Long overdue update on the head.

Some pictures of some very crude method I use for soldering the LEDs and resistors together. I coil the legs of the resistor leads onto a common household needle and trim off the access. This spring like coil make it easy to connect onto the leads of the LED and holds position quite well during soldering.

Separated the neck from the base…

Placed a ball joint in the connecting area in the head.

I foresee that the head will need to be removed in the future,
so I will need a good connector for the wiring. Will be using a DC jack for this.

Wired up the LEDs. Aluminum foil was used to direct light for some of the LEDs.

The neck was then layered with a sheet of plaplate,
and some detailing was added on the front.

Cut a slot on the front of the base to slot in a curved piece of plaplate

Dug up some spare parts… and also re-used a part from the original base of the neck

Painted. Will be adding some highlights and some colour variation to complete it.
It’s pretty rough, with quite a lot of flaws, but its mostly going to be hidden,
so I’m not too bothered.

Started painting the head; will be trying for a high gloss finish. This is the first time I’m attempting glossy finishing, and made lots of errors along the way… Started out with gloss black on the V-fin. Not the rough texture. Not a good sign.

Tried polishing it to see if the uneven surface would be smoothened… not quite.
(The part was subsequently re-sanded and repainted)

The next attempt was slightly better…

I sprayed the main head areas with gloss white and started polishing it to a shine.

I sprayed the V-Fin with Mr. Metal colour – Brass. The shine was quite brilliant,
and the colour tone was bright. It shows up yellowish under bright light,
but it looks good under normal lighting conditions.

I had a lot of difficulty trying to buff up the V-Fin,
since Mr Metal Colours don’t really dry up, and have a tendency of sticking
to your fingers if you handle it for prolonged periods. Finger prints,
lifted paints… you name it! Accidents galore! In my frustration,
I finally had a stroke of genius (stupidity). Let’s try polishing compound! Biiig mistake!
The compound reacted quickly with the paint, and removed A LOT of paint…

Sigh… the V-Fin was subsequently dumped into a vat of brake fluid to strip the paint,
sanded, primer, gloss black, and finally I settled for normal Mr. Hobby No.9 Gold paint.
The pigments are not as fine as the Mr Metal colours, and appears grainy if you look closely, and the colour is a bit darker. Oh well… at least it dries properly and I can polish it!

I tried painting the eye area and the chin areas with a candy coat red,
by applying clear red over a layer of chrome. The surface came out pretty OK,
but looks very dark and dull, and did not seem to fit the overall look of the head.

Replaced this with a custom mix of gloss red. AND a custom finger print…. AARGH!

More on next page...>>