Raymond Adams (http://www.raymondadams.net/) is a photographer friend who I met out in Coney Island. He’s been shooting in the neighborhood for while now and was a Kickstarter backer of Coney Island Scan-A-Rama. He recently came out to meet me in Coney and shot some nice portraits of me in the installation of Luna Park at the Coney Island Museum. Thanks Ray!
Category Archives: Luna Park
The Helter Skelter
Its not just a Beatles song… the Helter Skelter was a slide ride at Thompson & Dundy’s Luna Park in Coney Island from about 1907-1915. Its the next part of the model I will be 3D printing to tie together the two pieces of boardwalk I have already completed. I’m starting to grapple with how much the park changed year to year and how the main court of the model will be laid out. Its also curious how many color variations existed amongst postcards that were made as the Helter Skelter is one of the most popular of all postcards of Luna Park . Theres a bit more work to do, but I can’t wait to start printing it!

Image from Shorpy
Thompson & Dundy’s Luna Park Rises Again!
Luna Park’s Electric Tower, 3D Printed
I began work on a newer, more detailed sculpt of Luna Park’s Electric Tower last summer, completing the digital sculpt in September, but its taken a while to get it printed and now its finally assembled. There’s some sanding and a few decorative corbels left to glue on but I hope to install it in the Coney Island Museum this Saturday!
I recently posted an image of the parts all organized by tier:
and here’s an animation of how they all stacked together:
Up next I plan on modeling the Helter Skelter:

Image courtesy of Shorpy
Saturday Night Gluing Party
Season’s Greetings from Coney Island Scan-A-Rama, Yale Exhibit and more!
Happy Holidays! Its been a while since I’ve updated here, but I have not been slacking off! As many of you may know I left my job of seventeen years last May and have been hard at work starting my own business around 3D design and printing. Well the business will officially be up and running as of January 1, 2015 and I have some exciting projects in the works. First off, I plan to be taking the Scan-A-Rama 3D Portrait Studio on the road this Spring, but I have also been exploring making glass and metal castings from 3D printed forms, making products and more!
In the meantime, my printers have been hard at work building out the giant Luna Park Tower that I posted renderings of last September, right before NY Makerfaire. At almost 200 prints and taller than me, this is going to be the largest piece I have made to date. I’m pleased to announce that the printing is done and I will begin assembly as soon as I return from spending the Holiday with my family! My goal is to complete this in the beginning of January and then get this installed in the Coney Island Museum. Look for some images of it below.
Finally, I’m going to be in an exhibit at Yale University Art Galleries, Opening January 13th. The show is called Side Show and will feature historic and contemporary work. My “physical photography” 3D portraits of sideshow performers will be exhibited alongside Edward Kelty’s historic portraits of sideshow cast members. I will be performing at the opening January 13th if you feel like coming up to New Haven.
Happy Holidays and Best Wishes,
Fred Kahl
aka. The Great Fredini

Side Show at Yale University Galleries Open January 13

Top of the Electric Tower (the blue figure is for scale)

The Tower Base

And a bunch of pieces that go in the middle…

Hopefully, when assembled it will look like this!
My Makerfaire Lecture: Recreating Historic Coney Island, One Layer at a Time
My lecture from World Makerfaire New York has just gone live- Watch it on YouTube as I talk about my project and the history of technology as entertainment:
Scan-A-Rama 3D’s Luna Park: “Best in Class” at World Makerfaire New York 2014!
The dust is settling after our triumphant show at the 2014 World Makerfaire New York! It’s been quite a week. Here’s some highlights of the last few days:

Starting Thursday, I began moving the 3D printed Luna Park out of the Coney Island Museum

There were over 300 3D scanned and printed people in this box!

I knew the show was going to be great when I saw our auspicious cart number!

It took all day friday to get the install done

We had a great place at the base of the spiral stairs inside the Hall of Science!

I was very pleased with the dramatic lighting!

Luna Park looked great!

It was nice to get Coney Island USA and the Coney Island Museum some props at Makerfaire too!

I was beaming after receiving the “Best in Class” Award at World Makerfaire New York 2014!

Loading out Sunday night was hectic but ran smoothly

And now Luna Park is safely back in the Coney Island Museum!