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Project Jubilee (a.k.a. Leander, 54mm Warhound Titan)

Started by MarcoSkoll, January 23, 2012, 08:30:28 PM

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MarcoSkoll

Quote from: Kallidor on March 30, 2015, 01:48:53 AMThe effect so far is really cool. In the final version, if I understand correctly, each LED will dim slightly as it goes off yes?
That's already part of the circuit. It's not a huge effect, for three reasons - It can't be, I don't want it to be, and your eyes lie to you. To address them in order:

1) Conventional capacitors have very low energy densities. I considered an option of amplifying a smaller capacitor, but it also amplifies any tolerances in the parts, so might have caused LEDs to fade at noticeably different rates.

2) The circuit is going to change its pulse speed, but I can't adjust the time constant of the circuit on the fly, and I need the LEDs to dim enough between those high speed pulses (otherwise it just blurs together)

3) The eye sees it as one moving light rather than ten pulsing ones. If you focus on one specific LED (cover the others with your hand if you have to), it does fade on and off rather than switching instantly (for an example of normal switching speed, here's here's one of my earlier test videos, filmed in 8x high speed - the first two flashes are with the capacitor, the second two are without. (i.e. They normally turn off instantly).

The secondary circuit in the final version will just handle the firing effect (feeding a voltage to the 556's control pins to speed up the chase, and using powerful LEDs to flash the array), the idle effect is effectively done (see below!).

QuoteWill you be adding LED's to the mega bolter? I imagine you won't have much space with the other components installed to turn the barrels but it seems like a flash of yellow light would suit. What about sound effects?
It will have the targeting array lit red, but I'll probably be going with smaller calibre barrels on the final version, so trying to light them wouldn't be very noticeable (and might "leak" around the join between the barrels and the body, which wouldn't look very good either)

As for sound effects, I have put together some (as found in her background thread). I may well bring portable speakers to games, but I'm not planning on trying to integrate speakers into the model.

QuoteVery impressive so far Marco and something that Inquisitor scale lends itself so well too; it's great that fantastic centre pieces like this one can advertise the game, almost like thumbing your nose at GW for dropping the line.
Thumbing my nose? I have no idea what you're talking about...  ;)

But yes, I am hoping to make this a model that can really capitalise on the 54mm scale; I don't want this to be a model that could really have been done in 28mm. As INQ28 modellers are consistently proving, 54mm is not an argument in and of itself - it does need to justify itself by doing things that 28mm can't.

