Sometimes, you want to finish something as quickly as possible. You desperately want to make progress, feel the urge to get back to it continuously and yet you can’t find any time to do just that. You just can’t, and every step takes forever as a result. That pretty much sums up the situation I’m in right now with this project.

Anyhow, as you can see I finally did manage to take the next step by finishing another important part of the tool – the business end! It’s a very detailed piece that consists of four separate parts right now (I’m not sure yet how I’m going to mold it though). And four very tiny parts I might add. The smallest one is only 5 mm in width!

This is by the way the part of the probe that was originally made from a disassembled nose hair trimmer. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts I wasn’t able to identify the exact model or even manufacturer of that trimmer, so I couldn’t use the original and had to scratch-build something instead. It was one hell of a lot of tedious work, but – to be honest – the result is probably nicer and cleaner than any found item, which makes the whole thing worthwhile in my book.

But, judge for yourself. To refresh your memory, here’s the front part of the original prop as well as the schematics I did as preparation for this project:

And here are the pictures of my finished multi-part piece:

So, let’s get down to business. How did I create these parts? Here we go:

It all started with some more or less precisely cut pieces of styrene, my material of choice when it comes to scratch-building stuff.

They would make up the body of the largest piece. Which is round. Which meant that I had to sculpt it somehow since I didn’t have anything that I could’ve used as a base piece.

So I marked an appropriate line for the outer curvature on all pieces and cut them with an X-acto knife.

As you can see, I also cut some material away at the top to make it easier to create a recession there later.

Then I arranged them in a circular way to build a kind of skeleton structure and glued them together using plastic glue.

The next step was to fill the spaces between the “ribs” with putty to “put some meat on the bones” as it were.

Then the sanding began. Oh, boy. The sanding – that’s the kind of work that I’d like to have an assistant do for me or something. On the other hand it gives you great control over the final shape of your piece. The downside is that it takes a long time. A very long time. And especially so if you’re only one bit as anal about a perfect surface as I am…

While sanding the outer surface of this part I also paid some attention to the top side of it where I needed to have a pretty substantial indentation with a thin lip around it. To achieve this I used a mini-dremel with an appropriate attachment to remove material from both the surface inside as well as the “walls”.

Here is an intermediary result. Looks pretty nice already, doesn’t it?

On to the next part, which is essentially the same deal as the first one, except smaller and with a more straight profile. And when I say smaller I mean like 9,5 mm tall! That’s pretty tough to even hold in your hands (depending on what kind of hands you have of course). But holding it while trying to leave some room for sandpaper to work on it? Yep, you guessed it – that’s not easy to say the least. To illustrate: I even had to use tweezers to glue the “styrene skeleton” parts in place, which were only a couple of millimeters in width.

Here’s another preliminary result, this time a bit smoother. As you can see, I used spot putty on the smaller piece to fill in tiny holes and gaps.

And this is where Murphy came into play. It turned out that I had miscalculated something or simply had visually misjudged the proportions of this small piece. Anyway, it was evident that it was too thin and I had to somehow make it thicker – or wider if you look at it from the side.

Sounds easy, but how should I do that? Well, after thinking about it for a bit I decided to simply add material by gluing small strips of styrene to the side of it and fill it with putty as before. Yay, more sanding! Not exactly what I wanted to do but it sure did the trick:

After that small setback, I moved on to the next part, which is a kind of add-on to the first, “big” base piece. I made it basically from four small strips of styrene, which I glued together and sanded in shape.

A little putty to hide the seams:

A little sanding – done.

So, here are all of the three pieces that had been done at that point:

Next, I had to make the small, narrow part fit into the bigger base. So, I cut a piece out of the side of it and added some putty back in to make the new surface nice and smooth. Again, I used my mini-dremel to do that, this time with a small circular saw attached to it. I also used various small files to work on that slot.

While working on any of these pieces, by the way, I sprayed light coats of automotive primer on them all the time to reveal small blemishes, scratches or any kind of unevenness that needed to be fixed.

It wasn’t until I had created this slot that I noticed how deep I had carved the indentation into that big piece from above. Clearly too much! When put together, the final element of the prop would not have looked very good like that. So I had no choice but to improvise again and insert a round piece of styrene to raise the level of that surface a bit. This of course meant that I also had to putty it to blend it to the “walls” inside:

A lot of sanding later – and I mean a LOT of sanding later – the mistake was corrected and the surface both inside and outside was smooth as an androids butt. Also, the small add-on piece fit in its place perfectly.

To finish this piece off I had only one thing left to do and that was to create tiny grooves on the outside as a bit of detailing to give it some structure and make it interesting, not to mention match it with the original of course! To do that I cut tiny pieces of tape and put them on where I wanted the grooves to be.

