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10-28-2021, 11:29 PM | #51 |
Yee Ha!
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 1,276
|
I really appreciate that. Just so you know, your Youtube videos have added to my son's ever growing wish list of stuff he wants to do to his vehicles, lol. Seriously though, keep those videos coming.
__________________
My BST: https://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-j...admos-bst.html My Feedback: http://www.hisstank.com/forum/buy-se...og-readmo.html Last edited by Capt OG ReadMo; 10-28-2021 at 11:45 PM.. |
10-28-2021, 11:35 PM | #52 |
Yee Ha!
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 1,276
|
Thank you! More to come soon.
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My BST: https://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-j...admos-bst.html My Feedback: http://www.hisstank.com/forum/buy-se...og-readmo.html |
10-28-2021, 11:44 PM | #53 |
Yee Ha!
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 1,276
|
Thanks so much and welcome! It's an honor to have your very first post on Hisstank here on this project thread. The next update is coming soon with another 80+ progress pics.
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My BST: https://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-j...admos-bst.html My Feedback: http://www.hisstank.com/forum/buy-se...og-readmo.html |
03-24-2022, 03:19 AM | #54 |
Yee Ha!
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 1,276
|
Well, I really suck at updating this regularly... but I'm finally back here with another build update and a lot of new progress pics.
Beginning this one with the final part of the middle section. Similar to the bottom middle section, the interior of this one section will serve as two levels. One will access the 4th and final outer wing sections and the other will provide access to the roof of each outer wing. Most importantly, this section will house the most prominent feature of the GI Joe headquarters... the giant cannon. First was drawing off the sides. I decided to go with a somewhat irregular shape with the back having a slightly different angle than the front. After cutting both sides, the doorway locations were decided on and cut out. No corner braces needed this time, as some cut angled pieces of the 3/4" plywood would provide plenty of strength for the side wall. Once these thicker pieces were attached to the side wall, they also formed parts of the front side and top of this section. After tracing the stairway opening and cutting out the floor out of the OSB, the sides were then permanently attached. Next was the front. Around this time, I was getting close to running out of the 3/4" plywood I'd scavenged from the wooden exercise box, so I had to end up joining some smaller pieces together here and there. Luckily this worked out fine and in some cases made things easier. The second picture shows how some smaller pieces were joined together and left a center section for the hexagon shaped cannon mount. Since the front was made of thicker and sturdier wood, I could easily make the cannon mount articulate up or down using a short piece of metal conduit and few straps. A 4" pvc toliet flange was then screwed to the outside of the wood octagon to allow me to build the rest of the cannon from. The last pic below shows the articulation in action. Back to the inside. I didn't really want the conduit, straps and screws to show, so a rectangular cover was made. The cover's depth also serves as limits for the cannon articulation and as a place to add the the raising /lowering mechanism. The first pic below shows all the hardware used to make the mechanism. The hardware was cut and drilled where needed and assembled. A small square access hole was cut in the back of the cover and everything mounted in place. The reversed wingnut allows easy manual hand adjustment of the cannon, while the nut on the end provides a means to use a hand tool or cordless options. More on that a little later. Now for the second level of this section. Pieces of the 3/4" plywood were cut and joined together to form this upper level with a small rectangular opening left for the figures to access it from below. Some angled strips were cut and attached to the walls to provide a sturdy support for the upper level floor to slide onto. I originally planned on making a ladder to access the top level of this section, but after playing around with some narrow 3/4" scraps the plan changed. One of the houses my grandparents lived in when I was a kid had this narrow stairway that the last step turned slightly in order to avoid the slope of the roof. I used the same idea on this narrow stairway to help gain a little space. Another thing different to this stairway was it has sides to make it both freestanding and removable. Anything in front of the inner large cannon cover would need to be removable to make things easier when detailing later on and for any future maintenance. After the stairway, I kind of wanted an area for figures to access the large cannon, so a platform was made along with a removable cover to hide the end of the cannon tilting mechanism. This removable cover will later be detailed with figure scaled screens and controls for the cannon. I also added an additional set of steps next to the narrow stairway and later went back to drill holes for more dowel rod legs under the bottom of the platform. As mentioned in the beginning of this