this is why i have yet to get rid of my lego collection. when in a pinch you can always use them for transformers projects. i bet its going to look good once painted. the bonus to using legos is that its already got all that sweet detailing built in.
Have you given any thought to taking steps to disguise the fact that they're LEGO bricks? I had an idea: glue strips cut from thin styrene sheets to the flat areas. You could even paint the strips before gluing, which would probably be easier than masking or what-have-you. It would also prevent you from having to sand the coating off all of the bricks before painting, which would be a chore.
Yes, the goal is to have both pieces unrecognizable that they are built with Legos. I already bought a bunch of thin styrene sheets to use, I am also going to be gluing some raised details such as keyboards and buttons. I'll also be painting and dry brushing everything.
I won't be putting styrene on every single surface. Just some of the more obvious parts. I'm fine with some of the seams in between the Lego bricks showing, by the time the painting part is done those will look like panel seams.
A nice day outside today gave me the chance to put the first 2 coats of Rustoleum Satin Rustic Orange on the Teletraan-1 pieces. Once it dried I brought it inside and set it up in the diorama, along with a mockup of the walls. I'm really happy with the way it turned out, the paint went on really well and I haven't even added any of the detail pieces, styrene or dry brushing yet. On a side note, I ordered a few light-up LED ice cubes from a company called Glowproducts.com. They're $1.99 each and about 1.5" in diameter. The only catch is that they're not perfectly square, so I had to use a bench grinder to shave down 2 sides so they would stack nicely. Not perfect, but I'm happy with them. They'll be a nice addition once the whole diorama is complete. All in all, things are headed in the right direction. Since the next few days are going to be rainy, I'm going to try and get some indoor brush painting on the walls done.
For the first few months I was working on this project, I knew I wanted a Teletraan-1 that was plastic, but was worried that I might have to settle for trying to make one out of foam core or even cardboard. Props go out to my wife for suggesting Lego's in the first place and my son for letting me use some of his to create this. Using Lego's has been comparable to using the spray foam for the mountain. It's been a game changer. It has enabled me to make this exactly the way I wanted. Props go out to Dogcades on YouTube for giving me the ideas for lighting this up. I ordered a set of AA battery powered LED Christmas lights for $8.96 and 4 waterproof blue LED button cell battery powered lights for $7.99 from a website called oogalights.com. I drilled out holes for the Christmas lights on the front side of the Teletraan-1: To say that I was nervous drilling into already assembled Lego's is an understatement. I had to drill VERY slowly. I then placed the Christmas lights into place and put the blue LED's in place behind the blue tinted transparent Lego's. The result: I also built another companion piece on the right side of the Teletraan-1. Both side pieces have the blue button LED lights inside for effect. Now I have everything outside drying from a last round of paint apps. When the project is complete I'll upload a comprehensive video where you'll be able to see that the Christmas lights have a random blinking feature or a solid steady light. Hopefully next week I can start gluing on some of the raised details like a keyboard, Autobot symbol, etc.
only the teletraan its amazing for itself, nice work, the ark its really impressive, and the details, bro that details, no words
Not sure if this has been asked, but what color Rust-Oleum are you using? Edit...Satin rustic orange...
Ooooohhhh wwwwoooooowwww! Suh-weet! Dang, bro, that is one sweet home made Teletraan-1. You are an evil genius of diaramas. Thanks for sharing
This project and these posts never fail to impress. And the fact that you are going all out with the details on top of making this to scale and functional with CHUG makes it even more impressive. I'm looking forward to the next updates and the finished result. Keep up the excellent work.
This is awesome I hope it's ok to use some of your design aspects when I create mine I have been collecting materials for about a year! Great work as always!! Keep it up
By all means, I'm glad I supplied some inspiration! I watched a lot of videos and posts of other ARK projects for inspiration before I started creating mine. Can't wait to see what you make!
This last week I haven't had any time to put into the project until today. I've been brainstorming how I'm going to build the interior and connect the 2 bases. This morning I was able to put together a very rough mock-up of how the interior will look. This is definitely subject to change but it gives a basic idea how the interior layout will look. I added Skyfire for a scale comparison. More than enough headroom. Originally I had thought about putting Teletraan-1 on the back wall across from the tunnel entrance, but I wasn't crazy about the way that layout looked. I'm somewhat limited to the dimension by the size of the base, and I wanted the layout at least a little close to the way it was on the show. As much as I wanted it to be to scale, I had to sacrifice accuracy to a degree to make this all fit. I have a plan for the ceiling with LED lights on a remote that will shine down, along with stalactites hanging down. The ceiling will only come to about the Dinobot cave, that way I can reach the Teletraan-1 and not have to climb inside the thing to set stuff up, lol
I think teletraan at the end of the tunnel would have looked odd anyway. Maybe you could get some dowel rods and wood blocks and drill holes in the blocks to make a simple connector. Once you get the entire thing done and put together you should record a video using and rc car with a camera on it and give us a tour
Good idea but I don't think a physical connection is necessary. Otherwise some LEGO Technic bars and axles might be easier to install and smaller. It would be amazing to get a first person view/experience of what it would look/be like to enter the base as an Autobot in alt mode, then transform in the main hall of Teletraan-1 and walk around.
