Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Not quite as neat as i'd like, but good enough from a distance.
Now to make a second one.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/75.JPG

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

It looks awsome Kingbob!!!!!! I think your on the right track, looks great!!!!!!!!!

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Looks great to me, Bob!

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

I think you nailed it pretty good!

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Turned out ok, still has the visored effect, but in a much smaller package.

But i tell ya, after making them by hand, i have a new absolute respect for Lynn making his bezels in bulk!

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Bumper with bezels installed, and hidden screws.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/77.JPG

Then made up the LED loom for it.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/76.JPG

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Thats looking awsome!!!!!

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

You are one crazy kid.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Heh, whats crazy is that there are 77 more LEDs to do after the bumper.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Right, thats the bumper wired up.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/78.JPG
http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/79.JPG

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Gosh, that's a lot of wire, Bob! Is that the lightest you could find? Hope you have enough room to hide all those wires! The truck is going to be filled with wires. Are you wiring them all in parallel? You should try some series parallel wiring. It will cut down on at least half the wires in the bundle.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Yeah now i can see it in, i'm contemplating putting the little pcb for the bumper lights tucked up behind the bumper. Then can just run 1 pair back to the middle where it'll get distributed. It is actually quite thin wire, just that theres a load of them.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Here we go, much better.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/80.JPG

http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/81.JPG

http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/82.JPG
Nice shiny bumper from Russ shows the camera reflection :D

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

are those blue???? haha lol looks awesome and good job on tightyness on wire control.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Looking good Bob! Where did you find the PCB?

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Breather lights ready to rock.
Espeefan I hit the local electronics shop, found some 30awg wire, nice and thin. Even with plastic coating its barely as thick as the actual LED legs.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/83.JPG

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Its just a prototyping board from a local electronics shop. Each row of the board has a seperate trace, so i just cut off a 2 row length.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Something about this project and paint is cursed.

I just used some clear blue paint to colour the clear LEDs in the breather lights, finished both, then knocked over the paint! Splashed blue all over one of the light bars, myself, the desk, and the carpet! And when i jumped i moved my foot with speed against a carboard box slashing my foot on an edge, and leaving some complimentary red marks on the carpet to go with the blue!

*bangs head on wall*

Scraped most of the paint off the light bar with a scalpel and sandpaper so its still useable, but the metal isnt as smooth and shiny now. Dunno whether to make another bar, or just put it on the less photogenic side of the truck lol.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Focus on something else for a bit then come back to this area - you might have a different opinion..... Also stick with your original intent - else you will regret.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

That stinks, Bob. Sounds like something I would have done myself. :D Sorry to hear that. I'm a bit stubborn, so I would just keep at it, till things turn out perfect. Just learn from the mistakes, and keep things that can spill far, far away from any finished products and parts!

Thanks for the tip on the PCB. Sounds like what we call electronic bread boards in the states.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Yeah to me breadboards are the white style you can just slot components into without soldering.

I just tested all the LEDs and one of the ones in the messed up breather bar is dead. I did test them all before installing, but hey, it happens. Only pronlem is is glued in with CA, and really not coming out. Marinating it in some acetone at the moment, so hopefully wont need to make a new bar, and cut new tubes.

As Izzy suggested i'll switch to something else for a while. I do tend to bounce from part to part anyway, stops me getting annoyed when a given part doesnt want to behave how i want it!

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Before i lay down any paint i'm test fitting everything to the body to check for any alterations that need to be made. So i attached the makerlights this evening, and did a test fitting with the headlights. I'm not totally happy with the makerlights, but they're about as good as i can get with hand tools.

Need to tweak the headlight mounts a little, mounted to the sides of the the hood gives the a slight inward slant, makes it a bit cross eyed.

Also found that one of the fenders isnt quite straight after i cut out the inner radius to correct them. So need to cut the wedge out, and reposition it.

But heres a glimpse, starting to look a bit like Prime now.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/84.JPG

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

That's a great frontal shot! I like it, Bob!

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

another tip if glued in is to pop it in the freezer for 30 mins or so till its nice and cold then pop out the offending part the freezer makes the glue brittle and will break cleanly i use this when building bodiesand 1/24 scale and glue something in wrong spot

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

I trimmed about an inch off the rear end of the chassis rails today, and mounted the angled plastic parts N7/N8 from a knight hauler to get the correct slanted look to the rear end, and mounted a wonderfully shiny light plate from Russ.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/85.JPG

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

I was in a soldering mood, so wired up the LEDs for the rear light plate, made light bars for the rear fender brake lights, and made up the roof lights as well.

Unfortunately I cant get more of Lynns visored bezels at the moment, but i found some chrome bezeled LEDs at the local electronics place. Dont have the visored look, but can easily replace them when the visored ones become available again.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/86.JPG

http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/87.JPG

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Gave the rear fenders a light blue basecoat, then spent a while masking the pinstripe for the flames. Had to look at a bunch of reference pics to get it right. Not perfect but its close! Its 1mm tape!

http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/88.JPG

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

looks very nice.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Hey Bob,where did you buy the head lights?

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Gosh, the fenders look incredible Bob! Love the rear tail light panel too. Even your masking looks flawless.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Kappy, they're from Garden trucking.

Thanks ESP, took a couple of goes with the masking to get it how i liked it, and to get them being close mirrors of each other. I'm dreading masking the hood and front fender flames though.

Got the rear light panel all fitted, and the top part painted too.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/89.JPG

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

The red areas get painted first, so they got a gold undercoat last night, followed by the red today. Once the first coat of red dries over the next day or so, i'll be sanding a few bad spots where either dust stuck, a finger print showed up, or the paint mottled a bit. Then lay another coat down. Its a semi translucent red so the more coats I lay, the richer it gets. Its a little light at the moment so it should be just right i think.

My desk light makes it look a little orange, but it is red.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/prime/90.JPG

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

I can't wait to see the final result.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

*fingers crossed *

Me too. I'm doing the fenders first so that if something doesnt work out with the colours, or backing process, or something they're smooth enough and simple enough to simply sand flat, reprime and try again.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Son of a....
Just received the styrene sheets I ordered to do the trailer sides. I ordered the wrong pattern.

*bangs head on desk*

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Hey men nice project, take a look a grille on evil bay

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Bob, any updates on the paint? I can't wait to see it all finished! The fenders are looking really nice.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Actually ive sanded the fenders back and re-primed. The light blue pin stripe just look ridiculously over scale. Holding off painting them until i come up with a better way.

The real pinstripe looks like its only 5mm or so, which in scale is something like 0.3mm. Unpaintable. Im going to look for some blue pinstripe tape and see how thin i can cut it.
Otherwise i dont think it will be doable.

In the meantime i've been working on the light bars under the cab and sleeper. Finally made some im happy with after 6 hoes.

Will add a pic tonight.

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

Hey Bob, for the fender pin-stripes - How about making up a set of clear decals that have the pin-stripes printed onto them and then apply the entire decal over the fender. The paint would be protected and still seen through the clear decal paper with the pin-stripes straight and intact without tearing or any misalignments.

Just a thought :)

- RCT

Re: Movie Optimus Prime build
 

The thing with decal paper will be wrapping it around the compound curves without it wrinkling.
Be worse on the cab with all the bolt detail.

I have a mate whos a sign writer, i might get him to print/cut some that i can then trim to half a mm or less.