The Energon Pub

Thanks shajaki-san. I sure like making dioramas. Not enough people who give a crap make it into my house to see them, so that means a lot coming from a collector like yourself.

On LEDs:
I talked to an electrical engineer friend today. He recommended that I stick to diodes that use as little power as possible. I think for safety sake. He recommended that I use a 9 volt battery to test the LED chain, and once it's working splice on a 9 volt power adapter, or wall wort, when it's finished. He said adding a switch should be no problem, but I just want it to plug into a power strip that works as a master switch for the entire shelving unit.

KnightAero,
Your Space Bridge/Star Gate idea looks great, and the bridging of the two worlds idea is awesome. Are you worried that if your model looks to realistic it will make the toys look too fake? I too am a trying to figure out how to paint it so it has a toy quality.

Happy building!

Realism is always an issue...

While adding "detail" can work against it can also help in making sure things "fit." I am going to try and use some blurring of the background pictures I am going to print along with foreground detailing, and adding depth with other objects in the scene. So when a Transformer stands up next to something my goal is that it should look good regardless...

I just scheduled a ton of time off work so hoping to use that time to work on all this also!

Cobotron wrote:Thanks shajaki-san. I sure like making dioramas. Not enough people who give a crap make it into my house to see them, so that means a lot coming from a collector like yourself.

On LEDs:
I talked to an electrical engineer friend today. He recommended that I stick to diodes that use as little power as possible. I think for safety sake. He recommended that I use a 9 volt battery to test the LED chain, and once it's working splice on a 9 volt power adapter, or wall wort, when it's finished. He said adding a switch should be no problem, but I just want it to plug into a power strip that works as a master switch for the entire shelving unit.

KnightAero,
Your Space Bridge/Star Gate idea looks great, and the bridging of the two worlds idea is awesome. Are you worried that if your model looks to realistic it will make the toys look too fake? I too am a trying to figure out how to paint it so it has a toy quality.

Happy building!

Semi-Quick update.

I received my 500 LED's today... I happened to have a 9v battery and well as science would say... They turn on and then off real quick! (Burn out!)
With that I have a few more links and sites for those interested in doing custom LED's.

With these LEDs the biggest problem is they do need "resistors..." If they were more like incandescents then you might be able to get away without.

Because I am not an electrician, and like to cheat a little... LED Calculators are a necessity!

(Best one to use for getting proper solutions.)
http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

Second one here shows what the actual resistor looks like. The chained format doesn't seem to work very well, but makes sense as when you work in a single chain it probably would not work as well as you would think.

http://ledcalc.com/#calc

Anyways I am getting closer to cutting into my first Space Bridge piece. I got a template, and purchasing a few more tools before I start.


General notes about calculations:

Volts from a power source vary...
- 12volts can easily come out of a power strip (Most hard drives with external power source...)
- 9volts (9v battery!)
- 1.2volts (AA Battery)

LEDs - (White)
Handle a minimum of 3 to 3.4 volts & 20ma

In theory you can run these LED's on lower voltage (say 2 AA batteries) and might be able to get away without a resistor. I purchased a "AA battery holder" that has a positive negative end to play with also.

Well, I'm done.
This was a ton of fun. Cheap and easy.
Whether it's for my Transformers, Star Wars, Playmobil, or Legos, for years I have been using the Ivar shelving system from Ikea. the reason I like this system is because the shelves are deep and wide. They provide enough space to display an ever growing collection in a dynamic diorama-like display. As opposed to shoulder to shoulder stacking.
I am constantly searching for ways to solve two major problems these shelves present, maximizing space, and lighting. I have found that stair stepping structures are the best way to to tackle the space issues.

My goals with this build were:
Create a structure that stair steps, but with open cavities under each level.
A flash of architecture.
A splash of color.
A sense of familiar environment. Like the Ark or Cybertron.
And some mood lighting.

So here it is... The Ark... Shelf... Thingy

28 salvaged VHS cassettes, 3 cans of spray paint, one 50 count string of blue LED Xmas lights. one meter long Blue LED rope light, one sheet of foam core, a trip too FedEx office for prints, duct tape, clear packing tape, 2 tubes of Gorilla gel super glue, and some odds and ends like scrap lumber, screws, and left over pvc louvers from some blinds. All in all came out to just about 60 bucks and 20 hours.


I intend to display my CHUGernauts with this, but MPs look good in here too. Except Prime would have to bend over all the time.


Nothin' screams 1984 like a VHS tape. The tapes offer up a real cool bulkhead panel texture. I used an Xacto knife and a ruler to scribe more panel lines in them once the paint dried. I had to play a bit to get this color. I primed with a gray spray primer. Did a solid coat in the only orange I could find that wasn't safety orange. Than I dusted it with the gray primer, and dusted it again with a metallic copper.

Picking up some decent light pipe action.

The Teletran-1 console came from a link on page 1 of this thread that KnightAero posted.
It is scaled to print really big for MPs. I just went to Kinko's (FedEx) and had them decrease it to 15% to get this size. It came in four files, but they all scaled proportionately. It's just card stock, with some foamcore for rigidity.

In the video KnightAero found (1st page) the guy talks about using caulk or spackle to fill the imprinted text on the cassettes, but I thought it just added another little bit of texture.


