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This is it, the final week. It’s been a long time coming, so let’s finish up with a bang. I’m really glad I finally get to use this title; I’ve been super excited for it.

Banners and Stickers

I went ahead and printed the sticker sheet I had, and used the Cricut that was available in the DKC (after getting the appropriate training for it) to cut them out, along with some extras just in case.

They turned out pretty good, but I still wanted the extras in case something messed up.

For most of these, I will still have to wait before I can use them, although for one of them, I can go ahead and get it added now.

I used some cardstock and cut an outline of the sticker, where I then simply placed the sticker on top of it, which gave me…

The weird Piraka hazard sign.

I personally think it almost looks exactly like a decal Lego would use officially, so I’m super proud of that.

But with this added thickness, I can easily just lay it down somewhere on the display base for that last bit of detail.

A Loss of Direction

It was about at this point that I started to get scatterbrained and distracted with other aspects of the project. I wanted to try out the Plexiglass to make sure it would fit, and try various methods to make it stick.

Originally, I started with magnets since I figured it would be easiest, but the DKC unfortunately did not have any that were strong enough to hold the Plexiglass in place, so I had to redesign.

After a short break, I came back to it and suddenly got hit with the idea to make a specialized holder that would slot the sheets into place. I sketched out the design, but I couldn’t figure out how I would make it attach to the platform raisers I already had.

I got stumped on it for a little bit, but after another short break, I got struck with inspiration again. Instead of making an entirely new part, I could just incorporate the design into my already existing platform raiser!

I quickly got to work in Blender, and created this (while also getting the hang of using proper modelling techniques! My model is no longer incredibly messy):

I didn’t realize it while making it, but this also keeps the profile super low and overall lightweight.

But while I set them out to print, I decided I would have time to go get the border trims printed as well, so I went out and got that done, courtesy of Cartland’s fancy glossy paper.

I’m more than satisfied with the results. The paper looks incredible, and I’m happy with my design overall.

It’s a much higher quality paper than what’s used in stores for Lego’s banners (generally), which is perfect.

What isn’t perfect though is that I have to get these perfectly cut out without being able to rely entirely on the help of a paper cutter, since the longer strips don’t fit within the blade length.

I was able to get a good bit of them cut out by removing the bar on the paper cutter, and by going slow and careful with the blade, but I still reached a point where I needed to do it manually as the pieces just got too small for the blade.

I simply used a ruler and knife to line it up and cut it out. I did make a few mistakes, but nothing that was super-duper noticeable thankfully. It was a very tiring process however, and I much prefer cutting foam to this.

With those done though, I just need to wait for the new platform raisers to finish up.

A Proper Fit

Once they finished printing, it was easy enough to remove the bolts from the old ones and stick the news ones in. They fit just as well as the old ones did, as expected.

The next step is to apply the trims. I talked to Cartland for ideas on how to get it done, and he suggested using some glue, which I don’t think is a bad idea, but I had another one in mind to try out first.

I could easily slot the trims into the platform raisers alongside the plexiglass. It wouldn’t be very smooth, but I think I could make it work.

It isn’t perfect, but it is pretty good, and that’s fine enough for me.

Now, my original intention was to place the stickers directly on top of the trim so they would sit behind the plexiglass, but I don’t think they would’ve fit. The fit was already tight enough with just the trim and glass alone, and I think the added millimeter or so from the stickers would’ve made it impossible for it all to fit properly.

So instead I will have to place them on top of the plexiglass, which isn’t an issue, I just need to wait before I can do that, as I need to do some drilling.

I need holes for both the button on the front, and the power supply in the back. One of those is going to be a lot easier than the other, but we carry on nonetheless.

I decided to start on the back since I could just use my hand drill to make the holes.

After a bit of work, it turned out messy, but functional.

So now I just need to do the same, but on the front.

I decided the easiest route would be to just cut a small square out that was the size of the switch for the button. It took a lot of finagling and a good chunk of time, but I eventually managed to come out with a result I was satisfied with.

And that, thankfully, marks the end of cutting into the plexiglass. It’s time to move on to the finishing touches.

Finishing the Fight

The first thing I did was add some rocks around the base to help it look more natural. I did a very quick cutting and painting job, but I think they turned out okay.

Next up was to apply the stickers. I decided on putting the logos in the top left, to mimic the actual canisters from the sets, but I was less sure about where I wanted to put the icons of the Toa.

On one hand, I originally wanted to place them on either side of the display, to help fill it out more, but I feel like it would leave the front too empty, especially with the button having to do all the work to fill it up. So considering that, I opted to place them on the front.

I definitely put some of the icons on a bit crooked, but hopefully it won’t bother me too much. I don’t have a lot of time to spare to reprint unless I absolutely need to.

With these small additions, that leaves the last task left: put the lid and bottom on and seal it all up!

