Sandcrawler project

Hey all, just joined this forum at the suggestion of Darth Beavis, whom I met this past weekend at the Exploratorium Rods n Mods exhibit (along with BobdBone and Boddaker and I think a couple others of you). I've had a worklog going on another forum, and thought I'd put the pics from it up on this one too.

Enjoy! (BTW, I started the other worklog in October 2009, but I've been working on this project since April 2007)
First a photo of what it looked like at the show, then I'll post photos starting back in October:

At this point, I needed to rewire the LEDs in it - a bunch blew out and I decided I must not have done it right (I hadn't), so I rewired and added a LOT more.

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.

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

all replacement LEDs in place.

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, not bad.

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

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.

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 Very Happy

I re-did the top. first off, pic of what it used to look like (basically, hinged flaps covering the fan openings):

I did away with the flaps, and recessed the area that used to be the front flap; "machinery" and such will eventually go in there Very Happy

Lastly, I won't be able to do this til Sunday probably, but this is the rear area sans roof panels (I need to remake them, they're not quite shaped right..grrr...). note the wires sticking out; these will be attached to the remaining 8 LEDs (4 per side) to complete the lighting:

View of the rearmost interior compartment. The other side houses the power supply, so only the upper section opens up, as opposed to this side, which will house a full blown engine room with upper and lower sections.

This last shot is looking straight up into the front loading area. Gives you a better idea of just how many lights are in there.

I've begun the sculpting process! I have more done now than just this one piece, but I haven't photographed the other yet. I still need to add a rim around the top of the piece. It's not perfect, but I'd say not bad for 1) not having sculpted anything in years, and 2) doing it mostly by hand. If you think sculpting a face is tough...try doing a tapered-top symmetrical cylinder by hand. Ugh.
The chrome circle in the very top is a hubcap from a 1/12 Ferrari F40 model. I'll use the drinking straw where pictured, but it'll be cut shorter to fit. Once this sculpted piece is totally done, I'll mold it and cast it twice, one for each side.
The unpictured sculpted piece I'm working on is the "machinery" that'll go on the back wall of the crawler, and again I'll be molding it, then casting it twice. Once the casts are in place, I'll add old model parts all around to complete the look.
The other visible pieces in the photos are a couple of Asus motherboard heatsink fans. I'm not planning on making them operable at the moment, but I may just run the wires into the space where the light wiring is to give myself the option. The fans, if they worked, would serve no functional purpose (since the intake side is the more-interesting-to-look-at top portion) but it might look kinda cool if they spun while the computer was on.
After all that, it'll be on to the interior...and then painting after that. Oh yeah, the white flat piece of plastic under the sculpted part is just the base for the sculpture, it won't be present in the final cast (just the gray chunk will be).

One other thing - I have to get this done by early Feb. so I'm putting myself on a pretty rigorous schedule - an hour or two after work each weeknight and at least 4 or 5 hours a day on weekends for the rest of this month. Now that holiday craziness is over, I'm hoping that's pretty realistic.

here's the piece that's going to be the main mechanical unit on the rear wall (there'll be 2 copies of it, and while I pictured it horizontally, it'll be positioned vertically). The basic form is done, and it was surprisingly hard to make it symmetrical by hand. But I (mostly) got it, so tonight it'll be on to detail work, then molding/casting on the weekend, and once it's on the crawler, I'll add extra model pieces for more detail. I cut the posterboard card it's on right now to fit vertically in the space on the crawler, so I wouldn't have to worry about potential misfits/misalignments.

Nearly done with this piece! It's taken far longer than I thought it would to sculpt. I just need to smooth it out, possibly add a couple more recessed or raised areas, and then texture in some detail. After that, I can mold it and cast it and get back to assembly of the case.

Next up, a machinery assemblage that on the original model was made of Harrier and other jet engine parts, from what I can tell. this is about the only angle it'll be viewed from once it's on the model:

Other angles:

alrightie, here's some more progress! pics below include my completed molds (which are now holding the casting resin, poured this morning and now curing and giving me a headache even though they're in the extra bathroom w/door shut and window open), and my initial attempts to sort through the seemingly bazillion old model parts. I actually just bought a box of old model car parts, looks like mostly engine parts, which I've discovered look the best. all sorts of pipes and things just looks perfect, and in my initial stash I didn't have enough. Hopefully once I get this box of goodies from the seller, I'll be able to finish off the detailing the way I want to. I also can't WAIT to get the cast parts on the model. I'll demold the first set tomorrow night, and assuming all goes well, pour casting set #2 tomorrow night. Again if all goes well, by Wednesday night both sets of cast parts will be on the model, and I can finish detailing the back section around those pieces. I've done nearly as much as I can back there for the moment. Note - the initial pics, I just had parts piled on top of the model, the ones that are now glued in place are shown in the last couple photos below.