And no, I'm not expecting her to be low profile when I finally take her to WHW.

~~~~~

Anyway, there is now a right side of the LED array...



... which has been made to fit opposite the left array as so...



... and it's all quite compact when done. I may have to tweak the exact design of the blastgun a squeak so it fits, but it'll look the part.



Also, there is a new video showing the staggered chase effects - for me at least, I'm finding the beat frequency borders on hypnotic, so it's looking like it was worth the extra complexity to wire both sides independently.

So, all due credit to Van Helser for giving me the idea to take the blastgun lighting further than I'd originally planned (even if it was by misunderstanding what I planned), because it's things like this that will make the model something beyond its 28mm equivalents.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Kallidor

Yes, I can see that they do indeed dim as they go off and the overall effect is very pleasing. Whenever I picture a warhound in my mind, I often see this scene from Jurassic Park 3, the bit where the dinosaur is just stood watching them. Like you say, it has a hypnotic quality which could be quite menacing I think, very subtly aggressive. I've seen a lot of light effects used on models over the years but definitely nothing to match this and it's great to see it coming together so neatly.
Be Pure!
Be Vigilant!
BEHAVE!

MarcoSkoll

That's an interesting coincidence, because the sound effect I've put together for Leander's warhorn uses a slowed down version of the T-Rex roar from the Jurassic Park films.

On which front, there's some positive news - I now have a suitable portable speaker for the job, so adding sound effects to games will now be a reality.

The negative news is that I can't currently get the secondary control circuit to work. :(
It seemed pretty been simple, but it's just not working right. I've ignored it for a couple of days and I'm going to look back at it again; it's possible I've just managed to fry the 556 somehow - I do have a spare, but only the one, and I'm not going to casually plug it in to find out if I've blown that one too.

My design just may be crap (I'm not absolutely certain you should really trigger one half of a 556 with the other), so I may have to just design a completely different circuit. Hopefully I fix it one way or the other, but if I plain can't figure it out in the next day or three, I may consider omitting it. It'd be a shame, but I can't keep getting held up on this.

Minor news is that there has been a slight change to the primary control circuit, which now has a phase lock switch that means that both sides of the array can be kept in sync with each other if I so choose. I probably won't use it most of the time, but it might look better in photographs, where the effect of the beat frequency would be lost.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

MarcoSkoll

Yes!

While I've not yet converted it into a soldered and complete circuit, I've solved at least some of the voltage control problem. The problem was the relatively low impedance of the 556's internal voltage divider, so the high impedance source I was supplying to the voltage control point was like expecting a glass of water to make a lake deeper.

If rather than supplying a voltage, I instead adjust the internal voltage divider by switching in an external resistor, everything starts working very nicely. Switch in the external resistor increases the threshold voltage,  the timing capacitors have to charge over a larger range and the whole thing runs at slow speed. Switch it out, and the threshold voltage drops (slowed by an additional external lag capacitor), the timing capacitors charge over a smaller range and the chase effect accelerates.

Unfortunately, the lag capacitor really needs to be about 20-50 uF (10 uF has too little lag, 100 uF has too much), and most of my caps in that range are rated for about 300V and are therefore about twenty times the size needed. But that's a solvable problem, so we're getting closer.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Kallidor

Does that mean you'll need to order in some smaller capacitors? If I may ask, how much do all these various parts cost?
Be Pure!
Be Vigilant!
BEHAVE!

MarcoSkoll

I've been furnished with a few more or less suitable caps by friends/family, and tests are looking alright. Ideally I'd still like to source a new part in order to minimise the possibility of parts failure (I've a feeling some of the parts I've been given might be half a century old), and I may well hit up eBay for that. There's doubtless a listing or ten that's doing a few suitable caps for 99p with free postage.

However, the automatic frequency control is working. However for a reason I cannot fathom, the flash effect is not and once again the right half of the second 556 is constantly on, rather than just pulsing briefly. Hopefully, it's something fairly easy to fix, a simple wiring error or the like, but I'll wait on a video/picture update until I've got it sorted.

Quote from: Kallidor on April 08, 2015, 12:00:55 AMIf I may ask, how much do all these various parts cost?
Most parts are individually a few pence, but in multiples with spares and leftovers (not all of which are ultimately useful, such as offcuts of stripboard) it can end up more than that implies.

Each module in the LED array is about 31 pence (17p for the LED, 2p for the transistor, 9p for the cap, 1p for each of the three resistors), but that needs to be multiplied by at least twenty before plus the board.

But still, not staggeringly expensive - the most costly part here, other than the stripboard, is the TLC556 timer ICs at £0.66 a go (a bit more expensive than the NE spec of the 556, but works better on these voltages). I haven't worked out the exact parts break down, but a ballpark guess is that there'll be £20 worth of electronics in the Blastgun.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

