trekprops.de

If you know me, then you also know that my blog posts can get a bit lengthy at times. This one, however, I will try to keep a bit shorter than usual. What I want to describe to you however are some of the problems that presented themselves while casting the Neutrino Probe components for which I have all the molds now. Also, I tried a few new techniques with these parts to improve the appearance of the product and make the assembly process easier. What new techniques you ask? Read on to find out. [More…]

If you want to make more than one unit of any given prop replica, it is inevitable to make molds of all the parts you need. This way you’ll be able to make multiple resin casts of each piece. For the Neutrino Probe, this presented a few unique challenges I had to tackle along the way due to the special nature of the body, its prototype parts and the fact that I wanted to put electronics in there. In this blog post I’ll show you exactly what I thought would work, what did’t work and – most importantly – what I ended up doing. [More…]

Following my recent “show-off” post presenting my Voyager Desktop Computer, let’s now have a detailed look at how I built this prop, going through every step, from the raw parts all the way to the finished unit, covering the concepts of different aspects of the prop, the construction of several custom parts, the installation of the electronics and the assembly of everything to bring it all together. Although I didn’t snap an image of every step along the way, it’s more than a hundred progress pictures, so I hope you brought a little time… [More…]

Today I want to show you something very special. What makes it so special you ask? Well, for one, it took me many months to complete it and is probably the single most elaborate prop replica I’ve ever done. And the biggest one in terms of size and weight for sure. Also, it’s got a few surprises up its sleeve which I think you will like. Yes, you’ve read about it here before and yes, you might have seen me work on it on Twitter if you follow me there. Prepare yourself for lots of text and quite a lot of pictures, too! [More…]

The heart of every prop are its electronics. Lights, blinking and flashing back and forth, maybe even a sound-module, this is what makes a prop feel authentic instantly. In case of my Neutrino Probe replica, it’s “only” lights, which doesn’t mean it’s boring however. Powered by a small rechargeable battery – which is a first for me by the way – this board will bring the engineering tool to life. But instead of describing it, I decided to make a video this time to show you and tell you all about it. What are you waiting for? Jump right in and watch! [More…]

Well, well, well, what do we have here? Might that be a long overdue update on the Neutrino Probe project? “No, that’s impossible!”, you might think. After all, the last update was almost exactly one year ago! How could this still be a go? Well, you better believe it ’cause this baby is alive and kickin’! Still not positive? Jump past the break to look for yourself. Have you ever been told that you’re hard to convince of something? [More…]

A few weeks ago, Paula Hammond – a UK-based freelance writer – approached me via eMail telling me that she was putting together an article for the British monthly magazine Stamp & Coin Mart. For the February issue, she would be looking at movies and TV shows which feature coin/money motifs and wanted to mention my Gold Pressed Latinum replicas. Thrilled about the prospect of being published in a print magazine, I sent her some images and press material for her to choose from. [More…]

After giving it some thought I decided to make a small change to the blog and abandon the idea of having weekly Twitter roundup posts on the blog.

Why? Well, the matter of the fact is that they are simply unnecessary. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform, so what sense does it make to repeat the information that is already there as a post in a “bigger” blogging system and make it available in two places? None as far as I can see. On top of that, all of my recent tweets are listed in the sidebar on the right as well, so the information is not only doubled, but tripled!

The other thing is that these Twitter roundup posts are keeping people from seeing the “meat” of the blog by taking up too much space on the homepage. I’ve noticed that it quite often happens that I’m twittering small updates which don’t warrant a full blown blog post, which is absolutely what Twitter is for. However, if I do this for a few weeks without publishing a “big” blog post, all these roundup posts can add up and obstruct the view of the “real” contents of the blog. That’s also why I have removed all of the existing roundup posts, so that all the recent blog entries are better visible from the homepage.

So, if you want to continue to catch my Twitter updates, the simplest way to do so is to follow me (@trekprops). In addition to that, have a look at the sidebar where you will see not only my status updates, but also my Twitpic pictures. A simple click on “More updates…” will take you directly to Twitter and to my complete timeline.

What do you think about this change in the blog structure? Do you feel it’s for the best or would you rather keep those roundup posts? Let me know in the comments.

After my efforts of starting a Neutrino Probe replica were suddenly brought to a halt last week, I couldn’t do anything but wait for my Dad to repair the lathe which had broke down on us. Fortunately, he was able to find a new capacitor quickly and replaced it in no time at all. So, we could schedule a new session to get back to work. This time, there were no interruptions and I was able to continuously work on the three main parts for two days. [More…]

Bad News. Today I made my first attempt to use a turning lathe to make the main parts for the Neutrino Probe from wood. For this purpose I went to my parents house where my dad has the required equipment. Well, everything went pretty smoothly at first and while working on a test piece I got confident to be able to shape the wood in such a way to mimic my schematics almost exactly. So far, so good. [More…]