oh yeah...those two Asus things in the last pic, those are duplicates of the little extra fan that came with my motherboard. The wires on these bad boys are still attached, in fact they're on hinged flaps that open to provide access to the lights below. i'm thinking about wiring them into those lights; it'll probably dim the lights a bit and the fans won't spin fast, but that's ok. I'm leaving their plugs intact in case adding them to the lights messes everything up, in which case I can just unplug them. but hopefully they'll be a spinning external element while the machine is on.
The light gray cylinders glued on each of their hubs are a couple "intakes" from the engines of an old X-wing model. In fact, if you look carefully at these pics, you can see parts from several Star Wars fighters (x-wing, a-wing, b-wing).

New pic! I got 2 of the 4 cast pieces on the model. They're screwed in, 1 each, from the bottom. Held the screw in place with a ratchet, then literally spun the epoxy cast (after drilling a hole in it) around til it was tight. It's like they're superglued on, but they're fully removeable, at least for now. The other two cast pieces are ready to go on, but since I used resin for them instead of epoxy (shoulda used epoxy...the resin casts didn't come out as well. I pulled the mold off too early, and now the mold's pretty much ruined and I don't have time right now to make another one. It's not too much of a disaster, one piece came out fine and the other one can have detail added back to it). Anyway. Since I used resin, they still stink to high heaven. I'm going to give them airing out time til the weekend before adding them.

with the fan-flap open showing access to the lights (the other one opens too but not quite far enough to stay up on its own):

well guys, my box of car parts arrived on Friday. It measures 9" x 6" x 3.5". And it was STUFFED. Not just full. We're talking packed-to-the-brim-and-spilling-as-soon-as-I-opened-the-outer-shipping-box full! I'm hoping there's enough in there to last me not just this model, but the large scale Y-wing I want to build someday...anyway, I sorted the contents of most of the box, based on similarities between parts. Took about an hour to do 2/3 of the box, and I'm not gonna do the rest unless I use all that I've sorted so far.

Before the addition of the extra parts:

After the addition of the extra parts:

oh yeah, and I stopped by Michael's and got some popsicle sticks, figured they'd be good for some interior panelling and such:

There was some weird stuff in the parts box:

I have no idea what that sphere was. No clue. Most of the parts, including the Big Daddy Roth painted hood interior (though jarring to find and a little creepy-looking) I could at least figure out what they used to be. But not that sphere. My first thought was Sputnik....oh....hell...that'd be awesome. There may be a junked sputnik in the sandcrawler at some point....

I have the 2 outside Asus fans wired up now; this shot is with the central roof removed so you can see how I ran the wires (the whitish plugs for the fans are visible just under each fan):

Now as far as what else I accomplished so far, I've finished all the recessed bays, 6 total, 3 on each side of the model. Took awhile - I don't have a lot of room to work, and I kept having to go 'round the other side of the table, try and remember what i'd just done, and duplicate it roughly symmetrically. First, a photo of it before I did the front 2 bays on the left:

And after, followed by some detail shots. Incidentally, the red ladder was from an X-wing model; the silver ladder is a handmade duplicate of the red ladder cuz i didn't have 2 red ladders. Also, the thick pink and yellow tubes in the central bays are.....bendy straws. Very Happy

Finally, I got one of the last 2 resin cast pieces on the back of the model:

But, the 2nd cast didn't come out very well. I was impatient and pulled the first cast out of the mold too early (I thought 30 hours was enough time, but it wasn't Sad

) and while the first cast came out decently, it left enough residue in the mold that the second cast looked like a slightly melted ice sculpture:

This simply wouldn't do, so I've started making another mold of the original clay part, and I'm gonna do the replacement cast in epoxy: cures faster, and harder, and is less prone to picking up fingerprints and indentations. It also doesn't make the apartment smell like a chemical manufacturing plant.

