Shenanigans~

...for the most part, at least.

This semester went by far too quickly, with little time to spare.  I worked as hard as I possibly could on this project, because I wanted it to be the best it could be.  Some things worked out in my favor, some did not.  If anything, this lengthly lesson of trial and error taught me everything NOT to do when making something like this.

I had a lot of help from many kind, experienced, and (thankfully) patient people, and although my final product didn't turn out exactly as I had planned it, I am still pleased with it, because I know how hard I worked on it (and I didn't even procrastinate, believe it or not).

I learned a lot of useful skills this past semester that I may not have had the opportunity to learn otherwise, like programming an Arduino with my computer, making things light up on command, creating complex patterns with only words and numbers on a piece of hardware no bigger than a deck of cards and knowing that I had done it myself (with a lot of help, of course).

Seeing my final project (whether or not it was finished or turner out how I wanted it to) gave me a sense of accomplishment that I would not likely have had otherwise.  I know that there will always be others in this field with more experience than me, but from now on I will take it upon myself to learn from them, and from my own experiences, and perhaps one day I'll be able to replicate a prop of some sort from one of my favorite movies, or bring something to life off the pages of a comic book.

Until next time,

I recently modified my project to building just the Iron Man Helmet out of metal (which will probably come courtesy of a friend of mine who spontaneously has 45 feet of scrap aluminum and has graciously offered to let me borrow it).  I am taking a metal working class, which means I should be able to weld it together and make it look really awesome.

I'm very curious as to how one of these works.  A few LED lights?  Some sound bits?  A little bit of magic from the Doctor?

This is what your tool box looks like when you reach Epic Level in organization (new feats unlocked!)

I have a feeling that by the end of this semester I will have built most of the prop department from "The Avengers" movie (fun, mind you, but still not what you would normally think of as an "assignment" for school, but then again this is coming from the class that's taking us all to Maker Faire NYC on a class field trip).  While I'm at it, it really wouldn't be a bad idea to make the costume to go along with it (no, I highly doubt I will have a place to wear it any time soon, but that really doesn't matter to me as I will find one anyways).

Tesla coils are fascinating as is, but the geniuses from ArcAttack have figured out how to control them and manipulate them so that they make music with them.  I've been looking through some of the videos from the ArcAttack YouTube channel, and here a few of my favorites:

This one features someone in what appears to be some kind of conductive morph suit of sorts controlling the electricity and dancing along to the "Dr. Who" theme song:

Here's another one that features the Tesla colis playing the "Dr. Who" theme song, this time with Adam Savage from "Mythbusters" dancing along to it:

Whoops.

Hopefully this will become a reality someday...

I've been wanting to make Iron Man armor for awhile now.  After months of research, I finally decided to make it for Comic Con this year.  Since I'm a college student with no money, finding the right materials and design for it was a challenge.  

This one was WAY out of reach (but still really cool): http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2010-05/you-built-what-real-iron-man

This is made entirely out of paper:

http://paperkraft.blogspot.com/2010/05/life-size-iron-man-helmet-papercraft.html

...and this one is made out of plastic trash bins (seriously):