I know, I know, I’ve said it doesn’t bother me, and it really doesn’t. I know outside of a couple of pictures I’ll never turn them on again once the build is finished, but the supplied led’s just don’t really cut it.
They look great at the bulb, then good, then fine, then disappointing, then not even illuminated.
So, I have investigated.
I used EL rope before in the Exgol diorama model, and was very happy with how they work and look. So I picked up some more and went to work!
The rope pack I picked up has 5 single strips of 1m length, so plenty to replace the existing tubes. They are thicker, at 2.3mm instead of the 1.3 of the original, but with a little squeezing they should fit into the brackets and be covered by the metal plates.
My intention was to simply supply power from the cables that lead to the LED’s, and simply connect to the new rope.
It didn’t work like that.
Connecting the power directly to the rope seems to do absolutely nothing. I took the battery box supplied with the rope apart and found a transformer lurking inside. I assume it steps up the power or frequency, or amperage, or something else we’ll beyond my electronics skill.
In the end, I love the way it would make it work, but I can’t see any way to incorporate them into the original electronics. I think I will need to get de the new battery box, and route the power to the front and back of the car.
It’s not impossible, and I expect I will return and find a way of sorting it, but for now it’s gone back on the back burner.
With the new Inventr.io Adventure kit and a couple of other projects coming up, I thought it was time to brush up on some old electronics skills.
Firstly, and most importantly, soldering.
Soldering is the easiest and best way of joining electrical wires and components together with a joint that allows electricity to flow.
I haven’t done any “proper” soldering for many years and technology has progressed with the availability of soldering stations being quite common. I don’t have one, and don’t think I’ll be doing enough to warrant the purchase so I will be sticking with my old school “just plug it into the socket” iron.
Apart from a steady hand and things that need to be soldered, there are 2 other important items. The iron, and some solder. The composition of the solder has changed over the years with safer materials and improvements to how it flows and sets happening all the time. I just picked up a roll of basic solder, but you can purchase many different types depending on your requirements.
The soldering iron in its most basic form is a tip that is heated enough to melt the solder. They can be electric, or sometimes gas powered. Mine simply plugs in and gets hot. The more advanced ones can be set to specific temperatures.
Enough background, on with the project!
Not sure what it is, but it should be joined up!
This was part of the beta adventure kit 2.0
In the release version of the kit it will be soldered, but I thought I’d use it as a test practice piece.
Holding it in place on a breadboard I then added heat with the soldering iron, then touched the solder to the pin allowing some to melt.
Almost done!
Repeating the other side, it all seems to have worked!
A good indication of a successful joint is if the solder remains shiny. If it’s a full finish, you can always go back and heat it again.
I’m happy that my skills don’t seem to have faded over the decades since I used them! It may not be perfect, but it’s a good start back into the world!
If you’ve been following my build of the Eaglemoss Delorean you may be aware I had a packet delivered open and with a small part missing.
Now, I could contact them and get a replacement issue sent out, but as it was only 1 small part that is almost impossible to see when the build is complete I thought it would be a good chance to have a play with my moulding “skills”
As it’s a small black part and I had some in, I thought I’d try using sugru.
If you are unaware, Sugru is a mouldable product that air dries to a slightly rubbery consistency. It can be used to fit things together, and I thought it could work in this case.
I started by pulling off a small chunk and trying to get the rough size and shape.
With some shaping I thought it would be easier to do in place on the kit, although I was very aware that the seats I am fitting it to will very easily show any black stains!
The end result is a little larger than the original, and not nearly as nice, but I doubt anyone would be able to notice even if looking for it when the car is finished.
So in my opinion a reasonable job, solving a slight problem and increasing my skills slightly!
During the month of November you can leave a comment here with the TIME and DATE you think I will get my 5000th subscriber. Any date from now until sometime in 2022- hopefully! Whoever gets the closest will win a branded Gross Models Hoodie!
Entries will close at the end of November and I will post the person who guessed the closest after I achieve the magic 5k!
If you neglect to put a time I will consider it to be 12 noon of the date given. All times must be in GMT.
So come on, have a go!
