NZEOD Posted July 27, 2015 Posted July 27, 2015 (edited) Working on a hallway display in line with the Macross Muesum 2.0 Wall Display I've seen images of. It will have 11 aircraft on display so far with eleven 1/72scale kits arriving from Japan (in 4 days!) todays and the Adafruit ATTiny electronics parts arriving overnight from the South Island as well. The intent is to have the aircraft on display in 350mm acrylic cases up at the top of the wall the length of the house hallway. Each display will have a minature PIR sensor that will detect a persons approach and activate the ATTiny Neopixel 24K RGB LED system to power up the cockpit lights, run up the engines through, startup, cruise to full burn and back down again to shut off over a 30sec to 1min cycle. The base of the display may also get made up as a runway with a large runway number under each plane and taxiway flashing lights - not sure if this will be overkill though and detract from the models. So far I have a Bandai Super Valkyrie as the test bed for all the electronics then once thats been prototyped I'll transfer the electronics from the breadboard to permanent circuit boards for each model. The Neopixels will be used directly in the Leg Thrusters and Super Packs and fibre optics will be used in the cockpit. The other kits are a Hasegawa VF-1S Super Strike, VF-1A/J, Super Strike, VF-1J 30th Anniversary, VF-OD, VF-11B, VF-11B Super, VF-11B Nothung II, VF-19, SV-51 Nora, RVF-25 Messiah. After a VF-1D Ostrich next. Thinking of doing some custom and optional paintschemes like the Low Vis, The Blue Roses, Minmay Guard etc. Thinking about a sound system to go with them as well but She Who MUST Be Obeyed has insisted that this be on a wall switch to turn off! Shes probably right. A local Auckland company, Cambrian Plastics, will be making the display cases for me unless I find something better. Anyone with any info on paint schemes, other interesting kits, photos of the Macross Displays please pass them on. Build Photos to follow. 9/12/15 PROGRESS PICS FROM SOME MESSING ROUND TONIGHT WITH THE SUPERPACK NOZZLES Edited December 9, 2015 by NZEOD Quote
spanner Posted July 28, 2015 Posted July 28, 2015 This is a very cool idea! I have in fact thought of doing something along these lines myself! I went and had some square sections of acrylic sheeting cut out to make a sealed display box and line the edges with LED lighting but never got round to it.. I had even thought of building a clear corner display cabinet for one corner of my main room made from the same stuff.. problem with me is I tend to start on something and never quite finish it.. Quote
NZEOD Posted July 28, 2015 Author Posted July 28, 2015 spent the night learning Adafruit coding to make the engine effects... working so far. Quote
NZEOD Posted July 30, 2015 Author Posted July 30, 2015 So... now that I have to coding for the lighting heading in the right direction the next thing to consider is possibly photoetching the exhaust nozzle turbine blades so the lighting has a mottled effect comiing out of the nozzles. Luckily I have an old electrophoresis tank laying around (bonus of being in the EOD trade - we have access to the weirdest stuff) so next mission is to design and photoetch some blades to go infront of the lights. I'll get some photos up of the ideas etc this weekend. Quote
NZEOD Posted July 30, 2015 Author Posted July 30, 2015 The perfect part!! I'm a few years too late. Quote
NZEOD Posted July 31, 2015 Author Posted July 31, 2015 (edited) Yes, as in the idiots approaching the abandoned car while everyone else is bailing the other way. Edited August 1, 2015 by NZEOD Quote
spanner Posted July 31, 2015 Posted July 31, 2015 The perfect part!! I'm a few years too late. is that a engine intake / fan blade? Looks pretty good! Quote
NZEOD Posted August 4, 2015 Author Posted August 4, 2015 Just found one of the last Jasmine VF25 Photoetch kits! bought for 4400yen including freight but its worth every cent. For another 9000Yen I also found another 2 VF25s and a whole stack of custom decals! Quote