Then I applied several coats of primer to add some material to the outside.

Then I removed the tape and voilà – micro-detailing!

Last but not least I had to tackle the emitter tip, which proved to be extra challenging. What I needed was a very small piece with very specific measurements and three tiny rings around it. At first I had no idea how to achieve this, but then decided to try to sculpt the tip from air curing clay which worked out quite well.

The three rings around the tip gave me a headache though. How the hell should I sculpt those by hand? It seemed impossible. Then I had the idea to wrap a bit of wire around it to at least get an approximation of what I wanted. It would be a short spiral instead of three separate rings, but that was the best I could think of. And it turned out that it worked really well and looks very nice even if it’s not perfect. After all, it’s only a very small part of the final prop…

So, here’s the final result again:

Note that I added a small indentation on top of the middle sized piece as well, similar to the one on the big base piece to create a small lip and a place for the emitter tip to fit in.

Seeing those four parts together now that they’re finished, I’m very satisfied with this part of the probe and I think it goes very well with the main parts I did a while back:

I’m sure it’ll be a great prop when it’s all done. And I sure hope that I’ll be able to make some more progress in the near future, too!

What do you think? The good, the bad and the ugly – I’d love to hear back from you in any case, either via a comment below or via eMail!

Also, if you want to watch my prop-related activities more closely you should follow me on Twitter. Every time I’m in my workshop, you’ll know it instantly and see what I’m doing in real-time before anyone else can read about it here on the blog. Sounds like something you might enjoy? Follow me @trekprops and get the inside scoop!

Related Content:

1. Work In Progress: Neutrino Probe – Main Parts
2. Work In Progress: Neutrino Probe
3. Work In Progress: ODN Scanner – Part I (Scratch-build)
4. Work In Progress: ODN Scanner – Part II (Molding)
5. Prop Analysis: Neutrino Probe

Being the kind person that she is, Paula sent me a scan of the article in return when it was finished and made sure it was okay for me to publish it here. Thanks, Paula!

Look for the reference to trekprops.de on the bottom of the second page with the corresponding paragraph of the article right next to it. Check it out below (click for a bigger view).

If you want to order this issue of Stamp & Coin Mart online, you can do so at the website of the Collectors Club of Great Britain for £3.10. Subscriptions are also available, here.

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Why? Well, the matter of the fact is that they are simply unnecessary. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform, so what sense does it make to repeat the information that is already there as a post in a “bigger” blogging system and make it available in two places? None as far as I can see. On top of that, all of my recent tweets are listed in the sidebar on the right as well, so the information is not only doubled, but tripled!

The other thing is that these Twitter roundup posts are keeping people from seeing the “meat” of the blog by taking up too much space on the homepage. I’ve noticed that it quite often happens that I’m twittering small updates which don’t warrant a full blown blog post, which is absolutely what Twitter is for. However, if I do this for a few weeks without publishing a “big” blog post, all these roundup posts can add up and obstruct the view of the “real” contents of the blog. That’s also why I have removed all of the existing roundup posts, so that all the recent blog entries are better visible from the homepage.

So, if you want to continue to catch my Twitter updates, the simplest way to do so is to follow me (@trekprops). In addition to that, have a look at the sidebar where you will see not only my status updates, but also my Twitpic pictures. A simple click on “More updates…” will take you directly to Twitter and to my complete timeline.

What do you think about this change in the blog structure? Do you feel it’s for the best or would you rather keep those roundup posts? Let me know in the comments.

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Even if I had to deal with a few setbacks, the work went forward quite smoothly and pretty much the way I had imagined it. However, some serious precision work was necessary to make the parts as accurate and clean as they turned out to be, which was no easy task at all! As you can see in the pictures below, I shaped the wooden raw material with knives, saws, files and of course different kinds of sandpaper until I was satisfied with the results, while permanently applying coats of primer in between to reveal rough spots and other blemishes yet to be smoothed out. The most useful tool in this process? My caliper, which I used to continuously measure the thickness of the ribs, the spacing between them, etc. Without it, the parts undoubtedly wouldn’t have turned out this nice.

Of course, the pieces are not 100% symmetrical or exactly like my schematics, but I’m very pleased with the results nonetheless. The three parts I made in this manner are the ribbed middle section as well as the two back pieces. I decided to do the latter ones separately so I could make seamless resin castings of them later by using a one-piece silicone mold for each – in contrast to a two-part mold for a bigger piece, which would have a seam line by default.

So, without further ado, here are the pictures. First, the finished parts:

The original prop and my schematics for comparison:

And here are some progress pictures:

Very useful for making flat surfaces truly flat: a belt sander.

