Build a Tesseract, Cosmic Cube, A must for any Avengers Costume! Picture Heavy.

electraflier

Well-Known Member
So, my daughter is probably the biggest Loki fan ever, so I wanted to
make her a Cosmic Cube or Tesseract like the one in the Avengers
movie and Thor.
lokiandcube.jpg

Who can blame her? Cool? yes!:love
I found this cool video on Youtube DIY Avengers Cosmic Cube/Tesseract Tutorial! - YouTube
and decided to have a go at this for a quick rainy afternoon project as it is too too humid to stand in my garage and fiberglass and resin
my IM MK3 and War Machine costume parts!
http://www.therpf.com/f24/iron-man-mk3-build-149350/

http://www.therpf.com/f24/foam-war-machine-gatling-gun-stronger-mount-152950/

The cosmic cube is very simple and relatively inexpensive. I went to eBay and bought 2 softball display cases for 15$ (shipped) a can of
Vaspar window frosting spray and a box of 4
Ashland Submersible blue LED light, I had a box of
waxed paper already so zero cost. Total investment
for 2 cubes 25$ plus or minus a buck and some change.

I started with my supplies!
softballbox.jpg

Got the softball case
LEDs.jpg
http://i768.photobucket.com/albums/xx324/electraflier/supplies.jpg
[IMG]http://i768.photobucket.com/albums/xx324/electraflier/frosting.jpg
I saw the video and since I have sprayed my garage window
with this spray I knew it scratches very easy so I wet sanded the
box with 800 git sand paper. It really did a good job of hazing the
ultra crystal clear plastic!
wetsand.jpg

I hope it will help the frost spray stick better!
I washed it with hot soapy water to remove skin oils, papertoweled
dry and blow dryer just to be safe. From here on out handle
only at the edges to avoid skin oils on plastic and
smudging spray.
First coats!
cubefrost2.jpg

Spray on in even coats that overlap well, but try to avoid pooling and runs. You can (and will) put more coats on! 3 -5 minutes apart as the stuff dries pretty fast! If you get the start of a run you can turn the box flat to let the run self level itself if you do it quickly.
Coat 2 paint inside and outside of the box. Avoid coating the inside edges of the box as they slide in together to form the cube!

Note to self! let everything dry before you slide the box together to show it off! If the spray is wet it will dry the seams together sticking the whole thing shut!!! :confused(please don't ask how I know this) :$:behave

Here is a good time to frost the Blue LED balls so that they defuse the light as well.
Window frost dries in like 5 minutes and around 30 min for full dry.
I added a coat of clear enamel to the outside to hopefully toughen it up as
it will certainly be handled!
clear.jpg


After it died I gathered all the parts for a test run!!
supplies.jpg

Take about 2-3 feet of waxed paper and wad it up into a ball.
Let it relax and insert 2 of the Blue LEDs turned on. Try to have them facing opposite eachother so the light goes everywhere..
I used 2 instead of one as I wanted the light faning out evenly on multiple sides of the cube! test run one had one ball and wasnt very uniform with the brightness.
It would be cool to find a light source that rotates and wobbles to creat the swimming effect of the boxes heart in the movie!
After the LEDs are lit and wrapped in the wax paper simply stuff all of that into one side of the cube. The trick to remember is the cube halves are slightly angled in on themselves to help lock together, so
you may need to spread them back out to get them
to go back together!
Now comes the fun, here are some pictures of the finished cube!
morecube2.jpg

heres another!
morecube.jpg

and another!
litcube.jpg

All in all a very relaxing (and rewarding) project that was done quickly and gave satisfaction near instantly! Not at all like a pepakura IM build!!! :p
Have fun and build someone a Tesseract and have a good game of Loki Vs The Avengers with the kids or have it ready for Halloween!!
Electraflier
 
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Re: Make a Tesseract Cheap, easy project. A must for any Avengers Costume! Picture He

I'm doing this same exact project right now as well!!! Same way and everything, saw the youtube video as well
 
Re: Make a Tesseract Cheap, easy project. A must for any Avengers Costume! Picture He

Looking cool!