MarcoSkoll

Finally, after a lot of faffing about, I have the secondary control circuit.


My original circuit diagrams used both sides of the 556, but my book of digital electronics gave me some very unhelpful advice about how to trigger it in monostable mode and it wasn't working. I pulled all the unnecessary components for the second side and re-cut the board a little shorter. In theory, I could order in a 555 and rebuild it a bit smaller, but it's not worth the trouble.



Instead of the second side of the 556, I conjured together the above, which pieces together three different transistor types - a NPN that turns on when the output from the secondary 556 goes high - this charges the capacitor, and a PNP that turns on when the output goes low, discharging the capacitor through a high current NPN, turning it and its LEDs on.


There are four of these arrays that sit around the ends of the accelerators. They're not as bright as I'd originally planned to use, but I ordered the wrong LEDs, so whoops - they should do anyway.

And then there's a video of the overall effect.

There's a mite more work to be done, but I know all the important dimensions, so I can start to assemble the main framework for the blastgun now.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

MarcoSkoll

Right, lots of effort, not much progress recently.

I'm working on the clear plastic accelerators for the Plasma Blastgun, and I probably picked the wrong way of doing them. I probably should have done a short section of them, then cast it up in clear resin a few times and pieced all that together.

Instead, I chose to do it all by hand. This is an early stage of cutting:



And many hours later, eighty small pieces of plastic have been bevelled and glued together:


This isn't the final stage yet, as I still have to cut the back face flat and drill holes for the LEDs to fit into, but I'm hoping that it's most of the work out of the way. Hoping, but I will not be surprised if the pieces fall comes apart when I'm drilling, even if I've brutally clamped them in a vice.

However, initial impressions of how it'll look with the LEDs in there aren't too bad.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Kallidor

I'm slightly surprised that you can build all that for such a reasonable amount.

Anyway, the flash effect is excellent, very impressive indeed. I liked the effect when it was unsynchronised but I think it makes more sense to be synced but then it is two separate barrels isn't it so, yeah, I guess it works either way.

I don't envy you having to make all those squares but at least at this scale you have something that is more easily handled, hopefully, like you say, they will all stay glued but I have experience of things ungluing and then flying around on the drill so touch wood. I can clearly visualise how the light effect will work when it all comes together, it'll be pretty spectacular I'm sure.
Be Pure!
Be Vigilant!
BEHAVE!

MarcoSkoll

They didn't stay glued, damn it. After they fell apart several times, I gritted my teeth, prised them apart, and went for superglue instead.

Given the part is translucent, superglue wasn't really a problem (while it doesn't always dry clear, it was originally discovered by mistake during an attempt to make a clear plastic for gun sights) from that perspective...

... no, the problem with it is that the plastic is PVC. And as can be demonstrated from the swarf from when I drilled it out later on...



... rather than breaking off into lots of little fragments (as you'd reasonably expect, given I was drilling in "between" the layers), it's all come out in neat spirals because superglue practically fuses PVC together. What's less apparent is that this bond takes about half a second. In other words, no second chances.

As such, while I did put together a jig to help me keep things lined up, the parts have come out slightly less than perfect, given there's no possibility for adjustment.

However, the parts have been cut and drilled, so now the LEDs can actually be slotted into their arrays...


(Video some other time, sorry, it was too late at night to do it by the time I'd finished working).

Unless I feel like some more cutting and drilling to narrow the parts down a little more, it does mean the Blastgun is going to be a few millimetres wider than my original plans (the LED bank is slightly larger than originally hoped, which has widened the overall result), but given that it's already established in Leander's fluff (although there's more of that yet to come) that the Solemne forge worlds started to diverge from the exact details of Mars Pattern designs during the Moirae Schism, I'm not feeling too guilty. True Mars pattern would have been a little less square than this anyway (but would have been a lot harder to cut right - cutting consistent curved bevels? No thanks).

Quote from: Kallidor on April 13, 2015, 01:03:17 AMI'm slightly surprised that you can build all that for such a reasonable amount.
Well, we live in an electronic world. An unbelievable amount of time, work and research has gone into making each and every component in this smaller, more reliable and more efficient - that they can afford to do all of that work in order to make transistors cost 2 pence a piece shows just how many of them they sell.

QuoteI liked the effect when it was unsynchronised but I think it makes more sense to be synced but then it is two separate barrels isn't it so, yeah, I guess it works either way.
It will be adjustable whenever, so it's not an important decision. Ultimately though, it's really just going to be about what looks most impressive at the time. I'm content for artistic licence to take priority if it has to.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Kallidor

Well only the very end (on the left) square, nearside looks ever so slightly out of true, but who cares because it looks awesome!!

