December Year End Update

Well, it’s the end of another year.  2011 has been a good one, but a pretty rough one too.  I’m glad to put it in the rearview mirror.
Once again, I was able to take an extended vacation during the holidays and I’ve been able to get a lot of projects in progress, but nothing really completed. 
So here is your December 31st, 2011 Works in Progress Post.

Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device

Melinda will be rocking a Chell costume from Portal 2 at Dragon*Con and she has to have a ASHPD for the costume.  Really, this thing is just a bunch of PVC pipes glued together.

A couple of 4” PVC couplers, a 4” piece cut to shape and a 3” piece nested inside the 4”.  The rings on the end are just 3” couplings cut and sanded.  I’m getting really close to needed the lights.

I got a new table top sander for Christmas, so I was able to get the angle sanded onto the nose piece a lot easier.

I made this detail using my favorite new material, epoxy sculpt.  The B is because this is the B model.

Here is the A model with a different technique for the same detailing.  Yes, I am building two at the same time.  Why?  Why not?

Better view of the angle on the nose.

Belle Approves.
I nearly paid $300 for a ready to assemble kit, and now I’m glad I didn’t.  It isn’t that hard of a build, yet, as long as I take my time and follow the blueprints.  Oh, did I forget to mention I have scale accurate blueprints? 

Special Thank You Surprise Build

Wait, I’m building a special surprise project and I’m writing about it?  Eeeyup.  It’s OK.  I don’t thing Flamingo1986 reads my blog, but Flamingo1986, if you are reading, stop now.
Flamingo1986 is the gentleman that designed the original Pinkie Pie Launcher that I built and posted last month.  Well, after picking up the pieces of my blog after it exploded from the traffic, I felt I owed Flamingo1986 a bit of thanks.  He recently released another set of weapon designs, so I am building one to send to him.
                                  

I’ll throw in more details later.
Speaking of the Pinkie Pie Launcher from last month…

PONIES PONIES PONIES OMG THE PONIES

Last month my blog got more hits from that one post than anything else.  In one week, I got nearly double an average month’s traffic.  Now, I’m not the brightest bulb out there, but I can recognize when something works.  Apparently pony launchers work really well.  In fact, I now have seven more that I am building.  Yes, I said seven.  Three are based off designs from MaximillianVeers and his variations on the original, the other four are custom design ideas/requests from other fans and Melinda.

Originally, I was only going to do four, but then some other friends just gave me too many good ideas not to build them.        

One with all three sections assembled.
 
Five with the first two sections assembled.

The remaining six back sections.
After this, I think I’ll be done with pony launchers for a while.
What am I going to do with nine complete pony launchers?  Well, some are going to make it to Dragon*Con in September, some will be kept just because they are my favorites, and the rest will be put up on eBay for someone else to enjoy.

OK.  That’s it.  Everything is very much in progress.  Hopefully, next month I’ll have some completed pieces to show.