Sandcrawler project

[chaksq]

Wow, I just watched through the slideshow, this thing is seriously awesome. Good luck with it, I want to see where it's headed.

[artoodeeto]

Thanks everyone, the praise is encouraging! This has been a lot of work the last couple years - there have been MANY instances where my initial design didn't work, or I decided/had to re-do something I already finished. the back section and the lighting are the latest in that category...I just moved, but will happily post more pics as soon as I get back to work on it (hoping to do that this weekend, once my new apt. is put together). Stay tuned...

PS - miraculously, it survived the move just fine. It barely fit in the front seat of my truck. I must admit, it was interesting having a sandcrawler riding shotgun to the new apartment LOL. As a final step I think I'm going to bolt it down to a base piece of wood that'll be done up with little sand dunes and rocks. I discovered during the move that it's much easier to carry if it's on a flat piece of wood - I grip that instead of the crawler. And it'll look cool. now all I need are some jawas...

[artoodeeto]

just ordered 120 5mm 2V yellow LEDs and 30 1ohm resistors...now to run to Radio Sha....er... The Shack to get some bare twisted wire, pull out the ol' soldering gun, and away we go! In the meantime, hope to finish re-doing the back section and some roof panels this weekend.

[Oneslowz28]

Congrats!!!!! Check out your feature here.

[artoodeeto]

whoa.... going right now thanks so much guys, that really means a lot to me!! Your support is helping keep me excited about the build - believe me, it's easy to lose enthusiasm when you've been doing and re-doing the same darn thing for 7 years (off and on). More updates hopefully this weekend!

BTW - I noticed a lot of you post pics of the tools you use. I've done this entire build with a jigsaw, utility knife, metal ruler (used as a straightedge), plastic ruler (cuz the measurement markings on the metal one wore off), pencil, calculator, Adobe Illustrator, drill...and a soldering gun. Oh yeah, and lots of superglue maybe it's time I go get my first dremel...

[mDust]

I see R2-D2 has commandeered the crawler...is he selling the Jawas now?
I LOL'd at all the door panels...are you going to detail them all like the cockpit?
Everything looks awesome so far. +rep

[artoodeeto]

yep, that's the plan. I was inspired by the excellent cutaway diagram Star Wars vehicles book from a few years ago, and while my design will differ significantly from what's shown in there, it did give me the idea to do an interior. I even have an old necklace chain that belonged to my girlfriend:
me: "Hon, you don't want this locket anymore right?"
her: "No..."
me: "So I can throw it away, you don't care about it at all right?"
her: "What part of the sandcrawler is it going to be?"

that chain will be dangling down inside the loading door for the loading crane I plan on putting in there...someday LOL. lots of detail....that's what I want. hopefully I can do my ideas justice.

ok guys...off to rewire them pesky lights and watch football...sounds like a perfect Sunday to me! pics later!

[mDust]

me: "So I can throw it away, you don't care about it at all right?"
her: "What part of the sandcrawler is it going to be?"

Bwahahahahahaha! She's got your number down man...might I suggest an anti-abduction helmet hand crafted by Oneslowz28? I hear he adds an extra layer that prevents mind reading...

[artoodeeto]

ok...promised pics. this is rather momentous - it was for advice on this rewiring that I joined TBCS, so thanks to all who answered my initial posts, you made this possible!

before I started rewiring. doesn't look bad, but they're all parallel wired, no resistors, and the section on the right/foreground all blew out on me.

little baggies of LED goodness amazing to think there's 120 in that bag. looks more like 30.

new LEDs in place, note the sharpie marks I made so I wouldn't forget which side was which.

all replacement LEDs in place.

my "helper". she spends most of her time sticking her nose in the middle of things and being a pest. but cute at the same time. Lucky she didn't get burned on my soldering gun.... oy....cats....

soldering started. I didn't do the final wiring today, gotta finish the back roof to stabilize the back section, then stand it up on its back so I can access the wiring underneath and then run the new wiring.

doesn't look all that pretty, but then I can't really access the cockpit lights and since I'm pretty sure I don't need to replace them, I didn't want to risk breaking anything in trying. I *did* desolder them and rewire them in series instead of parallel.

last replaced section.

note white wires coming from cockpit section - I added 4 LEDs above loading door area, so that each set of LEDs in the cockpit would be 6 instead of just 5, so I wouldn't have to go buy new resistors. More LEDS, didn't have to buy more stuff....good stuff

not pretty, but it won't be visible so who cares

there were 2 LEDs left over in each of these sections - I decided once the roof panels are installed on the back (to the left of this photo), to add 4 LEDs on each side back there, and so get 6 LEDs on each of these strands.

my other helper...luckily he's not as destructive.

there were 4 LEDs leftover in the front section, but then in this removeable roofpiece I had 2 LEDS, so it worked out quite well to solder in a plug and add these 2 LEDS in the middle of the series strand and get 6 on there instead of just 4....once again avoiding having to buy new resistors. life is good

[mDust]

That, sir, is a ton of LEDs. I guess you can't show pictures of it working because it would blind us, right?