Geek White North

I have been so busy this year at nights and weekends – sometimes work…(Boo) … sometimes…. Linux (yeah!)….  Sometimes vacations (yeahhhhh!!!).
But Vickie has been able to steal some time from her schedule to design herself a little Cyber-coolness.

Here is a picture of the head progress so far the “Ears” are almost ready to attach. The face detail is gradually being added.
Overall I am pleased but I seem to be taking longer than I expected I really want to get back to Bender.
Next I am going to build out the ears so they can carry the “handle bars” and work on some face sculpting eye brows, chin etc.

Here is a photo of the tubes I had no luck in bending.
Around them is the plumber pipe I found. It is ready to be mounted (almost)

Things have been going slowly recently.
I was not well for a while… I was out of action for a day and it took some more days to recover properly.

Prior to not feeling well…
I had some problems trying to bend some brass tubes I purchased from a Hobby shop.
I tried one of those spiral tube benders.
The tube is about 20mm diameter and I need a close to 90 degree bend.

Some suggestions I got were to fill the tube with sand or fill with water and then place in the freezer. Then bend…. Neither worked for me.

I did find a solution by purchasing a pre-bent copper tube that is used by plumbers. It typically has a sealed end and I cut off the end.

Brass is so much lighter but quite expensive at approx $8 for 3ft tube
Anyway I am hopefully back on track.

I finally got the glue to stick to the fabric softener bottle, so progress on the face continues .

On Saturday I purchased some supplies to continue on with the ears. I now have one complete ear done.

I purchased some plastic tubing for the pipes that come out and go over the Cybermans head.
I found that it is not quite stiff enough to hold a bend so I am going the metal tube route. I plan to pick them up this weekend.

My next thing to work on is to finish off the other ear.

I have some problems.
I checked to see how well the styrene sheet stuck to the bottle today, I have now discovered that super glue and epoxy glue are not great at sticking to the fabric softener bottle. I have never seen epoxy glue just peel off something so easily. It’s almost as though the bottle has a wax coating.
I have now tried again but scuffed the surface to give some grip.
I will hopefully know tomorrow.

The cyberman head is starting to take shape.
I have marked and cut out the basic shape, on the fabric softener bottle.

Some thin styrene has been glued around the front.
This area (in white) will be built up especially around the nose and eyebrows.

On the right is a blank cardboard tray. The one on the left is the same but has wire casing wrapped around the outside.

I was reading about some scratch building techniques. I thought I would like to try some of those methods.
So I now have a second project on the go …a scratch built Cyberman head. I think that I can work on one project while waiting for glue or paint to dry on the other.

One of the articles that started the diversion into distraction was how some people were building items out of everyday items like vitamin bottles.
So my starting point is a bottle of fabric softener and we will see what comes from this.
Pictures soon when it looks more like something other than a bottle of fabric softener.