TRON Legacy - Identity Disc: Custom with Lights and Sounds

[zookone]

First day and 1/2 of primer and sanding. Photos below

Anyone have a good paint technique to get the sand blasted finish texture finish effect for the part of the disc after I have the whole thing polished out?

another lesson learned... I wish I had done a small groove overlap/light trap along the inside edge of the disc. This would help stop light from C Ring creeping out the center joint. I'll have to see how bad it it is and make an adjustment. I have a small edge I glue and thin shield along but not much.

Blade part in tedious to finish. Anyone have suggestions for polishing it? So far If just started and am using my needle file.

 

[zookone]

Slowly making progress on the sanding front, getting smoother... You can see how the C Ring shrunk when it got when printer. I had to make another one a 6mm longer so hopefully when it shrinks again, It'll be the right size.

 

[renderinfo]

Thanks for keeping this thread alive with your progress! It's cool to even see the "rework", and the lessons being learned! Keep posting the pics!

 

[zookone]

Project Status Update... The replacement C Ring that I made a bit longer to compensate for shrink should be back from the printer this week. The switch side 1/2 the disc had a build error in the print. The wrong half was then printed as the replacement. The correct half is being reprinted and should arrive maybe by the end of the month. Kind of stuck waiting at the moment.

 

[egonbutnotforgo]

amazing work, this kinda project has just made my list great craftsmanship.

 

[zookone]

amazing work, this kinda project has just made my list great craftsmanship.

Thanks for the compliment.

The replacement prints finally arrived. Not as much shrink in the C Ring this time. Now i'll need too sand it back a bit about 3mm or so. Should be able to keep it looking good.

The disc body print came out great and has a much better curve without the build error/step. Primer and sanding commences this weekend.

-Z

 

[zookone]

Lot of sanding and and needle round filing. Working on 600 grit sanding the disc body. I have to use a needle file for the blade and it takes forever. 360 grooves x2 for both sides.

Still probably a few more weekend of sanding. Still plug'n away...

 

[renderinfo]

Still nice pics, too

 

[zookone]

Brief status update. I ordered micro meshes so I can proceed with polishing the masters. In non-project but affects projects news. I've bought a house and will be moving the next 30 days. I've been in a small apartment for the past year and it has sucked. Bad news is progress is going to slow down on this a bit, but the new place will have the room I need for painting and casting though, so I'm super excited be able to spread out and continue. I'll still be working on some sanding still but I need to start packing stuff up soon.

-Z

 

[CSMacLaren]

Gosh that last shot set was beautiful!

 

[zookone]

Sanding, Sanding, and then a bit of polishing.

I never would of though you could get so much shine of lacquer spot filler primer. Still working on the blade, but the body halves are basically done and ready for molding once I move to the new pad next month.

 

[Bandit-Jedi]

It's progressing quite well!

Good luck with the move and look forward to more updates!

 

[zookone]

Found this cool Processing App the helps you program complex NeoPixel strips or rings with a GUI. It is set up for 16 LEDs but is still interesting and useful for folks programing complex patterns.

http://professor.digitalcoleman.com/blog/2013/12/01/neo-pixel-ring-sequencer/

 

[zookone]

I've been able to tweak the ring sequencer for the full 40 LEDs for the Legacy Blade, this will allow for some really fancy and custom effects, depending on the microcontroller RAM limitations.

 

[SETFREE]

Amazing, are you considering selling this once it's done?

 

[Crimson490]

Jaw-droppingly gorgeous work! I love the relentless attention to detail.

For a textured plastic effect, I just hold the spray paint can 3+ feet away from the object. The paint semi-dries into little balls mid-air before making contact instead of spreading out on the surface. You do this a couple times, and the texture gets more and more pronounced. You could also spray it with plasti-dip (2-3 coats a normal distance away) for a slightly different texturing effect.

For polished plastic effect, I've had really good success with ~3 layers of clear lacquer, wet sanding, then Meguire's rubbing compound, then Meguire's carnuba wax (using microfiber cloth). I've tried polishing filler primer, and I think the clear takes it even further. But, your master is looking awesome. =)

For casting the clear light pipes, I can only think that you might be able to pour into a mold where the top surface is open to the air. This would give you a big enough window to pour into as well as demold. This surface is going to be a little wavy, but I think it would be hidden inside the disk, right? Of course, you'll want to vacuum degas the resin before pouring, and it might help to stick the whole mold inside a pressure pot to shrink any leftover bubbles during cure. And you may want to vibrate the mold a little bit too, or else find a very low viscosity resin - all those little scallops are going to make nice places to trap air. =)

Out of curiosity, are the light ring scallops necessary? Are they movie-accurate, or are they added to assist in light piping? For simplicity, I might take them out and make the surface textured. That will probably have the same effect in the end.

 

[zookone]

Jaw-droppingly gorgeous work! I love the relentless attention to detail.

Thanks! I love your helmets!

I'm going to cast the discs smooth and let people produce the textured paint areas themselves. This way you don't have texture on texture, and people would need to worry about masking during any polishing they do.

Yes to do the scalloped light rings, I'm thinking I will need to degas the silicone, resin, and then pressure cast. I don't have any of this equipment, but I do have space for it all now that I have moved.

Scalloped rings aren't necessary but do match the photos of the single hero disc that was sold in auction. Budget option is laser cut pieces, which not as cool, I think the thickness will change the brightness of the light moving through.

Just moved on yesterday, will be working on getting a new workspace setup again that I've been really missing for the past year. More to come soon!

 

[The Schlitzie]

Just saw the latest video you posted with the lights and sound.... amazing work! I hadn't checked out this thread in quite some time. I'm glad I did.

 

[Canobi]

View attachment 348671
I've been able to tweak the ring sequencer for the full 40 LEDs for the Legacy Blade, this will allow for some really fancy and custom effects, depending on the microcontroller RAM limitations.

What program is that? Im going to attempt making my own disc pcb and this would help immensely.

 

[zookone]

What program is that? Im going to attempt making my own disc pcb and this would help immensely.

The link below will take you to the base program that I started with. The program was written for Processing, and generates a .Txt file that you copy and paste in your Arduino code. It is sort of fun/interesting but very tedious for 40 lights with no open/save function in the program. I will probably not use this for my primary disc code. It allows you to visualize an effect that you may chose to code in alternate fashion, which is good though.

You need to edit the GUI .svg shape file in illustrator or similar to make a thinner GUI symbol. A smaller .svg symbol is need if you tweak the number of total LEDs in the sequencer 40 in my case.

http://professor.digitalcoleman.com/blog/2013/12/01/neo-pixel-ring-sequencer/

Also still working on getting the house setup post move. I want to grab mold making supplies this week and order a laser cut blade and c rings for the prototype/test disc this week.