A head reshape for Gort

Over the Christmas break I took a long look at Gorts head and I felt that some parts of it needed to be reshaped. I was not happy with the visor, although I was happy with the movement of the visor.

I made a new visor with different curves.
I reshaped the ears and repositioned one ear. I marked some areas for further touching up, bumps and ruts.





This has taken me a lot of my time to carefully adjust and mark changes.

The pictures here are the newer visor and head the visor was a 'dry fit' and so looks a little wonky.

I ripped out all the electronics, with the intention of reusing the circuit once I have the head looking correct.



One of the issues with the old visor was that the angle it was at because of the dome. So I have cut away some area inside the dome to allow the area under the visor to be at less of an angle.

The day the earth stood still -A review

So we went to the movies yesterday and watched
- The day the earth stood still -
and I figured that we should see it in IMAX. So we paid our extra $3 (x2) and without giving too many spoilers the verdict was it was good.

The kid was annoying. There were certain bits left in for people who had seen the original, but in most cases changed to be only subtle.
It was entertaining, a sort of good story, an OK twist on the the original.
If you changed the robot to a different shaped thing or alien then removed the name GORT and Klaatu, Then you could call this movie anything.
The movie would stand on it's own as a good story.
I think it is a shame they called it the day the earth stood still.

You could pick it apart if you really wanted to.

I did not notice anything substantial enough to warrant the extra money for IMAX.
Go see it but save yourself the extra cash needed for the IMAX.


I am still continuing to build my Gort.

See inside my head

With 'The day the Earth stood still' about to be released it sort of took the wind out of sails working on Gort.
I started work on Gort long before they announced that there would be a movie.
I am sure the movie will be a different take on the story. I hope it does not suck.

We are heading out on Saturday to see this movie. I am a little afraid that if the movie is good
that classic Gort will be forgotten and if it sucks the whole thing will be a joke including classic Gort....

I have been working on my Gort at 1/10th speed (ramping up) and taking a good look at him and found that I am not 100% happy with my visor so this weekend I ripped open his head and pulled out the visor.

Ahead of the head

Progress on my Gort has stagnated over the last few months. Mostly due to being busy at work, my messing around with Linux but also because I agreed to clean some areas of the basement\garage before continuing work on my Gort.

During this time I started thinking about another way of doing the head that may improve several aspects of the head. I think it is worth doing so first on my list after the workshop is rearranged is trying out this idea I have for the head. Pictures to follow....

Polaris 22 - Iron Man

Well last weekend was the Polaris 22 convention. I really enjoyed myself (even the 3 x fire alarms that were triggered Sunday morning did not ruin the weekend.

I have been very busy at work and knew that progress was still quite slow on Gort (still lots of painting etc) and he would not be attending.

When I went to see Iron Man the movie I saw the arc reactor that he built in the cave and I thought that would be cool to make, I toyed with the idea, but then I saw this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR18A418cAo&feature=related.

I knew I might be able to finish it in time to put it on display.












Anyway I was still working long hours and I rushed to get it built.
It did not turn out exactly how I planned it but I did finish it.
Overall it turned out OK considering it was completed in 2 weeks and some late nights. Thanks to paul030176 for giving me some inspiration to finish mine.

Back to working on the Gort man....

Spring in your step... Not really

I have not posted anything recently, I have slowed down work on Gort due to being busy at work during the day and the recent bout of humid \ thunderstorm weather. Not to completely stop I have added ears to Gort and another layer of Papier mache.

I have spent a lot of time with the EEEPC and various other linux \ linuxes I like the EEEPC so much, I like that it powers up fast.
After using it for a while I have only one complaint it gets hot, very hot.

I moved my project movies to Viddler (which I also like)

Other projects have my attention too but I want to see how it turns out first.

The upcoming weekend is Canada day and I will try to give the workshop a good clean up.

During the summer I would like to paint Gort while the weather is good and give him a chance to dry in the fresh air.
More soon (hopefully)

AKA..... The Stig!

I thought I should actually post a progress photo.

I am having trouble with the height of Gort at the moment, so it's not put together very often anyway this is the first time I have seen it all together for a while.

All I can think of is, if the arms were bent and holding his waist then he could be 'The Stig'.

Busy being quiet, almost too quiet.

I have not posted for a while this is not because I had anything to post just no time to do it.
Easter came and went and I have actually gone into a little Gort overload.

So I thought I should do something else...

I have been switching Linux over the last weeks and had a lot of computer configuration problems.
I added Studio 64, Ark Linux, Fedora 08 and PCLinuxOS 2008.

Studio 64 is a nice Linux if you like to make music or video. Unfortunately it did not like my mother board video or monitor and the time to configure it was too much. I actually installed this by mistake.

Ark Linux is actually a very nice Linux (visually). I found it quite buggy, again it did not like my display. I did spend the time to configure it. But then it crashed too many times.

Fedora recognized my video but then I had to find all the software to play the simplest of podcasts or even MP3s.

PCLinuxOS 2008 I have to say visually PCLinuxOS is still the best for my old Dell computer, strangely it also had issues with my video card etc but PCLOS 2007 did not.
I checked the forums it was hot off the press the week before and it was not just me a lot of people were posting similar issues.
Gnome in PCLOS2008 is great but I kinda miss the KDE

Well everything was working fine then I decided that I should install opendns well now my network which was working fine is all screwed up...

I now have to move all my videos from Videoegg because they are shutting down their hosting

I got a eeepc as a toy then started reconfiguring my wifi well now half of my wifi enabled items work and the rest do not. So many distractions

This an example of how NOT to use your time effectively.

