Bacteria's project: "Project Unity"

[bacteria]

Been busy painting the front of the controller, and the back of the GameCube controller. Rather than spending ages trying to get a perfect surface, decided to use a paint ripple effect, like did ages ago with the Multi Mini project. The benefit is it covers up blemishes that otherwise i'd spend a long time trying to smooth out; downside is the surface has a ripple effect not a flat glossy style. Painting in antique white paint as it is more forgiving than black, although the sides of the controller may well be painted in black to contrast the off-white. Making the sides curved to look more interesting.

Put two coats on, needs one more, tomorrow.

The case won't look as good as my portables, given the priorities were to have the surfaces flat for two case halves to integrate, and the keypad, it meant the front and back of the master controller needed to be flat, and the controller section too as if the backing part wasn't flat it would be hard to mount a logo, also, wanted to maximise the space available inside.

[bacteria]

Thanks!

Decided to go black instead of off-white. Actually, black not only looks better but also more forgiving than white!

Thing is, painted most of the controller section, then before painted the front of the master controller top, dropped the paintbrush on the carpet and it left two splodges of black paint on my carpet! :facepalm: Will have to scratch it out of the carpet fibres I guess!

Painted all over the tact switches, taking an educated gamble; as I can scrape out any paint that gets into the slight crevice in the space around the tact switch tops, should be fine as long as I do that before varnishing the paint, as can be scraped off.

Doing the sides now, layering two strips of thick card to make a more rounded shape, and then going to use some filler to make it smooth and curved, then will paint that too. Not painting the back of the master controller for a while, especially as I need to see where the magnets are in the case to align against the controller case sections.

This is what the parts look like at the moment, bear in mind the paint is drying so some parts look lighter than others due to this.





I had to put a fairly thick layer on the master controller front to conceal the imperfections around the edges of the tact switches, and it has done a good job of that. Not sure at the moment about two options to have the overlays in place on the controller, I probably should have thought about that first - thick paper (about 160gsm paper) will be make into an overlay with game button details and instructions, and probably game decals too; I can either make it slot-in over the buttons or via a magnet vice mechanism. The first option might be best. Not a problem. When i've made the sides of the master controller case up and painted it, i'll probably do that as next job. I want my next video for the Amiga to be working fully and showing the controller mostly done; then i'll make a video about the controller and the concepts of it.

[bacteria]

Will post pics tomorrow of building the curved sides of the master controller, and painting it.

The surface around the tact switches had lots of small gaps and pits. After applying several coats of wall paint with a medium brush, the end result is actually quite smooth! It is looking very nice actually, better than I had expected. No point posting pics at the moment as the paint is drying, in stages.

Will need to use a craft knife to cut out the tact switch buttons out of the paint - I must say though, they look quite hidden under the layers of paint! :XD

Controller looks impressive, I must say; it has a rustic look, and character.

Loving this project BTW, it is very challenging, complex and rewarding. It's going to be a great day when this project is eventually finished, also a sad day too for me; a void will remain; yes, this project is that much fun!

[bacteria]

Worth mentioning, I decided before to make this controller rustic and with paint ripple effect, rather than vacuum forming.

To make the sides curved, used some thick cardboard which was glued in place by PVA glue, then used some household wall crack filler to make the sides more uniform, the painted with a few layers of wall paint.







After painting with several coats, and covering up the tact switches with paint, took an educated gamble and used a small drill bit to drill out a channel around the tact buttons, so the buttons worked again fine. Here is a pic after first one done.



Then used a thin layer of paint to fill in the exposed areas around the tacts, when dried, pressed the buttons until they "clicked" free of the thin paint layer. Worked!

Here is a pic of the master controller with the GameCube controller section in place. It has been engineered so the joysticks pop into place every time, first time, and with a gap enough for the joysticks to move freely inside the casing. Just played several minutes on the GameCube with Bomberman Generation - controller feels very nice to hold, buttons easy to get to, etc.

Need to paint the circle where the joysticks are to make it look ok.



The tact switch areas won't be on normal view anyway, the overlay will go over the sections to show what each game does, that's my next job, make a couple of overlays and work out the best way to secure to the master controller so the overlays insert and remove easily. I may as well do Bomberman Generation first...

[bacteria]

Ok, this gives an idea of the overlay, worked out the positions of the buttons quite accurately. The idea of course is to colour and label the button positions used, and leave the ones not used blank and not visible.

Not sure if going to print onto thick paper or reverse print onto printing acetate. Ideally, the background will be black not white of course.

[bacteria]

Tried to make a holder but it was hard to insert the insert; made the frame design but it stuck above the controller height so no use, Thought about burying magnets into the casing front as the easiest way to remove the bond of a magnet to remove the overlay is with stronger magnets, that might have pulled the magnets out of the case after time, so instead used flat headed screws, as they can be buried under the top layer of the case easily and also will not pull out as screwed into the plastic of the case itself. The overlay is to sit on top of the case, and a magnet at each corner will hold it onto the case strongly.

Decided not to make overlays per game, that would take a massive amount of time and not be too useful; i'll need to with the Intellivision as it uses the keypad for game specific gameplay, but not for other console systems.



Screws installed, clear perspex showing overlay position



Paint is in process of drying so looks a bit blotchy at the moment.

[bacteria]

Ok, would be nice to get the top smooth around the button areas as it looks a bit untidy, so, glued a piece of cardboard over the button area just glued on the perimeter so the tact buttons work fine. This in effect flattens the surface and will also make the overlay sit better too.

Given the case a sanding, you can sand wall paint easily after all, and will give the whole case yet another coat of paint, will then spray paint in metallic black (maybe) for effect, and then spray paint varnish. After that, need to make the controller backing section for the Amiga!

[Frizz.Meister]

More pictures! Honestly im loving the idea and really hope it works out well for you.

[bacteria]

I tend to take gambles in modding, mostly they work sometimes they don't...

Decided rather than having the ripple effect on the case i'd change it and go for a flat finish. Also decided the area with the buttons needed improvement. On the button area, I glued a piece of thin card onto the case, then sanded the paint on the rest of the case as best I could, and have been applying some thick layers of spray paint. Had to cover the button area anyway or the buttons would have been concealed. I have learnt from experience that you can get a thick spray paint covering and the effect looks near mirrored in finish, the downside is there is so much paint involved (maybe 1-2mm thick in total) that it takes literally days to harden fully, and more days still after varnishing for the covering to be rock hard.

At the moment, the card is holding up, its a little "bubbled" in the surface but that might not be an issue when the overlay is put over it. If it is an issue or the tacts underneath don't press properly as a result of the paint layers, i'll have to cut away the paint layer and insert another card sheet in its place, again, another risk to the end finish.

So far, it's looking very sheen, but I may have "over engineered" the finish and regret it, only time will tell. You spin a coin when you try to improve something that looks pretty good anyway, it either looks beautiful or ends up a mess! (in which case i'll either salvage what I have, or make a new master controller if I have to.

Tried to take a photo of it at the moment, however I can never get good photos taken in the garage (where the master controller is drying at the moment), and these didn't come out well; so you'll have to wait for a couple of days for pics!

[bacteria]

Here is what the GameCube / Amiga CD32 section looks like after 1 coat of paint. The outside will be painted off-white, the handle is actually from the GameCube, so appropriate; this handle will allow the unit to come out to load a CD, and retract back into the system; it isn't attached to the unit at the moment, just placed in its rough position for illustration.