How and How Long:This one is on life support, with blinking LEDs indicating brain activity. The first thing one needs to know is what the end product should look like. I decided I wanted a brain on wires, with blinking lights indicating activity. The brain should be floating in liquid, ideally bubbling liquid, in a jar that looked vaguely Frankensteinian/steampunk.
- The Jar: A brain without a home is a sad sight indeed.
I followed a similar method to my Mad Scientist's Display Cases. I used an industrial sized jar of pretzels from CostCo.
I began by cleaning it off and masking everything I wanted to leave clear. There were "bands" already molded into the plastic, so I decided those should become metallic. As with other jars I have made, I covered the bottom so I could light it from underneath later.
After masking, I lightly sanded the uncovered plastic with fine grit sandpaper. I used Krylon Fusion as a primer.
I applied a coat of Black satin Krylon Fusion as a base. Once dry, I painted over the black with a thin coat of Krylon silver Metallic, and then "dusted" with a very thin coat of a gold/coppery color. This gave it a thematic / chromatic similarity to my other jars, but still maintained a unique silvery color.
- I used an off-white Krylon Fusion as a primer to suggest ceramic for the jar.
- Details Part 2 - Hot Glue! Now that I used the hot glue for the insulators, I can cast other details. I used simple sand casting, as I intended only to put round bolts/rivets/whatever around the perimeter of the jar. Sandcasting with hot glue can make a nice cast iron look, especially if what you want is a somewhat rough, pitted look.
I filled a little container with the finest sand I could find in my backyard. I added a little water, and it was ready to take an impression.
I used a CO2 cartridge from a BB gun to make the impression. I simply pressed it into the sand as deep as I wanted the final cast to be.
I did have to "touch up" the impressions as I went, since the sand would deform some of the earlier impressions as new ones were made.
Once I made the impressions, it was simple enough to fill them with hot glue and wait for them to cool. When they looked cool enough, I used the sticks from the previous step to poke the tacky glue and lift the casts out. Dipping them in cold water would harden them more if necessary.
There is a lot of sand stuck to them. I just rubbed/washed that off and dried them before painting.
- Painting and Applying the Hot Glue Castings: Painting hot glue is pretty straightforward. I just painted them black with regular black Krylon spray paint from Wal-Mart, then applied 2 Krylon Metallic colors. I started with a copper first, then applied silver on top. Once dry, I simply hot glued the new details to the jar where I wanted them.
- The Interface: So a jar holding a living brain is going to need more than a little plastic snap on lid. It needs something that suggests technology, power, maybe a little madness - a discarded hubcap! As it turns out, the thing fit on the jar like it was engineered precisely for that purpose. There are little plastic pieces that snap right over the rim of the jar and hold it so tightly that I can lift the whole thing - brain and water included - simply by lifting the hubcap. Sweet, right? I added a coat of silver spray paint and a lighter coat of copper. I also added a light dusting of copper to the silver of the hubcap itself.
If I was really good at planning and soldering, I probably would have matched up the jar details with the 6 "bolts" on the cap, and I would have drilled a hole in at least one of the hollow bolts to run wires through.
- Finishing the Jar: I like little details on my props that make them interesting even under full daylight. For this jar, I mixed up some red acrylic and water for an "oxidation" that would run down the jar.
I also added some small splashes of green and a particularly nasty splotch of green, where some horrible stuff got on the jar and the doctor, in his mania, never bothered to clean up.
On the inside, I flicked some red paint from my brush on the inside of the walls. There has to be blood involved somewhere, right?
- The Brain! Once the LEDs were more or less where I expected them to end up, it was time to make the brain itself. For this I chose Great Stuff expanding foam insulation.
This is really a great material for something like this. It seems to dry waterproof and light, and can be carved when dry too. I did put a thin layer of vegetable oil on the mold as a release agent.
- The Technicolor Brain: I have a long history with SFX makeup. So I sucked it up and painted my own high contrast brain using pink, red, and gray. So, I liberally applied pink acrylic paint all over the recesses of the brain, thinning it a bit with water to get it in the crevices. Then I "highlighted" the edges in red. It has to have red in there. Finally, I coated all the high parts with gray paint.
- Water, Bubbles and Getting it right: I wanted the brain floating in bubbles. Lots of bubbles. At the same store where I got the swords they had aquarium stuff. I picked up a "Bubble Bar" aerator and put that at the bottom, with tubing running to an aquarium air pump.
I cut a notch in the rim of the jar for the air hose and the wires to go through under the cap. The brain fit right into the mouth of the jar and floated about like I imagined it should. To mask the bubble bar, I originally added a bit of milk. I don't recommend that approach. Turns out clear water works just fine, without the smell.
Approximate prioject time: 3 days (including construction and dry time).
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