STATUS:
Lights and Building

BEGUN:
070114

COMPLETE:

MATERIALS:


1 box fan grill.
1 pc sheet plastic metal plate
Various magic marker tubes, chopsticks,
Various plastic oddities found over time.
Various metal parts.
Various papers
2 Cold Cathode Tubes, Red
1 EL Wire 5', Blue
1 EL Strip, Blue
4 LED's, UV
4 LED's, White


CONSTRUCTION LOG


070114.04
A box fan I had died last summer when one blade cracked off and became irreparable. I stripped the whole thing and kept three parts -- motor and both plastic grills. The other day I proceeded to cut one grill up and fashioned it into a corner looking thing. I still need to do some design work, but I'm already envisioning a nice piece.

Unfortunately, it's just a little too short for Ming (who, at 5' 6 is already short enough). I see this thing getting lights behind and under the grills. Also I'll get some metal and plastic sheets to beef this out. I've got the feeling some infrastructure work will also be required to solidify the whole.

I may cut a hatch into the back wall to give some depth. Ming would not box himself into a corner like the initial design suggests.


070127.22
Stopped by a model train shop and found a piece of steel plate-plastic sheet. I'll cut it up for the floor base. This will give Ming something solid to stand on and to be glued to. I'll be painting the whole thing a base silver and see where it goes from there. I picked up some interesting metallic papers to integrate as well. I'm envisioning the use of the EL Wire behind the grating for some effect. We'll see how it goes


070130.23
I carved a hatchway from the larger wall and filed it down. Silver'ed the backside of everything, now it's down to the front side. Then, a gloss cover and basic assembly.

At that point I have to develop the hatch door, wall panels and coverings along with the lighting scheme. I don't know that I'll ever be able to glue Ming in there, but don't know that I should either. He may need the freedom to be moved to another diorama in the future.


070224.16
Work has slowly proceeded a little here and there.  At this point, all the major components are there and all the little ones are pretty much decided upon. 

The superstructure has been reinforced with  about 6 tubes of crazy glue and half a tube of putty -along with a number of sprue, chopsticks and other assorted bits and pieces. Lights are a necessary component and are the next major hurdle.

Never satisfied that Ming was too tall for this piece, I tried several other characters in his place to take over.  None worked.  Until Poppa Doc arrived that is. He is just about the perfect height. I have therefore retitled this one 'Medical Bay' from 'Security Center'.

That I made a hatchway instead of a door is now irrelevant. A flat floor throughout makes more sense for a medical area, but I'm going with I got.  It'll work.  It's the lights that are the next major situation to deal with.  Also, I have to print up some decals for the door and walls.  There's no way to paint the kind of medical detail that now needs to go on.


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.

Medbay was the first piece to get lights assigned to it, though a number were already generally dedicated elsewhere.  Lights consist of 2 CCF's, 1 EL Wire, 1 EL Strip, 8 LED's.  All have been placed, there is room for more.  The tubes are glued down, the wire is taped in place, and the led's generally laid out.

Spent about 2 hrs actually fusing stuff together, 1 hr laying it out and looking it over.  Drilled the floor to run the tube's wires underneath instead of the top.  The Wire is also well situated.  The leds will need mounts in every location. Also, need to wire in an IC chip for blinking light controls -and create multiple power switches for effects.

Have to design the back wall setting behind the grating.  Need to print a number of medical decals, too.  More repair paint and putty as well.. 

These lights took it a major step forward.


070608.02
After finishing off the Imperial Base earlier this week, it was straight into this piece. I spent a solid day just looking at it in quiet contemplation, not knowing where to go next.

I therefore began with what I had already done.  I reinforced all the lights that were set into where they were going; made a decision on wiring flow behind the piece as it was left as a massive tangle; tested all the lights to make sure they still worked; and reinforced the superstructure where it hadn't been reinforced as yet.

This process got me going very well, jump starting me back into this piece.  Getting all the wiring down was a major bit of work.  The Imperial Base taught me a few techniques that I incorporated immediately on this one.

