Hello all !

Tought i would start on a new build..
I have wanted to do a future/high tech looking case, but kinda wanted a theme for it.
I looked for inspiration on battlefield 2, got some ideas there , but not to future looking tho, soo battlefield 2142 was the place for me to look
I'm currently in a planning stage, but as i have a 3D sketchUp model to build of, i will just have to figure out the scaleing to get it looking about right..
im thinking the total hight on this case will be about 1 meter ( 3-4 foot i think ?)
Got som basic ideas drawed on the pic of the front..
Another idea would be RC servos on the legs, to lift/drop the body..

Materials, well im thinking alu because of the weight, but then again, there will be preaty much welding on this mod, and alu gets very week when grinding down the welds... and steal will to heavy i think...
any input on this ?

Hope to get started on this asap

Ideas are very much welcome

some pic's of the model:

Moved to the Drawing Board.

Alu would be better than steel, because of weight...Why would you need to weld the Alu?

There are other materials. How about some sort modellers plastic? Its light and quite strong.

Quite an ambitious project idea. Hope to see this come together. But i agree it may be better to use plastic. If your wanting that fused look from the welding then you can always get a plastic welder.
http://www.delviesplastics.com/welding.htm

There is plenty of strength to be had with the various plastics available on the market. They will also offer you more flexibility in the build. Plus you will have the flexibility of getting more detail into the model. A good use of plastics can be seen here.
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1766

As you can see allot can be done with this medium.

Maybe an aluminum frame either riveted or screwed together (as well as other structural items like drive bays) with either plexi or styrene plastic for the outer skin as used in scale models. It's light weight, very modelable and cheap also. Sheets are generally available at most hobby stores I think, although not certain where you live.

Nice start on the design. Will be cool to see where you go with this. At the planned size, it will be quite imposing and impressive.

Well, plastic is a good idea.. no doubt, but i have been doing some research about plastic welding and plastic in general.
And there realy isn't anyone who does that around here, and i myself have preaty much no experience with welding/modeling plastic..

And the thing is, where i work i have all the supplies and need to work with metals, meaning this build will cost me preaty much nada, compared to if i will have to order in new tools, plastic,etc..

Like if i do this in alu, i will pay about zero for the materials needed inc the welding, etc...

I have been studying the drawings for a while now, and decided that i will go with alu.. i find it very easy to work with, and i know how to weld with both MIG ( metal intert gas ) and TIG ( Tungsten inert gas ), so it will be easyer for me..

Like for all the edged parts("boxes") around the robot, they will be bendt to shape, welded INSIDE, then welded to the body of the robot, if you know what i mean

Think that will work ok.. I can also weld outside if needed then, and grind down without loosing strength in the seems.

I might start cuting some metal tomorrow i hope

I have no experience in welding, but if you were to rivet the pieces together, you could always use some filler to at the joints and rivet locations to help it look seamless. Good luck with this, I'm excited to see you get started on it. Having a Mech sitting on your desk would be cool as Sh%t!

I like the idea of having some metal work on the rig. I would love to see a 3 foot tall version of this. But i think you'll still need to use plastic clad areas. I love the idea of actually giving this thing some movement. But in order to get the legs moving you'll either need something much stronger then what a typical RC servo and motors can offer. You will definitely need to cut down the overall weight. To me the easiest part to have movement would be the torrent. For the sake of stability i thing the legs and torrent base should be all metal. Course you will want to clad the legs in some plastic pieces to give it the detail this project deserves. But the torrent should be aluminum frame and encased in plastic to keep the overall weight down.

Now i have come up with a bit of an idea n how you can get the leg movement to work for you and still keep the legs all aluminum. you place a pulley in each of the leg joints. Anchor a cable in the foot and run it up to the base of the torrent. There you will have the cables attached to a spindle so that a well geared motor can control the cables. The basic RC servo will be used to activate the motor to wine or unwind. As the tension in the cable is released the weight of the Mech will allow the legs to fold down. Then as the cable is pulled tight it will stand back up. A simple design that will only require a single motor and a single servo. This may mean the placement of the optical drive will have to be moved to the torrent. Could complicate things a bit with placing the drives and keeping them masked.

But you still need to do what you can to keep the weight down. I don't think the whole thing can be metal clad and still look good. Not at that scale anyway. It would be much easier and more detailed to have imitated weld joints in plastic that as smaller and look like they are to scale.

BTW is that Mech model availible to the public or is it your own private model? I would love to get my hands on the model and play with it a bit.

EDIT: Found the model. I think i'll be playing with it when i get home.

Well im starting with building the legs, and they will be in alu atleast..
yea regular rc servos will not work for the feet as this case will be about 3-4 foot tall..
But there is other kinda servos avaible, like wheel chair servos, they are preaty strong.
anyways, it will be preaty long before i will start playing with that, first i need to start building something

That cable ide isnt to bad no !
i will deffo give it some tought

And yea, it's a public model found on googe 3d warehouse or something
1 got 2 diff sketchUp version of the walker btw
Might mix some details from the two, to get it looking best as possible.

That model is fully to scale. I just took some measurments from it and the thing stands about 16' 5" tall not including the small gun torrent on top and it stands 14' 3" wide. Since it is a full scale model it should be easy to scale it down to about the size you want it and maintain every bit of detail.

Yea i see. wel i was thinking about 40" tall .. just about as tall as a desktop table..
I think that would look the best, but that means it will be about same size long and wide.. might be to much

maybe about 25-30" tall should be better..
Then the top box of the robot would be about the same size as a regular pc case..

That's great! I hope it comes out as great as we are all hoping. I've seen a Battlefield turret mod done, quite well. I play BF2 only I'm having troubles with vista and it working on it.

Anyway, hope to see more soon, and good luck.

Thanks man
yea i hope it will come out as good as i want it to

Flipping threw an old MaximumPC mag i found a similar mod. Here is one of the sites i was able to find it displayed at.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1 ... 962,00.asp

As long as you get more detail then that you'll be in great shape.

Whoa that's a crazy color. I'm liking your setup the best so far.

Man I'd love to have one just sitting there all the time guarding my desk. Get started right away.

yea i saw that case earlyer on, mpilchfamily, and im sorry to say that whoever made that case, rushed way to much, and did not put anought time on it.. very bad detailed i think

Well, im not gonna rush this prodject.
If it's gonna take 1-2 years to finish this mod with good details,etc, im gonna do it

Im gonna start as soon as i get the drawings printed out.. dang printer is out of black, so it wount print
And non of my frinds have printers either