Sealant

As I was measuring the sheets, I realized I will need a bit of extra support, as the plexiglass on the top dips down slightly, and it concerns me enough to do something about it.

To this end, I pulled up my platform raiser model in Blender again and tried to work off of that. My idea was to essentially take the raiser I have now, and translate the design to be on its side.

The print was going to take a while, so in the meantime I started working on cleaning up all of my various supplies I’ve accrued over the last few months. It’s been a very fast semester, I feel like. But I’ll save the retrospective for the end of this post.

As soon as the helpers finished printing, I went ahead and tried to screw the plexiglass on. This came to a very quick halt as soon as I cracked it.

I was a bit upset, but I quickly thought back to when I did my research on this. The threat of cracking the acrylic glass was very high, and something that was always warned about. And yet I managed to forget it.

This scared me off from trying to screw anything else into it, and I immediately went back to the old reliable Blu Tack to keep the panels in place.

It’s not the prettiest solution, but I don’t have any time to brainstorm about it now.

But with those panels put on, it’s finally time to come to a close here.

Journey’s End

Shannon requested that I get “as many pictures of the completed project as I can”, so I’ll abide to that request now.

And of course, it’s time for the big function reveal, at long last. These lights have been working for a good few weeks now, so it’s time to finally show them off.

And with that, it’s time for a retrospective.

Like I said before, it’s been a fast few months. Spring semesters typically are though. This project was both a lot of fun, and also really tedious to do. I, rather surprisingly, didn’t make as many compromises as I figured I would, but maybe I just don’t realize them.

While I did mostly enjoy writing these blog posts, the novelty started to wear off in the last three weeks or so, and it became a chore. I do wish I had more fun facts to bring up, but I was limited by trying to keep the facts related to what I was talking about, which means I couldn’t do very many when all I got to talk about was the process of how I created stuff.

I know I’ll come to regret having so little details about some of my processes in the future, but hopefully by then we’ll have tools to extract memories from our brains, or something like that.

Being in the DKC this long has essentially turned it into home for me. If it weren’t for weekends, I probably would’ve spent more time here than my actual home. I liked getting to talk with Shannon and Cartland so often (and Jerry too, even if our interactions were brief), and I’m glad to have bonded more with all of them. It was also interesting seeing all of the people that came in throughout the days.

It’s funny thinking back to one of my meetings with Shannon and Cartland where I expressed worry about finishing this project too soon in the semester, as I sit here writing this only one and a half hour before the DKC officially closes… on the very last day of the semester. It quite literally took me every second.

I definitely could’ve been more efficient, but that’s just how I am. Some weeks were destined to be slower than others. But in the end, even only missing two days and leaving early only a handful of times, I managed to complete it.

I definitely wouldn’t mind doing another one of these, but I’ll need more time and definitely more money, which is scarce for me currently. But if I did do another one, I’m stuck between doing a single tube-style one for Toa Jovan, or doing a full display like this for the Piraka. Only time will tell if I do either.

I think that’s about everything on my mind regarding this. I know I’ll remember something else a week later, but oh well.

Throughout completing my duty in this process, I’ve gathered unity, and now it’s time I continue towards my destiny. There’s no better way to end this off, than with one of the final quotes spoken in Bionicle:

“All journeys must come to an end, but this time, there is a new beginning as well. There will be challenges to face and enemies to fight, but I know you will overcome. All that has gone before, my friends, has only served to give birth to this new day.

Let unity, duty and destiny be your guides. Be well, be strong, care for this world and for each other. Farewell.”

– Mata Nui, Journey’s End

My friends, it is time to go.

Week 14… It’s the end game now. Once again, no time to waste, so let’s get started.

A Bit Here and There

Last week we left off with some button business needing to be finished up. All I need to do is first print a test design to make sure I have the measurements correct, and then go ahead and print the final product once I have confirmed that.

While it printed, I decided that it was finally time to put a few things in place, starting with Kongu and the Arduino board.

It ended up being a bit of a hassle to connect the cables, and I had a few of them break off from the circuit board that I needed to resolder, but eventually I managed to get it all set in place. The next thing I did was screw the circuit board on to the underside of the foam, which really helped with the cable management issues.

And then I went ahead and finally attached the rocks, and a bit of extra pieces of the chain-link fence for more decoration.

Adding all of those changes together gave me this result:

They’re finally starting to look like a true Toa team.

I’ll definitely want to carve some extra rocks to scatter around the base some more, but I’ll save that for last so it doesn’t cut into my valuable time.

But with that said, the next thing to work on is the decal, at long last.

Retro Fashion

I got the measurements set up in Photoshop, and while I have a general idea of what I want to achieve for the decals, I wanted to make sure I did it 100% correctly. And thankfully, I didn’t have to do it by eye alone.

One website I frequent is the BioMediaProject.com (currently in the process of moving to MaskofDestiny.com), home to all things Bionicle. From archives of the original Flash and retail games to specific marketing materials only meant to be seen by Lego employees, it’s an absolute haven for people like me.