Gluing the EL Wire down was several days work alone.  I could only glue a few inches at a time before having to wait several hours for the glue to set before I could glue more down.  I had to maintain as much tension on the EL W as possible to keep it straight.  As it is, there are several kinks in the Wire that I couldn't get rid of, but they aren't too bad.

I had big trouble deducing the back wall and how to tackle that.  I still haven't solved how to completely address it, so I'm taking it slow.  I have begun designing as I go and that is working well.  As I get one piece on and set, this suggests another design notion and so on.  It's a good process so far.

That process led me to create a ceiling.  I initially had an idea to throw a simple trinagular piece across the top to act as additional reinforcement, but threw that idea out early on. 

However, once glued in the other week, the CCF tubes stood almost an inch above the rest of the walls and didn't look good. I resigned myself to leaving it like that until yesterday's work session.

I had been back at that train shop and had found some perfect clear, textured plastic that I primarily got for the Galileo's ceiling light fixture.  Now, I am using it as wall and ceiling lights for this one as well. 

What I was hoping was that putting some white led's in the ceiling would cause the light to disburse and give an overall ambient feel.  Unfortunately, these led's are more pin point/spot light in their effect and don't diffuse well.  I will be worring about that as I go and have some notions on how to change that -blobs of white glue for example.

The new ceiling gave me the idea of pulling out the EL Strip that was initially destined as the Falcon's engines (but proved to be too humble for such ends). 

This blue strip got bent into position running around the top of the diorama and then bent back and run over itself to double up the thickness.  It looks good.  I'm pushing the lights on this diorama to the limit!  The IC chip will add a whole new dimension as well!

Lastly, the original floor...  Trying to set the plastic floor down a few months ago, I turned the diorama upside down and dumped piles of glue into the grating, thereby securing the plastic flooring to the underlying grating as much as possible. 

Unfortunately, the glue warped/melted the floor's top surface and caused pits -though none became holes.  This led me to cut another piece of flooring and glue that on top of the bad floor as a new surface. 

Since then, this second piece has itself warped away from the underlying flooring.  I tried gluing the lip down at the edges, but this was unsuccessful. 

When approaching this diorama again the other day, I tried more repairs that went no where.  So I ripped this 2nd floor up entirely, revealing the original pitted plastic.  I like it. 

I envisioned this as an interior hallway in a med center (a hold-over notion from the security center idea). Now I'm thinking it should be a side entrance to a dingy and downtrodden 21st century clinic.

If that's the case, then I may very well mask the entire piece off and fleck stone the base, making it look like road tar or sidewalk cement!

It will be many more days before this one finishes.
Still to do:
-Lots more wiring
-Lots more construction
-Lots more reinforcing (already dumped an additional 2 tubes of putty and 7 tubes of crazy glue)
-Paint repairs everywhere
-Door details
-Floor repair?


070610.03
Swiped a jumbo red led from Robot, he had three afterall... Put that as the center door light.  An alternate green would also have been good, but not enough room.

Added panels of the clear plastic for windows, still determining the shapes to be.  NEed panels and space idea for rear housing -need solid, accessible outer casing.  Near all wiring is there.  Need to incorporate the IC chip. 

Could do minor final wiring now, but little heat shrink is left and I'm down to 4 resistors.  Must budget them all wisely! No more heat shrink until the end of the month, no more resistors until???

Can't build the ceiling until I get the square tubing I need as supports.

Things will slow for a little bit as more thought is put into final design concerns and getting this and that otherwise done, gets done. Going to look at it now...


070805.18
Over the last month, I have done several things.
1. Simplified all the wiring.
2. Buiilt the ceiling and sealed that up
3. Attached as much as possible, where possible

To do still:
1. Wire in the blinky red IC chip.
2. Create some logo decals for placement.
3. Final all interior walls and 'weather' things up.
4. Final all wiring and cover that up.
5. Create street image as replacement for door.

The street image will be a full sheet of paper with a perspective image.  This will be angled and curved to give some depth when looking around that area.  A light will be added as well, possibly backlit.