Superman..

Just thought I'd post some pics of what I have been up to lately. Not building anything, but I have been having a great time finding all the local Superman Filming locations. Some were easy, some were nearly impossible! THe one I haven't been able to fid is the location baby Superman's ship crashed. I KNOW it is near the farm, but the exact location I will likely never find.


The first is the Smallville High School from Superman the movie. It is located in Barons, Alberta.




The next one is the best location I have ever seen. It was the Kent farm from Superman the Movie. It seems like nobody knew it's location or if it even existed. It was a real tough one to find..but we did it!! It is outside of Blcakie, Alberta.

The first pic is from the movie..the rest are mine. :)






This next location is a canyon called Beynon, Alberta. It is quite remote and the orads were horrribly muddy and soft. We SHOULD have taken a 4x4..we had a few close calls!

This is a comparison showing the image from the movie and my photo. Those grain elevators are gone now. Too bad.


This was Lana Lang's house in Superman III. It is in High River, Alberta.


Also in High River was the Smallville High School (for Superman III).


Again in High River, this was the Smallville town square where they had the celebration to honor Superman.

This parking lot across the street was actually where the stage was that Superman was sitting on.

Obi Wan

Well this was a quick one...

I saw an ad for the brown robe so I grabbed it. I have to say I loved wearing it! It was so comfortable to watch movies in my cold basement. Oh well, back to blankets and heaters.

The inner tunic/robe is my old Aikedo gi slighty dyed beige, and the lower robe is just a $4 sheet I found at wal mart. COlor mathes the gi very well! The larger belt is from the same sheet. The other belt is just from a thrift store (as are the brown boots). Nothing super accurate but I added a buckle and another detail to the belt from seom reference images.

The mannequin is a cheap $25 ebay inflatable mannequin with no arms or head. I made arms out of foam noodles kids play with in swimming pools. I shaped and cut them a bit and added coat hangers to help them hold the shape.

The head..well thats just a photo I printed full size and glued to cardboard. Yup..cheesy I know but I casting of a sculpt is just not in the budget right now.


The first pic is with a flash. Lights up the face, although I prefer it in the dark a bit.



This pic is without a flash. I tried to hold still!

Jawa Eyes light up now!

I got a few of those garden lights that are basically a stake with a light on the top. They were just over $3 each at wal mart. I cut the led from two of them, added a longer wire, soldered the light to the wire and the wire to the board the led came from and placed the lights in my Jawa eyes. The solar charging light sensor I placed in the windowsill behind the Jawa outside of the curtain so it will charge in the day.

Now every night my Jawa eyes will light up.



I still need proper ammo belts for this Jawa.

Serenity Mounted to Base

I had a round bar welded to the base today and drilled a hole in the bottom of Serenity to fit it. I'll leave it loose so I can turn it if want.

I have painted the black details at the back..so all I have left are some wired at the back that I will pick away at a bit here and there.

Hard to get the lighting right so I posted a couple pics..one with the florescent light on, the other without.

Serenity..ALMOST DONE!

I am mostly done finally! All the little details were a LOT of work! Still need to add some wires at the back and need a round rod to attach to the base and have to drill a hole in the bottom of the ship to accommodate it..for a more subtle mount than a baby food jar. ;)











I just added the last pic...kind of a before shot with just the first base coat painted. What a difference!!!!

More details done..

Made a little more progress today.

I worked on the engine covers and shuttles, weathered the beehive back parts etc.

I just have all the pieces set together for the picture..it still all comes apart. I am feeling pretty happy about the way it's looking.

Serenity Model Build

I have been puttering on this model.at least the painting. I am on about the third coat of paint trying to get it right. It is a touch paint job! I can't quite get the colors right and all my reference pictures have lots of variations so I'm guessing a lot.

Also I am trying to make do with mostly acrylic paints from wal mart since they are cheap and easy to get for me. The nearest decnet hobby shop is an hour away so if I run out of a color that is a huge setback if I can't use the acrylics.

I have learned that diluting acrylics wit water sort of works..but clogs the airbrush. Diluting with alcohol makes it gummy!!

The trick is diluting with Windex with ammonia! It works great for my acrylics and for my old model paints I have from years ago!! Sprays GREAT in the airbrush, helps paints dry fast.

