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Anvildude might be on to soething with his suggestion....if you take the gubbins out of the case and remove the screen you may b able to fit the bits inside. Not sure on how the screen's wired up though, so may not be viable to remove it and keep it functional. Any one out there taken one apart before?


edit: Actually, looks like the board does take up about the same footprint as the case. Bummer.

Still.... The case is gonna be a couple millimeters on either side that you'd be able to shave off- the screen and control, and front and back, increase the depth of the board. Taking it out of the casing could give you enough room to jam it in there diagonally.

Or, if you're comfortable enough with circuitry to recognize and understand the bits that are important to the function of playing sound, you could possibly chop off bits that you don't need- aka the bits pertaining to the circle controls and the screen.

All you really need is the main memory component, the bit where the programming is stored, and the various jacks and inputs/outputs.

At this point I started working on the junked Rhino carcass, and after I chopped out the entire inner hull I was able to fit the ipod in there along with the little IR receiver attachment that goes with the remote. I still haven't been able to test it out yet because it didn't come with the stupid "I'm an Apple product and I'm too cool for USB" cord. I'm still uneasy about this approach as I'm not sure how well it will work having the ipod in such an inaccessible location when it comes time to plug in and remove the speaker each time I want to play with it. And of course then there has to be a pretty big hole in the top (bottom, it's upside down) of the Rhino big enough for the cord to go in through, making it even more obvious. Oh, and I haven't mentioned yet that the cord is bright freaking yellow. I can paint it, sure, but this whole thing is just getting more and more fail by the minute.

@Anvildude: Nope, not gonna happen. Especially not with how things are going tonight. I can vaguely recognize that bit is some kind of memory, that one there is the processor, that's a resistor but I have no idea what the hell a resistor really does, that sort of thing. And that tiny amount of extra room wouldn't be enough to fix the problem I'm having.

By far the coolest thing i have seen in a while.
Suddenly re-interested in building Tau

This army is Taurific!

*bangs head against table*

Okay, so the whole ipod in a Rhino on the base thing won't cut it. I got the Rhino set up on the base, but then I held up the Hammerhead next to it to get a size comparison, and this is just ridiculous.



There's a lot more to the hammerhead that isn't currently attached, but seriously. It's just absurd to have that gigantic thing on the base. I can't figure out a way to make this not look like utter fail, and it's driving me nuts.


On the bright side, I finished the double plasma suit.




There are more pics, but my phone ran out of minutes. Okay scratch that, it didn't run out of minutes. As soon as I turned on mobile data usage to allow me to upload the pics, my balance shot down from 100 minutes to 0.06 minutes in a freaking heartbeat. Have I mentioned that tonight is full of spectacular, jaw dropping failure?


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When I eventually go back through the army, I'm going to add a bit of depth to the purple. It's very flat in between the edge highlights. Also, need to add a little more detail to the guns, but frankly I was tired of working on this suit.

Edit: That Noisia/Bar9 track is just sick!

I think the only way here is to either bite the bullet and attempt the tray system, or do some more extreme conversion work on the Hammerhead. I imagine you could Dubstep it up a litttle more- play up the juxtaposition between Boxy and Smoooothe that the Tau (and Dubstep) play with.

Make the base (including the sliding tray) out of Plasticard.

If you want, I can do up a sketch on how to go about that.

Maybe even a full net if you can give me the dimensions of the ipod and wireless thingy.

Good luck with the I-pod. The tray base is the best idea, though you could try removing the case-those few MM may make all the difference.

BTW, how do you do the wiring for the lights?

Could you not saw off a big old chunk of Rhino so you're just left with a bit of chassis and tracks, cocked at a jaunty angle?

I know the nano is relatively wide, but surely you don't need all the depth you've got there.

 Ovion wrote:
Make the base (including the sliding tray) out of Plasticard.

If you want, I can do up a sketch on how to go about that.

Maybe even a full net if you can give me the dimensions of the ipod and wireless thingy.

It's not that I don't know how I would physically make a sliding tray, quite the opposite. Building a tray is very easy, it's just a box with a couple pieces that aren't glued in place. It's the other aspects of the build. The fact that I don't have any plasticard and it will take a month to get here, for example. But that's only a problem with the physical building of the box itself. The real problem is putting it on a base. The nature of a sliding tray is that it has to be able to slide, and to do so freely. In order to do that, I'd need to build a flat base with this big hump in the middle, and then a totally smooth area where the tray would slide out, which would break up the scenery and spoil the illusion even more than that yellow speaker cable.


