STATUS:
COMPLETE

BEGUN:
061015

COMPLETE:
070604

MATERIALS:

3 Slabs Masonite.
2 Nightlight Covers.
Various food service containers.
1 Faucet Aerator.
3 pieces of brass tubes and valves.
1 Plumbing Pump.
2 Air-freshener Bottoms
1 CCF tube, white
2 EL Wire, Red
Numerous LEDs
Dozens of feet of wiring

CONSTRUCTION LOG


061015
I spent a few hours positioning all the pieces on the top until I liked them. Once this was settled, I marked on the inside the remnants of their positions. From there I picked out specific spots made a mark and drilled through. These holes would serve as wiring conduits for the lights.

Flipping the masonite slab over, I then drew a wiring diagram connecting all the holes. Now came the fun part. It took me about two hours to gouge away material along the lines. This was a whole lot of fun, however, the dust was astounding. The living room was covered in it.

While I had thought to buy glasses to protect my eyes from the dremel, I hadn't considered the dust mask. I would go to the store the next day and buy a pack of them. Ultimately, this diorama will have approximately 2 dozen lights. Guidance will be provided by an elecwizard friend.

I'll also need to drill the various buildings for light output.


0612 23.23
It's been months since I did anything -- since the dremel... As my job wound down, this was one of the first pieces to restart. I got some pinstriped tape, threw a couple cans of black at it. Some gray as well. Today I glossed it up.

I'm skipping any window drilling I had in mind initially, for now. At most, I'll slap some EL Strips on it. The lights will be structural types. I may even get the lights going this coming week...


070115.06
The other week, a neighbor was throwing away some cut-able magnetic sheets (the kind for business cards), while I was spraying the D7 TMP. He had 18 x 24 sheets cut into business card sizes. The outer boundaries, up to 1 inch wide, were the garbage he was throwing out. I grabbed a bunch of them, I should've grabbed all.

Yesterday, I began cutting a few strips into the sizes needed for the buildings on the base. In a few instances, I piled the magnets up three or four thick to get them right. I've done this so that pieces stay stuck down generally, while allowing access for electronics work later if needed.

The corner tower was crazy glued down as there's no way the magnets could be set for this piece. The bond is very strong and I'm pleased with the result. I also added some white reflector tape here and there. I have a much clearer idea on how I'm going to light this up overall.


070202
I talked with elecwiz-buddy yesterday on how all the wiring is going to go. For now, I can lay all the wiring down, and that will give me a better idea of how many lights I'm going to use. Once the actual number of lights is determined, I can choose the right transformer, get the right resisters, and solder this whole thing together.

Today, I took some more of the magnetic strips and laid them down between the based masonite in the upper piece, which has the drill print and the bottom, which is uncut.

Initially, I figured that I would simply glue the two halves together. But after the magnetic strips came along, I realized that wouldn't be all that smart.  Were there a problem later, it would be unfixable. Even though I could potentially resnake the wires once it was glued, there could still be a major hassle, and things can go very wrong.

It was in my general research on websites that I somewhere read that professional studio modelers use magnets to hold their models together so that they can access the electronics inside. That was an astounding revelation.

I never would've thought of something like that. It won't work on every part of every model. However, when you choose the right parts, and your wiring diagram is good, you only need a few key places needing magnets: battery compartment, switches, buses, etc..

So the next phase, is laying down all the wire, followed by determining the right amount of lights. Once this is done, all the real mathematics can occur.


070425.15
Over the last month, I have collected numerous amounts of electronics.  I finally had a few evenings to get some layout work done.  Of the stash, all the CCF's have been distributed w/a  few to spare, some EL Wire has been assigned, a few LEDs, 1 sound module.

After Medbay, next up was Imperial Base at long, long last.
Got the white CCF to fit w/ some major patchwork.  The EL Wire glued down nicely to the base platform.  The red CCF simply lays across the back bottom for underglow.  It's a few too many millimeters thick and the base raises at that end.  I will either dremel the fat or glue another masonite slab down (for 4 total, 3 now).

The white ccf is the center tube of the front left tower.  It is glued and splinted to one of the airfreshener bottoms. The two tubes were an exact match, so a cut and fuse was in order.

I did the EL Wire over three hours in two days, gluing a few inches at a time.  I thought I'd have spare to run into the base structures themselves, but that slab is just 5' around. I figured 3 at the most if I was lucky...The option of plugging a 2nd wire in easily is there and ready if needed.

Gotta spend more time with the led count.  I've got plenty of red to spare, but I do need a number of white for this one, possibly 6 for the runway.  Though, I could throw, like railroad traffic signals, 2 green at front, 2 red at back and 2 white in the middle -or 2 more red would work too.

Also need one white in the laser tower/antennae contraption.  That will be subtle, but effective.  When i've got the hero Walker properly built and lit,  this will be its' home and 'fixed legs' will go elsewhere.


070602.23
'Almost there...'
Spent about 5 hours today on this one.  The first hour was sorting everything out, what was going where and so on.  The last 4 hours have been actually wiring things up. 

Tried to link the red leds up in serial, but they burnt, failed and otherwise didn't like this idea.  So I gave up on that and went with parallel connections, putting an appropriate resistor on each light -which is what took most of the time.

Good thing I did the gouging on the underside of the top base as the wires in several cases just barely fit!  It looks like I'll have to do some minor gouging on the lower base as well in just a very few spots to give some wiggle room.  The resistors and heat shrink tubing take more room than my prior ignorance had allowed for.

At this point, I have a few more lights to set up.  The other major trick is to actually slap it all together.  It all works as I had envisioned.  All the lights run off of one on/off switch. 

