Christmas stuff

[pro70z28]

Thanks everybody.
Jack funny you should say that. I told them I was thinking of implanting a pump that would squirt dish soap on passers by. lol.
Richard, yes I did the treasure chest by hand. It was quicker than setting it up in 3-d. & I was running out of time.
John, I gave it a coat of Zinsser primer/sealer, then used flat latex to paint. Then I gave it a couple coats of Benjamin Moore Stay Clear acrylic polyurethane. The clear had a little bit of a shine which made the thing look like plastic. (didn't like that look). I was wishing I hadn't clear coated it. Then I tried spraying another coat of clear "dry coat" and that brought it back to nearly a flat as it was before the clearcoat.
Chuck, the camel will be stored in a barn outside town used for storing our props.

Thanks again for following the build. I'll have a couple pics of the camel making the trip to the church. Having a camel in the back of the truck should get some LQQKs. lol

[myxpykalix]

why don't you just hop on and ride it to church? It looks so lifelike!

[khaos]

The moral of this thread is "Its hard to overvalue the humble cinder block"

Gary thanks for the time to put this in a post. I enjoyed seeing the process at least as much as the finished products!

[pro70z28]

Thanks for following along everybody. I have some final pics. Here's the camel loaded up for the trip to the church.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...adedCamel1.jpg[/img]

Here's a pic. of the camel at the church complete with wise men. We had just enough snow to make things white. The "wise guys" lanterns are empty water putty cans, sprayed gold, drilled full of 1" holes with LED lights inside.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...28/wisemen.jpg[/img]

After the last night of the musical, it was decided to put the camel in the foyer for display. I think it will be used in a skit somehow on Sunday morning. I'll have to wait & see what the drama team has in mind.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...inthefoyer.jpg[/img]

[mikeacg]

I'll bet you got some funny looks driving over to the church! Thanks for showing me what can be done (and what I should be doing for my church)!
I'm starting to feel Christmasy finally! Up until today I was working on getting everything done and didn't have a chance to think about it. I'm firing up the Christmas music, putting final touches on presents and enjoying the season.
Thanks for sharing, Gary!

[pro70z28]

Hi Everybody, sorry I haven't been here much but it's been very busy for a long time. I thought I'd add this here (another Christmas program to make stuff for).

Still just in the rough cut stage but I hung some chimes to see if it would work. There's 2 of these, this one goes outside & the mirror image of this one goes inside. My son Jeff is working on servos to chime the inside angel. Hope it all works out, I have the CNC running, cutting out stuff for the stage. I'm trying to have it all done by the 10th.

Harp chime angel video >>>>> http://youtu.be/WUjcWlgmVPw



These still need to be cleaned up & stands built & painted. Deadline is coming fast with a lot of stage props yet to cut out.

[chiloquinruss]

Wow, I can't wait to see your progress pix! I have been busy to but nothing like your wonderful projects.

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/album.php?albumid=50

Russ

[pro70z28]

Thanks Russ. We are having fun. My son Jeff has the day off today & has been playing with the chimes. He now has it mocked up to play chimes digitally. Not only that but when someone gets within 8 ft. it changes to a different tune & another tune again when they get within a few inches, in case someone gets close to check it out.
The CNC is busy today, but tomorrow I'll cut a bracket for the back of the harp to hold the servos & control board on the back nice & solid so the hammers will give the chimes a good clean whack.

I'll post a video when it's done in the next few days.

[pro70z28]

Still thrashin' but I have all the stage parts done & will install them later today. Then the crew comes in & does all the final decorating tomorrow so I need to have my stuff done before then.
All that's left is to finish sand the angels & assemble the stands they go on. I got them all cut out & painted yesterday. I have the main Harp Angel ready for Jeff to install the electronics when He gets off work tonight.
The little thing on the inside of the harp frame at the top is a sonar sensor. It can be programed to sense objects at certain distances, pre-set with a laptop. Jeff has it set up so the chimes play a simple note or 2 constantly, then when someone gets within 8 feet it steps up to a more complex note pattern, then when they get real close it plays like crazy. lol. Had I known he was going to do all that I would have taken some time & tuned the tubes & installed a couple more so he would have had a musical scale to work with. Then he could have programed in some actual Christmas tunes.



Back side where everything is hidden. I made a plate for the servos & control board to mount. Added a plate behind the back hand because it's a little fragile & the stand to hold it up.




back to work, see ya.

[Brady Watson]

That's great Gary. Post up some pics when they are all painted & animated.

The work you did on the Camaro is pretty impressive! Man after my own heart.

-B