update, the upper level of this section would allow rooftop access over the outer wings. These doors will be hinged instead of the sliding type I've mostly been using. Inspired by the shape of the bulkhead doors on the USS Flagg, I made these rooftop access doorways a similar shape. One 3/4" step was added and a door template created with one rounded end that I could flip and trace after measuring where I needed it to be. The doorway cutting with a jig saw was a bit trickier due to the walls being already attached, but everything worked out fine. As for the actual doors, I decided to skip over them for the time being in order to keep moving ahead with finishing the overall structure. I'll probably return to them during the detailing phase of this particular section. The last part of this middle section structure was the remainder of the ceiling/roof. This would be made from a combo of the beadboard and some small pieces of 3/4" plywood cut to fit under the other already attached 3/4" roof pieces. The cannon was the main thing left and turned out to be one of the most enjoyable parts to figure out. It was a small break from woodworking and almost like an Easter egg hunt trying to find the right parts to make this work. After searching all around the shop, through all the plumbing, electrical and all the other random stuff I've accumulated throughout the years, I had everything I needed except for two $1 funnels I purchased to complete the overall shape of the cannon. I'll start off with the double cannon tip since it involves those two funnels. I had a spare shop vac attachment that was cut down along with the tips of the two funnels. The funnel tips friction fit in the vac attachment pretty well, but any gaps in between were later filled in with hot glue. Going back to the other end, I removed the 4" pvc flange from the middle top section and cut out several layers of plywood circles to snugly fit inside of it. A hole was drilled in the center of that layered wood piece to thread in a brass to pvc coupling. A large pvc pipe coupling was then fit into the flange followed by a short piece of gray pipe. Some additional cutting of some smaller diameter pvc pipe and a shop vac extension piece were then needed along with holes cut in the two plastic cups. I also cut out a large flat washer out of styrene. Moving on... that smaller diameter of pvc pipe snugly fit over the pvc coupling that was earlier thread into the plywood of the flange. This assembly provides the needed support for the rest of the cannon, while allowing a place for a tight but less rigid joint to come loose at instead of cracking or breaking if the cannon is accidentally bumped while playing. Over that piece of pvc pipe is another pvc coupling that had the inside ridge sanded down some to allow it to tightly slide down the pipe a bit. The next part involves the two cups with a hole drilled through. The clear one is not really a cup, but a container that cotton candy had once came in. It was tapered just enough to tightly fit over the gray pipe, the large pvc coupling, and part of the 4" pvc flange making it pretty solid feeling. Of course the hole in the bottom allowed the smaller pvc piece to pass through it. The second drinking cup then snugly slid down over the clear cup a little ways while the smaller pvc pipe went through hole in the bottom leaving an inch or so protruding out of it. This protrusion would allow the slip over connection of the cut down shop vac extension. Before the vac extension was added, the large styrene washer was pushed down over the pvc pipe onto the bottom edge of the drinking cup to help make everything tight when the vac extension is pushed down and also provide a flat bottom to the edge of the cup. The shop vac extension turned out to be a perfect find for this as there's actually a small yet noticeable taper down the length of it. Last, but not least the previously assembled double cannon tip was added to the very end. I ended up adding a few short pieces of some small plastic tubes to the inside of each funnel tip that fit back into the shop vac extension a little ways to help give it a larger and stronger connection point. That was pretty much it for the cannon except for some exterior detail to be added later. Below is a size comparison pic with a modern style figure before I remounted it to the top middle structure. Another thing worth mentioning is I'll eventually be making an even larger styrene flat washer that will slide over the entire thing to conceal the screws on the flange at the base of the cannon. It may not look like much now, but I'm happy with the overall shape and it should look fine once further detailed and painted. As mentioned earlier, the cannon articulation could be adjusted by hand, by hand tool, or by cordless. This cheap old POS cordless screwdriver outfitted with a socket is what I'd been giving my son to play around with to move it up and down. It's not super fast or powerful, but it's plenty enough for a kid to mess around with and not get hurt. Below are a few pics of the adjustable range of the cannon in it's lowest position, normal position and a raised position. Of course, anywhere in between is possible as well. The raised pic is actually not the highest it will go as it was hitting the ceiling of my shop, so I had to stop there. It's now time for the fourth and final outer wing sections. Just as the other three outer levels, I drew off and cut out the sides, door