Re: Marvel SHIELD Toolbox prop, Nick Fury to Director Coulson 1st RUN DONE
A quick tutorial.
MASK OFF THE BRASS THREADED INSERTS PRIOR TO ANY PRIMING OR PAINTING.
1. Remove the tape holding the clear internal acrylic piece in place and remove it.
2. The cube and lid themselves are self explanatory, sand each recessed face with a 400 grade wet dry sand paper and use some surface filler to get rid of any print lines then give the each face a sand down with some 600 grade wet and dry to give it a smooth finish.
3. Use a rattle can of primer to see how the finish looks and repeat the smooth sanding and filling if necessary. if memory serves me correctly I only needed to do this process once to get a smooth finish.
4. Give the internal face of the cube a quick coat of matt black, this will prevent any light leaks from the powerful blue LEDs.
5. Give each face a
light spray coat of
Matt Black, allow to dry for 15 - 20 minutes in a warm dry place (NO HUMIDITY) and repeat with a second light coat. 2 should be enough but you can repeat with an optional 3rd coat. With the cube lid you may want to be careful not to overspray the edges as slight increase in diameter may prevent the lid from freely lifting in and out of the cube.
6. Allow the matt black to dry for at least 24 hours depending on the paint, some rattle cans can take a little longer. Always make sure the air is dry, don't spray the prop outside if the air is damp.
7. This next part has two options you can either mask off the internal recess of the cube faces that need to stay black and use a silver rattle can to pick out the edges. Or you can use a fine model painting brush and use some Tamiya X-11 Chrome silver and put a
light coat on one face at a time. Allow that face to dry for about 30-40mins and go back over it with a second brushed coat to give it some fullness.
DON'T try and get the whole thing done in one coat, it will be lumpy and messy and possibly not dry properly.
8. Allow all the paint to cure in a warm dry place for a good couple of hours, during which time you can work on the electronics.
One or two of your kits may find that some of the brass threaded inserts pop out, if they do great it will save you having to mask them, then all you need to do is pop them back into their internal recessed square holders. A
tiny spot of Cyanoacrylate glue (Super glue) on the
UNDERSIDE of each insert will permanently secure them in place
when you have finished painting and want them to stay inside the square internal holders.
Electronics
The battery holder provided in your kit will take a 23AE 12v fob battery, which may need a resistor to prevent the LEDs burning out. You can use a different battery and holder if you prefer, it's entirely your choice I just provided this particular one in the kit as it is what I used on the build up of the cube I did.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-2-x-D...rElectronics_Batteries_SM&hash=item3390afa681
You may need to trim down your actuator on the slide switch provided to prevent it sticking out the end of your prop too much and preventing the cube sitting flat on a surface
1.Using standard hobby electronics wire I connected up the -ve terminals of the two blue LEDs to one point on the slide switch, then soldered the other adjacent terminal of the switch to the 220ohm resistor and then onto the -ve terminal on the battery holder.
2.Then wire the two +ve terminals of the LEDs to the +ve terminal on the battery holder. As you can see I arced the +ve lead over the top edge of the battery holder as there isn't enough space for it to go around the outside as it will impede the lid sliding into the body of the cube.
Happy building guys, I hope you enjoy putting the kit together.
Thanks
Jamie
