As I started to add more atoms to the Sketchup molecule maker kit, I realized that the chemistry model color convention breaks down past the basic four atoms of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon. Green, for example, is used for both chlorine and phosphorus!

So I thought, what if we label the atoms for better identification? Then I thought it wouldn’t look too cool to do this on a ball, but how about a multi-faceted shape, say a buckyball? Well, that proved impractical, but I did find this nifty icosahedron (twenty-sided) in the Warehouse.

The original was made by Google, but then I modified it so that all the faces are manifestations of one component. Thus if I change one face, I change them all. This makes it easy to create a veritable zoo of atoms!

Plus, it looks cool.