Nausicaa - Ohm

[strobez]

Yep. I think you may be right about that.



There are about 5 different shades of green/khaki one the beasti now... I think a coat of Future is in order in case I need any "do overs"with the dry brushing.

Now to start on the other one...

[nighthunter]

The gray one looks dead already

[scooter]

The gray one looks dead already

[strobez]

Well, the grey one is supposed to be dead... so... it's working.  I'd always planned on the grey one to be the "derelict" build. I put a coat of Future on the green one last night and will finish it off with some dry brushed details, but it's basically done.  There's still a lot to do to the grey one yet, so stay tuned!

[strobez]

Speaking of dead...

I think I left the dead ohm out of the freezer too long... I think something's growing on it...

[Mossie]

Know nowt about it, but I like these beasties and especially the work that's going in them.  They look like something you'd find under a stone in the garden, but from a quick Google, it'd be a pretty big stone!

[zenrat]

Ummmmmmmmmm, I hesitate to ask but have you been watching those adult anime with girls and the tentacles...

[strobez]

LMAO... urm... no.

Took me a while to track it down, but this is the look I'm going for...



I doubt I have the patience required to really pull that off, but I'll give it a go.

[NARSES2]

Ummmmmmmmmm, I hesitate to ask but have you been watching those adult anime with girls and the tentacles...

The mind boggles 

[strobez]

ANYway...

Here's another little update video.  Not surprisingly different than the previous ones on the surface, but after applying the things I learned while building my Tintin Rocket Launch Clock, I realized I must have been following zenrat's guide to wiring and spontaneous combustion after all.  I had all the LEDs running off a single pin - an almost sure way of frying the microcontroller in a flaming ball of fury.  So I had to rewire everything into groups of 6 (with two left over) and run if off 6 pins instead... and at a MUCH lower current.

The fact that you can't tell the difference is the victory here.  The lights that were running at 25 miliamps are now running at 5 each with no real loss of brightness.

As as bonus, the whole mess actually fits inside the green Ohm, so I glued the eyes in place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GfYF6B4M9I

[zenrat]

Bravo.   

[strobez]

Time for another update.  So now that the eyes were more or less sorted out, I fixed up the other major electrical component of this build, the... uhm... tentacles... 

Hehe, actually for those who've seen the film, you will recognize these (hopefully) as the Ohmu's yellow feelers.  I started out by glueing some fibre optic strands scavenged from a cheapo dollar store "mood lamp" to a couple of white LEDs using a bit of clear tubing as a connector.  I then created a capacitive touch sensor using a giant ball of alluminium foil and stuffing it inside the grey Ohm.  That way when I touch the grey Ohmu, the lights on the green Ohmu's feelers should light up.

The sensitivity needs some adjustment, but it seems to have worked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh6tLsdfmJo

Once that was done, I installed the eyes properly and then drilled a bunch of tiny holes and fed the fibres through the mouth piece.  Sounded so simple, but what a nightmare.  That mess of spaghetti did not want to cooperate and the fibres are quite brittle, so I ended up snapping a bunch of them off (or just bending them enough to render the internal transmitting structure effectively dead).  It took me three tries - first I glued them in place and tried to feed them through the back of the mouthpiece.  When that didn't really work, I pulled it all apart and then redid it by trying to feed them in from the front and then glue them to the lights...  That ended up being worse because the fibres kept falling out and I couldn't get them lined up to glue.  So it was back to the first method with a little more patience.

In the end, it didn't quite work as I envisioned.  I only got about half of the fibres I'd been hoping for (partly from more snapping off and partly because I simply couldn't drill enough holes).  After I got them in place and painted with a clear yellow Tamiya acrylic the effect was so subtle I wondered why I'd bothered.  Oh well, it's there... best viewed in the pitch dark. 





Of course, now that I think about it... most of my models are probably best viewed in pitch dark.

[Rick Lowe]

So, how's this one coming along, Greg?

Inquiring (ok, nosy!) minds want to know...

[strobez]

Annnnnd we're back!

This project took a turn, and ended up on the shelf for a while, but after I hit a snag on a couple of other projects I'm working on I decided to put this one back on the front burner.  I sank too much work into it to just abandon it, but I think I needed to recharge the batteries for the final push to the finish line... and then I got sidetracked.  I'm glad I did though, because otherwise I would've just stuck some aquarium plants in the background and left it at that.  Instead I was able to give the base the love and attention it deserved.

I've still got to give it a clear coat of Future and then add some shadows and highlights via the paintbrush, but it's pretty much done now.  The only really disappointing bit was that the touch sensor didn't really work as I wanted it too.  On the one hand, it was very hard to balance the right amount of tinfoil inside the grey Ohm to allow a capacitive touch to work through the plastic... too much... too little... flicker flicker flicker.  It also didn't help that the lights and the fibre optics didn't really allow enough light through to make it noticeable even if I could get the balance just right.  So, near the finish line, I decided to rip out the spikey fibre optic straw and replace it with heat bent 1mm clear plastic rods.  There's even less light now, but it looks much better in my opinion.

Anyway, here's how we got there...



Reworked the cover for the electronics and masked off the wood.



First ever use of Tamiya lacquer paint... not bad, but I like acrylic better.



The Ohms are now wired into the base... let's hope this still works.



So far so good... blue fading lights...



But get too close... and RED!



Drilled some holes and placed some plants. Still looks like a bad aquarium... but let's see if we can change that with some paint and details.



Still works in the dark...



To make it more "toxic forest" and less "Mrs. Harpers's Class Terrarium" I'm adding stretched (well melted) sprues and some other assorted spore sacks.



Melted sprues and other assorted fungus have been placed and glued together.



A bit of paint really helps, but still too sparse.



Some aquarium plants help add some colour... but only to be used sparingly.



A bit of painted sponge, cut up and glued on really helps.



More colour and a few more details... almost there.



Looks better head on, I think.



Time to get started on the final phase of the project...



Easy enough to cut out the general shape.



A bit of bending, and filing, and suddenly I have something that's starting to look like a Mehve.



It seems to fit.



Now seems like a good time to tear their faces off... better late than never!



I wasn't happy with the yellow feelers, and the fibre optics didn't really work anyway, so...



Hopefully the clear backing will let a bit more light through.



Now for some new tentacles, bent from 1mm clear plastic rods.



A bit of paint on the Mehve and its pilot.



Put it all together, and voila~



The feelers look more organic, and even though its a lot more subtle than I wanted, if you touch the dead Ohm's nose, the feelers light up... sorta.



Just a clear coat and a bit of highlighting to do, but otherwise this one is done!

[Weaver]

Wow that looks good - nice job!