opening, braces, floor, ceiling, and sliding door components. The main difference in this level is the notched end of the outer side piece. This was mostly done for aesthetics, but also served a dual purpose. The notch meant the ceiling/roof had to be lower to be flush. That in turn created a short wall down the front and corner to provide perfect cover for any Joe figures shooting down on Cobras from the top of the roof. After assembling everything but the roof, extra strips of 3/4" were first cut and added around the front and part of the outer side to add strength and some bulk to those short walls. The ceiling/roof panel was then glued and nailed into position. Like all the previous levels, all the sliding door assemblies and track were put into place. The opposite wing was done in the exact same fashion finishing up the last of the entire structure. Before moving forward with pics of all the sections together as one. I had one more thing in mind I wanted to try out on the roof of the outer sections. After studying various shots of the Joe headquarters from the cartoons, in some of them I'd noticed smaller gun turrets on top of the outer wings. After some brainstorming and looking to see what other kind of junk I had to work with, I was lucky enough to find two old Lanard six wheeled vehicles with oversized battery operated pom pom type guns. The guns seemed the perfect size for what I was wanting to do and added a fun action feature. After unscrewing the vehicle, the cannon and battery assembly were removed and then disassembled a little further. The way it came off the vehicle the gun assembly would not sit up by itself, was too tall, and could only move from side to side a very little amount. With the cannon separated from the bracket and the bracket removed from the battery compartment, I began to cut out and build a turntable for the gun bracket to mount to out of some pieces cpvc pipe and scraps of the 3/4" plywood. Next was building a wood housing for the turntable and battery compartment. The battery compartment needed a little piece of it cut flush with a hacksaw blade to mount into the new housing. With some new wires cut and soldered I rejoined the connections between the two with heat shrink tubing over them for protection. Minus a seat, the end result is kind of reminiscent of the GI Joe LAW to me. Further detailing and paint will come later to unify the old with the new. I'm also planning on boxing in the rear of the gun turret with styrene later so the movement of the backs of the barrels sticking out can't be seen. The second gun turret was given all the same treatment as well. Both gun turrets now fit in pretty well on the outer corners of the headquarters with enough range of movement to help protect it from enemy ground or air forces. I'll wrap up this long (and much overdue)update with some shots of all the sections placed together as one. I had just barely managed to reach my goal of getting this far by Summer 2021's end. It may not show that well in the pictures, but the entire thing together is absolutely massive. Luckily we've got a place in mind to put it. I've still got some overall tweaks and a few feature related things to work out next before moving back through each section to finish out each one, but I'll try to continue to post more updates whenever I can.
__________________
My BST: https://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-j...admos-bst.html My Feedback: http://www.hisstank.com/forum/buy-se...og-readmo.html Last edited by Capt OG ReadMo; 03-24-2022 at 03:48 AM.. |
03-24-2022, 05:15 AM | #55 |
Cobra Soldier
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: France
Posts: 33
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Amazing!
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03-24-2022, 10:14 AM | #56 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Nashville
Posts: 337
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Fantastic work! I'm fighting to find room for my diorama when it's done, I can't imagine finding a place for something this massive. It would end up being like the entertainment center Joey built on Friends. I look forward to seeing your build completed.
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Come hangout with me on YouTube while I livestream designing stuff! Follow Tanner3D on YouTube | Download and 3D print my designs on Printables.com |
03-24-2022, 10:20 AM | #57 |
o-ring or nothing
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: In the 1980's
Posts: 5,700
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This is goddamn sexy
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03-24-2022, 10:47 AM | #58 |
Cobra Soldier
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Westfield, Illinois
Posts: 7
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Oh. My. God!!! That is beyond impressive!
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03-24-2022, 11:02 AM | #59 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Arlington, VA
Posts: 325
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Holy Shit. That is amazing.
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03-24-2022, 11:56 AM | #60 |
Cobra Trooper
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: Cobra Island
Posts: 1,113
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Damn that shit is no joke! Thats dedication! Dude isnt messing around lol
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