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Thanks! I probably will dangle the chain more. At the moment I just stuck it on there, to keep it out of the way and so I wouldn't lose it. My table is less messy than it used to be, but it's still pretty easy to lose track of things on it.Quote:
Originally Posted by x88x
Were you able to use any of those vintage caps that I sent you with the P4 combo?
Unfortunately not - I was afraid that in the long run the paint would end up flaking off pretty easily because of the waxy coating. Still, I appreciate that you sent them, it was worth a shot. and I have yet to do anything with that P4 combo - I have everything I need to get it running, but I *really* want this crawler done first :) And over a month ago I ordered a couple of USB foot pedals to use for page up and page down, from Hong Kong, and they have yet to show up :( ...urrgh....Quote:
Originally Posted by nevermind1534
ok guys .... stay tuned ... the end is in sight ... :eek:
Whew! I’ve gotten all parts glued in that I wanted in there prior to painting, and I got the outside of the model masked off. I must say, this was the mother of all masking jobs – I came away from it with a new appreciation for those artists who wrap buildings. My own efforts look a bit like a Christmas present wrapped by a blind one-handed elf, but hey, who cares. :D First off, though, the pre-wrapping pics. These detail shots will look substantially different (and better) once it’s all painted.
Is that a B-wing cockpit back there? Hmmm….how’d THAT get there?
Capacitors? CAPACITORS??? I don’ gotta show you no stinkin’ capacitors…
Remember this room from way back when? A blue and white R2D2 will be going in here, along with some other homemade “junk” robots.
Inner doors closed…
And open…
Now on to the masking. First off, the lights. How to deal with those? The vast majority of them are in the ceilings inside. I could have, but REALLY didn’t want to, use brushable latex and “paint” each LED with latex that could be pulled off after airbrushing. But the tediousness of that (not to mention the painful positions I’d have had to sit in to get my hand and brush in at the right angles) would have defied all reasonable belief. So…all that painstaking work to glue each light down was for naught, as I popped most of them out, then covered the holes with tape on the top to prevent paint from spraying through. At this point in the afternoon I still had hopes of painting today. Silly me…
I saved the vellum cutouts from when I cut the window openings inside to use as masks for protecting those windows.
This spot on the inside of the rear engine door needed to be covered, as it’s visible from the rear when the door is shut.
I tried to show the tape covering a couple LEDs in this shot. They’re hard to see, so you can imagine how hard it was to get the tape in there.
And voila! I know, it’s bloody insane, but I covered the whole $%$$@$#%% thing with tape and newspaper. The good news is I can spray paint away, worry free. The bad news is though I used low-tack painters tape, I’ll still need to be fairly careful when removing it all. It’s rather like a scab…I can’t wait to peel it off. :P
And lastly, the inside of the loading door. I really only needed to cover the inside bottom of the door, since that’s all that will be exposed inside with the door shut when I spray paint the innermost parts black. By innermost I mean the walls lining the computer chamber.
And there you have it. Next update…painting! (and then *gasp* it’s done!)
Wow, seeing it all at once..the level of detail is really amazing on this thing. I can't wait to see it all painted. :D
I’m either hardcore, obsessed, or nuts. That’s the only explanation I can think of for being outside in 52 degree, rainy weather, painting under a dripping tarp.
See? 52 degrees! (I should add that I’m in southern California and it NEVER gets that cold here. I don’t wanna hear any comments about other much colder areas. I grew up in a chillier climate than I live in now. :D )
That was the tarp setup. A previous tenant in my apartment thoughtfully put those hooks up, just for me to use to hang my tarp. Yep. I periodically had to unhook it on one end and carefully prop it up so as to drain the water out of it. Did I mention it was cold? Someday I’ll have a house and a garage for this sort of stuff.
Before I painted the inside black (again) :
And after:
Getting going with the gray primer:
And some black streakiness.
And after I airbrushed a lighter gray over most of the black to fade it a bit, brought everything back inside, removed the tape and newspaper masking (took about 10 minutes, whereas putting it on took HOURS), glued back on a few panels that came off with the tape, and promptly discovered that due to very poor/dim lighting conditions outside because of the rain, I couldn’t really see what I was doing inside this thing as I painted and the gray tone is quite a lot darker than I meant it to be. Oh well. I ain’t tapin’ it all back up again and re-spraying it.
Tomorrow or Sunday will be detail painting, and I plan on hitting it with a generous coating of a similar powder pastel that I used on the outside, to give it a nice dusty beat up appearance. I’m hoping that’ll lighten it up a bit, and it should really help blend everything together. Prior to that powder coat I’ll add some junk piles and a couple other little surprises.
Whatever temp your used to a good 20c below the norm is cold :D, my aussie cousins were over a while ago in summer & they were shivering lol & to us it was the hottest day of the year lol :D.
Straight away as soon as it turned black or got the primer on it looked brilliant, it's good to see it finally getting painted, well done in getting there on schedule mate :):up: :banana:.
Ok guys…the moment long awaited (mostly by me)…. It. Is. …. DONE!!!!! (don’t move it to the done section just yet though…still another update or two to come).
:banana:
Almost 4 years. Except for the outer frame, I built nearly everything at least twice. And in keeping with how things have gone on this build, there’s still 2 problems to fix, and one more thing to make.
Problem 1 – one of the PVC “engines” in the rear engine room is currently resting on one of the heatsinks in the PSU (and thus slightly elevating the rear of the case). I need to use a heated knife to slice out a chunk of the pipe to make room for the heatsink. Annoying, but not too hard to take care of.
Problem 2 – the conveyors don’t really work. I’m not sure why, it could be that when I painted the conveyor belts some of the links are sticking now, or it could be that some of the junk piles I added are interfering with the belt motion. It might be hard to figure out the exact cause, since I have to have the computer pulled out from the wall to see the other side of the case. All I know is, before I added all the detail and painted, it worked just fine.
Item to make: the “sand” – covered base. Next week when I have time, I’ll get a piece of fiberboard or thin plywood, and use newspaper-covered cardboard to create a slightly contoured landscape. Then I’ll sift my powdered walnut shells over it using a spray glue formulated for model train diorama scenery, and viola! Instant sandiness.
Now for the pics! The first shot is after painting, before junk piles:
And a wide shot with some junk piles added:
A series of shots showing the various junk piles. Pay attention to the left side of the loading bay. If you’ve ever wondered what happened with Sputnik that is. :D
And now, with the “dirt” added. The dirt is a darker powder pastel than I used on the outside, and I dusted most of the lower horizontal interior surfaces with it. I used the lighter toned dust in a few spots just to create a little more color variation.
R2D2!
Remember that bit about Sputnik?
And now a few shots showing the lighting. Sorry if they’re a little blurry – I didn’t feel like digging the tripod out of the closet.
Remember that pipe that’s sitting on the heatsink? This is it:
And taken with the flash:
And lastly…
That’s it! Look for one or two more updates next week to fix the issues described above…
that came out effing AWESOME! +rep