NZEOD Posted August 11, 2015 Author Posted August 11, 2015 (edited) Update - Working on the coding for the Display Base lighting. The base is an Aircraft Carrier Catapult Launcher. In the corners will be an Amber hazard flasher Lining the Cat channel will be flush mount rectangular LEDs that will flash red in sequence from the plane out off the deck. They will change to Green. The Blast Shield will be a segmented Servo controlled item that will lift up into position from the deck. I'm hoping to get it to lift in segments slightly out of sequence to add to the realism. The little Adruino board runs all this and the plane lighting - Its a brilliant piece of kit!. Sequence will be as follows. 1. PIR picks up movement near the display and initializes the ATTiny circuit. 2. Tiny red Fibre Optic with be on the cockpit dash and flash like a car alarm. 3. Cockpit lighting will flicker on. 4. Deck Hazards will come on and flashing. Would love to be able to make them spin like real ones... 5. Engines on to idle - red to orange - Engines will throb, pulse and flicker slightly the entire time they are on as will the cockpit lighting. 6. Red cat lights start flashing in sequence down launch path. 7. Shield raises. 8. Throttle up to Blue/ Purple for a few seconds with each engine switching to full burn and back to normal slightly out of sequence with each other. Both feet engines for most, the Super packs as well for those with them. 9. Cat lights change to green flashers. 10. Engines slowly up to full burn again and hold for 10secs. 11. Deck lights to Red, engines rapidly back to normal then shutdown with a fading red glow without flicker in each nozzle. Cockpit lights off using a rapid fade and flicker. Dash light to flash red. 12. Cat lights off. 13. Shield down. 14. Deck Hazards off. 15. Dash light to off. 1 minute sequence. The programming is a MAJOR but its kind of satisfying as I'm getting each function coded and working. Something like this but busier as befitting a Veritech Era launch. http://www.airmodel.jp/review_century_f14b_santacat.html Edited August 11, 2015 by NZEOD Quote
MechTech Posted August 12, 2015 Posted August 12, 2015 Defeinitely gonna need to do a video for the completed project! - MT Quote
NZEOD Posted August 12, 2015 Author Posted August 12, 2015 (edited) Hell yes. Will be doing a work in progress vid as well. Visiting Weta Workshops next week to talk to a mate there about the project as I may need to make the carrier decks from scratch. I need the planes sitting diagonally to fit in the 400mm x 400mm cases and all the Deck kits are 400 x 200ish with the catapult straight up. Heading to Cambrian Plastics (they made all my medal cases and the display cases for the items in the Ammo Wings IED and Ammunition museum) and after work tonight to get my quote for making the display cases. Hopefully not too crazy expensive. Edited August 12, 2015 by NZEOD Quote
NZEOD Posted August 19, 2015 Author Posted August 19, 2015 (edited) Update 20/8/15 VF25 Photoetch set arrived today - The last one I could find anywhere, found and bought through Buyee.jp Wasnt expecting miracles from this site but.... Well packaged Jasmine VF25 set arrived today at work! 5 days since arriving at the BUYEE Warehouse. First Italeri Aircraft carrier deck should be arriving by this weekend so I can begin taking a mold off it and making a 350x350 sized version of it. After seeing the Fastpack V1.1 on here I'm building one of those as well. Strung the LED Modules up last night and working on the ATTiny85 programming to get all 4 boosters and the main feet jets to light up correctly. Not happy with the lineart version way of mounting the lower boosters on the wing stores pylons. I would have expected them to be mounted to the body. They look like they would rip the wings to shreds and tear off mounted on the spindly pylon! The second issue I have with it is the lower boosters side mounted Verier thrusters... one nozzle is pointing straight at the rather angry Reaction Missile on the adjacent Stores Pylon! I'll be airbrushing up the booster nozzles in Alclad on Saturday, after a morning blast in the hills on the Triumph 675, to see how the LED Modules reflect off the Nozzle sides and fill them with light. Will be experimenting with making Resin and melted plastic lenses to go in the centre of the nozzle to help spread the LED light beam to 120°. Going to be a busy weekend Edited August 19, 2015 by NZEOD Quote
Bolt Posted August 20, 2015 Posted August 20, 2015 Are you kidding me?!?!? This is truly epic.. What's the discounted Macross World member admission price gonna be?😊😜 Rock on NZ!👍! Quote
NZEOD Posted August 21, 2015 Author Posted August 21, 2015 http://starshipmodeler.biz/shop/index.cfm/product/2832_106/172-valkyrie-flight-deck.html I NEED THIS DECK!! Quote
NZEOD Posted August 23, 2015 Author Posted August 23, 2015 Most of the weekend was spent out riding, watching the Winter Games and spray painting the hallway. No modelling progress unfortunately. On a plus not, my birthday presents all showed up from the kids... Alclad 9220 Airbrush set - from my daughter. 10 Alclad paints from my son. 1 VF Modelling Manual Master File and an Italeri Aircraft Carrier Deck and Blast Deflector to mold off from my youngest son. All in all, a good weekend. Quote
