Thermal Detonator - Accurate 3D model and resin build (picture and info heavy)

[MartinSivertsen]

Any more progress MartinSivertsen ?

Chaïm

Yes!

I received the PCB's I designed for battery charging and managed to solder up a few this week and test them, and they work!

I work for a semiconductor company and used a battery charging circuit that my workplace has designed, the nPM1100, it's mounted on the bottom of the board.

Here I tested the Seeduino with battery charging board and LED's, and it works as intended.

I also finished painting all the chipping on one of the Thermal Detonators, next up is a light filter of brown ink to get that lightly tarnished look. 80% of the chipping is screen matched to photos of the original prop, I went a bit lighter on the black chips where the metalized coating has chipped off on the original prop, as the amount varies with how recently the pictures were taken.

A bonus pic of a clean TD with lights that I took in the evening:

 

[Sym-Cha]

Wonderful! Does or will it incorporate sound fx too? Compared to the 'spaghetti' electrical works in my defunct TD from ebay ... yours is quite clean and elegant! I might be in for an upgrade

Chaïm

 

[MartinSivertsen]

Wonderful! Does or will it incorporate sound fx too? Compared to the 'spaghetti' electrical works in my defunct TD from ebay ... yours is quite clean and elegant! I might be in for an upgrade

Chaïm

Thanks!
The Seeduino board with battery charger board does not incorporate sound at the moment, I'm not even sure if the Seeduino can support it. I don't think I want it on these anyway as I want them to be static props that can be displayed with lights, and having sound coming from them constantly would be annoying in the long run.

I did get a board from KR Sabers with sound and hooked that up to a speaker, so I can have one Thermal Detonator with sound as well, to be sort of a "Hero" prop.

I have also been experimenting with different solutions for the toggle switch, but that deserves its own post. I'm still not finished with it.

 

[spoudastis]

The chipping looks fantastic. By far the best looking paint up i have seen of a TD.

 

[MartinSivertsen]

The chipping looks fantastic. By far the best looking paint up i have seen of a TD.

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it!
I have added some airbrush passes of ink as well as a few coats of Alclad Aqua Gloss which I'm waiting to cure before I reassemble it. I'm curious to see how it ends up looking in the end.

 

[MartinSivertsen]

I airbrushed lightly a filter of Liquitex Burnt Umber Ink over the "chrome" hemispheres, and then added Liquitex Carbon Black in in equal amounts and did some areas darker, but still kept it relatively light and subtle, thinking less is more. It doesn't match the screen used one exactly, but I think it has the same feel.

A comparison with a clean one:

I also have to mention that I added several coats of Alclad Aqua Clear Gloss which was a challenge to get glossy, as too little coverage gave a hazy look and too much started running, so I had to apply just enough where it created a glossy surface but didn't start to run and drip. It turned out okay. As it's not a laquer it doesn't get hard like glass, and easily gets scratched or matte if handled too much.

I was going for more of a look like this, as opposed to the very brown look of the more recent pictures of the original prop:

I see that I can go even further and more detailed with the weathering.
This is also the first time I have done a side by side comparison with the original prop, this helps a lot when tweaking the details of the 3D model.

 

[MartinSivertsen]

Here's a little update on the thumb switch function. I tried to get the toggle switch to work, and below is a timeline of the different thumb switch versions I made. It starts on the left with Roel Veldhuyzen's original switch from the first 3D model I printed, then transitions into my own 3D modelled switch with different inserts to get a smooth action when sliding the switch.

No matter what I did, the toggle switch and printed resin parts always ended up binding somewhere and not sliding smoothly, so eventually I abandoned the toggle switch and tried to use a reed switch and magnets instead, which worked out perfectly.

The reed switch consists of a glass tube with two metal contacts inside which make contact when a magnetic field is applied. The magnet in the thumb switch is attracted to both the disc magnet near the red LED and the steel nut in the back, this also keeps the switch held in place when in either position. I used a steel nut so there wouldn't be a permanent magnetic field near the reed switch. The magnet in the slide switch introduces a magnetic field near the reed switch when it slides back and this turns the entire thing on.

This solution works great for me, but looks a bit "hacky" and might not be the best if I'm going to share the 3D files with the public. Which is also why I spent so much time trying to get the toggle switch solution to work smoothly.

I'm waiting on a gif of the switch turning the thermal detonator on and off to be uploaded to imgur and will post that when it's done.

 

[MartinSivertsen]

A short clip showing the switch and lights:

 

[spoudastis]

fantastic, great work!

 

[beowulf573]

Wow, nevermind the modeling which is top notch, the weathering is taking it to another level. Fantastic.

 

[SPY007]

Nice build. I want to build one using plastruct hemispheres. Is there templates or measurements for the placement of scribe lines and the cut outs along the bottoms of the hemispheres? Could some sort of varnish or gloss coat over the original prop have turned brown? Wasn't a piece of army tank tread added the top of the original prop's button?

 

[Vaderman]

that looks fantastic!! I saw you were having some trouble with the switch, have you tried a toggle switch may be mounted a little further away with some spacers? Anyway, even the rejects that you have up there (Prototypes) look fantastic, really well done.

 

[SPY007]

Could the original prop have been plated as apposed vac metalized? Chrome plating usually follows copper plating. Could the chrome have flaked off? It seems more chrome in the film shots.

 

[chiliarch]

Great work! Interested in those files if you decide to share them. Thanks!

 

[ImperialWalker]

I'm posting because I don't want this thread to get archived. Still wondering if this will be released.