It comes in a classy paperback-size box:
And inside are maybe twenty laser-cut sheets of various weights and colors of cardstock, and a little packet of "grass" to decorate the base:
Yesterday I spent at a build session at a friend's house, and I was able to get the basic shape together. It's made up of numerous layers of cardboard (about 50), built up contour-map style around a central core which aligns the layers for you. That shape then gets partially clad with more cardboard to create the final surfaces. The engineering is perfect, and it's been pure pleasure so far. I made a couple little chisel-like tools by gluing shards of scalpel blade into wooden dowel handles; they work great to sever the last little connections between the parts and the cardboard sheet.
So here's how it stands this morning. The whole thing is super petite; about the size of a goose egg:
The model has a forest of smokestacks, and they're made by wrapping sheet around a ribbed backbone. I'm a little worried about that; my previous experience with wrapping paper into tubes resulted in many fingerprints everywhere. But we'll see.