Bolt Posted August 23, 2015 Posted August 23, 2015 Right on mate! I finally got to ride my motorcycle this weekend too..day after my birthday. 😉 Can't wait to see more of your amazing work. Cheers! Quote
NZEOD Posted August 23, 2015 Author Posted August 23, 2015 (edited) had to laugh, a set of VF-11 photoetch parts showed up today, along with what should have been a few Valk weapon sets and a VF-11E Thunder Seeker.... what I got was a Tamiya 1/20 scale 1977 Tyrrell F1 Car??? Love ya work Amazon! Edited August 23, 2015 by NZEOD Quote
spanner Posted August 24, 2015 Posted August 24, 2015 had to laugh, a set of VF-11 photoetch parts showed up today, along with what should have been a few Valk weapon sets and a VF-11E Thunder Seeker.... what I got was a Tamiya 1/20 scale 1977 Tyrrell F1 Car??? Love ya work Amazon! haha! that's hilarious! gotta say that this has happened to me a few times with ebay purchased items.. although you can't complain about the Tamiya Tyrrell kit! That is a sweet F1 car! Quote
Xigfrid Posted August 24, 2015 Posted August 24, 2015 Really nice project, something I can't even imagine build, that would be enormous! Quote
NZEOD Posted August 24, 2015 Author Posted August 24, 2015 Well I got a lightning fast response from the Amazon Store I bought it through in Japan today. 15mins and I had an answer. They refunded my money in full including the freight costs on the spot with just my word on what had happened! They dont want the Tamiya kit back either so thats going up on the kiwi Trademe.co.nz site. And the money will be back in tonight so I can reorder the correct items! Pretty stellar service I'd say. Quote
NZEOD Posted August 25, 2015 Author Posted August 25, 2015 (edited) This is what I'm trying to emulate. Talking to the guy that made and programmed it, Wile Vale, at the moment. Luckily he is also from NZ so I can go and actually see this thing in the flesh! Some people are just freaky clever. Edited August 25, 2015 by NZEOD Quote
MechTech Posted August 27, 2015 Posted August 27, 2015 That is one of the best lit models I've seen hands down!!! I love the detail in the dashboard and the start-up sequence. I was wondering what the tiny red thing was on the screen since it was so pixelated until I saw the whole sequence. COOL! - MT Quote
wmkjr Posted August 27, 2015 Posted August 27, 2015 (edited) Loving this project that you're doing!Something like this right?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBi5aDG4_6U Edited August 27, 2015 by wmkjr Quote
NZEOD Posted August 28, 2015 Author Posted August 28, 2015 Oh man why WHY WHHHY do you do this too me!!?? I was wondering how a Control Surfaces Check could be modeled too... Quote
wmkjr Posted August 28, 2015 Posted August 28, 2015 (edited) That thing is hella expensive. It's a subscription based thing. More details here http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=42124 you could do it cheaper I think. Make it like this opening for the game ( forward to 0:46 if you want): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ_9mFfwR3U Edited August 28, 2015 by wmkjr Quote
NZEOD Posted September 6, 2015 Author Posted September 6, 2015 (edited) Nothing like coming into the office on a Monday morning and finding a stack of packages waiting for you. Thunderseeker, 1D and a few Weapon/pilot packs just arrived. Friday I got an Adafruit Fadecandy Adruino board and some Neopixel strips to play with for the Carrier Deck direction lighting. Hopefully in the next day of two my servos and brass bits arrive for the Jet Blast Deflector raising mechanism. Big thanks to nicegear.co.nz for the overnight service on the electronics. Edited September 6, 2015 by NZEOD Quote
Bolt Posted September 7, 2015 Posted September 7, 2015 Sweet range of colors that strip puts out! Wow, Limor Fried is on her game. Quote
NZEOD Posted September 7, 2015 Author Posted September 7, 2015 (edited) Adafruit sell them at 5.95USD per strip and shes still making money some how! A single LED if what will be buried inside each engine. The LEDs are blindingly bright and run 4K colour. Same RGB colour coding as you'd use in Photoshop. Red 0-255, Green 0-255, Blue 0-255. SO pretty much ANY colour can be recreated. Will post a quick video tonight of the Deck light sequence in green then flashing red. The programming takes time to get your head round but when the penny drops and you get it working, damn its satisfying! Edited September 7, 2015 by NZEOD Quote
Bolt Posted September 7, 2015 Posted September 7, 2015 Can't wait to see it. She's still making money because she's a smart cookie. Very knowledgeable about every aspect of production , marketing and tech. Quote
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