For tomorrow, sunday, I'm hoping to get that mold done and get the epoxy poured in (to be removed Tuesday night), I'm hoping to get the roof of the model and other small details done, and then if there's still time I'll work a bit on the base: the tank treads, boarding ramps, etc.
I doubt I'll have time to get to the interior before the Rods n Mods show in SF, I'll be lucky if I can get the thing painted properly before then. But eventually, I'm planning on having the interior all detailed, and to have some sculpted jawas and droids kickin' around in it. Ambitious? Me? naaaah.........

My cat Tiger decided to help out the other day by keeping my seat warm:

I've made a little more progress - added some more stuffs to the rear roof area and the recessed roof area toward the front (note especially the strategic use of bendy and straight straws). I also started on the detailing of the front section roof, it's looking a whole lot more interesting. The couple of chrome pieces in the front corners had the word Ford on them, so I scratched that away. Although the sandcrawler probably does look a bit like some Fords from the '70's..... Very Happy

Finally got the last cast piece on the model this morning! Tonight I'll be working on detailing the back section and hopefully finishing off the roof. If I'm REALLY good I'll get the hinges covered too. I thought I'd put some comparison shots in this post, and a couple new ones at the end. I began planning this project in April 2007.

First, front views. I'll edit this later to include a new shot of the front, the most current one I have from a similar angle was taken back in November.

Taken June 30, 2007:

Taken January 18, 2008 (major difference is openings on roof for fans):

Taken November 12, 2009:

And rear views, this is where the differences get REALLY obvious.

Taken July 28, 2007 (that's the old 2nd crawler on the left):

Taken July 1, 2009 (yep....2 years later, major difference is I'd just rebuilt the tank treads and underside):

Taken February 2, 2010:

Taken today, February 3, 2010, shows the addition of the final cast piece on the back:

And the other new shots:

The rear fans opened up - note the pipes and such glued to them that help (when they're shut) to disguise the fact that they open for wiring access:

I forgot to add comparison shots of the computer itself. You'll see a general trend from really messy to really not messy:

Taken May 17, 2007, still in the old 2nd crawler (with the posterboard mockup of the 3rd one on top, I had nowhere else to keep it):

Taken June 9, 2007, same computer system, but now in the 3rd crawler:

Taken June 25, 2007, zoomed out version of above photo:

Taken May 9, 2009, still the base and treads from 2nd crawler, but much neater computer now:

Taken October 23, 2009, this is what it looks like from the outside now:

Taken January 8, 2010, I'm going to remove that paper funnel and turn the CPU fan around so it's not blowing hot air into the PSU...

Last night it took a surprisingly long time, but I got the remaining large areas covered with posterboard. In a lot of ways I wish I'd thought to use thin sheet styrene instead, but in one way at least I like the posterboard - I can fold it over corners. Can't do that with styrene, and it really helps smooth out rough edges. As the following photos show (newly covered areas are the rear lower panel, the middle-most removable roof piece, and the raised ridge forming a horseshoe shape 'round the rear-most roof). Tonight's tasks include finally getting the dang hinges covered, and adding detail work to the areas I covered last night. And with that, I do believe the exterior will be done from a construction standpoint. Well, ok, there's a few things I want to try and add to the outside of the front loading door. THEN it'll be done. Smile

More updates - as of this morning it's FINALLY ready to paint. I'll probably have a few more pics this afternoon, I'm going home from work today at lunch to get the primer coat on. Then it'll be off to the model store to buy the paint(s) to use for the topcoat and detailwork.

Covering the hinges:

Worked on front loading door - needed to create these little diamond shaped thingies at the top of the door:

I cut them out of a 1cm square poplar dowel:

But I still needed to shave the backs down, the pieces were cut from 1 cubic cm blocks, so they're REALLY small, and at the suggestion of my girlfriend (after several attempts using a knife didn't work), I used my power sander. But how to hang on to these little parts? Stick them in some extra clay with the portion to be sanded away sticking up:

After sanding (that's a little propane tank next to them):

Got them glued on:

Then discovered that in the mess on my table, I'd missed putting one on. This is of course AFTER the glue dried. No wonder it didn't look right! So I stripped them off:

And re-made the piece of posterboard and glued them to that, then glued that whole piece back onto the door. Much better!

Is it any wonder I lost stuff? So last night I was using tweezers to try and add a small piece to the back. It had glue on it, and of course I gripped the tweezers a little too hard, the piece shifted, then suddenly shot away, bounced off something, and disappeared. No joke, I spent 10 minutes looking for the stupid thing, and finally gave up. A couple minutes later, I brushed my hand on the back of my pant leg by chance, and voila! it was stuck to the back of my leg LOL....