Humble beginnings…

Expanding the grooves.

Cutting deeper to match my schematics.

Some filing action to accurately shape the ribs.

Splash coat applied to reveal all kinds of blemishes.

The final cut to trim the piece from the excess wood.

The next part of the probe I want to tackle is the tip of the tool, which I will have to scratch build since I wasn’t able to identify the nose hair trimmer part that was originally used for this purpose.

Keep watching the blog for more updates. If you want to catch additional info between my blog entries, follow me on Twitter: @trekprops!

Related Content:

1. Work in Progress: Neutrino Probe – Business End
2. Work In Progress: Neutrino Probe
3. Work In Progress: ODN Scanner – Part I (Scratch-build)
4. Work In Progress: ODN Scanner – Part II (Molding)
5. Prop Analysis: Neutrino Probe

For what it’s worth, here’s a look at the test piece I was playing with to get accustomed to working with a lathe:

Related Content:

1. Work In Progress: Neutrino Probe – Main Parts
2. Work in Progress: Neutrino Probe – Business End
3. Work In Progress: ODN Scanner – Part I (Scratch-build)
4. Work In Progress: ODN Scanner – Part II (Molding)
5. Prop Analysis: Neutrino Probe

As with most of these props, it was used as a medical instrument as well as an engineering tool. However, with this one, the scientific use was seen more often.

Here are some screenshots from “Star Trek: Captain’s Chair“:

And here are two shots from the “It’s A Wrap”-Auction where two of these were sold:

Lastly, here’s the sequence of the lights from the show:

Even if it’s not very clear in the animation above, I know that the last LED of the sequence is green whereas the rest of the lights are of a warm yellow/orange color.

Using these references and with some help from people in the know, I was able to figure out proportions and measurements for this prop. Also, I learned that the tip was taken from a nose hair trimmer and the ribbed middle part was loosely based on a Star Wars lightsaber handle. The back piece was custom made from aluminum.

Here are some schematics I put together:

This drawing will be the basis for my replica. The dimensions should be pretty accurate to the original.

The next step will be to manufacture the ribbed middle section as well as the two back pieces. I will try to accomplish this by turning these parts from wood.

Stay tuned for more progress pics in the coming weeks!

Any questions or suggestions as to how I should proceed with this? Or do you know which nose hair trimmer model was used for the tip of the Neutrino Probe? Leave a comment and let me know!

Related Content:

1. Work In Progress: Neutrino Probe – Main Parts
2. Work in Progress: Neutrino Probe – Business End
3. Work In Progress: Neutrino Probe
4. ODN Scanner
5. Work In Progress: ODN Scanner – Part II (Molding)

For it to be the correct size, a good portion needs to be cut off the back of the unit. The display screen of the Desktop Viewer was scratch built for the show, then the whole thing was (re)painted and decorated with pieces of black acrylic as well as vinyl tape.

I’m currently looking to get the missing pieces (screen, etc.) from fellow prop builders. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll scratch build them myself. Anyhow, this project is on the back burner for now.

Are you going to try to get one of these for yourself? Leave a comment and tell me!

Below are some screenshots. Notice the power plug socket on the side which was concealed on some prop units and visible on others.

Related Content:

1. Prop Analysis: Neutrino Probe
2. Buildup: Small PADD (VOY)
3. Work In Progress: Neutrino Probe – Main Parts
4. Makeover: Mobile Holo-Emitter
5. Work in Progress: Neutrino Probe – Business End

Why? Well, it was simply too much of a hassle! You see, the site as it has been in existence until now was completely built by me from scratch. Which means that every time I wanted to publish something, I had to dig really deep into HTML code and build a new page for my content, put a new thumbnail in the showcase, update plenty of links, manually add a paragraph to the homepage, etc. That’s a lot of effort and often times made me shy away from even approaching the task.

That’s why I now moved to WordPress! With this blog publishing system which makes it very easy to crank out a quick posting, I’ll be able to bring new content to you more frequently – even on the go from my iPhone! Also, there are a lot of new features which I simply couldn’t provide before:

