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I've not posted in a while so I thought I'd drop in a little note about something I worked on recently in my spare time that is now finished. This is possibly one of the most geeky things I've ever produced, aside from all the software of course, which is intrinsically a geeky thing to persue in your spare time :)
Over the last year I've been somewhat mocked by my work mates for taking up a swathe of hobbies and then not producing anything. Especially as the cost of getting set up to work on those hobbies ranged into the hundreds of pounds. These hobbies included electronics, model making and miniature painting. I've got scattered all over the room a fairly huge selection of tools, paints, books and craft equipment, however I've not really finished a lot with it, except the odd painted miniature model. I'd been trying to find a way to fuse the lot together to actually produce something interesting such that I might actually utilise my new tools and equipment. I'm not sure how I came to the decision I wanted to make a 6 inch Cheesoid replica, but I'm quite happy with the finished product.
For those who are unaware of the sketch, Cheesoid is a low-budget robot created to smell various foods. Cheesoid can't tell the difference between cheese and petrol. If you've not seen the Cheesoid sketch, it's probably one of the funniest Mitchell and Webb sketches imho. Here's the full version:
I probably should have taken pictures along the way as I was creating this model but I didn't so here's the finished version video:
The Cheesoid model itself is made from standard modelling clay with it's insides removed. Inside the model is a programmed PIC chip to control the eyes and top LED effect. To the right is a flick toggle switch to turn the lights on, and a button to control the speech sound module. Cheesoid is painted in metallic silver acrylic paint with a paper "CHEESOID" sticker logo on the bottom. The nozel is made from 5 metal rods with electrical tape wrapped around it and piece of plastic from a pen. The antenna is a piece of wood from a toothpick. The petrol and the cheese were modelled from clay and painted. At the back is a rather poorly hidden 4.5V battery box which sources the light and sound. The base is made from a thick sheet of slate, a selection of random stones + pebbles and about 14 glue gun sticks worth of hot glue. The base is acrylic painted and dry-brushed with flocking, modelling shrubs and long grass.
The model took approximately 4 days of work to complete spread over about 3 weeks. Total cost of materials: probably about £30.
Here are some pictures of the finished model:
 
 
Back to the programming for me...
HATE SELF - HATE SELF!
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