I spent a few hours last ngiht painting panels and the odd detail by hand. I was trying to do all this with an airbrush but in the end it just made sense to do a lot of the detailing by hand.

I still have a lot of detail work to do but here it is so far. The base says Firefly and I painted that months ago with my old airbrush. I'll have a rod come up from the base to hold serenity 'mid air'.

R2 in action...better video...DOME TURNING!!

Here is another video..different camera and the dome is turning now!!

Video cut off because memory card was full...but I have enough to show it working!

Future's so bright I gotta wear shades..

OK Lame title..

One last Back to the Future thing...DOc's future glasses. I just drew the best I could from pictures and referencing my own head size.

I had to sand them with a fine sandpaper for a brushed metal look. The yaren't perfect..but good enough for a quick addition..

I went with a coupe of the more blurry pictures..they make it look better. ;) Ones with flash made every irregular scratch jump out...so I wont show those. ;)

Yes picture was taken upside down.

Whew...problem solved...R2 WORKS!

I resoldered my motor at work (with some help from a better solderer) and remounted it tongiht. Wasn't ooo bad. Tried it out..and IT WORKS!!

Sorry if I overreacted..I was pretty bummed out last night!

So now my R2 moved nicely, has easy controls from a Ps2 wireless controller, has sounds at the press of a button, or the interactive version, had interactive HP that lights up, and the DOME MOVES!!!!

Thanks for being here supporting my whining guys!

Anyone want a non working R2?!?!

Ok..after getting a new control system and finding I had to replace the dome motor, modifying my saturn motor, getting an adapter and wheel, making and mounting a mount for it, waiting for a new ESC..then finally wiring it only to find I fried it, then ordering a repair, sending it back and waiting again, then finally last night I got the new ESC, wired it up....

IT WORKED! For about 10 seconds. Then nothign. The dome quit turning. No..not a loose wire. Traced the problem back to the motor which was a major pain to mount. Reluctantly removed it..touched wires to a battery...worked a little sometimes...opened motor...closed motor...worked like once...

Then nothing. WIll not work at all.

SO I guess my motor modification didn't work...so here I am...do I try again only to duplicate this whole pain in the butt hassle only to end up with the same possible results??


I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to this being over, then I fried the damn ESC..then last night I thought FINALLLY this can be over and I can be where I was before I started this whole mess...but the laws of fate screwed me over again. At least I had 10 seconds of relief before it ended.

SOOOOOOO SICK OF THIS!

Flux Capacitor DONE!

Finally finished my Flux Capacitor! My lights arrives yesterday so I finished off some greeblies (after greeblie shopping) and mounted the lights.

One of the lights I had mounted wasn't working too often so I had to remove it after. Kind of a pain but I got it out. Also the lights came with the UK style plug so I had to cut it and splice it to an extension cord.

Here is a video of it in action:





And a couple pics. One with flash, one without.

Medal for Han

I just agot a casting of a Medal of Yavin (from A New Hope) .., and the proper ribbon so I cleaned it up a bit, painted it with some leftover Threepio gold, mounted it and hung it on Han.

Flux Capacitor Housing..almost done...

I painted the box, cut the plexiglass..mounted it with rubber molding, and creatively mounted the latches and hinges. The screws I mounted by drilling a smaller hole then feeding the screws through to thread the aluminum walls a bit, the removing the screws and clipping them short so I don't have ugly screws poking through. I then covered the opening with soem JB Weld and painted it to match the rest so they just look like bumps..

The hinge was tricky..I didn't have the extra lip at that side I needed, but with some nuts as spacers I got it mounted. It's not perfect, but it works and you won't really see them from behind anyways.

I painted a couple of PVC elbows (lighter than actual metal ones) and have them glued in place now (well glue needs to dry for 24 hours...). I plan to make use of one of them to runt the power wire from the lights to an outlet. I hate to have an ugly cord hanging out of it..but no choice.

I didn't have a label maker so I found the correct font online and printed the labels to the right size...then glued them on. They don't have raised letters..but thats a minor detail.