• Easier navigation via categories and tags
  The sidebar on the right hand side provides lots of navigational functions. Click on “Voyager” for example and you will see all posts of this category listed, whether it’s a “showcase” or a “buildup” post. The same goes for tags. You will find them at the bottom of every posting. Click on one to see all of the posts that have the same tag attached to it.
• Search function with Live Search
  On top of the sidebar there is a search field. It works pretty straight forward: Enter your search term, hit enter or click “Search” and you will see the results. Alternatively, enter what you are looking for and wait a few seconds. A window with your results will appear under the search box where you can click on them directly.
• Twitter-Integration
  Want to catch my Twitter updates without having to check yet another place on the web? Well, no problem. The five most recent tweets of mine are displayed on the sidebar, including links, hash tags and even my TwitPic pictures! Wanna see more? Just click the “More updates”-button below. Also, on Sundays at 8 pm, there is a weekly Twitter roundup post automatically generated with all tweets from the bygone week.
• Commenting System
  Each posting allows you to leave a comment. Tell me what you think about the topic or what you would like to see in future posts, ask a question, make a suggestion, or just say hello. I’m looking forward to all of it.
• RSS-Feeds for Posts and Comments
  The quickest and easiest way not to miss anything I post. Use the two buttons top right above the search bar and subscribe to the feed to have my latest blog updates appear in your RSS reader. Works for comments, too!
• Social Bookmarking / Sharing
  Are you on Twitter? Facebook? MySpace? FriendFeed? Or any of the other Web 2.0 sites that enable you to connect with other people? On the bottom of each posting’s page you will find several buttons which enable you to share the respective content on any of these social networks.

So, with this infrastructure in place, I look forward to tackle a number of new and exciting prop projects and you’re invited to come along and join the fun!

Meanwhile, look around, maybe leave a comment or two and let me know what you think – I’d love to hear from you.

To be always up to date, subscribe to my RSS-Feed for new blog posts (this feed for new comments) or follow me on Twitter to see all of my prop-related activities in real-time!

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Ah, Starfleet cases. They come in all colors and shapes and I love all of them! Especially the ones that were used by the engineering staff to carry around their great little tools and instruments. But that’s not the only use for them, of course. They’re also very useful to store PADDs for example. And that’s exactly what Captain Picard uses his briefcase for in the TNG-Episode “Starship Mine” (6×18) when he leaves the ship, which is due for a Baryon sweep that requires a complete evacuation.

Prop-makers love to use everyday items, re-dress them a little and let them appear in a futuristic environment. It’s cheap, it looks convincing and it doesn’t take much time to do it. Because of that, most of the cases that appear on Star Trek are actual cases, that have a unusual twist or a unique look to them. It’s the same with Picards briefcase, which is actually a uncommonly shaped CD case from the eighties. The good thing about this is, that any “replica” made from the same type of case is 100% accurate in size and material, which is also the case with my prop.

The case itself does not give away too much about the brand or maker of it, the only markings on the inside state: “Outer Circle Products LTD. Chicago, U.S. & Foreign patents pending, made in U.S.A.”

I got this case on eBay some time ago. Unfortunately it was painted in the wrong color and had the incorrect details on it, so I had to refurbish it and make it accurate to its prominent appearance in TNG.

Here are some screencaps from the show:

This case was actually also heavily used on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine“, not very prominently however, but in the background on the Promenade. For these appearances, it was repainted and outfitted with different styles of tape detailing.

Here are some examples:

And here’s my prop:

One of many cases used on Star Trek: Picards Starfleet Briefcase.

The overall shape is very futuristic, unique and interesting.

The back-side is nothing but black and clean-looking.

The case opens up on the top where the handle is.

I lined the inside with some soft foam to protect whatever is carried in the case.

Instantly recognizable as Starfleet: The red pill-shaped label is essential.

These are the only markings found on the entire case.

Related Content:

1. Picards Tea Cup
2. Type I “Cricket” Phaser
3. Buildup: Type I “Cricket” Phaser
4. PADD Stylus
5. Comm Badges

To absent friends… To family.

These are the words that Jean-Luc Picard spoke in the end of “Star Trek: Nemesis” after Data had sacrificed himself to rescue the Captain from the exploding Romulan vessel Scimitar. And it was that occasion, that brought all of Datas shipmates, friends and – in a sense – family together to honor him and taste Chateau Picard, the wine that Picard’s Brother Robert used to press on Earth with passion until his death.

From a technical point of view, this is a relatively simple prop. You just print out the correct graphic and slap it on a nice bottle of actual wine and there you go. And that’s what a friend of mine did and gave it to me as a gift. Thanks Michael!

Here are some snapshots from the movie and the bonus features:

And here’s my replica:

For a special occasion: Chateau Picard, real wine…

…pressed in Labarre, France on Earth, not replicated.

This particular bottle is from 2267.

The picture of the vine is not entirely correct.

The top of the bottle is encased in red, just like the real one.

I got this one from a friend and fellow collector. Thanks Michael!

Related Content:

1. Shinzon’s Dagger
2. PADD Stylus
3. Picards Tea Cup
4. Picard’s Starfleet Briefcase
5. Ten Forward Drinking Glass