Part of these archives includes some of the style guides that were used by Lego and companies it outsourced to, to make sure their branding stayed consistent. One for each year, save for 2002 and 2010, the years 2006-2008 are grouped together in a special “e-style guide” (found here) that unfortunately runs off of Flash, which made it somewhat of a pain to open.

Nonetheless, using an emulator, I was able to view the contents inside. Included were the specific guides for the years of 2006, 2007, and 2008, along with a general introduction to both the story during the time period, and also a general guide to Bionicle itself.

There’s too much specifics to go over here, so I do highly recommend taking a look at it for yourself. For the purposes of this project though, these are some of the pages that will serve the most useful to me:

Unfortunately, all of the downloadable content linked in these images are lost, for the most part, but there are other ways to get some of them, either through recreating them myself, or by taking other Photoshop files that contain the assets.

This is also not everything that I will be relying on, it’s simply the most interesting parts of the guide. Beyond the guide itself, I also have the physical canisters with me that I can reference. No better of a guide than what was officially released, after all.

But with this all gathered, I took some time to begin work on the display banner.

While creating it, I decided that, instead of trying to measure everything constantly and make sure none of the logos or icons go somewhere I don’t want them to, it would be much easier to print out the background on its own, and then print out any extra decals I want as stickers! Following this pathway made it much, much easier for me to create it all.

I first got the background that would host everything I wanted, which I decided to model after the background on the Inika canisters and promotional material:

From there, I created a new canvas to host all of my sticker designs. I started by adding the Toa Inika icons that I’ve always loved:

I also wanted to add both the Inika and Bionicle logo to the display. The Bionicle logo was easy enough, even though BioMediaProject didn’t have the specific one used in 2006, the biosector01 wiki did. For the Inika logo though, I wanted to use the same one from the canisters. On the design document, it has the “Scratched Outline” label.

However, it wasn’t so straightforward. I thought that BioMediaProject would have it, and that would be the end of it, but strangely, the only Inika logo they host is the “Clean” one from above, not outlines, no scratches.

And as I said before, all of the download links in the design documents are broken, so no luck there. I got a bit desperate, so I just kept trying to search to see if anywhere else hosted the files from it, but there was still nothing. I did, however, come across biosector01 again though, and amazingly, they had a high-quality version of the “Scratched” version of the logo.

I was baffled, nowhere else had the logo in such a high quality, so I honestly have no clue where it came from, but I’m very thankful for it. My job wasn’t over though, as I needed the outline, partially for styling reasons, and partially because the sticker paper can’t print transparent parts.

I tried using the “Stroke” modifier in Photoshop, but it didn’t give me the same results as the official logo, so instead of trying to make it work, I just traced the outline with the pen tool and made it fit the logo I had.

It’s pretty close, but there are very minor imperfections, that do bother me. But I’m willing to leave a bit of errors, since it won’t be super big anyway.

While working on the stickers, I had another idea of something I wanted to add. The Piraka hazard sign from the commercial!

It’s a little goofy, because who could this possibly be for, who could’ve put this up? Maybe the Piraka just want to mark their territory that much more. Regardless, I think having this sign be a part of all the broken fences would be a really nice detail, so I got to work.

I knew I would have to recreate this one, as there’s no way the original texture would just be floating around online, at least easily. The triangle and its outline were easy enough to do in Photoshop, but the Piraka head itself was a bit tricky.

It is very clearly a silhouette of Vezok, but there’s no icon that looks like it. Some of the Piraka icons are pretty abstract (how is Hakann’s symbol a representation of him?), and while Vezok and Thok’s symbols look similar, neither one shows their teeth like in the commercial.

This tells me that the sign was custom made, but it’s no issue. I decided that just using Vezok’s icon as is will still looks pretty good, so I made the following:

I could probably add teeth in, but I’ll do that only if I really don’t like this design.

Nonetheless, I’m still not done with this sign. It’s much too clean, especially since it’ll have just been attacked and blasted off of its fence, so I remedied that with some basic dirt and scratch textures.

It’s got a lot more going on than the sign in the commercial, and I think it’s a bit cluttered, but it’s still recognizable, which is all that matters for me.

With all of this together, I’m ready to print on paper, but there’s something to attend to first.

Pushing Buttons

It’s taken me so long to do all of this that my brand new button has been sitting around for a while! It’s time to show it off.

Unfortunately, the process was not perfect for the Voya Nui icon. There is a lot of black mixed into the green in the center, something I cannot clean up at all. The ring also suffered from some very odd issues, probably due to it being so small, and me printing it with a very, very high detail level.

I don’t really want to reprint either of these. They’re not unusable, and trying to print the bubble again is just priming for more headaches and issues. Perhaps if I have extra time. Either way, my measurements were absolutely perfect. So perfect, that I actually cannot remove the button on the backside of the bubble without a tool, and some force.

