FINALE!

Finally finished! Pretty happy with the results. 

- Roughly 2.5 months in the making (I really did take my time with it)

- It's running on 2x 9v batteries. 

- 4 switches: 

          1) 2 fans 

          2) 17 LEDs in V-fins, Mohawk lens, exhaust, and a couple in the ears 

          3) machine guns 

          4) 6x LEDs in the eyes

- Retractable faceplate. For extra vision, talking, eating, etc.

I'll post details in the next post.

Lighting up the Eyes

Was pretty busy with life the past couple weeks. Had very little time to get on this project. But, things are starting to settle again... so, it's back on target:

Lit Eyes:

The wiring for the eye LEDs are in place. All that's left to do here is paint the wires matte black and find a way to shield the bulbs so when they're lit, they won't cause a glare back at my eyes.

Had some leftover "turn signal amber" paint from my car models of the past that was the perfect shade I was looking for. Now, I had both yellow and amber paint. Tried them both, but found out the bluish tint of the LEDs made the yellow shine green. Whereas the amber paint plus the LEDs resulted in the standard Gundam yellow eyes. 

Good, the LEDs lit up the details just as I hoped.

Lighting... teaser

Don't have time to work on the project today.

Only can give you a teaser of the lights so far. The lights for the eyes aren't in yet. The blue camera (mohawk) lens isn't in yet either.

This thing can light up a room!

EDIT: Just found out one of the LEDs in the yellow fin is busted!!!! The one that was permanently cemented in!!!!! ARRRGH. There's no easy fix for this. Only start scratch build another one!!!! sigh.

Eye Lens Redux

Eye Lens:

Here we go again! My second (and hopefully FINAL) attempt at making the eye lens for the build. 

To recap my requirements on this sub-project:

- Must not limit my vision, much

- Should have detail

- Tinted yellow

- Must be lit up.

- Lights must not be seen from the outside

- Lights must not be glaring back at MY eyes.

Had put a lot of thought back into this one. Going to start off with a piece of clear lexan plastic. I think this is good approach.

Since I already have the shape of the eye lens from the previous build attempt. I'm going to use it as a template for the curvature. Here I'm laying it down on a piece of 2x4 wood. I needed a shape to put the melting plastic onto. And the wood can handle the heat.

Cutting the shape out with a jigsaw.

I stole this toaster oven from my wife years ago. Started out when I was secretly baking my sculptures in it before. Got caught by the wife.. and said something, something.. and she just gave me the oven! Woohoo!! Score! Anyways, inside the oven is a couple strips of lexan plastic. Warming it up for 5-10 minutes. The moment I can see them droop, I pull them out and put it on my wooden form....

Almost lost this piece. You can see some bubbling at the corners! Luckily, the bubbles are outside and would be cut off.

Cutting them out with my dremel.

Quick test fit. PERFECT!

Now, for the details. I'm thinking of frosting them in. To achieve that, I just mask out a simple design. With my dremel again, I used a steel brush attachment, and just went over the exposed areas.

I could use some fancy window etching solution to frost the details. But, that would mean money. And I rather not spend money if I didn't have to. The return wasn't worth it. Simple economics. hehe

TEST: Can I see out of the new lens? 

Yes! Yes, I can. Even in the frosted areas, I can see vague shapes. So, this is successful.

TEST: Does the detail light up? 

Yes, perfectly!! Success, again!

TEST: Are the lights visible from the outside? 

Nope. Since the lights would be mounted just out of sight. It's perfect again. Another Score!

TEST: Would the lights be glaring back into my eyes/face?

Nope, eventually, I will be mounting the LEDs with hot glue. Then I'll be painting the globs with dark matte paint. The light would only be directed at the lens itself.

PERFECT SCORE!!

Random Progress

Polish:

The "camera lens" in the mohawk is a bit dull. So, I grabbed my bottle of 'fine scratch remover'. It was for polishing up tiny scratches on my rear plastic window on my convertible. Grabbed a towel and rubbed the face up with lots of elbow grease.

LED test:
While I was wiring some of the LEDs, I noticed one of them had a bad flicker. So, I cut it out of the system. As decided to use it for experimenting. I wanted to see if I could diffuse the LED bulbs a bit. And I know hot glue dries cloudy. So, I put the two together....

I globbed some hot glue right ON the LED bulb. And let it dry. You can see in the pic... the LED bulb is completely "submerged" inside the wad of hot glue.

Test wired it to my battery... and voila! A nice diffused glow! Success. I'll do this to a few of the bulbs in the "camera lens"




Wire connectors:

Bought some quick-release wire-to-wire connectors for some parts of the electrical work. The fins are separable, so these are needed. I'm not really liking these types. But I couldn't find any better alternative. These were pretty prices too. Don't like pricey.

