As usual, I'm jumping from one task to another. I started reverse-engineering the gearbox for the temple details, but got tired of them and switched to the eyes (just today a package with 11mm lenses arrived). The eyes are for my Thai M1, so they are scaled down and have a diameter of 22.5mm. I had microscope apertures that I bought a few years ago. They have a maximum aperture of 8mm and a minimum of 1mm. I printed an eye for testing, inserted the aperture, and placed the lens. It looks decent. After that, I got the idea to move the aperture closer to the lens, and I decided to do this with a render. In the renders, the aperture on the left is 1mm closer to the lens than on the right. On the right is the same eye that I printed earlier for testing. I think the left option is better. When the aperture is closer to the lens, the eye's glow is visible at a wider angle than when the aperture is deeper.
It would be nice to have the apertures open and close based on the ambient light levels, which can be easily achieved with an Arduino and a light sensor (a simple photoresistor). But finding a small enough servo motor is the problem.
What do you think, does it turn out well enough?
p.s. In the last render (test6), you can see gaps in the lower ring of the aperture, but in reality, there will be pins inside them, so it will look better than in the render. Also, making beautiful eyes will be difficult for another reason - it will be necessary to assemble the eyes very carefully to avoid smudging the lens and prevent dust from getting inside the eye.