Thankfully, this is exactly what I wanted, so no issue there.

With the button complete now, there’s only a few more steps left to go.

One Minute to Midnight

However it will have to wait, as I am out of time for this week. I ended up being very busy and did not work on what I wanted to as much as I needed, so I am a bit behind now. But thankfully, not by much.

From here, all that’s left to do is print the decal and stickers, and then I can start putting the Plexiglass on, and making any final touches I need. It’s been a long journey, and I’m ready for it to be over.

That being said though, there are a few things I’d like to do if I have extra time. First, of course, is adding more debris around the base, as it’s much to clean right now, and scattering some extra rocks can really help sell the illusion. I’d also like to secure the platform raisers, as while they will work, they’re very loose right now and don’t sell the idea that this was made by a professional very well. Beyond that, I may reprint the button if I can’t stand it, and I may also end up adding more decals and stickers as I go.

For now though, I need to rest and prepare for my finals next week!

Week 13 has crept up now, leaving only 3 weeks left to complete this project. No time to waste, so let’s get into it.

Fencing Up

Continuing from last week, I immediately got to work making a few more fence sections. Once I was satisfied with the amount, I added them to the display in a way that would help sell the story idea that the Inika were storming the gates of the Piraka Stronghold.

These positions are in no way set in stone, especially because I’ll be removing them shortly to paint over them, but I think it’s a good start.

I also want to add bits of wire strewn about to better show that the fence is supposed to be broken open, but I’ll work on that after painting. Which speaking of…

A Fresh Coat

It’s finally time, at long last.

To get the base set up for painting, I lifted it up using some plastic cups, and removed the cables from each Toa underneath. Then, I removed the fence I just added, and finally, the Toa themselves.

Once that was all done, I scored the board with a knife to mark out the tiles, this time doing it by hand with more room for error, to really make it look like it was natural rock carved by enslaved Matoran.

I also made sure to give plenty of scratches, cracks, and other textures to show wear and tear.

Then, I simply just put a few coats of my primer mixture on it and waited for it to dry.

While waiting for it to dry, I began work on a button design, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

In the image below are some of the icons used to represent the first half of the 2006 year of Bionicle. The one of focus here is the Zamor sphere with the icon of Voya Nui inside of it, surrounded by some metal object.

It’s definitely clear by now what my intentions are. I couldn’t help but notice how well it would work as a button, so I got to designing a model for it in Blender.

I worked on it for a bit, but it was quickly back to painting as the layers dried faster and faster.

After applying the primer layer, I put a layer of grey over the entire board, and used a lighter gray to try and throw some highlights around it, to spice it up. I don’t think I did very well.

Nonetheless, I’m still satisfied with how it looks so far. The next step will be to apply a very small amount of the brown wash I used previously. I’ll make sure not to go overboard again on accident.

Which I think I did a good job at avoiding.

While I’m overall satisfied with the look of it now, before I seal it in entirely, I want to give it a day for my eyes to rest and refresh. I can always make adjustments now, but once I put the varnish on, that’s it, no more edits, so I want to make sure I have it right.

The Next Day

Coming back to it, I really, really like how it turned out. I did have to go over the lines a bit with a knife to redefine the edges, but I think I did great with this. So on that note, it’s time to seal it up.

I put some layers on, and continued working on the button design while I waited for them to dry.

After some tedious copy and pasting, I came out with this result:

I gave it a test print and I’m mostly satisfied with the result.

I’ll need to make a few tiny adjustments to the size and specifics of it, but the overall core idea is there.

But with that short detour, the base has had enough time to dry fully, so I went ahead and started reattaching the chains and Toa.

While putting them back on though, there was a few things I found I need to address.

Minor Readjustments

First, Jaller desperately needs a coat of nail polish on his joints. He’s flying around like his joints aren’t supposed to stay attached.

The other thing that was bothering me is the composition of the Toa, again. Specifically, I didn’t like how similar of a position all of their swords were, as it became very noticeable with the lights on. It’s too late to change their positioning, but I can at least move their arms.

Specifically, I wanted to change up either Kongu or Matoro, and Nuparu or Hewkii, as the way they hold their swords are much too symmetrical.

For Kongu and Matoro, I decided to adjust Matoro so that his sword was raised up closer to his chest, rather than being parallel with the ground. I may adjust it slightly from here since now he, Jaller, and Hahli are all in sync with a similar pose.

But for now, it will work. Next up I looked at Hewkii and Nuparu. I readjusted Hewkii a little bit, but there wasn’t much else I could do with his current pose, so I had to, unfortunately, give in and allow Nuparu to two-hand his drill again. I just can’t deny that it makes him look so much more dynamic.

Like I mentioned with Matoro, I’ll probably end up making some more adjustments to the Toa, but I don’t think they’ll be worth writing down. But with this out of the way, let’s move on.