Hot Glue Sucks

Hot glue:

Never said it before, so I'll say it here. I really dislike hot glue. Not a whole lot of positives, but I can name quite a few negatives....

- takes time for the glue gun to warm up

- glue gun is awkward to use in tight spaces

- glue sticks always run out. all the time.

- MESSY!

- those spiderweb-like strands with each use. And it's endless!! You just keep pulling and pulling

- not really a strong bond.

- dries cloudy

Obstacle: Here, I robbed some hot glue in the area where I was to place the fan. But, it rolled over into the fan blades!!!! UGH!!! Glued them down. I had to go back in, cutting and re-melting the hot glue to rip the  fan unit out. Some more cutting and sanding got the blades free. Hot glue sucks.

Finally got the fan to work again! Wired up all the LEDs for the eyes too. Here, I'm testing out the switch for it too.

Hook me up

Wiring:

Back on the electric work. Had to figure out how I wanted the switch to turn on/off. And how to wire all of the fans and millions of LEDs

Use my vice and alligator clip (held in place by a piece of placticine) to help me hold the wires so I can solder them together. Everything is multipurpose! hehe

Heat shrink wrapped the connections. Not necessary. I just want to do it right.

LEDs:

I had to sample test the LEDs in the mohawk lens. Needed to know how many I would need to make this thing look cool.

Maybe just a few more.. hehe

Man, there's so much more electrical work to be done:
- the fans
- the machine guns
- eyes
- V-fins (still waiting for more LEDs to come in the mail)
And all these needs to be hooked up with quick release connectors. For easy battery swap outs.

Wiring Antennae

While I wait for the mold for the eyes to dry and the paint to dry on the rest of the pieces...

Gonna put in some lights into each of of the antennas. Right at the highest points. But, I don't want any of the wires visible. So, I break out the dremel tool again. and gouge out a tiny channel for the wires.

TIP: Holding down the working piece with a vice makes things go so much smoother.

A little spackle to fill in the gaps. Let dry. Sand. Paint.

The Eyes Have It (part 1)

Eye Lens:

Ok.. put some thought into the eye/lens obstacle.

I can....

1) Modify a pair of cheap sunglasses (the yellow reflective ones) - Gotta hunt for these. Not easy to find.
2) Modify a set of gold mirror smartphone screen protectors. - These are REALLY hard to find. Most vendors only carry the silver ones
3) Yellow auto tint. (some are those cheesy mirrored ones too!) - Not easy to find either.
4) Clear acrylic. Painted yellow clear. - Easy. I have the materials already. But, the end result may not be what I'm after.
5) Do nothing. Leave blank holes - Easiest!
6) Yellow tint a 2 way mirror. - I'm not sure how to go about this one. As I would need to light the front part of the mirror too to make the backside dark.
7) Fabricate from scratch the lens. (Like the mohawk lens) - Hardest. Most work.

hmmm.... looking at the list. And knowing me (and if you had been following my thread.. you would know my answer too!)
I already know which method I'd go for on this project.

* a friend suggested strapping 2 smartphones behind it! haha.. I can have goggly-eyes playing on them as movies. That'd be funny.

In the tradition of not taking the easy way out. I'm diving head first into fabricating the eye lens from scratch.

Have to sculpt the lens first using Sculpey. Since the eyes have a  very unique shape to it, I'll need to mold it into two halves.

Like the mohawk lens, I'm adding random detail to the back side. I'm hoping I can have an option of lighting up the eyes with an LED. Making them glow!

Got lazy and didn't bake them.. and just used a heat gun. Still works, but the concentrated heat caused some of the internal bubbles to get out of control. O well, it's ok... I'll call it "detail". hehe

Mohawk Lens

Molding/Casting:

There is a forehead camera on most every Gundam. It's in the area right above the V-fins.

The lit green box above the eyes.

Putting in video cameras and integrating a sort of CCTV system into the helmet proved to be too expensive, I'll just make something fancy in its place. I'll leave that option open when I win the lottery. Then again, if I win the lottery, I'll build a full scale working Gundam!

 Building the mold out of plasticine. Designed it with random shapes so it looks anime-ish/mechanical.

Built up walls for the pour

Here's a quick video of me mixing up the resin...

Gave a couple days to dry and harden up good. 90% of all the tiny bubbles also rose up to the surface and popped. (I had initially coaxed some of the bubbles out of the corners/cracks with a pin) Take the mold off, scraping out the plasticine out with sculpting tools. Getting it out of every nook and cranny.

Tinted it clear blue. Planning on putting some LEDs behind it to shine through. The light should refract around the odd shapes I made. Showing all the detail.

Made a little box to mount the LEDs ... whenever they come in the mail.

The test fit. Lookin good.