PROJECT: Lobo

[slaveofconvention]

I found some more acrylic in the house which is a little bit thicker than the stuff I managed to screw up yesterday but it also seems, for lack of a better word, harder.. It snaps more easily, it seems clearer and not as flexible as the other sheet was, so before I spent hours carving another wolf out of it, I thought I'd give it a quick n easy test run...

I snapped off a corner (the sheets are huge triangles - but I'm not complaining - I got them for nothing) and I'm pleased to say it didnt chip when filed and seemed to take a frosting fairly easily although, being hard, once it get a scratch it's almost impossible to get out so going to go extra easy on this stuff.

Drilled a couple of holes and wired it all up...

And then made a little change..... (ooh mysterious)

Now it might just be me, but I think the second one looks brighter, more intense, both in the photograph and to the naked eye. Course it could just be that I WANT it to be brighter...

The difference...

Superglued a strip of cooking foil to the edge. I'm a little concerned about how to protect it though - foil is ridiculously easy to tear - I'm hoping that if every single sqare mm is glued to the surface, it might not be so much of a problem. Also considering trying to get a couple of coats of paint on it when I paint the back which hopefully will give it a little something extra in the protection department.

With all this in mind - back to work - lets get this wolf carved....

[slaveofconvention]

Okiedoke - so the last few hours I've spent re-doing the perspex wolf with mixed levels of success - there's nothing WRONG per-se just a couple of things I think I can improve without starting over....

First of all - new sheet of perspex - as it happens, this stuff, as well as being a lot harder than the stuff I used yesterday, is clearer too - when side by side, there's an obvious green tint to the older one but doesn't really matter...

Quicky traced out yesterdays wolf, and a larger curved bottom to allow room for more LEDs, then started to mask it off as I decided to try using a jigsaw today instead of the dremel or score/snap method...

This is about as far as I had the guts to go with the jigsaw lol - I was getting some minor melting problems and didn't want them right up against the finished edge...

Built a makeshift lathe/mill out of the available gear...

I'm using this bit to carve the perspex - no idea what it's really for but it works nicely - doesn't clog like sandpaper barrels and doesnt melt as badly as cutting wheels...

Turned out it was a real PITA to work it with it set up horizontally so after a lot of messing around finally got the flexishaft mounted vertically and pushed on until I had it all done - you can just about see the bit sticking up in the middle of the mass of shavings from the job...

And after a VERY little sanding and filing (the dremelling left me with a very nice finish all on its own) I had this...

And my first thought was "BUNNY!!!!!!!!!" lol. Anyway it looked so nice it seemed a shame to actually take wet n dry to it to frost it, but that's what was needed - along with some holes in the edge to hold the LED's...

Then I masked it up for paint...

Followed by about 6 coats of black on the back. I also superglued the tin foil (several layers of it) to the edges. Once it was all dry/set/whatever, cleaned it up and did some quick wiring - 2 parallel sets of 2 LEDs in series and let there be light...

And in the dark...

And with the panel laid over the top of it...

Unfortunately, it looks a LOT better in the photo's than it does IRL - I would like it brighter. Bearing in mind how bright the triangle was, I can only assume the black paint on the back is absorbing most of the light so I may have to look into an alternative - maybe a box or something so both sides of the perspex is available to carry the light in the frosting. The foil attached to the edges is obviously doing its job - you can see the reflected light quite clearly, but it isn't sticking THAT well and I'm not too confident with the idea of loose conductive material floating around in the case when it's all done so I'm going to look into some of that chrome paint I said I wouldn't buy - turns out I can get a tiny 150ml aerosol for less than £3.20 ($5) so might be worth a shot...

Like I said - nothing WRONG exactly, but not QUITE right yet....

I think I've had enough for one weekend - so gonna leave it there for now....

EDIT: It occurred to me that paint which has been on for a couple of hours is likely to be a LOT easier to remove than paint which has been allowed to cure for a week, so I carried on...

As for my theory that the black paint was absorbing the light, well....

Hell yes it was - MUCH happier now hehe

[billygoat333]

looking really cool!

[gntlkilr]

W O W

[blueonblack]

Excellent work. +rep

[slaveofconvention]

Oh and I meant to point out, if it wasn't obvious, that I solved the problem with the shadows by 1) Softening the curves, especially around the tail and muzzle, and 2) Aiming the LEDs at the darker areas by mounting them on a curve instead of a straight edge...

Thanks for comments guys...

[DonT-FeaR]

looking good mate~!!!1

[SXRguyinMA]

looks awesome! I actually like the lower light in the firt pic before you removed the paint. looks like a shadowy moon kinda lighting. still looks amazing though. nice work!!!

[slaveofconvention]

Problem is, it isn't as bright as that when you actually look at it - it's enhanced by the long exposure the camera defaults to when taking pics in the dark with the flash forced off... as I'm planning on having it behind tinted perspex too, I really think it'd become totally invisible... I may look into other ways of darkening it down if I think it's overpowering - I can always give it a light dustcoat of paint to tint it etc

[rendermandan]

Looks good so far.