As of this morning, after all kit-bashing was done, much cleaner!

Prior to working on the very back:

Finished back:

It occurred to me this morning it'd be a whole lot easier to paint and move this thing if the computer was removed from the base:

And finally, some shots of the FINISHED construction, at least finished on the outside...

And the first paint pics. Sadly this may be about as far as I get before the show - I only have tonight and tomorrow, and it's supposed to rain tomorrow... Sad

It's not nearly as "neon-ish" as it looks - the lighting was wonky and my camera decided to use the flash.

Amazing...the progress I've made since December 17, 2009, when I first heard about the Exploratorium show that got me kicked into overdrive on this project:

Taken December 7, 2009:

Taken this morning, February 9, 2010:

It's still just the primer coat on, I'm hoping to do some airbrushing of the main coat tonight, despite the rain...

After yet another frenetic evening spent painting, I've gotten some of the airbrushing done. I airbrushed Model Master "Italian Dark Brown" over the red-brown primer, and didn't try to make it an even coat. I did this on purpose to allow the reddish undercoat to show through a bit.
I then airbrushed a thin flat black color for the dark streaks. What's left to do is airbrush the lighter colors - grays, maybe a little yellow, and then very light tan or sand. I may also use artist chalk powder for additional fading. Then it'll be on to some detail work with a brush, and then the outside is done. But for now, it's all packed up in the back of my truck so I can leave after work today and head out for the Rods 'n Mods show at the Exploratrium tomorrow...

My indoor setup. Had to do the painting at night, and the lighting was WAY better inside. Not to mention it was supposed to rain last night.

After I got the initial brown coat on there.

And after I finished with the black. I did do the base too (not pictured) although I'll need to pull the treads off later to paint them.

And this is what it looks like after the tape was removed from the cockpit and I painted the window frames up there:

My jam-packed truck interior (Dodge Dakota, so not overly huge):

This is a rare time that I wish I had an SUV....oh well. It fits. Barely. Razz

My setup at Rods 'n Mods at the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco, 2/11/10 through 2/13/10:

Me and my parents, I think I was showing them all the removable roof panels:

And finally, a bunch of our cases were shown on CNET, I didn't expect that sort of publicity!
http://news.cnet.com/2300-1079.....?tag=mncol

It's not done yet - it was finished enough to show, but I still need to finish painting the outside, then build and paint the inside, then build a desert landscape base with some jawas.

I'm also debating adding water cooling, and servo motors to open the front loading door and all the flaps. Anyone have any advice on servos? I've never used them before. I did find this:
http://robokitsworld.com/index.....g7a7jcvst4
which looks promising as far as running them off a single USB port. But as far as motors themselves, what should I look for? And how would I hook them up to the doors so that a command sent to the USB controller would open all the doors? There's 12 total I think, 11 of them can swing 180 deg. from their closed position. The other one, the front loading door, is probably more like 90 degrees.
I'm also thinking about getting a low RPM 12V DC motor or two to run some internal conveyor belts and things.

That is all I cant say.... WOW

Very IMPRESSIVE!

_________________
CURRENT PROJECT
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=102116#102116
Attended PDXLAN 14, 16

This is both the most tremendously awesome AND nerdy thing I have ever seen. You sir, have set the bar high!

_________________
@ PDXLAN: 5,7,8,9,10,10.5,11,12,12.5,13,14,14.5,15,16.5,17,18,18.5,19,20.5,21,[22]

thanks for the compliments! And gee...should I mention now that this is the third one I've built? *blink blink* the first 2 looked terrible, I didn't have decent reference material, so when I finally did come across something better, I had to rebuild (the 2nd crawler was really the same as the first, just made of sturdier material).
Here's photos of all 3 for your comparing/contrasting pleasure (note that on the 2nd one, I didn't have any extra model parts to use...a problem remedied on the 3rd one hehehehe). R2D2 and the metal motherboard tray are the only 2 things present in all 3 models; although I did re-use the washer "wheels" and a few LEDs from the 2nd model on the 3rd). :

The first model. Finished in February 2001 I think. I had no real idea what I was doing, I just knew that I wanted a large Star Wars model that would function as a computer case as well. I was clueless on the modding community at the time.

The second model. Started in 2004, then didn't work on it at all for 2 years during a very bad relationship. Finished in August 2006. Still clueless on the modding community, although I had a slightly better idea what I was doing. This is the only one of the 3 to open like a car hood, I was going to do it on the 3rd one but it turned out the hinge attachment point was far too weak to hold its weight.

