Category: Miscellaneous

Elektronik Muzik

March 8, 2015

Between Christmas and my birthday, I obtained several unusual musical instruments. Obviously it was time to put my talents to use and create music! Therefore I announce the formation of my band ‘The Ultra Man’, and the release of my first single ‘Journey to Albion’. In this entry you’ll witness the creation of this soon-to-be-chart-topping hit.

The first instrument is the drum machine, otherwise known as the ‘simple buzzer circuit’ made using components in the ‘littlebits’ circuit kit JBF got me for Christmas. This is nothing more than a 9V battery connected to a pulse generator (to vary the speed of the beep) and a buzzer. Not a traditional drum machine perhaps, but The Ultra Man is no traditional band:

The electronic bass is achieved via the Otamatone device. This is about as unusual as instruments get these days, and creates sound via a pressure pad and an adjustable echo-chamber (opening the mouth of the device changes the pitch). Here’s the mysterious Ultra Man playing it:

You can see the song coming together can’t you?

The final piece in the puzzle is the Stylaphone. This gift-from-god is like a chiptune-in-a-box, and (once again) uses electronic wizardry to create astounding sounds from the future. The stylus completes a circuit when touched to the metal keys, and as you can see here the results are nothing less than magical:

So what happens when all three instruments used simultaneously to create a song? Well readers, this happens:

Even if I do say so myself, that’s pretty special 🙂

Exosuit

February 8, 2015

Bernard got me this for Christmas:

It’s a ‘designer series’ Lego kit, which means it was designed by a fan and made by Lego after it won an Internet vote. I’d never heard of it, so it was quite a surprise. Look at the design!

Lots of small pieces boded well for complexity, and the manual is very professional. Everything about this ‘amateur’ kit suggests the opposite!

That said, the first step of the instructions is the easiest step I’ve ever seen in a kit:

Assembly was simple, and the final product looks amazing:

It’s detailed and extremely poseable:

It’s also (coincidentally?) in approximately 1:144 scale, which means it plays well with most robot kits. Here is Lego spaceman using his Exosuit to fend off a savage attack from Liger Zero:

And yes, I do know Liger Zero isn’t 1:144 scale 😉

A great kit. Thanks Santa Brother!

My Very Own Odo

January 24, 2015

One of the more unexpected items I received for Christmas was this vinyl model kit:

Yes it’s everyone’s favourite changeling, ‘Constable’ Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space 9. This kit was made in 1995 and KLS bought it new for under a tenner! Here’s the contents of the box:

Not a bad likeness is it?

I’ve assembled vinyl kits before, and immediately a problem was apparent. The age of the vinyl had made it hard and brittle, and there was no way I’d be able to cut off the flash without softening it first. So it was time to give Odo a hot bath:

A few minutes at a light boil was enough to soften the vinyl enough for the razor blade:

And soon the pieces were ready for gluing:

The second problem became apparent at this point: the kit wasn’t well designed. To be specific, some of the pieces didn’t fit well, and the fact they needed gluing (as opposed to using ball joints) was poor design in the first place! I soldiered on carefully though, and soon got to this point:

A bit more glue and some time drying and assembly was complete:

What’s that you say? “Where’s his legs?” The fact is the waist joints just didn’t match at all, and even if they had the upper half is so much heavier he wouldn’t ever stand so… I tossed his legs in the bin! I was happy with half an Odo 🙂

But I wasn’t finished yet! I was serious about this kit, and carefully began to paint him…

And mere minutes later, my very own Odo was complete:

Look at his flaming hair! His jaundiced skin! His inky-black jacket with red piping and silver trim. As one would expect from a design of my very own, Odo looks majestic.

Now before some of you get all ‘but that’s not canon’ on me, please be aware that this isn’t supposed to be Odo from the TV episodes.

No my friends, this is Odo from my unpublished DS9 fan fiction script entitled “Elegy of The Vampire Savior”. That’s the one in which Odo teams up with Space Dracula to save the colonists of the fourth moon of Nosferon from being enslaved by a tyrannical computer. This particular outfit is the one Odo wore during the logic battle with the Machine Brain, immediately after his fated lover Udu died in his arms.

If you’d like more details, please let me know.

I didn’t ever expect to get my very own Odo for Christmas. And now I wonder how I ever lived without him!

Robot Claw