Landing Platform (electronics)

I have wanted to do "something" with electronics for a while now and when Andy Slater at TerraGenesis held a terrain competition using an LED, a resistor, and a power source I knew I had my chance! With some guidance and parts from my father (thanks Dad!) I was able to order what I still needed online and received my package in less than two days for less than $50 USD. Even though I didn't get to start working on my project until the competition was well over it definitely helped to get me hooked and motivated to finish - thanks anyway gang!

Here is a diagram of the circuit I will build.

First I took an old one gallon spackle pail and scrubbed it under hot water with soap. I then cut the bottom off the pail and inverted it to be the basis for the landing platform. I glued some wood strips to the bottom of the pail to act as girders to support the aluminum mesh (used for sculpting) which will be my landing surface. Here I have already drilled holes for the LEDs using the tip of my exacto knife #11 blade and it was like a hot knife through butter. I then test fit the LEDs into their locations with red and green alternating around the perimeter with four of each.

Warhammer lizard dude, a 28mm vampire, a 25mm elf warrior, and a 1/72 plastic fellow for scale. Here you can see the girder support for the mesh deck grating better. The hole in the middle will be for a button which a landing craft will press down on and change the flow of electricity from green to the red LEDs.

Shot inside the bucket where I have spread the LED leads and hot glued them into place. I expect that the hot glue will peel back so I use it like a plug to physically keep the LED from pulling out and/or twisting in place even if the glue should seperate from the pail surface.

Here the girder is seen inline with the LED as if it were leading wires to the light (which it isn't but effective).

Close up of the hole - I will carve this a slight bit wider as needed as the button gets stuck later on.

Two switches kindly donated by my father ( thanks Dad! ) I'll use the upper right switch to control the power to the circuit and the lower pressure switch to feed the LEDs. Note the ear plug I stuck on the end for a button.

Using the breadboards and a pile of resistors donated by my father I was able to slowly work my way down in resistance until both my red LEDs (top resistors) and green LEDs (bottom resistors) glowed just right.

Learning how to solder is hard enough without working inside of a bucket ten inches across and four inches deep! I was also extremely careful about using a heat sink to protect the LEDs while soldering. I carefully and correctly (check three times!) soldered the specified resistor to the corresponding LED. I then tested each to guarantee them.

After attaching the ground wire to each LEDs they wouldn't light up. Panic set in and I soon realized that I had attached the resistors to the negative lead for the greens and the positive lead for the reds. Oops! You'll notice I marked the inside of the bucket with the correct color and then I noted which lead was positive or negative. I then tested each and then soldered the negative leads to the ground wire (black). I then retested to check the soldering.

I then made bundle branches for the red and green LED wires - four green wires and four red wires respectively. These were soldered to the correct LED color and then after a few minutes tested - success! All four at once!

Here I have mounted the pressure switch in between two pieces of wood which will then be attached to the roof of the landing platform. You can see how drawing an imaginary line across the top edge will stick the button up through the hole in the roof of the platform giving the landing ship something to push down. I soldered the bundles of red and green wires to the left side leads (green on top so it is the default when the switch is not pressed). My soldering job sucks but first time is the hardest - they got somewhat better as I progressed with two or three I was real proud of!

Here I made a battery box out of hot glue. I placed a 9 volt battery with wires connected (wrapped) into a simple tin foil mold and poured hot glue around it. Once the glue was high enough and thick enough I let it cool. I then un wrapped the wires and flattened them to accept the 9 volt if it was pressed into the box. I trimmed the hot glue as needed to make the process easier and finally added a strip of black ribbon to aid in removing the old battery if it dies. I then wrapped the wires to the switch around some clothing pins to make coils on the ends so that the wire would slip easily over the posts on the switch. I then slightly crushed them and placed a small piece of electrical tape between them to prevent shorting. I then cut an access hole for the switch through the bottom of a foam core base cut to the dimension of the bucket and mounted everything with white glue.

Here I beveled the access hole to the switch on the bottom of the base to make getting at the switch easier.

Once every thing was wired up I had to do another test run - power on and the greens work (as seen from above)!

After placing some weight on the button (one thousand and one uses for a vampire) and the reds light up! Success!!!

I then placed some play-doh over the LEDs so I could black base the platform with Krylon chalkboard spray paint.

Then I did four layers of dry brushing with gray, went back and added silver to the grate, rusty red, some mold green, and a wash of brown ink thinned for some water damage effect. Add a clear coat of matte finish and we're done! Now I just need some aliens bugs, some hard core space marines, and a kick ass landing craft...

Regards & Thanks!