Time Monster Console Room

[d33j r093r5]

Hi all, been a while... actually all things considered, it probably hasn't been THAT long, but I guess I'm used to updating a little more frequently than I have been. So in context, it's been a while... I KNOW WHAT I MEAN...!    

It's also not much of an update, because things haven't really moved forward, project-wise. I still require the help of my brother, but he's currently in Vietnam... will be a couple of weeks yet...

So, the reason for this update is just that I've moved the console room to it's new, semi-permanent home: inside my display room of Doctor Who... err... stuff! Mostly 5" CO, but with a smattering of other things, and my own additions - like this console room. I basically rearranged my entire house to get it in there too! The way I had it setup previously meant there was nowhere for it to go. So after much furniture moving and display adjusting, I have the room et al. setup to my personal satisfaction, and thought I'd share with you...!  





couple of panoramas to give you a feel of the space...




... oh no... the Angels are... caught between the inner and outer doors...  




... array 1. Am particularly proud of the Dalek army...




... array 2... AND the Cyber-Army as well...




... array 3. My son's Character Building is going well. On top, Tom is dealing with a minor Osiran problem...




... array 4. Mainly, the glass cabinet is for rare and/or unopened items, like SDCC specials. I have more figures than space though, so many more end up inside or on top...




... my first 3D printed console room has pride of place on its' own stand, middle-centre. It WOULD have been the Time Monster Console Room, but the space is just too small...




... the secondary console room. I didn't make this, a very clever DW model builder in the UK did. Commissioned in 2011. See earlier posts for more info...




... TAH-DAHHHH! The (almost) finished TM Console Room. It hasn't got centre stage, but it did get a very prime piece of Real Estate (almost) all to itself. It sits at eye-level too, so you can't help but notice it.

That's it! Nothing further to add (yet). Talk to you all soon!  

D.

[galacticprobe]

I'd say that collection, and your console room builds, certainly deserve small bit of

Dino.

[fictionlord]

Absolutely love the 3D Printed console rooms, starting to work on mine (Finally brought an Original Prusa i3), and I hope they turn out half as well as yours!!  There's so much that I keep thinking of that I could 3D Print that I think I may have to buy buy Buckingham Palace to have the room to store it all in!!!

[d33j r093r5]

Let us know when you start your build diary fictionlord. Will be keen to see it! 

[d33j r093r5]

Hey all, Update!

My brother got back from gallivanting around SE Asia, so I was finally able to get his lazy a** into gear and do some REAL work! Translation: My hard-working brother just got back from a well-earned holiday with his family, and I was able to distract him for a couple of hours on the weekend to connect up the EL wire for my little project.   Actually, he doesn't read this forum, and I haven't named him, so I could have stuck with the original version. I wouldn't sleep though. No, really....    

Aaaaaanyway, I DID feel better about my own efforts after watching him. He's an electronics engineer, and he's been doing wiring, soldering, testing etc etc for years. Has all the right equipment too. And even for him it was incredibly fiddly work and took a good 2-3 hours to do. Oh, it all worked as well, and looks very professional, 2 aspects that, had I finished, would more than likely have been missing. And it would have taken longer. Still, I was on the right track. Lessons learned for next time. *sigh* ...

That was Saturday. I haven't been able to get back to it until last night / today. One thing that my brother did, AFTER I told him that none of the controls were glued down, was to turn the console upside down. I did manage to retrieve everything that fell off, and was pleasantly surprised to find that most of it held quite well without any extra adhesion. I put everything back together last night. And again this morning. And again this afternoon. Yeah, actually connecting the wiring is apparently only half the job. Then, you've got to try and make everything fit nicely inside your console, without catching on anything, at the same time that you're trying to assemble it all. You'd think with all my years experience in IT infrastructure I would have worked that out...   apparently, my learning curves are quite steep...  

I have once again used my trusty blu-tack for making things stick! . It's easy to get on and off, especially in tight corners or spaces, and just keeps on working. I haven't found anything that says you shouldn't use it with electrical equipment, and haven't had any problems thus far. If anybody knows better, let me know, and I'll rethink it...

Everything at the moment is still kind of string-and-sticky-tape with the console, as I still haven't sorted out the motor and how it's going to work. I think someone earlier on in this topic mentioned making a floor for the console room and running all the electrical stuff through that, up through a hole in the base of the console. I'm still not quite at the stage where I'm going to do that, but I will admit to being a step nearer it given my recent assembling experience. That, and my brother also told me the same thing! *grump, grump, grump* ...

Anyway, on with the show...!




The first layout. The EL wire segments are wired together in parallel on the AC side of the inverter. That tiny little blue button thing is the 1.5V inverter, in case I haven't posted any pictures of it before. It was the smallest I could find. Next to it is an AA battery with the DC cables held on with blue electrical tape. Those cables run to one end of the plug you can see at the top of the image. The other end of the plug is on the DC side of the inverter. All the wiring done here was done by my brother, with the exception of the battery and blue electrical tape... that's MY exemplary effort! ... That, and the blu-tack, holding them to the walls... meh, you can't see them!...





... A closer look at the wiring job on the EL wires...





... and GLOWING! just connected those two plug ends and TA-DAH...





... The top of the Time Rotor Tubes, and the blu tack I'm going to use to hold the EL wire to the tops of those round-plug-things on the underside...





