Connectamabob's black hole sun

[Connectamabob]

First pic!



These two plastic spheres will become the two planets. The larger one will be inner planet (fire), and the smaller one the outer (ice). The cutouts will become flat bottoms on which the planets will sit on the tabletop. They will be unbased, basically. My thinking is that this will be more visually immersive than based and/or "onna stick" planets, and will also make it so based ships sit closer to equator height, at least for the larger one.

On the far left is a weight made from washers, which will go inside the smaller planet's bum so it'll be stable and won't knock over or roll. Currently the plan is the larger planet will be weighted by the electronics block for internal LED lighting.

The black hole will take a few days to start, as I need to acquire materials and do some fabrication tests. My plan for that is to cut a large clear plastic disk for the accretion disk, and thermoform a dimple in the center. A black bead will be mounted on a bit of vertical wire/rod in the center of the dimple so it "floats" with its equator level with the plane of the disk. The idea is the dimple surrounding the bead will sort of visually represent the gravity lensing around the event horizon of the singularity. The disk will be slighty elevated above the tabletop by a ring of plastic card underneath, both to account for the dimple, and to provide enclosure space for potential LED Lighting of the "burning" part of the accretion disk.

[OSHIROmodels]

Ooo, exciting 

cheers

James

[snitcythedog]

Looking and sound real cool.
Snitchy sends.

[Duke Donald]

This is truly different and sounds amazing. I'm looking forward to seeing this developing.

[Vanvlak]

This has to be the largest object represented as a gaming model yet 

[snitcythedog]

This has to be the largest object represented as a gaming model yet 

Or the smallest depending on the physics.   
Snitchy sends.

[Vanvlak]

Or the smallest depending on the physics.   
Snitchy sends.

Heh - if you mean the black hole itself, you're right!

[Connectamabob]

This is not a terribly informative pic, but gotta keep up appearances, y'know?



This is the smaller "ice" planet. About a tablespoon of five-minute epoxy was mixed and poured into the sphere, which was then upended over the weight on a polyproplyene cutting board. The epoxy then flows down the inside of the ball to submerge/surround the weight, imbedding/casting it in place. Once it kicks off, I use a sharp-pointed scraping tool (wax carver in this case) to peel off the wee ring of excess that squidged out around the base. During the first few minutes after the epoxy kicks off, it has a sort of weak rubbery consistency not unlike stiff rubber cement, so overflow/flashing from epoxied joins can be cleaned up easy-peasy this way.

Almost nothing really sticks to polypropylene, so PP cutting boards make ideal pallets and work surfaces for epoxy of both the glue and putty variety. Once this epoxy has fully cured, the planet will just pop cleanly right off the board, and will have a nice perfect clean flat bottom. If you squint at the pic, you can see the epoxy pooled in the bottom of the sphere.

Had a minor scrambley moment when the epoxy started kicking off, and I suddenly realized I hadn't drilled a vent hole for the expanding hot air inside (heated by the epoxy's setting/curing). I had to dig out and chuck a micro drill bit into pin vise with one hand while I held down the ball with the other to keep the internal pressure from lifting the ball on an inflated epoxy membrane and ruining the whole effort.

Tomorrow I will begin painting the "Ice" planet, and if I have time, will start sorting out the socket for the electronics in the "fire" planet's base. I've done a lighting thing highly similar to this once before (built a glowing apple prop for a church theater production), so I have a very solid plan for that.

I have a nice big sheet of clear PETG on order for the accretion disk, and that should in theory arrive in just a couple days. LEDs will be ordered this weekend.

[von Lucky]

This is the one project I can't predict on the final look - I'm lovin' it.

[OSHIROmodels]

Looks like a Death Star 

cheers

James

[Connectamabob]

Mo' pics! Finally! Sorry for the long delay. I have to get most of my supplies and tools online, so that holds things up. Finally had everything in hand around Wednesday, and so could really get rolling.

Disc!






Thick clear PETG (almost 1/4"), thermoformed using a heat gun, with an epoxy-filled ping pong ball half as a buck. Then I marked out a circle by placing it on a baking rolling board, and tracing the outermost pie crust circle marking. Cut it out using a spiral cutter bit in my Dremel tool.

The initial thermoforming left the disk a bit wavy due to uneven heating (impossible to heat anywhere near evenly with a heat gun), so once the disc was cut out  I put it on a baking sheet and stuck it in the oven to let it droop flat. That didn't go as well as hoped: air or humidity got trapped between the plastic and the tinfoil I covered the baking sheet with, creating these patches of texture where tiny bubbles had formed between the plastic and the protective film, which pressed themselves into the softened surface to make fields of tiny pinholes. A little disappointing, but I can probably incorporate it into the painting as cloud texture.

Reason for the excessive thickness is because I was inspired by pics of the "planet from orbit" matt paintings done for the original Star Wars trilogy. Matt paintings back in the day were all done on glass sheet, and for the planet matt paintings for Star Wars, the artists painted the ground on the back of the glass, and the clouds on the front to create a sense of depth. I want to do something like that.

Despite my hiccup with the wee bubbles, I liked working with PETG. It was very very easy, and I can see it being very useful for other projects.


Electro!




This is the electronics block for the "fire" planet. 4 LEDs, wired in parallel so I could use a single compact 6-volt camera battery. Used Lego pieces for the structural elements, 'cause the same things that make 'em good construction toys also make 'em a good off-the-shelf engineering solution for stuff like this. 8-peg is a battery compartment, 2-peg is a switch compartment, and the 4-peg is a housing for the 4 resistors and scaffold for the 4 LEDs.

Soldering the resistors and LEDs was a bit of a white-knuckle PITA, as my only on-hand soldering iron is a butane type. The joins are a bit ugly as a result, and the plastic a bit melted, but the  components are in their proper places, and the circuit works. I still have to install the battery contacts, but that's no biggie.

[von Lucky]

While you have been dormant for a while - a flurry of activity is good to see (and it looks promising!).

[Argonor]

I'm baffled and bewildered as to how this is going to end, but I'll just sit here and watch while the project unfolds... 

[beefcake]

Also intrigues. Can't wait to see the final result.

[Braz]

I really like where you are going with this.