Display, to Play-set

I want to finally get Kongu attached to the display, so I need to work on a button right now. I have the design I want ready to print, but I now need an actual, physical button for my button to press. Thankfully, the DKC has quite a few of those lying around.

I ended up choosing one of the larger buttons with a removeable cap, which means it’ll be easy enough for me to add that into my current design.

Although, it would be much easier to just attach my button to the existing button as is, which is the path I went down. I simply made a hole in the button to fit the other button into.

I still need to widen it a tiny bit, but this will work for the time being, as I am out of time for this week.

End of the Line

There is little time left for this project to reach its conclusion, so it’s a good thing that I also don’t have much left to do. I have received information about the printer I’ll be using, so I can begin work on the decals and get those printed next week, which will leave only the Plexiglass left to assemble. Of course, none of this until I print out the final design for my button.

It has gotten down to the wire, to the point where a single mistake can cause me to not finish the project. Thankfully, as I mentioned before, I will have much more time to work on this during the final week, if needed, but I would rather take the time to relax a bit if I can.

Regardless, I’ll rest up for now and prepare myself to bring this all together next week.

Week 12 at last. Only 4 more weeks to go, and I’m very excited to continue from last week, so let’s get right into it.

Follow the Light

A quick update before anything else though, I plugged Hahli in and left her light on over the weekend to stress test her light to make sure it wouldn’t fail on me at all, and thankfully, the light was just as bright as when I plugged her in. So thankfully, the resistors are doing their job in preventing the LEDs from burning out.

With that being said, let’s continue with the rest of the Toa. I chose Hewkii to be up next, just to work left from right. It took quite a bit of finagling to get the LED block to fit in his axe properly, but I eventually managed to reach a middle ground where, ideally, the LED block will flex into place. I also did a pretty poor job with soldering his cables, making a bit of a mess. But it did work.

Continuing the order from left to right, Matoro is up next.

His sword definitely gave me a bit of trouble, trying to get the wires to fit in. It did also open my eyes to a quite critical flaw in my LED block design. When the block sits on top of the lid, it actually ends up being just very slightly too tall for the battery compartment. This is why I had trouble with Hewkii’s axe as well, and why I had to squish the back plate down for Matoro as well just now.

Since I already have all of the blocks printed, I can’t say it’s worth reprinting them just for a slight height decrease, but if I truly cannot fit the block into one of the Toa’s swords, I’ll consider it.

Regardless, I continued with Matoro and soldered his wires together without incident.

I also found some thin silver wire that was part of some separate LED lights here in the DKC that happened to serve as a great way to replace the jumper cables to tie the lighting cables down to the Toa. From here on out, I used that wire instead of jumper cables.

However, one thing I took noticed of was that I would have a lot of trouble identifying whose cable is whose. I’ve already been using color coordinated cables, but the actual plugs directly underneath the Toa are still black and red, so I quickly just put some masking tape around each cable and wrote the respective Toa’s name on it.

With Matoro done, it’s up next to Nuparu.

His drill was particularly tricky to figure out where to put the holes. The best spot to do so would be on the underside of it, where the handle is, but due to how it’s shaped, his hand takes up the entire spot and leaves no room for cables to be routed. I thought of making holes in the battery compartment, but I’m almost certain that would bring a bunch of unforeseen issues, so I decided against it.

Instead, I opted to put holes on the top of the drill, where they could unfortunately be seen quite easily, but it was the best compromise I could make.

His process went the smoothest of any of the Toa so far, for the most part.

However, I couldn’t help but notice that his light was noticeably dimmer than the rest of the Toa, even compare to Hewkii’s. I believe this is due to me soldering the two red LED resistors on top of each other, and then on top of the power cord. So while Hewkii might only have the effects of one resistor, Nuparu probably is suffering from having the power of two resistors together, making his light dim.

So, I went back to the circuit board and tried to resolder to fix this issue. It took a good minute of reorganizing a ton of wires, but I managed to successfully get everything properly routed.

However, it didn’t seem to make any change in Nuparu’s light, leading me to believe it’s either something about his drill, whether it’s the way it faces or the tube being less transparent than the others, or that it’s the LED itself. Regardless, I want to move on and at least give the light a minute to “warm up”, so to speak, before I decide to replace it or anything.

Kongu would be next, but I want to wait a bit for him, given his unique situation, so I’ll skip ahead to Jaller.

His sword uniquely had an issue where some of the green light leaked through the front side, just above the button. I’ve never noticed this before, and I have no clue if it’s in the OEM light, but either way, I quickly solved the issue by putting some black electrical tape on the problem area.

The rest of the wiring process went fine.

This now leaves just Kongu left. He’s going to be a bit awkward to deal with just because he isn’t screwed in yet, but the process will mostly stay the same.