The 3rd model. Begun April 2007 and worked on sporadically since then. I discovered the modding community back in October 2009 when I needed help rewiring the LEDs, and it looks like I'm gonna keep right on moddin' long after this one is done. It's just too much fun! I'm reposting these couple pics here for ease of comparison... Very Happy

This is cool, and also something I have wanted to do in the past. But I haven't ever really had the time or resources. Definitely glad to see someone tackle this and do it justice.

the outer paint job is very nearly done now. I'm learning a huge amount from this paint job, I've never really been able to weather anything particularly well, and I'm learning things like painting a dark color under a lighter one to subtly darken the light color, and I'm learning that painting in a lot of layers of various colors and shades can create a much more interesting paint job. It'll be a couple days before I have time to finish it, but here's what I accomplished this weekend:

Dismantled the base so I could paint the treads, and decided to add a couple thick wood dowel pieces (same dowel I used to make the triangular things on the loading door) to the middle of the underside for added support. The middle has been sagging a bit due to the weight of the computer, and luckily where these dowels are located, you can't really see them when the model is upright. In one of the photos, the top of one tank tread set is a bit glossier than the others because I ran out of my gunmetal/flat black mix and had to mix in a large amount of semi-gloss black. It's ok though, that part of the tread really isn't visible, and I later oversprayed a light coat of gray anyway.

this is the upper side of the base, sans most of the computer. The wires you see are predominantly under the motherboard, but I decided to spray them all black anyway to match the rest of the inside. I also cut a strip out where the cords go in, so I no longer have to wrestle the plugs through that half-PVC pipe in the back. I can just lay the cords through the open strip, and since I angled the cut, they shouldn't really pop out on their own. This also means I can reattach a SCSI scanner I have, as before the plug was too big to fit through the pipe.

For the upper section, I masked off several random panels (based loosely on the film model) and painted them black. However, they came out way darker than I meant them to, so I oversprayed a thin coat of the dark brown to fade the panels back a bit. Worked pretty well.

I masked off the exterior bays so I could paint them gray (Model Master Dark Gull Gray with a little Flat White mixed in, then thinned for the airbrush), just like on the film model (although it's not very apparent when watching the movie). I haven't done any detail painting in the bays yet, but I will, then I'll dirty them up. Very Happy

the paint job as it is now. I used the same gray from the bays to do the exterior streaks. they're a little too contrasting with the brown for my taste, so I may do a very light brown overcoat to fade them. then again, I'm planning on using chalk powder to simulate paint fading, and that might be enough. the rust marks are mostly done, I started with Model Master Go Mango (semi-gloss unfortunately, hence the slight sheen) and mixed in some Model Master Rust to darken it. I'm going to darken the remaining paint even more and add some darker areas to the rust spots, and I'll probably go back to the original Mango color to add a few highlights here and there. Then I need to do the silver paint chips, detail painting/weathering in the bays, then I can do the chalk for paint fading. Then the outside will be done. I hope. Smile

artoodeeto wrote:

It's not done yet - it was finished enough to show, but I still need to finish painting the outside, then build and paint the inside, then build a desert landscape base with some jawas.

I'm also debating adding water cooling, and servo motors to open the front loading door and all the flaps. Anyone have any advice on servos? I've never used them before. I did find this:
http://robokitsworld.com/index.....g7a7jcvst4
which looks promising as far as running them off a single USB port. But as far as motors themselves, what should I look for? And how would I hook them up to the doors so that a command sent to the USB controller would open all the doors? There's 12 total I think, 11 of them can swing 180 deg. from their closed position. The other one, the front loading door, is probably more like 90 degrees.
I'm also thinking about getting a low RPM 12V DC motor or two to run some internal conveyor belts and things.

This is the site I found to be of good use when it comes to servos and the like: Lynx-motion

And, if you haven't already, I suggest you check out Rendermandan's project: Motorized Madness for an in-depth look at how to incorporate servos into a mod.

Cool

_________________
Bods-Mods.com - Modding the world, one case at a time.

Boddaker wrote:

This is the site I found to be of good use when it comes to servos and the like: Lynx-motion

And, if you haven't already, I suggest you check out Rendermandan's project: Motorized Madness for an in-depth look at how to incorporate servos into a mod.