This time I am doing things a little differently. Feel free to change your answer up until the end of the month!
The lovely people over at Fanhome.com have sent me the first pack in the new StarWars Encyclopedia!
Some things work better in a post rather than a video, so here it is!
The collection features books covering all of the classic and new films, and even some of the new shows!
It is divided into sections on the Galaxy, Droids, Ships, Weapons, Characters and the Stories. They all build up into an impressive shelf of interesting material and reference.
The first 2 volumes feature Darth Vader and the Millennium Falcon, with loads of photos and diagrams.
I will be making videos for each delivery, but they will be shorter than my usual content, if you want to see all the pages you’ll just have to subscribe at Fanhome.com !
As I’m doing 2 car partworks at the moment, and they are both 1:8 scale, and they have supplied parts in a similar order, I thought it would be interesting to compare them!
I am currently building the Fast & Furious Dodge Charger from Fanhome, and the Ecto-1 from Hero Collector.
The Ecto-1 is at issue 10, and the Dodge is issue 22.
There is a difference in the size, but the Ecto-1 is a big car!
They are both coming along nicely and I cannot wait to see them both complete!
With me currently doing 6 different partworks, I got thinking about the previous ones I have done. I didn’t realise I had been doing them for so long or had done so many.
This is just a quick look at some partworks I still have. There are a few others I remember doing but don’t have around anymore.
The oldest I still have is like many, just a magazine that builds up into a collection. Nothing to build, just a set of binders to keep them in. This one is unusual in that the magazines are stored in order. Most of the time they would be broken apart into different sections, as you will see in some of the upcoming titles.
The Unexplained consists of dozens of articles of , well, the unexplained. Everything from Bigfoot, aliens, spontaneous human combustion, you name it and it’s probably in there somewhere. It is about 40 years old now, and many of the things may have been explained to at least some degree, but it’s still a fun read.
Sticking with the mystical theme, we also bought the Charmed tv show DVD partwork. As well as a small magazine about the episodes and some behind the scenes info you got a dvd disk each week with a couple of episodes on it, building up to the complete series.
Another older one, the Star Wars figurine collection. This features over 50 small figures, cast in a heavy metal with some great painting in many. And some bad faces on others. It featured characters from the original and the prequel trilogies, and then branched out to some of the vehicles.
The magazine featured some info on how they crafted and painted the figures.
The Lord of the Rings chess set had all the main characters from the films, and the board has some nice map work engraved into it.
The Star Trek factfiles, like the Star Wars ones, have some very detailed info but are obviously missing the series/ films that were made after publication.
Another one that is still going on is the DC comics collection. Reprints of many classic stories from the DC universe, with Batman, the Flash, Superman, the Green Lantern and many others. I have no idea when or even if it will actually finish!
These wooden puzzles are great. Each issue came with a different puzzle (although some are very similar) and some info on puzzles and of course the solution for the supplied puzzle.
Quest was a strange one. It had many sections to the magazine, with interesting articles, and I remember each one coming with some type of card-craft to cut out and glue. Sadly these are all lost to the great bin-lorry in the sky.
I even collected “Car care” which provides loads of info about car mechanics, repairs and maintenance. None of which I have ever been able to do. Except changing light bulbs and tyres, which I could do before. 🙂
Now what is probably the most impressive “old” partwork: Real Robots.
Meet Cybot. Built up over 96 issues, he can self navigate using IR sensors, follow a drawn line, even play football. Or be controlled directly with a remote, even voice controlled with a headset. Sometimes it even worked!
I even built him a friend, and a goal for the football that kicks the ball back out.
The collection also came with a toolkit including a soldering iron.
There were also a series of cd tins containing programming software and games.
I remember there being a vhs tape with an early issue showing off what you were going to build, but although I am fairly sure I still have it, I can’t find it at the moment.
I hope you have enjoyed this look back on partworks, I know I did several others but they seem to have been lost to the past. I do remember building a complete skeleton with internal organs at one point, which may well have been about 1:2 scale, but that has been gone for many years.
Leave a comment if you remember any of these, or have done any yourself! I hope you can jog my memory about a few more!