That being said, his crossbow immediately gave me a few issues. He shares the same problems that Nuparu and Jaller both had, where there isn’t a great spot to drill holes for the wires, and with the light leakage.

Thankfully, because his crossbow handle has a bit more space than Nuparu’s drill did, I was able to drill some holes from the inside of the battery compartment, and route the wires through them. The light leakage problem was also easily solved with black tape again.

After that, it was smooth sailing for the rest of him. Although, I opted to leave his cable dangling for now until I was 100% certain on where his final position would be within the board.

Establishing Boundaries

While I do still need to attach a button to the circuit board, I want to wait on that before working with it. The next thing I want to do is start making the iconic chain-link fence I’ve talked about so much.

For this, I’ll use some armature wire with an appropriate thickness. I don’t really have a plan on what to do beyond that, so I just decided to look at some reference images, and just try my best with it.

Try as I might though, I couldn’t seem to make anything out of it, and it was made very apparent that I had not a single clue of what I was doing. I couldn’t find any guides or tutorials on how to do this online, so I reverted back to asking Chat GPT for advice.

It originally suggested that I try a method of wrapping the wire around an object like a pencil to create a coil of sorts, and then to intertwine the coils together, which would work if I could easily twist the wire. Unfortunately though, it’s just too thick for that, so I had to reconsider.

I tried a few other methods, from trying to create individual loops to link together, to tying zig-zagged pieced of wire together, but every idea suffered from the issue of the wire being too difficult to bend, and even more difficult to bend into even shapes that would properly fit together.

I about gave up for the week, but I decided to ask GPT one more time if it could share some more video guides. While the advice it gave along with the guides didn’t really help me all that much, one of the videos suddenly made everything click.

Specifically, I saw this one by Sofia Bue on YouTube, detailing how to twist armature wire together for clay sculpting. I initially brushed it off since she was using much, much thinner wire than me, but there was one specific part of her method that opened my eyes.

About 40 seconds in or so, she showcases using a drill to twist the wire together, and the way she shows to do it is by taking one long wire that is folded in half on itself, rather than something like two wires put together and twisted at one end.

I very quickly realized that this could work for me as well. While the wire would still take effort to bend into shape, it would be much, much easier to keep the shape even.

I put it into practice, taking one lone strip of wire, folding it in half, making sure to keep a circular shape, and kept twisting it together, creating a general chain-link fence look.

It’s not perfect, but I’m confident it’s the best I’ll be able to get with the tools available to me.

But, once I have one link of the fence, I can modify it to look more damaged and busted by snipping some parts off, and then I can link multiple of these links together using a small piece of wire, which gets me a pretty good look, in my opinion.

It still hurts my hands a ton, even when using pliers to help shape it all, but I’m still glad to have found a solution. I made a few more of these links and set them aside, as I am unfortunately out of time for this week.

Moving Forward

First of all, I apologize for the rather light post this week. I had been very focused on being so hands on with the lights that I somewhat neglected to write this, although I also feel like there wasn’t much to write about, given how repetitive the tasks were.

I was also not a fan of how long it took me to complete the Toa’s lights this week. Due to some personal plans and obligations, I only managed to complete one each day, until Thursday in which I finished up Kongu.

Due to the time it took, I didn’t have enough to spare to work on this armature wire and discover the solution I did, which means I was unable to paint the foam base, so I am unfortunately behind schedule. This is also not to mention that I still need to work on the button function for the lights.

I only have three weeks left to complete this, so I really need to speed things up. Next week, I’ll apply the chain-link fence, and then paint the base after removing the fence and Toa temporarily. While I wait for the layers to dry, I’ll continue to work on a few designs including a button, some way to store the circuit board underneath the display, and some minor changes to the platform raisers on each corner of the base.

Once I have the paint put on, and I’ve printed out my various designs, I’ll shift focus to the Plexiglass and start working out how to apply it to the display. All of this will almost certainly take up the whole week.

But after that, I will also need to start creating the banner decal I want to wrap around the display. Currently, I’m still waiting to hear back from one group on campus who has a viable printer that I may be able to use. I must find the measurements before going all in on a design.

Ideally, this will be done in two weeks, but I am fully expecting that to just be blind optimism, given how there’s definitely so many other issues that will, without question, show up while getting all this done. I will just have to see.

Week 11 already. As I suspected, the last two weeks went by extremely quickly, so I expect the next two weeks to be slower, which is good as I have some of the biggest pieces of work to do here.

My supplies still haven’t arrived yet, but I expect to have access to them within the week. In the meantime, though, I am limited as to what I can work on.

Back to Base-ics

Have I used this chapter title already? I don’t think so, but I also don’t want to bother looking back at my posts to find out.

Regardless, I let the painted foam sit for a while, but I still wasn’t happy with how it was looking, so I got Shannon and Cartland’s thoughts on it.