Cool

Awesome, thanks for those links! rendarmandan's use of servos definitely put me thinking in a little different direction. Still not sure if it'll be feasible for me, since I didn't design the inside of mine to fit motors, but I'll see what I can come up with.

Don't have any pics yet, but I haven't been totally idle this week. I dismantled my PSU, and just this morning figured out the best way to mount the PCB board, fan and daughterboard. If you look in some of the prior pics, there's a large opening door on the right rear, and a boxy 2-level room inside. I'm going to either cut a hole in its lower floor or remove the floor entirely, and the PSU PCB will go on the base under there. It'll stick up slightly above the original level of the floor, hence the need to cut a hole or remove it depending on how much area the PCB covers. But this way it'll be visible as a machinery-laden floor of the engine room. I'll then figure out other large pieces of "machinery" and such to add to the room itself. I'm going to mount the main power switch from the back of the original PSU down there too, so I can easily reach it without removing the top of the case. I mounted the original 140mm fan on the part of the original case of the PSU that it was attached to before; this consists of 2 sides of the original case. The fan is mounted vertically, with the adjacent side at the bottom bolted to the base of the computer. Doesn't really take up any more room than the fan by itself, and the fan should approximately line up with a hole I previously cut in the wall of that engine room. The power plug will go wherever it fits best. I'll need to clip the 28 cables on the modular cable connectors and then solder in extensions. I will mount it under the raised motherboard so the PCI-E power cables can be hidden under the board. They'll come out from under the front of the board and go to the video card. The old location of the PSU was too far away to do that; those cables and the aux power cable for the CPU had to run across the top of the board. By moving the modular connectors under the MB, I'm hoping to clean it up a little more.
Since the PSU will now be visible, thus both part of the computer and part of the model, is it a really bad idea to paint the PCB, capacitors, coils, etc? I know it's possible to paint other PCBs like the motherboard, but I don't know exactly how to go about it. I'd appreciate any advice, thanks!

artoodeeto wrote:

Don't have any pics yet, but I haven't been totally idle this week. I dismantled my PSU, and just this morning figured out the best way to mount the PCB board, fan and daughterboard. If you look in some of the prior pics, there's a large opening door on the right rear, and a boxy 2-level room inside. I'm going to either cut a hole in its lower floor or remove the floor entirely, and the PSU PCB will go on the base under there. It'll stick up slightly above the original level of the floor, hence the need to cut a hole or remove it depending on how much area the PCB covers. But this way it'll be visible as a machinery-laden floor of the engine room. I'll then figure out other large pieces of "machinery" and such to add to the room itself. I'm going to mount the main power switch from the back of the original PSU down there too, so I can easily reach it without removing the top of the case. I mounted the original 140mm fan on the part of the original case of the PSU that it was attached to before; this consists of 2 sides of the original case. The fan is mounted vertically, with the adjacent side at the bottom bolted to the base of the computer. Doesn't really take up any more room than the fan by itself, and the fan should approximately line up with a hole I previously cut in the wall of that engine room. The power plug will go wherever it fits best. I'll need to clip the 28 cables on the modular cable connectors and then solder in extensions. I will mount it under the raised motherboard so the PCI-E power cables can be hidden under the board. They'll come out from under the front of the board and go to the video card. The old location of the PSU was too far away to do that; those cables and the aux power cable for the CPU had to run across the top of the board. By moving the modular connectors under the MB, I'm hoping to clean it up a little more.
Since the PSU will now be visible, thus both part of the computer and part of the model, is it a really bad idea to paint the PCB, capacitors, coils, etc? I know it's possible to paint other PCBs like the motherboard, but I don't know exactly how to go about it. I'd appreciate any advice, thanks!

PM me your addy so I can send you a care package

_________________
Blah Blah Blah

Check out how Bobdbone did his painting (motherboard)

http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8954

awesome, thanks Rod!

power supply is done pending plug-in to make sure it still works right. I was all set to do it last night, but ran out of energy Smile

I'll probably hook the computer up to it tonight, turn it on, and make sure the PSU doesn't get too hot. I seriously doubt it will, but my case, as someone pointed out, is a bit of a fire waiting to happen. So without further ado, the pics (and yes, the wires look a bit messy. Nearly all of them will be under the motherboard when I put it back on, but I will probably at least make an attempt to straighten them up).