But, I think I've come to a bit of a solution. Hokay, bear with me. A box-like structure, more or less centered on a large oval base (which itself is barely big enough to fit the stupid ipod), possibly made out of the leftovers of the Rhino sawed down like Rain suggested (in this case, probably chopped since I don't own a saw). Instead of a sliding tray, I plan to magnetize a big piece of fallen debris that will act like a lid to the box, over on one side.. It will, hopefully, look like a big tangled mess but still be only one piece glued together separately. This should allow me to get at the ipod inside for charging, adjustments and disconnecting the speaker when I need to separate the pieces, for transport and the like. And of course I'll have to just deal with the cable running between the base and the model. I make a really big deal about that cable because to me it's like a glowing sign proclaiming my failure to solve this problem.

It's times like this I wonder why I couldn't just build a marine army with big boxy vehicles and lots of hollow spaces inside.


@Master of Ordinance: I have a complete tutorial from start to finish linked in my sig

Just turn the ipod itself into the base, none of this hiding stuff. Flip it over, coat the bottom, dremmel out a little area to glue a skimmer base into(Ie. rough it up to give the glue more area to grip, not cut a hole) then base the back of the ipod and the base. Run the wires from the bottom of the ipod through some techno wreckage, like blown up rhino or generator pieces. and run the wire up into the speakers. BAM, detachable base, made out of the ipod.



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You could even make the bottom debris reach up to the bottom of the hammerhead, to hide the wire, like it's just clearing a recently destroyed enemy vehicle.

Alternatively, you could wire just speakers into the hammerhead and leave the jack exposed. At that point, though, you have to carry the ipod and plug it in, but it's a lot simpler of a project.

 Bobaram wrote:
Just turn the ipod itself into the base, none of this hiding stuff. Flip it over, coat the bottom, dremmel out a little area to glue a skimmer base into(Ie. rough it up to give the glue more area to grip, not cut a hole) then base the back of the ipod and the base. Run the wires from the bottom of the ipod through some techno wreckage, like blown up rhino or generator pieces. and run the wire up into the speakers. BAM, detachable base, made out of the ipod.



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You could even make the bottom debris reach up to the bottom of the hammerhead, to hide the wire, like it's just clearing a recently destroyed enemy vehicle.

I can see the merits in this.

 Bobaram wrote:
Just turn the ipod itself into the base, none of this hiding stuff. Flip it over, coat the bottom, dremmel out a little area to glue a skimmer base into(Ie. rough it up to give the glue more area to grip, not cut a hole) then base the back of the ipod and the base. Run the wires from the bottom of the ipod through some techno wreckage, like blown up rhino or generator pieces. and run the wire up into the speakers. BAM, detachable base, made out of the ipod.



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You could even make the bottom debris reach up to the bottom of the hammerhead, to hide the wire, like it's just clearing a recently destroyed enemy vehicle.

You could also get ahold of the Imperial Battlefield terrain piece, and either hide the ipod into terrain, rather than the vehicle, or you could cut the terrain to be a scenic base for the vehicle.

Alright, I went a little bit crazy with my clippers and vented a bit of my frustration on the Rhino chassis:



As you can see, I may have some anger issues. But hey, I feel much better. And now I can actually think straight about how some of this is going together. And on the bright side, the ipod fits snugly and flush inside it.



There's a slight notch in one side allowing me to feed the speaker cable in through the tracks into the hull when I go to set it up. I also went and drilled out the bottom hull of the hammerhead and fed the hideous yellow cable through it so that it will run parallel to the flight stand. Speaking of flight stand, I might end up using this articulated posing stand that came with my Rex model, assuming it didn't accidentally get tossed. Now comes a lot of the really tricky part, creating a base that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing.

@Bobaram: Given that the ipod is, for all its girth, still a Nano, it isn't quite big enough to function as a scenic base on its own. Plus it's got the receiver attachment that needs to not get gunked up with paint. I still have to test it and see just how exposed it needs to be in order to function. Once the ipod finishes updating and restoring itself (gods how I hate iTunes), I'll load a sample track (DMX) and give it a test later tonight.

The method I'm going to use is the hollowed out Rhino hull, upside down with dirt and debris mounded around it to hide gaps and such, with what will likely be a detachable cover on one side to let me get at the ipod when I need to. I'm also playing with the idea of completely enclosing the wreck, and then cutting a hatch into the bottom of the base itself. I would then add a magnetic flap to the bottom that would be much, much easier to hide than trying a whole camouflage chunk of scenery.

Lastly, here's the other pics I snapped of the Disorder suit that my phone didn't upload:





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Okay! I did my first test with my ipod and speaker system and as of now, the Hammerhead puts out surprisingly loud, moderate quality sound. It's just loud enough to be audible across the table over the dull roar of a 40k tournament. The remote control also works splendidly. Furthermore, I am pleased to report that it doesn't seem to matter what's in the way of the sensor. So long as the remote is pointed at the tank, the controls work and allow me to change songs, play/pause, and adjust the volume. Maximum volume translates to "let me turn this down so it doesn't bug my roommate in the next room over."

