MechTech

Sorry Derex, I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you! I have two full grown cats. One LOVES the model ship I'm building, the other chewed on the mast. The first keeps trying to sit on the flightdeck, and collapsed it through the sides -three times! Nothing broken, but I had to add carbon fiber arrow shafts to support it. Now he doesn't try to sit on it anymore! If you save your boxart, protect your boxes! They make perfect beds for cats.

Derex, your fleet is coming along nicely! Now you can go where no man has gone before - actually having multiple models that are completed from a series! Thanks for sharing Big S. I saw those kits and was thinking about getting them. Looks cool. Electric Indigo, that looks smooth n clean! I'd love to see the Minerva. I had the original (Nitto?)kit reboxed as Battletech decades ago. I liked the design, but I forgot what scale it was. Never saw the series though. Joscasle, your Tomcat looks GREAT! For those that don't know, the kit is a masterpiece! I don't have one, but someone in our modeling club has been bringing it in. He said it practically falls together. He also used the mottled paint technique, but opposite using white. It looked like one of those custom Japanese anime paint schemes with snow flakes all over it. He used a mask to get the effect. That was before he started painting on the gray. - MT

Thanks for sharing these! What a blast from the past. Better be extra careful to stay within the lines now! - MT

Great pose and building it with more "action" than it comes out of the box! It's still one of my favorites despite how awkward it can be to work with. - MT

Lots of great builds guys! There's a lot of cool builds going on. Electric Indigo, that is coming along nicely. It's smooth, nice n clean. - MT

He he, redshirts. So that's what happens to them. That looks great Edstuff! - MT

That came out AWESOME Arbit!!! The video thoroughly highlights just how cool this project came out! Congrats on an excellent execution of a great idea!!! - MT

Thanks Derex. Yeah, I do remember building those. - MT

Cool Derex! I think they'll turn out alright. I wonder if the Round 2 kits are the same ones I built decades ago! They didn't all fit that great if I remember correctly. - MT

Looking GREAT Cap'n!!! -MT

Nice n clean build anubis! The color scheme works well. Great build CrossAir! Great photos too! Congrats on garnering a trophy Neptunesurvey! Great lighting job! Vifam, that is a cool model! I've probably seen that model several times and not realized how "Macrossy" it looks! I'm going to have to get one of those. - MT

This is looking awesome!!! - MT

Thanks Thom! Looking nice n clean anubis! Thanks for sharing Arbit! That is some cool lighting. I also got the crud too. DON'T take Zicam. I lost my smell and taste for a week. Thank God I'm getting them back. I searched and found out people have lost their smell and taste permanently, mostly from the nasal drops. Its some nasty stuff! So, I built those nice compact servo switches, glued them into my ship model, and they BOTH stopped working! Talk about frustrated. It turns out the diodes dropped the voltage too low to give the motors enough "umph" to move anymore. I could hear and feel them try to move, but they both jammed. Using only three volts really lowers your opportunities. So, I went even lower tech and older school and used wind-up toy motor clutches and a single micro gearmotor (6mm diameter) to drive them and cammed switches. One clutch faces upward and the other faces downward. When the motor turns one way, only one cam works and visa versa. It also weighs 6 grams less so that's another positive. It is not my prettiest work, but only you guys are going to see it. More detail work got done on the crane and more work on the ship's bridge as well. Bit by bit its coming together. - MT

Sorry Pengbuzz! I feel for you. I had to go through the whole A+ thing when I was a technician. Don't give up! Group study helps if you can find some study buddies, that's what I did. I've been in your shoes. I had a tough time going from my last career to my present. I'm praying for you! - MT

Merry Christmas everyone! Nice n clean Thom! It looks great! Been working this week on the crane for my ship. Its a hydraulic style folding crane. Its all styrene except for hollow brass hinge points and aluminum tubing for the hydraulic shafts. Still has more detail to be added. - MT

The Superbug is looking good Thom! Great diorama Salamander. The details really make it! That car reminds me of the three wheelers in England and Italy. Choice rides for pickin' up chicks in! Electric Indigo, that thing does look like its from Macross! Maybe that's where they got the look from? The paint scheme is looking cool! - MT

BEAUTIFUL work Capn'! Thanks for showing your build process and technique. - MT

He he! I dreamed that someday radio gear would get small enough to fit in tiny stuff. And 30 years later, it finally happened! - MT

Yeah, I was doing that back in the 80's That's when servos were MUCH bigger. -MT

Hi Arbit! The gears and motor are the only original guts. Two wires power the motor and two go to the switch. Push the transmitter for a bit and a little rotation activates the switch. There's no exact on or off, just "hit and miss tech," but its simple. The motor will only go in the direction the diode allows it to. One servo only will go when forward is pressed and only one will go reverse when reverse is pressed. I hope that makes sense? - MT

Hi guys! The Hexbug remote basically has two channels on it. They both go forward and reverse. One channel will power the hangar door (previous drama in the last few posts) and the other will trigger both lights and the radar. I got 10- 9gram micro servos cheap on Ebay. Two will be made into mechanical switches for the lights and radar. The servos have a shaft that runs down into what used to be the potentiometer so the servo knows where it is turning. I put a cam on that shaft which "pushes" an on and off push button switch (you can see them in the photos-one is open, the other is pushing the button). I'm doing it this way instead of a relay or other electronics because this requires no power to keep the accessories turned on. To make one channel into two, I'm cheating. The one photo with the wires and soldering exposed shows the diodes (the black cans soldered to each servo motor). Sorry, it's blurry. If you notice the stripe on the diodes, one is facing towards the motor and the other is facing in the opposite direction. For those not familiar, diodes allow electricity to only flow in one direction. So when I push forward on the controller, only one servo switch will be allowed to work and the other won't and then visa versa. It kinda makes two channels for the price of one. Now they just have to be wired up to the accessories. - MT

Thanks guys for posting the links. I always loved that version of the Monster. -MT

Looking great Arbit! Yeah, you're not done until we have a good video - MT

That's funny Arbit! Picking up chicks with garage doors!? I can have fun with that one! "So baby, are you a roll-up, slide to the side, or tilt-up canopy type of garage door lady?" (I had to look those up) UPDATE: So, I got out the other Hexbug just to check it with the treansmitter and I noticed I flipped the notch I made for the switch. The switch has three positions, I only made the slot big enough for two so it would always stay on the same channel (A or B). In all my wisdom, I reversed that! Duh! So for the heck of it, I opened up the slot to get both channels working. I think being able to power cycle it fixed it! So now it works. So the new score: SCOREBOARD SHIP ME 4 1 The ship gets to keep that one for getting the better of me and for me making a dumb mistake, but I'm taking a point (and impressing my wife) - MT

Thanks Arbit; I think you are right! Maybe that's why the toys were on sale so cheap!? I've NEVER blown anything electronic until now. Updated score... SCOREBOARD SHIP ME 4 0 I finished wiring up and testing the hangar door. With the remote, it was like a REAL garage (hangar) door opening and closing. I showed my wife and she was like, "That's cool!" After dinner I went to show my children and only the LED blinked. I checked everything and nothing works. There's a second motor on there for other stuff. It's dead too! How frustrating! I tested it again tonight - still dead! Of course this happens AFTER everything is glued in place! Oh well. I have radio control (vs IR) controlled boards I can use. The transmitters are just more bulky and radios can receive interference. I'm going to have to mess with it some more. - MT