First off, the rear engine room whose floor I will be cutting a hole into so you can see the PSU that is now under it. you can see the 140mm fan through the existing hole...and I need to paint that sticker black:

And shots of the PSU (thermaltake toughpower 650W, had it for several years now):

I mounted the main power switch in a spot that should be relatively hidden yet still accessible I hope, through the hole in the floor. The idea is that I can flip the switch without having to pull off the top of the case. I'm not too worried if it isn't reachable, I won't be any worse off than before. And I mounted the modular plug board in a spot where the PCI-E cables can now run under the MB and still reach the video card, instead of running over the top of the MB like before. I'll mount the SSD HD under the motherboard toward the front of the case; previously it was where the PSU now sits.

bunch of rare, mostly on-set photos from Star Wars...I had to post this one, I laughed pretty hard at the caption:
http://www.totalfilm.com/featu.....23#content

EDIT -- it works! not that I had any serious doubts, but I've never taken apart a PSU before, so there's always that nagging "what if it explodes when I plug it back in" thought in the back of my mind...LOL Anyway, I'm typing from my own computer for the first time in what seems like a month and a half.

the motherboard is kind of sitting right on top of the modular power cords. Dangit...they were too tall by a millimeter or too :rolleyes: oh well. I probably ought to make the motherboard riser a little taller. but not tonight.

The front end. A hint of the wiring hell that lies beneath the motherboard...

It looks like I'll be getting a water cooling setup too, more on that later (ie, when it actually arrives). My next task is to figure out exactly how to add in a large radiator, a reservoir, and a pump...since I didn't design my case for any of that. Still, it'll be a fun challenge and should result in a quieter machine.

Oh yeah, and I ordered and received a bag of powdered walnut shells Very Happy

It's a 10 pound sack, way more than I need. But only $13 Very Happy

Helloooo sand. This is the same stuff they used in the Special Edition sandcrawler re-shoot....built a whole little environment on top of the ILM building for it to drive around on. For my purposes, this will be the covering of the base I will build at some point.

paint job's getting there. this paint effect is actually pretty subtle, the pics didn't come out all that well (night, flash washed everything out, no flash + yellow lights = weird colors), but they'll give you the idea. The initial rusting color was a mix of orange and rust, but mostly orange. It contrasted too much with the brown, so I added rust color around the edges of most of the orangey spots, then swiped with a paper towel to remove most of the rust paint to make the effect more subtle. The glossiness of the orange spots will be gone soon, I'm going to hit the whole thing with a final clear flat coat. Looks a lot better in person than in the photos:

no flash:

more pics coming this weekend, I'll make sure to take some in daylight, and standing back so you can see the effect from a few feet away, which is where it looks best.

Very cool can't wait to see the good pics!

Rod

I thought I'd post some pics from the beginning of the build up til my first post here, then a skip ahead to what it looks like right now (as in 5 minutes ago).

These start back in April of 2007...
this is what I started with. the line drawing of the front is out of the star wars guide to vehicles book (I think). the photo is out of the "sculpting a galaxy" book, and it was this photo that got me started on version 3 of the build. You'll notice one of the fronts is wider. The film model is the narrow one. The model had to be a certain width, about 17", to fit the computer parts, and I didn't have space to make it proportionally longer and taller. So basically, except for the cockpit and rear engine pieces, mine is one scale width-wise and a slightly smaller scale height- and lengthwise. It works though. Unless you had the film model right next to it, nobody will notice.

I built a posterboard mockup first - I learned on the first 2 models that despite all rational attempts to suss out the proper measurements, there were certain ones that just didn't come out right. doing this in posterboard first allowed me to fix those problems before moving to MDF. Also meant I had ready-made template pieces. And, 2 years later, I used these posterboard pieces as the "skin" glued onto the outside of the MDF pieces.

starting to make the parts. I used 1/8" MDF for everything but the base; that's 1/4" MDF. I used a utility knife and thin aluminum ruler as a straightedge. Made for some VERY tired arms and fingers. someday I'll have the space and $$ for a proper table saw.

I made a cardboard mockup of the space the computer would occupy, so I could figure out how much interior space was leftover and could be used for the inside modelling of the crawler.

construction begun! this was the first part to go together.

the front section. hinges and superglue are how I acheived the odd angles. It's very slightly skewed, but luckily it's not really noticeable.

the empty shell. no window frames yet around the cockpit.

added the upper floor and the window frames (they're matchsticks...)

the upper sections of the 2nd and 3rd models, not long before I tossed the 2nd one. You can see why I wanted to rebuild it...