For lighting I wanted to custom make an LED chain, but after talking to an engineer buddy, doing some research, and reading KnightAero's previous post, I chickened out. I took the down and dirty approach. I probably saved about $40 and avoided the possibility of getting zapped.
Imbedding the Xmas lights was a real pain in the arse. I used LEDS hoping they will last longer. I figured out it's pretty simple to shorten a strand of lights, I trimmed off about 6 lights from the 1st story. I had too shorten the 2nd story strand as well, but learned the hard way that 6 to 8 lights is the max you want to take off of a 50 count strand. I had them all strung through there and they failed. That's when I found the rope lights sold by the meter and already wired with a plug. Much easier to work with, and much better light.

Mess of lights.

Not so messy.

The back drop is a restored screen grab from the cartoon. (Scroll up to see it from the front) There is a whole bunch of them in a link that leakin' lubricant posted on page 1. They are awesome. I built the scrim out of foamcore. I cut the window in it to play with back lighting it, but to the naked eye it looked better under direct light.

Here it is with a slew of CHUGernauts.



Squadron of Seekers, 2 o'clock!!!!!!


Extra special thanks to,
KnightAero - for talking shop and his continued support
leakin' lubricant - for posting the link to those great back drops
Robogeek1973 - for hipping me to those Gundam chain bases, which lead to the VHS idea, and this thread
Takara - for everything
Mom - for not being very good about throwing things away. VHS cassettes.
and my wife - for putting up with me. All the time.

That's one of the ugliest, coolest, bizzare, awsome, silly, and clever UFO of shefl-thingamaging I ever saw!

Great work, dude! I could see my customs living there, with Mother on top. Man, this could be so awesome!



Too bad I threw all my old VHS in the garbage when I moved.

-Kanrabat- wrote:That's one of the ugliest, coolest, bizzare, awsome, silly, and clever UFO of shefl-thingamaging I ever saw!

Thank you?

You sure know how to sweet talk a dude.

Cobotron wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:That's one of the ugliest, coolest, bizzare, awsome, silly, and clever UFO of shefl-thingamaging I ever saw!

Thank you?

You sure know how to sweet talk a dude.

I appreciate the work of my fellow mad scientists!

cobs... thats just sick. thats killer sick. no... its killer sick awesome! plus one. i am nowhere near capable of pulling off something like that, so you get mad respect for that. can you make... mmmm... 12 more of those and ship em north?

mmmmmmm....for you?
I'd do 8.

Thanx Spidey.

Excellent work! And a good thing your wife supports you............that's the most important thing!

Great work!

LED route with resistors can be a bit tricky, but as you found here Christmas lights and rope lights can do just the same.

Another route that I didn't mention is IKEA... They have several light kits that could easily be used here.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=LED+lights

I am about to order my last piece for my light setup and will be starting the Space Bridge probably next week.

Ill write up a tutorial on the lighting to simplify it a bit more as getting electrocuted is possible, but not necessarily through a 9v battery.

Cobotron wrote:Well, I'm done.

Wow, that looks fantastic!


I'd love to make one of those, but with the lack of space in the apartment, I think my gf would kill me.

It has been a few minutes... Figured I would make a few updates.

Still pulling together supplies, but here is my general concept so far.

- Cybertron will be metallic road ways, and parts all joined together. Looking at doing a display around a 4' 1/2" by 6 or 8' section just for this... I found some neat "peg board" that I am going to utilize through parts of it.

http://www.amazon.com/Wall-Control-30-P ... 758&sr=1-1

- Cybertron will have roadways all throughout. Bridges, tunnels... Conceptually almost like a hot wheels track... (After all they are vehicles...)

- Modular... Parts of this will have open views into space, and even other planets. Backgrounds using some of the ones from here... Also going to look at getting some others from other sources...
http://www.weibo.com/147yq (Check this guy out!)

- Space bridge (got a few more parts for this, hoping to start on it soon!) connecting Earth's solar system to Cybertron...

- Earth .... This will have a lot of aspects which are far more than I can post right now...

Just wanted to chip in an to the VHS playset !!!

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Speaking of bases though I was pondering buy some Chain bases to paint Orange - any examples around of them painted to see if it suits them or not ?

This thread still breaths?
RAR?! What are you doing in here all by yourself?


Glad you like that funky thing. I just rearranged the shelf it lives on and posted new pics in the Collect-O-Tron. It was fun because I got to play around with that base again. It's so crazy and convenient how those cassettes are perfectly just taller than your average Voyager. They're almost the perfect building blocks for TFs.
Knocking around in here has me day dreaming about a Decepticon version. Might make a nice project with winter setting in.

I've seen lots of good uses of the chain bases. Robogeek1973 takes nice photos with his. I don't think that I have ever seen them painted though. I don't see why they couldn't be. They would definitely need a few coats of primer before the chosen color was applied.

If you try it out, I hope you'll show us.

I was sort some dark corners and found some exotic metallic Purple paint and Metallic Orange paint - ideal for the Ark & nemesis Colours - I was curious if anyone had painted them as I wanted to know how well they take the paint and what colour undercoat to use with a coloured metallic - i.e. white or Grey or silver.

I've not bought the bases yet as I only just re-discovered the paint I bought ages ago.

I see them on EBay not sure if that is the cheapest source for them though I think I saw the Chinese versions for about £7.00 ($11.00) each a while back, since you need quite a few of them obviously the cheaper the better.

I'm still looking for some chainbases as inexpensively as possible if anyone has ever found a source (not bothered which manufacturer) - I find it odd that no one seems to sell them in lots only individually.

There is surprisingly few places I could even find selling them too.