Will you carry on working with the electronics or, now that this has reached this stage, is it back to regular modelling?
Be Pure!
Be Vigilant!
BEHAVE!

MarcoSkoll

Beyond a few diodes and capacitors I'll be adding to manage the power supply, I don't know how much more electronics I could really still add. The Bolter is motorised and the Blastgun is filled to the gills with timers, counters and switching.

I am working on sound, but that'll be done from a tablet - having it onboard is unnecessary, is harder to control, and adds to the weight and power drain.

The most I can really think of would be a few other light pulsing effects, but I think overdoing flickering LEDs could be both overwhelming and crass.

QuoteWell only the very end (on the left) square, nearside looks ever so slightly out of true, but who cares because it looks awesome!!
That's not really the mistake - in one, the pieces aren't quite parallel to the barrel axis (if you look from the side) , and other has a slight bulge in the side (if you look down from the top). However, it's good enough that it takes fairly close inspection to spot...
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

MarcoSkoll

Update time...



This is a large part of the underlying framework of the blastgun - it doesn't yet have the curved outer armour of the Mars Pattern, nor the muzzle heat shield, but most of the skeleton is there. You can see how the main arrays and primary control circuit have been fitted in...


... and here's where the secondary circuit goes. Fitting the electronics in has been more of a squeeze than I anticipated, but there is room for all of it.

I'm likely to be held up a little from here on while I wait for an order of rubber sheet to help finish the ball joint (as it needs something to help grip it), but I can find other parts of the model to work on instead. It's not like there's nothing else to do... :P


With a 28mm Rhino for scale, here's where the upper body is at the moment.

And for giggles, here's a 3D version.


S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

MarcoSkoll

#88
Long time, no updates... well, this is definitely not a promise of imminent progress, but it is something.

I suppose it's time to admit that, for a project I've been (slowly) working on for more than five years, I still don't know who Princeps Helane Rogen is. I've had two rather different concepts floating around in my head for some time, and it's only really now that I'm starting to try and decide between them.

An interesting part of Principes for me is that, given the titanic (pun most definitely intended) strength of will required and the scarcity of suitable candidates, they have to be recruited from across the entire Imperium and can thus come from any walk of life. (The fluff seems to suggest a rarity in the same broad region as Pariahs).

With their broad backgrounds, strong will, indispensability and the fact the Collegio Titanicus have to take the candidates they get, my thinking is that while the official Forge World models might reflect some of those Principes (probably mostly those recruited from forge worlds in the first place), a huge proportion of the candidates will break that mould one way or another.

While I may do a more generic Princeps in the future to allow Leander to stand in for other titans (when her involvement in the story would be out of place or undesirable), it's not a look that suits Helane in my head.

The two core concepts as I have them now, complete with some probably not-quite-final art (may be subject to extra shoulder-pads, useless gubbins or more extensive re-draws):

Firstly, a woman of (space-)Hispanic ethnicity, with short hair and a Matrix-like array of body ports that form the basis of her interface with Leander.
This version comes from a military background (although whether as a Guardswoman or Naval armswoman is still up in the air) and is still fairly well built.  Attire is military trousers, a liquid-cooling vest and a lightweight flak vest.

There's some game elements here too - I suspect that in many of the scenarios she'll be appearing in as herself there's a good chance someone will take a shot at her, and her past history should stop her being too easy to take out (or too hard to protect).



The other version comes from (space-)African ethnicity, with her hair replaced by an array of data-braids that form her interface.
She's the granddaughter of a Rogue Trader (or possibly one of his high-ranking crew), and has inherited all of that independent spirit. (The impressive singing voice, however, is all hers).
Her attire is somewhere around the more colourful end of cyber-punk - some hard-to-describe mix of shoulderless dress, long gloves, leggings and boots.

She won't be incompetent in game either, although she'll weighted a bit more towards the mental/social end of that scale than the physical competence of the Hispanic version.



Thoughts and feedback are appreciated!
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Alyster Wick

I'm liking the (space) Hispanic character. Getting a real Pvt. Vasquez vibe off of her. She sounds like she'd be a lot of fun in-game and strays far enough from "typical" (as typical as Principes are I suppose) to be interesting. Plus the picture has a great feel.

Your second choice looks like a great character concept too. I suppose that Principes would get a lot of leeway in terms of personal dress and the like. They're rare enough to have tons of leverage based solely on that. In terms of battlefield ability they're important enough in their role  that they need to be tacticians unto themselves. I think the concept is sound and I really like the idea of a Principe that totally defies expectations that way. I'm just a bigger fan of the first idea :) Don't abandon this one though, she looks like she'd make a great character.