Fallout 76 Prop Pipboy

SargeB96

New Member
So, as most of us know, a few day's ago, Bethesda dropped a teaser trailer on us for the next Fallout, Fallout 76. Seeing it, I'm both excited for it and a little worried cause of the rumors, but I'm waiting for E3 first.

Anyway, not the main reason I'm here, what I'm asking for is help with making a pipboy prop. I'm not planing to start this now as I'd like to get a better look at the pipboy when the game is released, this is more of just asking for help to know what I need and whats the best way to go about making it.

I know a little about making resin molds (haven't done it myself, but doesn't hurt to try) so, I guess that's a place to start, unless anyone else know's a better way to make it, but this isn't a major problem, though a few tips and some advice would help me out heaps!

What I'm having trouble is the electronics like the screen and such, and most of all...the vacuum tubes on the side, these are my biggest hurdle as...I know nothing about them ^^; (or any electronics for that matter) basically all I'd like (at the moment) is for them to light up and maybe also have a sound board (or what ever its called) to play music when its turned on.

Thank you for your time guys! any help is appreciated.
 
Howdy,

If there is one rule in Fallout, is is that prop-sizes are arbitrary. So you will have a hard time finding real-world parts that fit exactly. You may have to re-create parts from scratch. Take a look at the previous Pip-Boy 2000 builds out there, many of the parts are similar.
 
Are the tubes vacuum or nixies? I've messed around with case modding using both. The best vacuum ones have bakelite bases cause they are glued together. You can add an amber LED and an acrylic diffuser. There are several options for a sound board via adafruit or sparkfun depending if you want an arduino involved or not.

i-WKwW5Hq-L.jpg
 
The tubes as shown in the trailer are very simple and highly symmetrical. Just a coil of wire up the middle, with a coil of wire in a torus around it. Capped with a small reflector.

I don't think they are a copy of anything off the shelf (That I could find at least). Either they are there just to glow, like the tubes in the original Pip-Boy 2000. Or they could Vue-meter types, that have a glow that travels up/down. I am betting they just glow.

If I were to re-create them: I would take the top off another tube to get the glass. Then build up the inside using magnet wire wrapped around a piece of sanded fiber optic cable. You can then pass light into the end of the fiber optic, and simulate the glow of the wires. At least that is my idea. It would be easy to do at least the center coil this way. Then use other LEDs below to make the rest glow.
 
I pre ordered mine.

I don't think it's perfect, but being a kit should be a lot easier to mod. Certainly a lot easier to properly weather. And let's be honest, at least it comes with the nixies tubes. I don't think they're real nixies, but I wouldn't know where to begin with those if I was making one from scratch anyways. I'm sure they're probably just plastic tubes that you shine LED's up into.

I wonder if there will be a smart phone version, or another Blue Tooth version...…...
 
I think those are flash light bulbs. See my post above on how I would recreate the nixie tubes.

I am keeping my order if only to use as reference for what I would call a "Remastered" build. It looks like they kept modding in mind on this one, hopefully that screen comes apart.
 
Yeah, EB Games here in Australia just put up the Power Armour Helmet Fallout 76 Collectors Edition and the PipBoy 2000 kit for pre-order so I have ordered them both. As above I feel it will be much easier to mod and weather the PipBoy as a kit and the presentation looks really cool in my opinion. Almost tempted to order a second one to display as delivered. EB also has the other prop replicas on pre-order, interested in the Fusion Core to compare to my 3D printed version that I printed from Lillykills files.

Cheers

Tony
 
EB also has the other prop replicas on pre-order, interested in the Fusion Core to compare to my 3D printed version that I printed from Lillykills files.

From what I'm seeing, the official Fusion Core was made from the game files, and should be 100 percent accurate. Or at least they claim it is.

Lilykill's file, however, isn't accurate. I used his file as a base for a run I did, and I had to cut and rotate the bottom 'male end' in the correct position. Also the red switch looking thingy at the top wasn't accurate, I had to model that from scratch. The two main halves also had to be pushed closer together, he had them with some kind of space in between and they aren't like that in the game renders. Sadly, we can't see the red piece on the official one either, for comparison.



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Thanks for the tips GhostMinion. I also feel that Lillykill's version may be a tad undersize as the one I printed with no scale changes from the files seems smaller than other versions and indeed when compared to screenshots. Not a problem when printing your own as I did, just I figured if I get an "official" version for scaling I can print some more if I want. I actually used someone else's version for the red switch piece as well.

Having seen some other pictures of the PipBoy 2000 kit version I still think it will be a good basis for a weathered/ accurised version.

Cheers

Tony
 
Having ZERO skills with electronics, I'm leery of the Thinkgeek Pipboy because it specifically states "no electronic functionality." So no lights, etc., and the tubes are dummies. It still looks to make for a nice display, even with the blank clear screen they picture. I'm on the fence....
 
I think those are flash light bulbs. See my post above on how I would recreate the nixie tubes.

I am keeping my order if only to use as reference for what I would call a "Remastered" build. It looks like they kept modding in mind on this one, hopefully that screen comes apart.




If you take a look at the Wand Companies web site they are the people who are building the Pipboy 2000 Mk Vi for Bethesda and thinkgeek but on the page for the Pipboy (https://www.thewandcompany.com/pip-boy-kit/) they show a diagram of how the screen goes together, hope this helps.
 
If you take a look at the Wand Companies web site they are the people who are building the Pipboy 2000 Mk Vi for Bethesda and thinkgeek but on the page for the Pipboy (https://www.thewandcompany.com/pip-boy-kit/) they show a diagram of how the screen goes together, hope this helps.


Thank you for posting that link! Finally, we get a bigger, more close up view of these pictures. The Bethesda Store site doesn't expand the pictures.

I see the power button is red and opaque like the Stat/Item/Data buttons. That sucks. Gonna need to make a new orange/translucent one to make it light up. Nice to see that we don't have to worry about the other buttons lighting up, though. Looks like all the others are an opaque red color.
 
Also looks like there is ample space to add "working" functionality to the rad meter, screen or radio if you have the ability. Surely the availability of small LCD screens and single board computers like the Raspberry Pi would help in things like this?

Cheers

Tony
 
Also looks like there is ample space to add "working" functionality to the rad meter, screen or radio if you have the ability. Surely the availability of small LCD screens and single board computers like the Raspberry Pi would help in things like this?

Cheers

Tony

Seriously. I got mine on preorder already. As far as I can tell there's a number of empty voids in the body, it seems like some option for functionality should be possible. If anyone develops an electronics kit or something, I'd be interested in one.
 
The fact that the screen assembly is made of so many parts gives me some hope. (I have both the Pip-Boy and Power Armor on order anyways)

I re-watched the trailer, and the right-most buttons are not illuminated anyways. The leftmost button is amber in-game. If that button is thin enough, you might be able to illuminate it with a bright yellow LED. It depends on if they used red plastic, or painted some black plastic.
 
I'm interested in a guide modifying the model one or even a build one I think this Pipboy is great regardless of how the game does. That being said I am curious if it would be better to buy the kit (when it comes out via pre-order) or to try to build it another way. But I definitely think you could squeeze tech into the model but maybe that's just a fools dream.
 
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