* Power to the people

[Westfalia Chris]

Hi folks, after my dismal failure in the last BSC, I've decided to give it another go. I've found an abysmal "clubbing" CD which I was given, listened to once and never again since it is that horrible kind of music young folks listen to these days and it will bring down civilisation and whatnot.

Anyway, to make use of a current focus on Scifi (ABC Warriors at the moment, and hopefully some more Retro Scifi later this year), I've decided to build a futuristic minireactor, with illumination effects similar to the Tripod I showed recently, and to the "Robot Regent" seen in my "Perry Comet, Star Ranger" thread.

Now that I've committed myself, I'll upload some concepts, the basic materials I have lying around, and a pic of the CD later in the day.

[Thunderchicken]

Knowing you it should be finished in the next hour or two! 

[Red Orc]

Don't know if you want to see potential inspiration shots, but BugbaitNZ over at TerraGenesis did something a little like this idea a year or so ago.

If you do, click here for a work in progress and click here for the result. Sadly the actual WIP thread is long gone, but the pictures (and very short explanations) remain.

[Westfalia Chris]

Don't know if you want to see potential inspiration shots, but BugbaitNZ over at TerraGenesis did something a little like this idea a year or so ago.

If you do, click here for a work in progress and click here for the result. Sadly the actual WIP thread is long gone, but the pictures (and very short explanations) remain.

That wouldn't be terribly original... I built a similar thing in 2005 as a christmas present for my brother. I have the design lined up and the main components, and will avoid specially ordering more items (EMA) since I want to keep costs down and clean out the materials drawer a bit. Thanks though.

[Westfalia Chris]

May I present for your kind attention (or not) a quick concept artwork and the main components to be used in the build.



The materials:



The aforementioned "clubbing music" CD, a clear acrylic dome 12cm in diameter which I had lying around, a smaller 5cm dome for the interior reactor chamber, plastic small parts intended for home brewing by the manufacturer, some metal bits and bobs and small clear acrylic domes from EMA model supplies. Also, a small pot of Model Master clear blue acrylic paint to tint the see-through parts of the reactor assembly, and a 50p pushlight bought from Poundland.

[Westfalia Chris]

Alright, given the low attention the last post two months ago received, I guess it wasn't that bad that I only managed to finish off the build now (pretty much). May I present a short sequence of pictures to illustrate the building process - since it isn't really involved, I didn't take pics of every action, but mainly of sub-assemblies at points when I deemed them interesting or complete.

First, for the base assembly. It starts out as a "clubbing mix" CD as illustrated in the last post. To this, I affixed a steel 40mm washer, onto which the base of the pushlight was glued.



And a side view:



The steel washer was added mainly to avoid uneven settling due to remains of the sticky tape the pushlight came with, and to add some "interesting shadow recess" when painted. Note that the "bayonet lock" of the pushlight base is still intact, and will need to remain so in order to facilitate battery exchanges.

For the next steps, I scribed some "floor panel lines" into the CD surface, and added some conduits, some rivets, and positioning aids for the outer cupola.



Following that, I turned to the actual pushlight which will be the "inner reactor vessel". I left the socket relatively clean, with only a panel and some metal eyes; obviously, this will require painting to tie together.



To top off the reactor vessel, I fitted a 2" clear acrylic hemisphere with some "injector stub whotsits". This part will be painted by hand, a very light silver metallic for the injectors, plus some minor shading. I still have to decide whether to paint the hemisphere in a translucent blue, or leave it transparent - I'm leaning towards the latter since it will not be very visible in the first place, and I would like to have it as clear as possible for the maximum amount of light to come through.



Having finished off the inner workings, I turned to the outer containment cupola.

First, I scribed some panel lines to break up the smooth surface using a circle cutter. The "narrow bands" will be painted with black and yellow warning stripes.



After the scribing was completed, I started to add fittings. The most important ones were the large brass rings which will be topped off with translucent blue rings and the small cupola assemblies seen on the right - obviously, I cannot attach those until after painting. I deviated from my original plan insofar as that I added a bottlecap from a Blue Keld still water bottle because I loved the look of it.



And here's the final assembly before painting. The areas within the rings, within the screw washers and between two boxes (top left) will be masked off to allow light to shine through. Due to the transparency of the parts, this image is not that easy to interpret, sorry for that.