From my discussions with them, I decided that for the real display, I’ll make a couple of changes to my strategy. Firstly, I’m definitely toning down the brown wash, as I previously stated I would do. Carland specifically mentioned that my base reminded him of the Fallout games, which is not a bad thing at all, but not what I’m going for, and I believe that is due both to the heavy brown, and overall dark color scheme. Which brings me to my next change.

I’ll use a mixture of my grey paints to make a grey that’s lighter than what I have now, but not as light as my light grey paint on its own. I think this will help make the platform look less dirty and apocalyptic overall. Plus it also gives me extra room to add some dark grey detailing if I need.

Finally, I’ll also opt to carve the tiles by hand without the use of a ruler. I believe the reason the entire thing looks so off right now is due to the contrast between the super neatly carved tiles, and the extremely dirty paint job on them. My intention is for them to look like rocks, carved by the Matoran that the Piraka enslaved to build their stronghold, but the lines are much too neat to have that effect. So instead of using a ruler and knife, I’ll just use a flat-head screwdriver and some elbow grease.

Alternatively, if I want to keep the straighter and more properly carved look, I could opt for smaller tiles, but I’ll at least see how I feel about the larger tiles first.

Now, as eager as I am to start this now, I must hold off. I need to first get the cables for the Inika’s swords and figure out where I need to create holes for them in the foam. But since I don’t have the cables, the most I can do for now is position the Toa so they are ready to recieve.

Nailing it Down

I grabbed the display base and positioned the Toa on it, following the general pattern that I had established much earlier, but I did apply a few changes:

• First, Jaller and Nuparu’s poses got changed slightly. They kept getting knocked over by accident when I would go to grab another material, and I ended up getting some poses I liked.
• I switched Kongu and Hewkii’s positions for the sake of composition and color coordination. I have not mentioned this in depth before, but each Toa shares their sword light color with another in pairs. Hewkii and Nuparu have red lights, Matoro and Kongu are blue, and Jaller and Hahli are green. With the composition I had before, Nuparu and Hewkii were very close together, which not only made them blend in with each other because of their dark color schemes, but I also didn’t think that having their two red swords together would look very good.
• I also swapped Matoro and Nuparu’s places to keep the light composition spread out.
• Lastly, I made some minor adjustments to the overall composition of the team that I will go into more detail with next.

Despite all these photos I’ve taken, my skill to keep subjects centered and light levels balanced is very poor.

I tried to follow the positioning I established earlier, but I ended up needing to move things around a bit. My biggest struggle was keeping the Toa spread out enough so that they had their own space to breathe, while not leaving massive, awkward gaps between them. I think if I had unlimited funds and time, I would widen the XPS boards just slightly which would help greatly. But alas, this is the best I think I can do.

To help guide my placement, I used some bright green slices of a sticky note to act as a stand in for the little name plates I want to add later, my thought being that I should have enough room to clearly see each of the name plates.

I also left some room around the front edge and corners so that I could easily install the chain link fence for added decoration. I expect that I will need to create some extra foam debris to scatter around the area too, but I’ll leave that as a treat for myself if I need a break from any of the other work.

But with everyone generally in place now, I grabbed some screws, and started putting them in place, save for Kongu. Before I get him in place, I need to prepare the board for its final resting place.

Cable Management Simulator

What perfect timing for this too, as my cables and paint varnish have arrived, so I can finally sort this out, finally.

First, I carved holes in the foam for the wires to connect to the board. Then I screwed the bottom of the board case in place to make sure it would be aligned.

The next thing I needed to do was get some experience with the new cable connectors, as they are extraordinarily tiny.

It’s so small that the LED legs barely fit, with a good chunk of elbow grease and even then, only sometimes, in a specific direction.

Unfortunately, it’s too small for me to use, so I need to discuss with Cartland about it. I found replacements that should be closer to the original size, but we’ll have to wait on them.

In the meantime, I figured it would be helpful to start prototyping my final design for the cables. How will I connect them to the Arduino? How will I spread the power out among the Toa evenly? Questions with answers I need to find.

Power Problems

The biggest issue I faced while testing the lights before is that I don’t know how to evenly distribute the power from the Arduino board between them all. It’s a whole complicated system of wattage, voltage, amplitude, and just having a good set up. Since I don’t have the time to take a full class on all of these systems (although I probably should in the future), I relied on an old friend to help me out.

ChatGPT instructed me to use some resistors to regulate the flow of power between all of the lights. Since the red lights use less volts, they apparently have a stronger draw on the overall voltage, if I’m understanding it right. The same applies to the green and blue lights, of course, but to not as strong of a degree. Having resistors in my setup will help limit how much voltage each LED diode takes up, and will also help increase their lifespan and save them from burning out.

I had quite a journey while setting it all up. From digging through thousands of resistors, to burning out some lights, to occasionally blinding myself, and having to worry about limitations I wasn’t even aware of.