Focus... on GORT. I did manage to do some work on Gort I do not have any pictures as that would involve more work. I worked on the body and the feet of Gort. I am about to start the "lights behind the visor circuit \ programing

More updates at the end of the week.

New visor

So amongst other things I have been working on replacing the visor and adding some perspex for the eyes. The visor is now done and is thinner than before. I now need to embellish it with the curves. I hope to make it look like some alien metal.

Work on the head tilting forward has also progressed should have some video of it moving shortly.

Cleaned up visor

I spent the last week ripping out the old visor and changing it to be a slimmer version of what I had previously, it seems a lot better looking now.
I have to work getting the visor looking right at this stage because it will be inaccessible later.

While building up the helmet and waiting for the glue to dry I am going to work on the head tilting mechanism.

A visor only a mother would love.

After showing the visor in action last week and looking carefully at it, I thought that the visor may be too thick so I ripped out the visor and have added a new one, it is still not finished yet and I have now come across the reason I chose to make it that thick!

On the head tilting front I added a bar that hangs down inside the body. Hopefully the bar will act as a extended lever to help move the weight of the head. I am now trying to figure a way that I can move the bar back and forth.

I have started to add to the build diary for Gort to my website.
www.geekwhitenorth.com

Gort's moving visor

Here is my work bench, PClinuxOS running in the background I have been busy preparing the electronics for the visor.
I have programmed a Picaxe 08 to do a basic open, pause and close of the visor.
I am now going to make the visor look a bit better, and smoother.

The unintentionally loud sound captured in the background is the sound of the Simply Syndicated Webcast "Movies You Should See" reviewing Monsters Ball. http://www.simplysyndicated.com/moviesyoushouldsee/index.html
I just happened to be listening to at the time. I should mention, that whether you agree or disagree with their opinions, they are very entertaining reviews.

Visor up and down

I have added a servo motor inside the head section of my Gort statue.
The servo will be controlled by a Pic micro controller programed with a Picaxe basic program (mainly because it is quick and easy to do).

I am in the process of gathering the parts for the PCB. I hope to have this finished in the next couple of days. I am using some of the PCBs I used in the Dalek project. I took the time to make them very general purpose so that I could get maximum usage out of them. If all goes well the visor will lift up and drop accordingly.

Pictures as soon as the servo is running.

I have also been busy adding shape (paper mache) to the dome part of the head. This is a bit tedious because I need to wait for it to dry between coats.

Visor down

To the left there is a picture of the head in the looking down position. Below is the straight ahead stare.



The plan is to have the head tilt back and forth.
I added strength to the neck for support. ... time will tell if the head is too heavy. (I am still adding items to the head)






The visor is also ready to be pulled up and down. There is still some work to be done on the visor and the lift mechanism.



I have held off adding the feet, just because I need a way to put everything together with limited ceiling height.

Not a town in Galway Ireland

When I first started gathering information for the project I did not know there was also a town in Ireland named Gort. Well, this is not the town in Galway Ireland.

I have made some progress on the head and here is a picture. My biggest problem at the moment is the weight of the head, I just weighed the head as it is now and it weighs in at approx 1Kg (~ 2 to 2.5 lbs). Downside is I expect it to get heavier.

The head has been the hardest part so far, mostly because there are no straight edges to reference.
The visor is ready to go up and down and I have space for a servo motor.

It still needs some building up, some gesso and sanding.

Where is my head?

I added the second arm and took a picture of the dry fit.
The chest looks a little high but I plan to build that down a little.

I have been working on the head building out the sides and strengthening it up. Pictures coming soon.

Now if you look carefully the neck has been prepared for the head. At the moment my biggest issue is weight the head is starting to weigh quite a lot.

Looking at the picture to the left the hands and feet are also missing. The head will tilt forward and I am looking forward to adding the electronics (still got tonnes of sanding to do).

No project updates this week

So because of family commitments, and the installation of a hood over the stove, I spent very little time (over the last week or so) working on my latest creation.
I could take a photo but you would not notice much of a change.

I have been working hard a couple of nights during the week to glue and let parts dry and there will be a photo or two next Sunday \ Monday nights or sooner if things progress well.

Mostly 'armless

I started to add definition to the chest area.
I also added an elbow, this one is attached, the other arm is still drying.

Also drying is one of the coats of paper added to his head. The other arm may be added tomorrow not sure yet.... I need some more glue.

The top of the shoulder through to the arm is accessible enough that I can add wires easily.
I plan to add an SRF05 ultrasonic sensor in the palm of his right hand.

The body is now awkward to work on because the arm hangs below the waist so I needed to prop him up.

Plastered bumpy forehead.

Things have been going well recently.
Working on the head has been slow but progress was continuous.
After the previous post of pictures of the head I discovered, after I made several measurements that it was too small.
So the head has been built out by an inch all-round.
I then added several layers of paper mache.
Once dried I added a coat of gesso (This helps see the unevenness)
The pits and hills of unevenness were filled with filler.
I sanded and added more filler
and ended up with this.
















While waiting for things to dry on the head I cut the arms and this is a dry fit giving a quick view of what the arms may look like once in place.

Big head

No real visual difference in the pictures posted last week and the progress made this week.
Basically still working on the head and, probably will be for some time.
I spent a while checking measurements and making sure things were in scale.

It's usually best to resist the urge to continue and just wait for the glue to set.
However progress does tend to slow when doing this.
I do plan to spend time back on the chest whilst waiting for glue to harden.