... MODIFIED layout, once I worked out how hard it is to try and assemble everything into a small space, while keeping everything together and not squashing all the room out while your going.... it's long and complicated and kind of boring! In essence, I moved things about to make 'em fit better...  





... Nearly home...!  





YAY...! Assembled! Those 2 plug ends will eventually be hidden away. I left them hanging outside for the time being so I can connect and disconnect the EL wire at will, without having to go through the assembly/disassembly procedure every time I want to switch it on or off...





... Connected! It still GLOWS!!! Oooooooh! Aaaaaaah! Bit too much light in here though, the effect is a little lost...





... so I brought it home...





... and turned the lights off! ...  





... it looks a little wonky up close, but it's not quite finished yet. However, with the lights out and in context, it DOES look schmick!   Good result! Happy!

D.

[lawrence]

Great job it looks excellent

[galacticprobe]

I have to agre with lawrence. That looks like a fine job, indeed, and one to be proud of. Any tweaks now are "gravy".

Dino.

[rasalon]

 

[d33j r093r5]

Hi all, I know it's been a while - quite a long while actually - but it's been a busy few months. Lots of things completely un-Doctor Who related have been happening! Quite shocking I know, but rest assured, it's all pretty positive stuff that I'm fairly excited about, and it's going to a busy and exciting year. However, I would NEVER allow any of that to permanently get in the way of model building. So I'm back on board. More or less. Still busy, so times between posts may be longer than was previously usual for me, but I will attempt to keep them reasonably regular... Anyway, on with the show...

There isn't really a lot to finish on this console, but it's progressing slowly now, largely because there ISN'T a lot to finish. I also have so many other things on the boil, that the finishing touches sort of fell by the way-side. In any case, I haven;t really progressed much further, other than to get the finishing pieces for the top of the rotor cut. The guy cut them a little too fast, so the edges are a little more jagged than I would have liked, but it's reasonably easy to fix. These were cut out with a water-cutter, actually EXACTLY the water-cutter I used to be manager of!:





Note the 2 sizes of discs. One sits on top and matches the OD of the column, the other matches the ID and will be glued concentrically to the larger piece. It will then sit on top of the column, and not move. I could then glue it or leave it as is, haven't decided yet.

Anyway, that's all for now. Talk to you again soon...  

D.

[galacticprobe]

Note the 2 sizes of discs. One sits on top and matches the OD of the column, the other matches the ID and will be glued concentrically to the larger piece. It will then sit on top of the column, and not move.

Ha-ha! Brilliant! This is a lot like how the original column cover was made! (Well, at least with how it had two diameters so it fit the top of the column like a really flat cork.) I love it! The "Time Monster" version had little screws holding the top in place, but for your scale, it would be much easier to just dab some dots from a paint pen around the perimeter to achieve the look of the screws. It depends on what level of accuracy you're after, and what you think looks best to your eye.

I could then glue it or leave it as is, haven't decided yet.

I think that would all depend on how you would have to get at the electronics that light the column. If the entire cover lifts off, then gluing the top in place wouldn't be bad if that's how you wanted to attach it. (It would keep it from getting lost and you having to make a new one, but you do have enough pieces to make a few replacements.)

If the entire cover doesn't come off, and you would have to get at the electronics through the top, then I would say don't glue the top in place. That could cause nightmares if the electronics needed some repairs.

Dino.

[d33j r093r5]

I think the little screws might be a bit too fiddly; the wall thickness of the rotor tube is only 2mm, I'd NEVER be able to line a drill up square enough or hold it rigidly enough to put a screw hole in accurately, and it would make a hell of a mess of the tube. In any case, I do like the idea of a "seamless" look to the rotor or at least a seemingly seamless (see what I did there  ) finish.

You're absolutely correct about gluing it down however, that would effectively cut me off from the interior. I need to affix the bottom of the rotor to the tube because, at the moment, it's impossible to lift out without dismantling the whole console, or tipping it upside down, which is effectively tiny-fiddly-piece suicide. Having the tube of the rotor affixed to the bottom means I can lift it out, nice and easy. So, the top will just have to sit loose. That's fine, I'm perfectly ok with that... 

Thanks for the advice yet again Dino...! 

[galacticprobe]

Thanks for the advice yet again Dino...!  

You're more than welcome, D! As an electronics tech, circuit access is one of the first things I think about when it comes to building enclosures. I've angered more than my fair share of JOs - Junior Officers - with engineering degrees that have come up with hair-brained ideas for electronic equipment cabinets, only to have me squash their hopes of getting a quick and easy "flying colors" eval report by stomping on their ideas because they would make it nigh-on impossible for us techs to get at things to repair them when they broke.

I think the little screws might be a bit too fiddly; the wall thickness of the rotor tube is only 2mm, I'd NEVER be able to line a drill up square enough or hold it rigidly enough to put a screw hole in accurately, and it would make a hell of a mess of the tube.

Well, I wasn't suggesting that you actually drill out holes and insert screws. As you say, on the scale you're working with that would wreak havoc on the tube for the column's cover. I was suggesting using a dab of paint - like from a fine-point paint pen - to simulate the screws that hold the top to the cylinder, and that's only depending on how screen-accurate you wanted to make the cover. (A silver such paint pen would also make nice metal joining strips down the sides of the cylinder, like those on the original. Again it all depends on if you really want to let your inner "Rivet Counter" out, or if you're going for that idealized version - which as you also rightly say, does look better without the screws and joining seams.)

Dino.