Pip-Boy 3000 Build-up (pic heavy)

You could use a dremel to cut the size of the volume knob and slip the cast Knob over it thus making it fit better.

That's a good idea and one that I tried. Unfortunately, the metal bar in the volume knob is too thick to fit into a hollowed out resin knob (I tried). I even tried filing down the metal, but it was stubborn and started to get hot. I didn't want to fry it, so I decided to just stick with the stock knob. It's really close in terms of size and shape to the in-game one, and really once people see that it works like a volume knob should (turns the "radio" on and off) then no one notices it is not exactly like the original mold.
 
that looks amazing with the electronics installed and i love the health display screen with the pipboy

seriously will you be offering these for sale cause i would love to have one of these :love
 
The kits will be for sale eventually, yes. It will have basically everything you see me use in this build thread (LED screen, green lighting gel, voice amp, detail screws, etc), but I won't be offering completed Pip-Boys... I just don't have the time to build these from kit form. My wife would kill me :lol!
 
This is turning out beautifully. I was just thinking about the possibility of doing a Vault 101 costume this year, and the Pip-Boy to me is a deal breaker. I like your approach thus far, and if I get my own off the ground, it will most definitely be your fault :lol
 
I love it. I'd probably be interested in squiring a resin cast. A lot cheaper then trying to find a good deal on the clock an molding it. Can't wait to see your paint job. I'm glad there are two different versions being made by two different people. I like that soon we will see them.
 
Is it bad that i'm drooling on myself? :love Looks awesome. Do call him to post more. Not rush at the risk of quality, but we are cheering on the progress.


Side note: if he, or anyone else for that mater,would like come visit some of us fallout fans, www.wastelandoutpost.com.
 
There's no worry on rushing, as we wore them this past weekend at a con. It's done, he's probably just super busy with work/kids and the fact that we have a big con coming up in the Houston area.
 
Yep, sorry for the delay, everyone! Aideon hit the nail on the head... work has been a lot of well, work, this week. Damnit, real life, stop getting in the way of my fun!

I *hope* to get pics of the paint job up soon.
 
Time for some more pics!

Just for reference, here's a game screencap to show what the PB3K's color looks like:
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My friends originally painted theirs with spray paint to be an olive or hunter green, but that color just didn't look right to me. I looked all over for a better color and I finally found the best thing at Michael's: Sophisticated Finishes Pewter Metallic Surfacer. Accept no substitutes. Here's what the PB3K looked like at this point:
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I learned that how I applied the paint made a big difference in how the final appearance turned out. What worked for me was to use a cheap sponge brush, coat the paint on good and thick with a normal brush stroke method, and then with the second coat pat the flat side of the brush to get rid of the visible brush strokes. This gives the paint a TERRIFIC texture and adds a lot of depth to the final result. It completely eclipsed the smooth, flat appearance you get with spray paint. If you need any more evidence of how good it looked, Aideon went back and re-painted his entire PB3K after I showed him mine! :lol

The next step was to add an appropriate amount of weathering. These things have been around since before the war, so they should be appropriately grimy and worn. It achieve this look, I mixed olive green, gray, and black acrylic paints in a cup with a good bit of water. I brushed this on with a paint brush, let it sit for a few seconds, then dabbed up the excess with a paper towel. This worked wonderfully at getting into all the nooks and crannies, just like real grime would. Here are a few pics after weathering (the flash washes a lot of it out - it's dirtier in person!)
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I also plasti-dipped the inside of both halves. I ended up stripping this out on the non-screen half so I could mount the elastic straps I use to attach it, but the plasti-dip was really needed on the screen side. After dremeling out enough resin to fit all of my electronics, the resin was so thin in some places that the light from the LED screen was showing through the resin. After the paint and plasti-dip, though, it was good and solid!

Next up, electronics!
 
As I mentioned previously, I used a cut-to-size piece of plexi-glass for the screen. Behind this I mounted a sized screen shot from the game that I printed with a color printer. I had to play around with the brightness and the contrast of the image to get it to look right once it was back-lit. It wasn't quite a simple as print screen, copy, paste, print :lol. Behind this I cut a piece of clear plastic from an document holder, just to give the paper a little extra protection should any sweat get up in there. I used plain old scotch tape to secure all 3 together, then I used dabs of hot glue at the corners to hold it into place.

Behind this I hot glued 1 layer of the green lighting film, and behind the green film I mounted the LED screen. The LED screen spits out light in every direction, so I used electrical tape on the sides to block it out and aluminum foil on the back... this way all the light goes out the screen and you don't see much of a glow when you look at the insides.

Here's what it looked like at this point:
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That circuit board off to the right is the circuit board from the voice amp that I disassembled. Here it is with it in place and with the detached volume knob in place through the front hole. Again, everything is being mounted with hot glue... that stuff really does the job if used for the right applications!
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Here I have the speaker mounted behind the speaker grille. Before I mounted the speaker I glued in a small piece of black screen (see above pic) to give it the proper look if anyone is taking an especially close look at it.
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Here it is with everything but the batteries and the mp3 player installed. The black push-on/push-off switch (top left corner in this pic) is held in place with, you guessed it, hot glue.
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Here's another view "down the barrel". It looks like it would dig into your arm, but it really doesn't. The wires just compress down, the only thing I even sort-of feel is the volume knob. Even so, I still have enough space to wear this over my jumpsuit's sleeve without any problems.
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If you have big meaty forearms, this may not be the prop for you, though. I will take some interior circumference measurements and post those once I have them.

At this stage I still needed to attach the hinge (more detail on that later), add the elastic attachment straps (pics to come), and then use some silver paint to give it a few bits of "character" on the outside.
 
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