Work in Progress: Neutrino Probe – Business End

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…]

Work In Progress: Neutrino Probe – Main Parts

tn_neutrino_probe_wip3After 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…]

Work In Progress: Neutrino Probe

tn_neutrino_probe_wip_2Bad 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…]

Prop Analysis: Neutrino Probe

tn_neutrino_probe_wipThere is one prop that I wanted to build forever and never got around to it. In fact, this goes back to the early days on ASAP, when I just got into the hobby. At that time, I didn’t have a lot of experience obviously and was just figuring out how to build stuff. So, after seeing this prop in “Star Trek: Captain’s Chair“, my first impulse was to build it because it looked cool and I had recognized it from the show. [More…]

Tutorial: ODN Scanner Kit Assembly

tn_tut_odn_scanner_kitWelcome to the online assembly instructions for my ODN scanner hero kit. In this tutorial, you’ll see how to prepare the electronics for installation and how to insert them into the body. You’ll also learn how to prepare and assemble the hollow resin shells to build up a fully functional hero ODN scanner. First, here’s a pic of the entire kit: 2 resin body parts, electronics, acrylic rod, display graphics, styrene (1.0 mm and 1.5 mm), 2 screws, templates for the styrene details. That’s all you need, so let’s begin! [More…]

Work In Progress: ODN Scanner – Part II (Molding)

tn_wip_odn_scanner_2In this second installment of my ODN Scanner progress report I will describe how the finished master model (see Part I) is used to fabricate a silicone rubber mold which then can be used to cast resin kit parts.

Because the finished prop was supposed to contain an electric circuit with a super bright red LED and five green sequencing lights, the mold had to be done in a way so that the [More…]

Work In Progress: ODN Scanner – Part I (Scratch-build)

tn_wip_odn_scanner_1Welcome to the first part of my progress report covering the creation of my ODN Scanner! In this part I will show you how I scratchbuilt the prototype (the so-called master model) of this prop that I will later cast in resin. Part II and the Tutorial will then cover how I did the silicone rubber mold and how to build up one of the resulting kits. [More…]

ODN Scanner

tn_odn_scannerChief engineers using their wonderful high tech instruments to diagnose, calibrate and repair circuits and talking “technobabble” – that’s what I love about Star Trek! Geordi LaForge, Miles O’Brien and B’Elanna Torres are some of my favourite characters because they know every system and every technical detail on their ship inside and out – from waste disposal to the warp core. [More…]