I have to admit, I'll be awefully disappointed if John Hurts sonic screwdriver is a modified Character Options 4th Doctor screwdriver. It's the 50th anniversary, I need a new sonic screwdriver for my Christmas list!!!
I have to admit, I'll be awefully disappointed if John Hurts sonic screwdriver is a modified Character Options 4th Doctor screwdriver. It's the 50th anniversary, I need a new sonic screwdriver for my Christmas list!!!
Here's my 9th Aztec. The brush-on crackle is soooo hard to apply consistently and I didn't quite achieve as uniform look as I would have liked. But I'm still happy with how it turned out. And I finished it just in time to use it on Halloween as the 9th Doctor!
I used DecoArt One-Step Crackle over Folkart 515 Vintage White (I am not sure if this is anywhere close to the right color). Then for the wash I used Americana Black Green which was just what I had on hand as it came with in the antiquing kit from the 8th sonic. The silver was Dupli Color auto paint BFM0226. And on all parts I used a filler primer followed by sanding to smooth out the print surface.
Oh also while I was doing the electronics I messed up the switch that came with the kit so I ended up using my own which coincidentally had a nice off-white button. I think the button on the original prop was black (?) but I left mine white since it accidentally matches the crackle body.
[url]http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2817/10594123246_3d1a77928f.jpg[/url][url]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3832/10631970206_2a854db1a2.jpg[/url]
The side shown above definitely looks better than the other:
[url]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3762/10631932475_45791638a2.jpg[/url]
Even with only 3V applied, that LED is *bright*! It shines through the plastic and paint in the cavity below the emitter and gives off a neat glow. I got the version of the sonic with the glass cabochon, and after sanding the reflective backing off I put a small circle of white paper between the glass and the LED in order to diffuse the glow. So I ended up with no 'hot spot' in the emitter.
[url]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3829/10631930785_b87f5b7a7e.jpg[/url]
And the back... Is the screw supposed to be black or the color of the body? I wasn't sure...
[url]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5499/10632195713_0937a936ff_z.jpg[/url]
9th sonic next to a TWC 10th sonic.
[url]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5488/10631957054_de227dfbb2_z.jpg[/url]
Here are the internals. The 3d print is big enough to hold AAA batteries so that's the route I took. Gave it a nice heft too! Not pictured is a black wire that connects the top end of the brass tube with the negative LED lead. Also one of the two red wires coming off the switch connects to the positive lead of the LED, and another to a a positive battery contact (the top end of the brass tube must be insulated to prevent a short). There is a bit of foam in the black end cap to hold the negative battery contact in place (the cap is friction fit for changing the batteries)
[url]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5538/10594367293_9645e54708_z.jpg[/url]
My pleasure! And again, feedback is definitely appreciated so that a potential future run will provide some more refined options.Thanks Doctor Octoroc for making these available for everone!
I though that the struts might be modified to give it more of the look you see on the fully machined sonics
like this ___
............\.../
instead of ___
.............../ .....\
disregard the periods
The struts on my model are at a softer angle, like your second example. You can see that better in this example:
http://www.therpf.com/attachments/f...wdriver10solidheadinset.jpg-127585d1353287906
But if you look at the head of the TWC 10th sonic:
http://www.therpf.com/attachments/f9/new-10th-doctor-sonic-screwdriver-universal-remote-imag0098.jpg-248435d1383100839
...the struts clearly taper at the same angle as my design.
It's very likely that they did it to cut down on cost. I just read through the FAQ's on the TWC website about the prop and they mention differences in the emitter head for that reason. The URC was machined by a computer and I'm assuming that the simpler design with the angled struts was a result of this method, where as the hero prop was machined by hand, and could have more intricate details.
I guess I'll do a redesign for the 9th and 10th sonics...
Here's my 9th Aztec. The brush-on crackle is soooo hard to apply consistently and I didn't quite achieve as uniform look as I would have liked. But I'm still happy with how it turned out. And I finished it just in time to use it on Halloween as the 9th Doctor!
I used DecoArt One-Step Crackle over Folkart 515 Vintage White (I am not sure if this is anywhere close to the right color). Then for the wash I used Americana Black Green which was just what I had on hand as it came with in the antiquing kit from the 8th sonic. The silver was Dupli Color auto paint BFM0226. And on all parts I used a filler primer followed by sanding to smooth out the print surface.
Oh also while I was doing the electronics I messed up the switch that came with the kit so I ended up using my own which coincidentally had a nice off-white button. I think the button on the original prop was black (?) but I left mine white since it accidentally matches the crackle body.
[url]http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2817/10594123246_3d1a77928f.jpg[/url][url]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3832/10631970206_2a854db1a2.jpg[/url]
The side shown above definitely looks better than the other:
[url]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3762/10631932475_45791638a2.jpg[/url]
Even with only 3V applied, that LED is *bright*! It shines through the plastic and paint in the cavity below the emitter and gives off a neat glow. I got the version of the sonic with the glass cabochon, and after sanding the reflective backing off I put a small circle of white paper between the glass and the LED in order to diffuse the glow. So I ended up with no 'hot spot' in the emitter.
[url]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3829/10631930785_b87f5b7a7e.jpg[/url]
And the back... Is the screw supposed to be black or the color of the body? I wasn't sure...
[url]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5499/10632195713_0937a936ff_z.jpg[/url]
9th sonic next to a TWC 10th sonic.
[url]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5488/10631957054_de227dfbb2_z.jpg[/url]
Here are the internals. The 3d print is big enough to hold AAA batteries so that's the route I took. Gave it a nice heft too! Not pictured is a black wire that connects the top end of the brass tube with the negative LED lead. Also one of the two red wires coming off the switch connects to the positive lead of the LED, and another to a a positive battery contact (the top end of the brass tube must be insulated to prevent a short). There is a bit of foam in the black end cap to hold the negative battery contact in place (the cap is friction fit for changing the batteries)
[url]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5538/10594367293_9645e54708_z.jpg[/url]
Here's my first crack at the Alt. 8th sonic. I lost the button piece for the switch so I'll have to figure out some kind of replacement. Also, the wood pieces are darker in person and the crystal is more translucent... they just don't want to photograph well on my phone.
http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae69/GiantSlor/2013-11-11_18-29-34_240_zps9c6abb2d.jpg
http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae69/GiantSlor/2013-11-11_18-29-20_715_zps3c918052.jpg
I like it! The more I see these blue-painted emitters, the more tempted I get to pull mine off and re-do it! What kind of paint did you use on yours!
Here's my first crack at the Alt. 8th sonic. I lost the button piece for the switch so I'll have to figure out some kind of replacement. Also, the wood pieces are darker in person and the crystal is more translucent... they just don't want to photograph well on my phone.
Be careful if you do decide to remove the emitter bulb, the FUD is not as resilient as the WSF plastic - I managed to crack mine in the process but everything remained intact! The best way is probably to pry one of the posts holding it in place away very slightly with a small flat head screwdriver then lift it out away from that post, and do the same to the neighboring posts as you do so.