The original design of the fan chamber. Air was supposed to come up through the white pipes, into the gray ones and into the chamber. I tried zip-tying 80mm fans blades to the gray pipes to make them spin…didn’t work. Anyway, the idea behind the design was to have a solid roof. Unfortunately, airflow wasn’t all that great, so I ended up going with the now-current screen mesh covered holes in the roof.

originally, I was just rebuilding the upper section, so in this photo the lower part is leftover from the 2nd crawler. It wasn’t til June 2009 that I scrapped that portion and rebuilt it, mainly because the old treads were just a tad too large, and they just didn’t look right.

My first attempt at cockpit lights. These were leftover LEDs. I had no idea what I was doing (read, no concept of resistors) and I fried these poor little lights. One even exploded…

The results of my 2nd attempt at the lighting. Definitely better. Still not ideal, in October 2009 a different section blew out, and I rewired (see one of my initial posts) all of them with resistors, etc etc, and attempt #3 was much better.

the original wiring was crazy – I had each individual light in parallel, with a fan speed controller at the beginning of the whole circuit acting as a resistor. I now have strands of 6 lights + resistor in series.

looked cool at night though. The blue light was from a fan that’s since been painted over.

A shot of the cockpit before I glued on the ceiling. R2D2 is leftover from an X-wing model kit, and along with the metal motherboard tray, is the only thing that’s been on all 3 models. The chairs are paper. The control panel is a printout of a Cessna control console. I skimped on detail here because you really can’t see much from outside. R2 is glued into a paper collar, which has tabs that are glued to the floor. This ensures that he will never fall over, since I’d have to tear off the ceiling to fix him.

I tore my hair out for a long time trying to figure out a mechanism to keep the main loading door shut, but with the mechanism invisible at least from outside. It wasn’t til, in July 2009, I added interior walls and ceiling to the main bay, and covered the resulting gaps between inner and outer walls with posterboard, that I hit upon the idea of gluing magnets on the backside of the posterboard in the gap, and recessing flat pieces of metal in the door. Now the inside of the door is covered too, so the metal’s not visible either, and it works perfectly!

rebuilding the lower section took a couple months. I scrapped the original base and most of the treads. I kept the washers (masquerading as wheels) and the vinyl floor matting that I used originally for the tread. The vinyl is now an interior tread, and I hand-cut almost 600 individual treads out of styrene sheet. The worst of it was that I initially used a silicone-based superglue to glue the styrene to the vinyl…and discovered AFTER finishing all 570+ that the glue didn’t really bond the two. So I had to pop all of them off, scrape off the glue from the vinyl, and ended up using a 3M general trim automotive adhesive. Handy stuff, that. Also used it when I glued the posterboard pieces on the MDF.

These are the two bays with retractable ramps between the tank treads. On the first 2 models, these were nothing more than squares with holes in them. On this one, I still didn’t get it quite right (lack of decent reference material until long after I made them), but they’re a lot better.

The first posterboard panel to be glued on. I used a ruler and pencil to draw the panel lines, then my trusty metal ruler and an x-acto knife to slice up the panels. As I sliced, I put down a low-tack tape to hold the pieces together. I then sprayed adhesive on the back, slapped it onto the model, then pulled off the tape. Worked really well, although the panels with the opening cutaways were a major pain.

That last photo above was taken September 21, 2009. Here’s what the top portion looks like right now, March 6, 2010:

And the lower portion (it’s in my extra room next to my desk so I can use it; the top is in the living room since I’m working on it).

THE OUTSIDE IS DONE!!!!!! 3 years in the making and I finally finished the darn thing. I'll move on to the inside soon, but for now, I'm gonna enjoy the way it looks. I *might* do another, much heavier, dusting of pastel powder - the initial pics below are what it looked like before I sprayed with a flat coat to seal the powder, and the flat coat really took away a lot of the pigment. It still looks somewhat wind-scoured, but it's more subtle. Maybe that's better...let me know your opinions (keep in mind this thing is supposed to be enormous).

this shot is looking up under the rear of the top section. I had started cutting out the floor of the engine room (lying on the floor on my back...sawdust in the face, etc etc) so the power supply would be visible.

And now the pics from today, after I sprayed the flat coat:

Any advice or thoughts on the additional super-heavy pigment coat (which becomes much more transparent after the flat coat) are appreciated!

care package on its way via UPS. you will need to vaccum out the rad Wink

have fun getting wet do a leak test for 24 hrs without power to the mobo

_________________
Blah Blah Blah