Okay, so that actually relieves a lot of the suspense and stress of the build. There was this lingering "will it even work" question and I'm happy to be rid of it. O frabjous day, calloo callay, I chortled in my joy. Knowing that all of this works, and more to the point how well it works, allows me to forge ahead on the build and probably finish putting the sonic aspects of it together by the end of tonight's shift. After that it's just LEDs, water effects, magnetic turrets, and probably a Time Lord somewhere. Bitches love the sonic screwdriver.

what would happen if you drilled through the center of the flight base where it forms the X and coated the interior with extremely shiny silver?

hide the yellow in the hole and light might bend around the rest like a fiber optic effect making it more invisible?

just a thought to try

Good luck with the Nano, that looks like a pain...

Have some wubwub to make it better.

https://soundcloud.com/getter_dubstep/getter-datsik-hollow-point

That definitely works better than my idea! Glad you got it sorted out man!

Okay. Here's how this went down. I chopped cut, clipped and physically bent pieces of plastic into place, then attached the whole tank to the base with a hot glue gun. After that, I started littering what was left of the empty base portions with debris generated from the Rhino carcass as I chopped it down, a little bit of recycling on my part. In doing this, I piled it up in front of gaps and over big glaring holes, and I'll be glopping on some texture paste to fill in the gaps and make it look like it's been buried for a while.



See that beat up Rhino hatch over on the right hand side? Notice how it's bent at an angle and kind of hangs down over that side? That's my detachable hatch for accessing the iPod and the receiver.



Once the glue dries for the magnets I'll start playing with adding more debris around the bottom of the piece so that it looks like a whole pile of fallen junk and completely obscures the opening. At this point, I think I'm just going to leave the ipod unsecured inside the thing. I mean, it can't go anywhere once the hatch is closed, and I may need to take it out to fiddle with it at some point.

While I was working on this, I also fixed the LEDs in place inside all 4 engines and glued those together. I'm waiting on one wing to set in place before I add the other. Pics of that should be up tomorrow when I've reached a good milestone on the project.

Big thanks to everyone who's chimed in on this part of the build. Without all the input I don't think I'd have brought it to a successful conclusion.

Looking good

And thanks, i must try the lighting at some point.

Recommend woo boost Rusko and Especially nuke em by datsik

 bossfearless wrote:
Testing. Testing. WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUB.


XV9-A Archangel Battlesuit, Piloted by Commander Darkblade, honorary member of Order of the Plume, Counts-As Farsight



If anyone complains about the lack of a plasma rifle, I direct their attention to her laser eye of death.


XV8-G Disorder Battlesuit, Double Plasma Crisis




Group shot of painted army so far:

what model is in the first 2 pics? this log is well cool congrats, the leds are sweeeet

@zootednbooted: If you mean the flying battlesuit, then that would be FW's model for Shas'O Ralai used as the basis, then a lot of bits from broadsides, Riptides and Dreadknights to put it over the top.

Also, FRAG OUT!

I have enjoyed this thread so much thus far! Even the frustration with the ipod was interesting to see, particularly the solution (I think it will work well!). Awesome project

I made the mistake today of soldering with no pants on. I shall not make that same mistake again. In other news, I did bad things with a Hammerhead chassis.








Now that the whole thing is assembled, I'm suddenly not sure about the hot tub turret, at least not the current piece. It seems...I don't know. When the build is done completely, I'll take video of it so that you can hear the speakers and see the flickering effect of the engine lights. Now comes another challenge that I'm working through, how to effectively mount this thing on a flight stand. It is WAY too heavy for the standard little clear peg that came with it, that much is absolutely certain. So now we come to a number of problems with the other common options. The big flier stand is perhaps too big at the base to fit on the rhino in the direction I want, and perhaps too long for the cord to reach the base. Both of those problems are things I could correct and measure, if I had one of those stands. Which I don't. Option 2 is brass rods. This is the least obtrusive method, since they have a very limited profile. However, here we get into structural problems. The rhino hull is too thin to drill partway into, and I can't sink the rods all the way through to the base because of the iPod.

Now, my option as I see it is to find some big chunk of wreckage to pile on top of the rhino where I want to anchor the flight stand. Then I would need to drill a pair of holes in that wreckage, sink a pair of brass rods (so it doesn't spin) in with some GS to give it some really good hold, and cut them to roughly the desired height. From here, I have to get a bit creative with the Hammerhead's hull. Again, too thin to just drill slots in, unless I want to impale the tank all the way through, which is actually an option. The other option is similar to the base, but instead of wreckage use a big boxy technical looking bit as a place to sink my rod. Giggity.

I'm happy you finally solved your problem. Can 't wait to see the finished model, because the speakers in place of the round hatches on the side of the tank are pure genius already.

Saw this today, and immediately thought of this thread.

 Lordhat wrote:
Saw this today, and immediately thought of this thread.

Have an exalt

This is relevant.