Interactive Blast Doors from The Phantom Menace

[mgbeach]

I see an epic project in the works

 

[jedimaster]

I like your enthusiasm. Keep it up , but get it finished before your wife puts a light sabre through you..

 

[propologist]

me too , so the million dollar question is , where are you going to put it when your done with it. ..would be a cool garage door

 

[WebChief]

This is a cool project! I can't wait to see it in action!

 

[DragonStar]

Wife has enough of her own projects around, I'm safe.

Get ready to give me that million bucks cause I have an answer for you, propologist! It will be a traveling "exhibit" which will be used at Rebel Legion trooping events. Museums, schools, malls, cons, etc. It will live in my crawl space the rest of the time. Unless... (measures living room wall)

 

[DragonStar]

Update on painting...

 

[mgbeach]

killer paint job

 

[DragonStar]

Thanks! I'm not quite happy with it yet, but it is coming along. Here it is all together just for the heck of it. You can see some streaky brush strokes along the outer bottom pieces. I want to come in with a fat brush and a light wash of metal paint mixed with, I dunno, raw umber or something.

 

[mgbeach]

You do realize, of course, that when this is done you're going to have to whip up a couple of 1:1 destroyer droids, right?

 

[DragonStar]

You are a bad, bad person. Bad.

 

[mgbeach]

Haha! The prop-maker's kryptonite..."Wouldn't it be cool if..."

 

[DragonStar]

It is time for ....this used to be my living room, part 2:

I'm excited because when these freshly glued panels are dry, poked with peg holes, scrimmed, and painted.... then the top half will be done! Woot!

 

[mgbeach]

congrats!

Did someone steal your tv?

 

[DragonStar]

Hah, nope. I just want to get this done while the enthusiasm is still there.

... oh, you mean the empty wall? screen drops down from the ceiling, projector mounted on the opposite wall. How do you think I got a large enough image to design the blast doors? :lol

Star Wars looks great on it, BTW.

 

[mgbeach]

Oh, sweet setup! Saw the center channel there by itself and thought you got robbed

 

[DragonStar]

Who needs TV when you've got this? Here's another panel glued and scrimmed. It doesn't look like much, but today was a big day. Lots of cutting, making holes to join panels, sanding, scrimming, trips to AC Moore, Joann's, and Home Depot, etc. This panel is scrimmed in muslin and a nice Japanese two-ply cotton gauze. If it wasn't thirty bucks a yard I'd use that exclusively cause it is nice.

 

[SeerDrakon]

This is really coming along. I can't wait to see the finished product!!!

 

[DragonStar]

Excellent first post!

 

[Panaflex]

Just too cool. More pics please.

B.

 

[DragonStar]

Ask and ye shall receive! Another weekend, another 20 hours of blast dooring. This one shows a bit more about the mounting mechanism. I planned to use wooden dowels, but couldn't figure out a solid mounting mechanism. Then planned to use nylon screws, then found out how much they cost. :shock: Finally I settled on 1/2 inch PVC. I bought 6" double male threaded PVC then cut each in half. Economical way to get heavy plastic "screws." I then decided to use 1/2" couplers (again cut in half) for the nuts. But.... couplers are tapered inside and don't twist down all the way. So I used conduit locknuts at my dad's suggestion and they work like a champ at 10 cents each. Feeling pretty good about the mounting possibilities now.

I also began work on the top crown. Tonight, more scrimming. I scrimmed with Pandora's Ladytron channel in the background the night before last, then last night was Cinderella. I might stick with that because 80's metal rules.