Category: Science

Let’s Make A Crystal

June 28, 2023

I didn’t bring much back from Australia, since I wanted near-empty suitcases for Japan, but I did come home with this:

I ‘won’ this via the points I got spending too much on a DC Comics card-redemption machine in the arcade at Westfield Kotara. I actually got two sets, and gave one to Sue. I wonder if she’s made it?

Considering the quality of the items they usually have in these arcade shops, I had little expectation this would be good or even work at all. But I followed the instructions to the letter to find out.

Start by adding the powder to hot water and stirring until the mixture is clear:

This suspension will form a crystal via evaporation, but a substrate (on which the crystal will grow) is needed, and that’s the little ceramic cone that came with the kit. The instructions were to wait for the mixture to cool, place the cone in it, then let it grow for a week.

The above shows the growth process, with the photos taken about two days apart. As you can see, the crystal grew well and by the last picture some crystals had also formed on the sides of the container. Here’s what the crystal looked like once removed from the mixture and allowed to dry:

It was a little trick to take a good photo since it’s so transparent! It’s also very fragile, and even touching it can cause the crystals to break off. It’s vaguely semi-spherical and about an inch in diameter.

So far so good for the crystal growing part, but does it glow? I shone a torch on it for 10 seconds or so and and turned out the light:

Holy smokes! This thing is positively radioactive. I’ll spare you the details about how this works, but it’s not just glow-in-the-dark, but even acts as a fairly bright green light source:

This little kit far exceeded my expectations. It was simple to make and worked perfectly first go. I’ve paid for worse kits than this one, so this easily gets two thumbs up 🙂

Dinosaur Models!

March 25, 2023

I recently bought and assembled three dinosaur model kits. Collectively they cost me under $40, which is less than a (single) typical model kit that I usually buy.

The first was this Triceratops which seems to be part of a new line they’re calling Plannosaurus. It’s a beginners kit that allows you to build a skeleton or normal version of the beast.

The instructions are in colour and contain lots of information about the dinosaurs presented in a cute style. The kit is easy to make (you assemble the skeleton first, then if you want you put the skin on) and I finished in about half an hour.

I’m assuming this is aimed at kids, so I think that while it’s well-engineered (you barely need nippers or sand paper), I found I had to use glue to get certain pieces of the skin to stay on. Also the stickers were fiddly to attach, and I think kids would get frustrated with them quickly. But it looked great once I finished.

I also got this Tyrannosaurus kit, from the same line as the Triceratops. It’s extremely similar, only as you can see it has more parts since the assembly (and parts) is slightly different depending on whether you build the normal or ‘feathered’ version.

Here’s proof that model kits can be educational! There’s lots of this sort of thing in the instructions 🙂

I chose the ‘non-feathered’ mode since I didn’t want to put the stickers on. I think he looks even better than the Triceratops, and considering the low price I’m very impressed with the quality.

Lastly, I also made this curio: yet another Triceratops skeleton kit (also from Bandai) but made from a new non-plastic material called Limex. This is an environmentally friendly alternative made from calcium, and they’ve only used it for an extremely small amount of recent kits. This kit was extremely inexpensive at only $7!

It’s a trivial skeleton to assemble – it took me maybe 5 minutes – and the material is extremely white and seems very slightly translucent which is why it appears to glow in the photos. I think it’s well suited to a skeleton kit like this one, but I’m not sure Bandai will be switching their Gundams to Limex any time soon.

While these are all fairly simple kits, I think they were great value and for their intended audience of kids I think they’d be a big success. All three of these will go to work and be displayed on a cabinet in my office next to the other dinosaur skeleton kit I made a year or so back (and a shark kit I bought in Japan). Maybe if I get the other two Dino-related kits I’ll make and bring them to work too 🙂

Fang Rock

December 8, 2022

I’ve been on a crafting bender recently, digging into my supply of unopened kits. Last weekend, it was time for this:

I got this guy several months back, and since I’d always said “I wish LEGO made a lighthouse” I’m happy they’ve made such a nice one.

Assembly was easy and fun, and it goes together literally from the ground up. The rocky base hides a combination power-supply and motor, which both powers and turns the lamp.

Oh and this is surely the simplest LEGO assembly step ever:

There’s loads of little details in this model that aren’t immediately obvious, such as a secret cave in the base that hides a pirates treasure chest (and the switch for the power), detachable walls/roof for play purposes or that the interior of the house is fully furnished complete with glowing wood stove:

As a child I would have loved playing with this set!

For the lamp LEGO created a fresnel lens element, which focuses the light from an led. It works very well, and in a darkened room the lightdoes produces a bright and somewhat directed beam.

All told it took me about five hours to build and as with many other recent LEGO kits I continue to be impressed by their skill at creating convincing – and in this case working! – models of real life structures. To have done it at minifigure scale is all the more impressive.

This joins the Medieval Blacksmith as one of my favourite LEGO sets of all time. I don’t think I’ll be disassembling this one any time soon 🙂

Robot Claw