Chris
 
Re: Make a Tesseract Cheap, easy project. A must for any Avengers Costume! Picture He

Thanks! Yeah, saw the video and had to do one! Loved the Avengers so much..:cool
Here is another pic! It is a fun easy project that yielded really sweet results! My wife was blown away, daughter loved it!
Me, aww it's ok LOL!
Whats really cool is that if you place the lights carefully and then occasionally rotate the cube without being too obvious it gives the appearance of swirling as each face is very different. So 6 sides randomly shown yields the appearance of the swirling inside motion the movie cube had! Slight of hand yields a good result!
The pictures arent really doing it justice to it as it washes out the pic..It looks very movie accurate in person..
I will try more pics with my really nice camera tomorrow. It really has a warm blue/white glow and veins/waves throughout! Very cool in person, doesnt photograph easily though.

hall1.jpg
 
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Re: Make a Tesseract Cheap, easy project. A must for any Avengers Costume! Picture He

Nice!!! I want one of those, I may make it later thou, no funds right now...
 
Re: Make a Tesseract Cheap, easy project. A must for any Avengers Costume! Picture He

Funny, I did this exact thing a few weeks back... and completely forgot about it! :lol

I opted for the baseball cube because I felt the softball cube was a bit big. However, I'm having a bit of trouble getting the "hot spots" of the LEDs to even out. I may have to pick up a softball cube and give that a go :thumbsup

IMG_20120716_000407.jpg
 
Re: Make a Tesseract Cheap, easy project. A must for any Avengers Costume! Picture He

Try the wet sanding the cube first as it really hazed the plastic before you even paint it. Then spray the LEDs and when they are dry, bury the LED ball really deep into the wax paper. I used 3 feet maybe more. Putting it at the heart of the wax paper really helped!
The problem may be as you say, the baseball cube is really much smaller...the softball may be a tad to big to be "100% movie accurate" but it is very close...:unsure
Acetone will remove this spray, but it is really nasty stuff and I don't recommend it, though it does work with some elbow grease. (A freakin bug Kamakazi'd my cube just as I sprayed the last coat!) :cry You gotta love Florida; 100% humidity and bugs, bugs, bugs out the Tesseract!
Had to wipe one side off. Acetone will etch the plastic and haze it, but sooo what right?:love
 
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Re: Make a Tesseract Cheap, easy project. A must for any Avengers Costume! Picture He

Yeah, I sanded before painting (several layers!) and frosted the LEDs as well. Since it is smaller I don't think there is enough room for the LEDs to sit back enough to disperse light evenly. Going to pick up a softball cube today :thumbsup
 
Re: Make a Tesseract Cheap, easy project. A must for any Avengers Costume! Picture He

Cool! You will be very pleased with the results! Great project!
 
Re: Make a Tesseract Cheap, easy project. A must for any Avengers Costume! Picture He

Such a simple prop to make, suprised no one thought of it sooner.
I'm going to wire the electronics myself, with a tilt switch so you only have to turn it over to turn it off.
 
Re: Make a Tesseract Cheap, easy project. A must for any Avengers Costume! Picture He

Oh man what a great idea! Thanks for posting it!
 
Re: Make a Tesseract Cheap, easy project. A must for any Avengers Costume! Picture He

I did almost the exact thing! Great minds think alike I suppose lol
 
Re: Make a Tesseract Cheap, easy project. A must for any Avengers Costume! Picture He

Thanks Dorian! And you are a Serenity fan we most certainly think very much alike! Joss Rules!
 
I finished mine up last night and I might have to opt to the softball case. I don't like the hot spots cause by the LEDS, along with the opening and closing it to get it to turn on and off. Going to eventually do the tilt switch as well
 
Here is v2

IMG_20120718_115235.jpg


I got the softball cube, sanded and frosted, did the wax paper ball and put my light in and still wasn't happy with the results. So I cut strips of the wax paper, crumpled them up and flatened them back out. After that I used some spray adhesive to line each piece of the cube. There are four layers on each face :)

Made a small platform, glued four of the lights together, and set them on the platform. Now they are centered within the cube

IMG_20120718_115352.jpg


IMG_20120718_115324.jpg


Much happier with this one!
 
wow that is AMAZING work, I will have to go with that idea myself. Only sucky part is have to constantly open and close it to turn on the lights
Here is mine from last night
 
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