll fabricate the full-scale car. It will be functional, and hopefully street legal. I honestly don’t expect to reach this stage. I don’t have the budget to do it at this time.

I’ll then drive it around with a big sign on it saying “LOOK AT THIS THING I BUILT! ALSO I NEED A WELL PAYING JOB!” and maybe go to comic con with it.

I was only looking at the episode four shots of the Sato mobile, which are the nicest… but there are some more angles in the first episode, including a side view. Will have to find a 1080p version of the episode.

But I need to get up early tomorrow. Will work later. For now, have the song I was listening to while making that perspective thing. It’s one of my favorites.