Eiffel Tower Prop by Allen Wilson at Coroflot.com

Eiffel Tower Prop

Eiffel Tower Prop from Allen Wilson

Eiffel Tower Prop

Pro Bono 30' Eiffel Tower prop for a Parisian themed formal prom - 1:30 scale- constructed of duct tape and clear vinyl with minimal PVC with a $450 budget & <100 man-hours.

"First impressions are everything. I asked for a 30-foot Eiffel Tower out front. One that would light up and give guests a proper welcome. Everyone suggested Allen Wilson. “If it is remotely possible, Allen’s the guy who can create it.” Boy, did he!

Since our budget was puny, he took nothing more than plastic, duct tape, and sheer genius, and did the impossible. He created a gorgeous 30-foot Eiffel Tower. Take a look.

Funny, when Allen first shared his plans for the tower, telling me he was making it from plastic and duct tape, I was a lit-tle concerned. “Um, Allen,” I said cautiously, “this sounds very creative, buuuut I’d like it to look elegant.”

“No problem,” he assured, “It’ll work out. Promise.” Boy, he wasn’t kidding. Stunning!" Julie Nef: Event Visionary

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French musicians greet the guests by the tower

Swx file was created by importing a desktop-decoration 3D-printable model and scaling it precisely to the height of the flag-pole taking in account the hardware needed atop. I utilized the sheet-metal feature to unfold the 4x sides and applied the exported PDF line-work to scale in Ai.

For scale and clarity, I showed the commissioner this CAD and a paper model photo

I made SWx drawings to estimate the length of tape needed while taking on account the WIDTH of the cross members. If the tape was 1.88" wide and certain beams were half that wide, I could use half the width of tape and buy half the length needed. It turns out that you cannot use a band-saw to cut duct tape and we used Xacto blades as we applied the tape instead.

Laying out the print was an effort in battling printer formats (width and length) vs paper expense vs OEM plotter restrictions. I ended up using 36" wide Home Depot brown masking paper which I had to construct a mock-axle for the plotter and then unroll photo paper and re-roll the masking paper onto the cardboard core.

I sourced dozens of materials and tapes and calculated the most economical solutions. - we ended up using almost 2 12xroll cases of duct tape and 100 yards of clear vinyl.

5/9/2015 I'm mid-construction building a 30-foot tall Eiffel tower prop for a YM/YW formal dance. CAD-scale and flatten / plotter printer rolls / vinyl sheet / duct tape / PVC piping/ string lights

upon 1st erection, as suspected, I didn't appreciate the squared off top here and decided to implement the curvature in the top section by taping the corners to each other. I also added PVC square structures at the belt-lines because there were slight winds that would billow the tower out of square.

impressive arrival and couple's shots

I was also asked to perform [like a French street performer], so I brought a date - my wife Amy. We had a blast unicycle-dancing on the dance floor with the Young Men and Young Women.