One problem I don't like is that the CCF transformer dims the white light when the red one is plugged in.  As the red light is glued to the base, it won't be going anywhere, so I will first try a different transformer, and if that doesn't fix it, then throw an additional switch for that light specifically.  Or I could throw a 2nd transformer into the mix so that each has full power. Yeah, I think that's the way to go.  More power!!!

There should be more red overall.  There are only 3 white leds, but they are so powerful that they dominate.  The plastic housings that two are under doesn't help to keep the lumens down either.  I will be drilling a few minor holes here and there to help the red stand out more. 

The main tower will also get some drilling to allow just a little more white light out.  I need to patch around the personel tube leading to the Walker.  I thought that having some light leak around the sides would be good, but it's too sporadic and not conducive to a good look.  Putty that up, then drill a few smaller holes will do fine. 

Maybe I should glue this Walker down and run a red led into his head afterall... I'd have to paint the inside of his head black to cut down on the subsurface scatter, but that wouldn't be bad.  I'd glue his head back on the neck in a fixed position, maybe magnets for future access...

The Communications Beacon is the last part that needs to be wired up and that will go easy.  I can also throw a few red leds into the base there, with two specifically in the laser turrets.  So about 4 more lights overall...

The wiring itself was easy though tedious as I had to solder all those reistors into each light and then shrink tube it all up to keep the wires from cross sircuiting.  Running all the wires along the bottom was chaotic at first, but got better as I went. I've fit about all that will go there and there is no more room for anything else.

I need to pick out a wall wart for this one.  It's currently running off my basic test wart. That is one of the last few more things that needs doing.  This Outpost runs off a 12v at about 400 mA right now, which looks about plenty.  Once the last few lights are in, I'll know for certain.  I have a number of warts at around that size available for choosing.

Should be able to call this piece done tomorrow!  I'll do a little more work tonight as there is a massive back yard party going on one or two houses away and that will likely be running for some time still.


070603.06
Another 2 or so hours encompassed the following fun:

Burnt out both transformers belonging to the CCF tubes and the EL Wire :(. 

My testbed wall wart runs at 400mA.  The problem was that one of the two CCF tubes would dim when both were plugged in.  I boosted up to a 800mA wart and this fixed that problem. 

However, that was apparently too much for the EL Wire transformer, which would now not light at all.  While testing this, the CCF transformer began smoking. 

I expect that the EL transformer simultaneously snapped at that point as it never came back on under any circumstance.  I pulled both transfomers out of there and replaced them with new ones.

The ultimate solution to this dimming problem was to pull the 2nd CCF tube: kind of an extraneous one anyway as it was in the back bottom and was solely for an ambient effect. 

However, in its' place I added a 2nd red EL Wire into the mix w/ no amperage problems, therefore 1 white CCF and 2 red ELW are now the permanent setup (along w/ the leds).

Prior to all this excitement, one of the three white leds began flickering.  Somewhere along the line it stopped working entirely.  It may be a loose wire, but I need to pull it out of there and have a look.  I will, regardless, replace it while I am in there.

Running the entire piece for a full hour has revealed no other apparant electrical problems. While I trust the wiring job, I do not want to leave it running unattended; as that would simply be foolish and exceptionally naive.

I have chosen another 400mA wart as the permanent power supply and simply need to do the final wiring on that aspect.  I think some kind of pluggable connector to make things modular would be a good idea.

While I have enjoyed playing with electricity for many years, this is the most complex and professional level work I have ever done. I have truly taken my level of experience to another level; albeit a still amateur one as compared to the true professionals out there. I can already see where and how to improve my technique. 

I'm very happy that it has come out so well so far. I'm simply hoping I don't burn any other components out in the meantime!

Still to do:
Assemble all pieces to see how it looks and fits
Putty/Paint the personel tube to the Walker
Clamp down the top of the Tower
Putty in the power button
Light the Walker's head
Call it done!


070604.17
Essentially I am done with this one. 

That is to say, I still have to finish some minor putty around the tunnel, do touch up work just about everywhere on the paint, fix the power switch into the body on a permanent basis, but that is about it. 

These are things that can sesentially be done any old time and will be done in such a manner.  I ran out of thinner last week and am looking for a cheaper supply than is found at the model shop I go to; the putty will need days to set; and the power switch will get putty and sprue reinforcements over the next days to secure it in place.

I velcro'ed the tower top down, all the wiring has been final'ed, the Walker -as it is glued so securely togethercannot be disassembled without ruining the plastic and will therefore not be getting a headlight -I wil get another and build it specifically for this scene or use the Ambler instead, though I would hate to wire that down in a permanent manner.

And that is all....


070826
Yes, that was all. 

Last week I came home to find the Walker's head laying on the ground.  The elastic must have snapped.  I took this opportunity to give the fellow a head light.  In doing this, I decided to do some minor rewiring in the base.  In doing this, the upper slab cracked in several places at which point this whole thing became a major repair project. 

I rewired the far end of teh base, simplfying that greatly.  I put more leds' in the tower (with another round in mind some time in the future).  I glued Walker down to the surface to keep him in place. Two other leds' burnt out in the overall process and will need replacing later on down the line.

This all took about a leisurely week to get done.  The headlight in the Walker looks good, but I have to fully seal the head back up as there is some light spill from where I sliced the head open.  The inside of that got painted black and wrapped in foil .  The eye slot was sliced open with an x-acto and clear plastic seated on the inside.  The head has 3 red leds to light it up and is good. The wiring runs through the neck into the body out the side door, into the travel tube and down the tower.

Looking at the overall piece, I think it needs a lot more detailing to bring it into scale with itself.  It is lacking somehow and I will spend some time relfecting on this notion and how to bring it up to a higher level.