For example, I found out that one output pin on an Arduino board has a safe limit of 40mA, but each LED diode draws 20mA alone, or even up to 30mA for green ones, so I needed to split up the power distribution between multiple pins.

It was quite a lot, and too much to go through here, but this is all to say that I spent multiple hours to get this slightly more organized prototype:

Ideally, this same set up should be stable even when I switch to the permanent, longer cables, but we’ll have to see.

I also had it help me set up a button to activate the special flashing sequence I created previously. As much as I would like to show it off here though, adding that gif very nearly killed WordPress last time, so I will hold off until I have time to kill, or something.

The next thing I need to do is translate this prototype into a final design. I unfortunately can’t use the bread board as it is now because it simply just won’t fit within the space underneath the display, so I’ll need to choose something thinner, and also more secure.

The idea I have for this is to use a perfboard again. It will be easy enough to solder wires to it and create a connection between them all, while also keeping it small enough to fit basically wherever I want it to.

I was initially worried about how I was going to secure the cables to the Arduino board, since the jumper cables I’d been using kept getting pulled out at the slightest bit of force, but thankfully, using standard DuPont connectors are secure enough on their own.

With the basics figured out, I got to work designing and putting together my own custom circuit board.

Feeling the Connection

Just in time for this, my new cables arrived (along with the armature wire). I tested them, and thankfully, they fit much, much better than the previous ones, even if they are a bit bigger. These will be much easier to work with.

To double check the fit of them, I went ahead and printed a new LED block, this time in full black with a higher detail level.

While it printed, I did a quick bit of experimentation with the cables. I knew at one point or another, I would need to extend the length of the wire, because there would be at least one Toa that wouldn’t be able to read the circuit board, so I wanted to get some practice with fixing that.

The easiest way to achieve what I want, while keeping it low profile, is to solder cables together. I looked up some tutorials and videos to make sure I was doing it correctly. I decided that I would put two female connectors together, that way I could plug one side into a male connector to get even more length, and to get some use out of the other connectors that came with the cables. After a bit of time, and a handful of nervous patience, I got some nice results:

I plugged the ends of the male connector into the Arduino, and put an LED in the open female connector, and it worked as expected.

Right on time, again, the LED block finished printing. I wanted to use this long cable with it and Matoro’s test sword, but I quickly realized there was no way to run the cables through the holes I already had in the sword, without removing the solder I just applied. I’m glad to have made this mistake, so I know for the future.

Nonetheless, I just fit a different female connector into the block, along with an LED, and then in to the sword. It took a bit of modifications, mainly due to the poor placement of the holes in Matoro’s sword, but it does fit.

So with all of this in play now, I suppose it’s time to finally route these cables into the display.

Strange New Power

Since I have a plan in mind for the circuit board, the easiest thing for me to do will be to set up each Toa’s sword one by one, that way it makes it easier for me to track my progress and what needs to be done.

First up, I decided to start with Hahli. Partially because I have a backup sword on hand for her in case something goes wrong, and partially because her cable will need to be the longest out of all of the Toa.

The first step was to find out where I need to place the holes in her sword to hide them the best. I managed to find a good spot, but I am still incredibly nervous about making holes in the Toa’s swords, but there’s no more running from it.

After a mild panic attack, and a lot of willpower, I managed to get her LED block set up in place, with the wires.

I place her sword back on her hand to see where I wanted to route the cables, but as expected, it’s too short already, so I went ahead and soldered her cabled with another connector, as I had practiced.

It went quickly and turned out well, so the next step was to actually make a hole to turn the cable through. I chose to do it in the gap of Hahli’s foot, since it happened to fit so well. While organizing the cable too, I also decided to take some advice from the Jaller display, and wrap the cables around Hahli’s body, securing them with bread ties (I still don’t know what those are called).

Since I didn’t have any of those ties on me, I opted to use some jumper cables for now to at least get an idea.

This is about as hidden as I’ll be able to get the cables, and I think I did very good with it.

I wanted to quickly test out her lights again, so I plugged the Arduino in place and shoved the circuit board under the display. Unfortunately though, even with the extended cables, Hahli’s cable still cannot reach the circuit board, meaning I will have to solder some more extensions on, which is no big deal.

Once that was taken care of, everything was working exactly as I wanted it to, meaning Hahli has the honor of being the first Toa Inika to have power to her sword.

Weekly Conclusion

And with that, I am way out of time for this week. It went by super quickly, but I managed to get a very important step done. My work here today has set me up to be primed to finish the lights next week. I imagine that will take a day or two.

After I finish the lights and figure out how I will deal with the circuit board, I’ll turn my focus to the top of the board once more and work on the chain link fence, and once that is all set up, I will be ready to finally paint the base of the display, which will then let me move on to applying the Plexiglass.

There’s still lots left to do, so I will rest and recuperate to make sure I’m ready for it all next week.