Work in Progress: Neutrino Probe – Casting

If you know me, then you also know that my blog posts can get a bit lengthy at times. This one, however, I will try to keep a bit shorter than usual. What I want to describe to you however are some of the problems that presented themselves while casting the Neutrino Probe components for which I have all the molds now. Also, I tried a few new techniques with these parts to improve the appearance of the product and make the assembly process easier. What new techniques you ask? Read on to find out. [More…]

Work in Progress: Neutrino Probe – Molding

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If you want to make more than one unit of any given prop replica, it is inevitable to make molds of all the parts you need. This way you’ll be able to make multiple resin casts of each piece. For the Neutrino Probe, this presented a few unique challenges I had to tackle along the way due to the special nature of the body, its prototype parts and the fact that I wanted to put electronics in there. In this blog post I’ll show you exactly what I thought would work, what did’t work and – most importantly – what I ended up doing. [More…]

Work in Progress: Voyager Desktop Computer

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Following my recent “show-off” post presenting my Voyager Desktop Computer, let’s now have a detailed look at how I built this prop, going through every step, from the raw parts all the way to the finished unit, covering the concepts of different aspects of the prop, the construction of several custom parts, the installation of the electronics and the assembly of everything to bring it all together. Although I didn’t snap an image of every step along the way, it’s more than a hundred progress pictures, so I hope you brought a little time… [More…]

Voyager Desktop Computer

tn_voy_desktopToday I want to show you something very special. What makes it so special you ask? Well, for one, it took me many months to complete it and is probably the single most elaborate prop replica I’ve ever done. And the biggest one in terms of size and weight for sure. Also, it’s got a few surprises up its sleeve which I think you will like. Yes, you’ve read about it here before and yes, you might have seen me work on it on Twitter if you follow me there. Prepare yourself for lots of text and quite a lot of pictures, too! [More…]

Work in Progress: Neutrino Probe – Electronics (VIDEO)

The heart of every prop are its electronics. Lights, blinking and flashing back and forth, maybe even a sound-module, this is what makes a prop feel authentic instantly. In case of my Neutrino Probe replica, it’s “only” lights, which doesn’t mean it’s boring however. Powered by a small rechargeable battery – which is a first for me by the way – this board will bring the engineering tool to life. But instead of describing it, I decided to make a video this time to show you and tell you all about it. What are you waiting for? Jump right in and watch! [More…]

Work in Progress: Neutrino Probe – Business End

Well, well, well, what do we have here? Might that be a long overdue update on the Neutrino Probe project? “No, that’s impossible!”, you might think. After all, the last update was almost exactly one year ago! How could this still be a go? Well, you better believe it ’cause this baby is alive and kickin’! Still not positive? Jump past the break to look for yourself. Have you ever been told that you’re hard to convince of something? [More…]

Work In Progress: Neutrino Probe – Main Parts

tn_neutrino_probe_wip3After my efforts of starting a Neutrino Probe replica were suddenly brought to a halt last week, I couldn’t do anything but wait for my Dad to repair the lathe which had broke down on us. Fortunately, he was able to find a new capacitor quickly and replaced it in no time at all. So, we could schedule a new session to get back to work. This time, there were no interruptions and I was able to continuously work on the three main parts for two days. [More…]

Work In Progress: Neutrino Probe

tn_neutrino_probe_wip_2Bad News. Today I made my first attempt to use a turning lathe to make the main parts for the Neutrino Probe from wood. For this purpose I went to my parents house where my dad has the required equipment. Well, everything went pretty smoothly at first and while working on a test piece I got confident to be able to shape the wood in such a way to mimic my schematics almost exactly. So far, so good. [More…]

Prop Analysis: Neutrino Probe

tn_neutrino_probe_wipThere is one prop that I wanted to build forever and never got around to it. In fact, this goes back to the early days on ASAP, when I just got into the hobby. At that time, I didn’t have a lot of experience obviously and was just figuring out how to build stuff. So, after seeing this prop in “Star Trek: Captain’s Chair“, my first impulse was to build it because it looked cool and I had recognized it from the show. [More…]

Found: Voyager Desktop Viewer Base Identified!

tn_apc_power_managerIdentifying found items which the prop makers used to build the props for the show is always a challenge. But with the help of some fine folks in the prop community as well as a few very helpful pointers from people in the prop industry, the base item used for the construction of the Desktop Computer on “Star Trek: Voyager” has been identified! [More…]