So what are these other parts?

[Sulla]

I have the speaker frame with good mesh and the white push button thanks to TOSPHASER on the RPF, but what are the other components made of? I will most likely use a pice of wood for the back panel, but what are the laree white*ish* wedge and silver and black thingie? Is the wedge a huge chunk of plexi and the thingie a washer and a disc of red plastic, maybe?

 

[GeneralMayhem]

I was always under the impression that the upper left piece was a wedge of machined plexi. Especially because of how it seemed to transmit light when it was lit up. I think the surface was frosted or perhaps sanded with fine grit sandpaper. I'd be tempted to replicate it in sheet plastic and cast it in clear resin, but not unless you have a vacuum chamber to eliminate bubbles, otherwise you may have a lot of filing/machining to do to get that wedge shape from a block of plexi.


~ GM

 

[Sulla]

I wonder if anyone can give me accurate dimensions? I may try casting it...

 

[GeneralMayhem]

You could scale it up from the size of the comm unit based on this...

 

[Sulla]

Oh is that from the starfleet manual? Crap... I feel so silly. I never thought to check there. I will draw that out to scale, then try to scale some of the screen shot wall panels I think, comparing it to the speaker frame I got from TOSPHASER and compare the two.

 

[micdavis]

The blue desktop comms are differents sizes from the wall and captain's chair comms.

Don't lnow which are which but I do know they are different.

 

[Sulla]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(micdavis @ Jan 23 2007, 03:46 PM) [snapback]1403358[/snapback]</div>

The blue desktop comms are differents sizes from the wall and captain's chair comms.

Don't lnow which are which but I do know they are different.
[/b]

I'm building the wall comm. I'll still try to do up a drawing based on the captain's chaire and one based on the resin pice I have scaled to my best eye of screen grabs.

Anyone have some good screen grabs of wall comms for me to play with?

 

[Fizbin]

Not sure if this will help or not, but roddenberry.com sells kits of the wall com. Here's the link:

http://store.roddenberry.com/browse.cfm?vi...uctGroup=115590

 

[GeneralMayhem]

Considering the photo in the first post IS the Rod.com kit, I assume he's trying to build his own without having to buy the kit.

 

[Sulla]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(GeneralMayhem @ Jan 24 2007, 02:37 AM) [snapback]1403723[/snapback]</div>

Considering the photo in the first post IS the Rod.com kit, I assume he's trying to build his own without having to buy the kit.
[/b]

Yeah, that's where I got that picture.

I already have a resin cast of the blue frame, the speaker screen and a white push button. I plan to scratch build the red panel, the metal washer/red disc, and the wedge thing. I'm gonna try to cast the wedge in clear resin and give it a brush finish. I have enlisted the help of my brother-in-law who has wanted to get into casting for a while now.

Can anyone suggest a good brand of clear resin to try? I've never worked with the stuff. I get the whole casting proccess though, so no worries there.

I just need to find the time to do some scale comparisons of the thing to build a mold.

 

[blufive]

Try Alumlite's Water Clear casting resin.

I normally prefer Smooth On's Crystal Clear series but Alumilite lets you order a small trial kit online for about $25 plus shipping.

You will definately need to vacuum or pressure cast either product though.

You can find "clear floral resin" at your local Michael's Crafts but I've found it to not be a great product.

 

[Sulla]

Thanks.

As I don't have any method to vaccuum or pressure cast anything, I was wondering... Could I perhaps get away with casting a hollow version of the wedge out of clear resin? How thick would I need to make the walls?

I was thinking that I could back it with white styrene on the inside and brush finish the outside for that frosted look.