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Luca Iaconi-Stewart: World's Greatest Undiscovered Modelmaker?

By Rain Noe - January 21, 2014

in Materials | Object Culture

This shot might be of Coach, but this guy's modelmaking skillz are first-class

Get this man a job as a modelmaker.

Luca Iaconi-Stewart learned to make architectural models from paper in a high school class, and found he enjoyed it. Rather than pursuing a career in architecture, Iaconi-Stewart subsequently embarked on a crazy project to build a detailed scale model of a Boeing 777, entirely out of paper.

The man has spent five years on the yet-to-be-completed project, and even sacrificed college to continue on it.

Per Wired,

Iaconi-Stewart devoted an entire summer just to the seats (20 minutes for an economy seat, four to six hours for business class, and eight hours for first class). Tweezers helped. He designed the engines in about a month and assembled them in four. The tail he rebuilt three times. When his classes at Vassar took up too much time—he actually stopped work on the 777 for two years because of college—Iaconi-Stewart dropped out. "I'm fortunate to have parents willing to give me a fair amount of latitude," he says. They're going to have to give a little more: When this project is finished, probably early this year, he might start building an even bigger model.

As seen on his Flickr page, the detail is nothing short of astonishing; the only thing that's missing are the surly passengers and officious flight attendants.

Mr. Iaconi-Stewart, if you want to get a job but don't want to go back to school, you don't have to. Finish the plane and bring it to any design firm with a modelmaking shop. Assuming you can hit shorter deadlines, watch how quickly they fire their existing guy to get you in there.

Via Wired

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Lonnie

10 years ago

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Impressive but kind of sad really. I hope he's got rich parents if he's putting this ahead of college. When he's done he could sell it for $100.00 and start over again.
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insperatus

10 years ago

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I like the hate that is going on here in the comments. His work will be sought after for detail and technical functionality, and most of all patience. Just because a machine will do it half the time doesn't show hard work.

So what if he dropped out of college to pursue a passion?? I dropped out of college myself and still pursued my passion and I get paid senior level equivalent to my peers without a degree.
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Robert

10 years ago

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@Eric, really. How many times does anyone walk into a job and replace someone who has been there for 20-30 years? That is not a realistic expectation in anyone's book. How many design people that have been there that long could do what he does? The functionality of the door mechanisms and thrust reversers show an understanding of function and component interaction that most people that do finish college don't have! Boeing didn't just hand him a set of drawings. His feat is nothing short of incredible, and with the understanding, patience and level of detail...well, he has talents that can't be taught and will be highly sought after.
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Ricardo

10 years ago

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@Greg. Seriously? You compared a 777 to a F1 car. That's a weekend job for Luca. Look at some of his videos on youtube and see how a lot of the parts on his plane function. Impressive.
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Modelmaker

10 years ago

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This is a silly post indeed. Why does this get noticed over others? Go visit the American Visionary Art Museum.
I would have liked this better if you did not reveal that the guy, dropped his college load to work on a paper model while his parents payed an extra 48K tuition a year for Vassar. Sounds like a particular type of privilege too me. I bet a bunch of crafts people in developing countries would not be as impressed.
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Thijmen

10 years ago

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The crazy thing is, this model actually functions on some level:
Landing gear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0KwrDEasaI
Cargo doors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8M-3dK4h1Q
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Greg

10 years ago

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world's greatest? pretty good, but not world's greatest.
http://paulsf1.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/the-rb7-unveiled/
...every bit of it paper. his next one is out of this world.
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Eric

10 years ago

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Why? There are lasers and rapid prototype machines that make the parts in a 100th of the time. I love models, don't get me wrong, he did a nice job, but that many hours for that is a bit silly. Learn how to make a few and then expand your skills and capabilities, learn how to be efficient and manage your time.
I doubt he could get a job walking into a design house and take away a job from a guy that's been at it for 20-30 years. Highly unlikely.
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