Zeroid from Terrahawks

[KevinD]

Here are a few pictures of my scratchbuild of a Zeroid from the Gerry Anderson series Terrahawks. The model has radio controlled moving eyes.

 

[Chaank]

Oh man, that is so cool. I loved terrahawks. Each episode seemed to go too quickly

 

[MangyDog]

Wow a wonderful blast from the past.... My childhood salutes you

 

[KevinD]

Thanks people. Zeroids are fun characters. I'm working on their enemies the cubes now!

 

[skiffy]

Just brilliant, Kevin! You'll have to do a noughts and crosses photoshoot when you have a cube too.

 

[KevinD]

Thank you. Yep, it is an aim!

 

[Krats]

Looks great, I loved that series! Are you able to give us a little more info? How big is it? What did you make him from?

 

[KevinD]

Thanks. He's 20cm diameter and made from acrylic hemispheres. I did a build thread on here years ago but the images went in the photobucket changes.

 

[KevinD]

This is what the Zeroids and Cubes get up to when I'm not looking.

 

[davelow]

These are AWESOME!!! I want to make my own Zero and 101 - do you still have some of the build photos?

D

 

[KevinD]

Thanks. I do have the build photos on a disc somewhere. I will dig them out and light a fire under the boiler of my laptop and see if I can upload them again. Bear with me!

 

[davelow]

That's really kind - thanks so much - any ref would be hugely appreciated
I'm looking into using acrylic hemispheres and also interested in the electronics to make the mouth and eye lights look like the filming prop.

D

 

[KevinD]

Ok, I've found the photos. It was quite a while ago when I built it but as I recall, I used 20cm acrylic hemispheres. I put lights in the mouth that were wired to a sound-to-light chaser kit. The leds in the eyes were connected to a driver circuit that I bought online that flashes them in appropriate patterns. Each eye is moved by a servo and somehow I got all of the electronics and batteries into it. The speaker is connected to a jack socket so you can play any sounds through him. Hope this helps.

 

[davelow]

Thanks so much - this is great - already I can see better ways of doing a couple of things than i was planning - like creating the recess for the eyes for example - quick question - how did you get the geometry correct for the mouth lights and the identifier pattern above the eyes - considering those ares curve in two directions?

Fantastic pictures - thanks again for digging them out

 

[KevinD]

You're welcome. I think I might've used a profile gauge to get the curves but then again, it might've been trial and error!

 

[KevinD]

Oh, just remembered, to get some lines, like the mouth position, I taped a pen to a block of wood that was the right height and put it and the hemisphere on a table and then held the pen against the dome and slowly turned the dome, leaving a straight line on a curved surface!

 

[Scapey]

Love these guys!

 

[Krats]

Great work, thanks for the additional pics. Very tempted to have a go at this project myself after seeing the fantastic results you've had!

 

[KevinD]

Having just completed a build of Space Sergeant 101, I decided to promote my original Zeroid and have made him into Sergeant Major Zero. Stroll on.

 

[Saracen]

Looking great, Kevin.