That's it pretty much for the build. Thanks for your interest!

[gamer Mac]

Looks great Chris.
I take it the top is not going to be glue in place so you can get access to the light?
You must be keeping that company in buisness with the amount of plastic dome you have been buying recently?
Looking forward to seeing it painted and with the light on!

[Westfalia Chris]

Looks great Chris.
I take it the top is not going to be glue in place so you can get access to the light?

I will glue the inner sphere to the light grey outer rim for the actual reactor vessel, but the light grey part will be removable from the electrical part to allow access to the switch.   The large cupola will remain removable for the same reason, that's why I added the three uprights on the base as positioning aids (lollypop sticks, those).

You must be keeping that company in buisness with the amount of plastic dome you have been buying recently?

Actually, only the small domes (the three toppers) were bought from EMA, plus the hexagonal strip used for the rivets (which is Plastruct distributed by EMA) and the blue rings (not pictured, won't buy those again - I thought they were toroidal, but they actually are cylindrical. It's NOT a stab at EMA, their photo actually shows the rings as they are, but I couldn't discern it, and for their price, their use is limited).

Their stuff is very thick-walled (which isn't a bad thing) and comes with casting stubs. The large outer and 2" inner cupolas were purchased in Germany some years back - very thin, if a bit more sensitive acrylic spheres. Finally found a use for them (I built a couple of SciFi bunkers from these some 5 years back).

As for EMA, yes, I spent quite some money with them this quarter, although a good part was due to my stupidity - when I ordered some parts for you-know-what that I built for you-know-whom, I ordered hemispheres instead of elliptical domes. Duh. 20+ quid spent on stuff for which I have no immediate use (I will use them eventually, that's a given, but right then I was quite p*ssed with my poor attention).

[Haarken]

A brilliant build, I love all the little details and parts that you've constructed, it looks really amazing. Really can't wait to see this painted up.

[Silent Invader]

I agree, brilliant.  I especially like illuminated projects. 

The lolly sticks - were you able to buy them 'as is' or did you have to consume the lollies first?  Just wondering as they look a really useful size for some projects I have in mind.

[Westfalia Chris]

The lolly sticks - were you able to buy them 'as is' or did you have to consume the lollies first?  Just wondering as they look a really useful size for some projects I have in mind.

I'm happy to say that my considerable portfolio of nutritional sins does not encompass lollies (and crisps and nachos, for that matter).

I found them as "blanks" at my local Hobbycraft superstore - a pack of 25 8" lengths about 2.50 pounds for the pack, so not exactly cheap, but at ca. 10p per piece still reasonable. There are also other lengths (50 pack of 4" for slightly more) available. The party supplies aisle, IIRC.

I originally bought them to build telegraph poles. They are about 4mm (ca. 3/16") in diameter, and more flexible than the wood dowels I used to use for such projects. Also, they don't seem to have a grain or similar (although there appears to be a faint "glue line" - apparently this is some rolled fibre sheet).

[Silent Invader]

Thanks. A visit to Hobbycraft falls due. 

[Michi]

That is crazyness going beyond limits, you know... INCREDIBLE!!!

[Red Orc]

Alright, given the low attention the last post two months ago received, I guess it wasn't that bad that I only managed to finish off the build now (pretty much)...

Sorry, I went to Italy for a couple of weeks and failed to spot it when I came back, otherwise I'd have been making 'wooh, cool' type noises at your collected gubbins and Dalek-brain concept drawing. Instead I'll make 'wooh, cool' type noises about the completed build...

'Wooh, cool!'

I like it a lot. A really nice-looking objective/terrain piece for all sorts of pulpy-sci-fi goodness.

[Westfalia Chris]

Sorry, I went to Italy for a couple of weeks and failed to spot it when I came back, otherwise I'd have been making 'wooh, cool' type noises at your collected gubbins and Dalek-brain concept drawing. Instead I'll make 'wooh, cool' type noises about the completed build...

'Wooh, cool!'

I like it a lot. A really nice-looking objective/terrain piece for all sorts of pulpy-sci-fi goodness.

YOU of all people are exempt from any grumpyness on my side, since you actually commented on the opening post!



Just noticed that the build post missed the injector cupola image . Fixed that.