Wesley Scoggins
Indy Mogul
Wesley's Weekly HOW TO: Sci-Fi Scanner
So you built your raygun, got your space suit ready, your transporter on stand-by... It seems like you're ready for your deep space expedition and any situation that you might run up against, but how about one of the most common Sci-Fi Gadget, the All-Purpose Scanner. From the Star Trek Tricorder, to the Motion Tracker from Aliens, high-tech scanning devices are common for any excursion onto an alien planet. So this week, here is a high-tech scanner prop of your very own, for cheap.
Someone asked Erik the other day on Q & Erik, about things he always saves whenever he finds them, like bottles, or something. Something that I always save are the molded plastic blister packs that electronics come in. They always have very interested, almost futuristic looking shapes, which are almost impossible to accomplish on your own unless you've got your own vac-table. So I suggest saving these, I have a few dozen of these from random things i've gotten over the last couple of years. This is from a cellphone charger (I think) and I really like the shape, so i'll use it as the basis for my "scanner".
Now for the doodads i'm going to layer onto the base...This is a calculator I found for 2 dollars. It's hard to find buttons (or at least hard to make good looking ones on your own), so when I find cheap things with buttons on them, I tend to horde them as well.
This is a credit-card size magnifying glass that I found at my local hardware store for a dollar. It also had this little button in it that which you click it lights up a little LED under the magnifying glass. I think the glass looks a little like a little screen, so I picked it, it having a button in it is just an added plus.
For the calculator, I just laid down a base coat of gray primer. Then I started messing with arrangements for what is an appealling way for them to be arranged, and finally settled on this. (The section I painted black has some numbers stamped into it, so I painted it, but i'm going to just end up covering it with paper since the numbers are protruding a lot.
I cut a piece of the calculators cardboard packing off (recycling, yay!) to cover the stamped numbers.
I painted it black, then I took some epoxy, and layed down some wads for where the calculator is going to go.
Then I push it down and let it dry.
Next, it took this bottle cap, and cut a hole for it here, under where the magnifying glass was.
Then epoxyed it into place.
Then put a couple of strips of epoxy here on the top.
Then just pushed it down into place.
I painted a few of the buttons, to help differentiate them, you could probably paint some more, or even do some symbols. I also drilled three holes in the panel on the left side...
Then three more in the top.
Next, I put a sink faucet filter head over it, and epoxy it into place.
Next, I tore out the LED Module back from the flying saucer build a few weeks ago. And I threaded the lights into the three holes on the front, and the three holes on the top, then epoxyd the rest into place under the bottle cap. Then just epoxyed the module into place.
Next, I cut out this piece of foam board and stuck it on the back as a back panel. I then can either epoxy it into place and be a pain, or I get some pins and stick them along the sides to keep it in place. It's up to you, but if you epoxy it into place, it'll make changing the batteries on the LED module a true pain, so consider a "less permanent" option.
And there you go, you're own Sci-Fi scanner. Now just hit the button before you close it up (Or poke a hole in the back panel so you can hit the button with a pencil), and have your lights blink. They are blinking in this picture, you can see a few under the magnifying glass going off, and one of the three holes over on the left going off, but it's kind of washed out from the flash, so they don't look nearly as bright as they actually are, but they are pretty darn bright, especially in the dark where they can almost light up a room on their own.
NOW, all you do is head over to the Freesound Project, and search for sci-fi noises, or scanner sounds (which they have plenty of) and throw that into your film as your actor hits the buttons on it and "scans" the area. OR, even go on to Mogulville (Specifically the Indy Mogul Free Music Project) and ask someone to make some custome "scanning" noises for you.
And there you go, finally all set for your own 5 year mission! See you next week!
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