Here is a pic of the "real" one from the movie:



And here is mine:



Once the lights arrive I can work on the internals! :)

New project..about the size of a breadbox.

Any guesses as to what I am making? I have all the hardware and greeblies in the works...this was the hard part..the main box. The real one used in the 'movie' is available but very expensive. Seems like ppl use similar boxes..but even those were expensive so I drew up layouts based on the real one and had this made up.

Vid of R2 with new holo eyes...one that lights up!

Here is a video. SOrry the quality is HORRIBLE...stupid camera. ANyways if you crank you speakers you will hear R2 play Leia's message when I ask for it...and the light go on again near the end when I say, "Light beam."

This was hard to do with one hand operating camera..the other moving R2...and the viewfinder on m camera wasn't working cuz the batteries were low so I had to look through the viewfinder.

Anyways..if you listen close you will get the idea. It works very well!!

Just wanted to update..have been working on R2 on my holidays a bit when I can. I just finished painting and installing my new HP's (generously given to me by my Danish friend Holse). They look GREAT!

I also extended the wires and added a quick release coupling (round serial cable) so that I coudl mount the LED from my interactive R2 in the new front holo eye. Now when I am using the interactive R2 for sounds and I say , "Light beam" or play message it will light up and play Leia's message. This will limit my dome rotation a bit (I have a long loose wires so I could probably do a few laps with no problems)...but I'll just be carefull.

I also received my new seed controller so as soon as my dome motor adapter arrives I can mount that and get that head spinning again!

Nice to get some progress in improving my R2!

I'll post a video soon of the HP in action, and R2 moving with his new C6C control system!

New Cheapo control system....SUCCESS!!!!!!

I am just pasting this from my post at the Astromech factory....no point typing it out 2 times...

I hooked up the C6C and adjusted the proper jumpers on the Scorpion. I plugged in the left and right foot motor wires (from scorpion to the C6C) and the picoswitch that plays my r2 sounds..and powered it up. I WAS BLOWN AWAY!

Not only does it work...it works GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very positive response...LOTS more power..battery life seems longer, range is good...no sign of interference through aluminum body...no lurching. ALL problems solved!!!!!

I didn't even have a single cable backwards or even need to recalibrate my foot motors in the scorpion (although I did to be sure). I NEVER get that lucky!



Ecstatic!!! I am going to LOVE only using ONE switch to power up the 2 12v batteries, and only having to charge ONE set of batteries!!!

Now the bad news...

I spliced my vex motor wire with a vex extension (cutting off both male ends) leaving me with a female end I could connect to the C6C. I conencted it..turned it back on, threw the dome on...and powered it up again.

Dome rotation is not working. The motor responds and the controls all work out (left stick turns dome) but that motor is struggling. It barely moves in one direction and the other it strains and pretty much wont move. My guess is the vex system was delivering more voltage to the motor...now that the C6C is working with 5v only..thats not enough for that Vex motor?

I was toying with replacing the dome motor with something quieter and larger anyways..and I do have a motor I bought for this purpose years ago. I attached a couple pics (see post at AF). I got it from Princess auto...I think its for a windshield wiper.

So...how can I add another small speed controller...with minimal wiring and no extra batteries?

New RC system arrived

I just got my new RC system for R2. My current Vex stsem seems to be interfering with my foot motor's speed controllers (Scorpion XL). This new one works with a wirless PS2 controller. It is very simple and cheap, but I hope it works well for me! To power it from my Scorpion XL speed controller (which can deliver the exact 5v it needs I had to remove the voltage regulator and solder a short in that line. I think I was successfull...I HOPE!

This means I wont need a set of batteries to power this new board..it will run off of my existing foot motors.

Battle Droid model done!

Finished the Battle droid model! I used acrylics...was tough to get the color right but I think it turned out pretty good!

My old airbrush was a real challenge because it works sometimes..not others. Took several coats of paint. I then applied and washed off some burnt sienna brown and some black here and there to weather it. The last think I did was use a metallic sharpie to add scratched and wear to the edges.

I am pretty happy with the results. Was fun to make a model again. I didn't bother with the STAP he rides on..I wanted him to be standing. SHame he doesnt come with a blaster tho.

The first pic was with no flash..the second pic I used a flash.