What you should find in your kit:
- 2 resin cast stereo remote controllers. (These make up the main body of the phone, and are tan in color.
- 1 resin cast button.
- 2 hex head bolts.
- 1 piece of styrene
- 1 paper template for the styrene.
- 1 paper drilling template. (if you trashed your templates, you can download them here)
- 1 square red LED
- 1 round red LED
- 1 on/off slider switch
- 1 length of 1/8 inch red acrylic rod
- 2 faux red led labels. (For those of you that don’t want to make a working phone. I include two in case you mess one up. And in case you mess THOSE up, you can download a printable version here.)
What you will need to build this kit:
- Spray primer. I recommend Plasti-kote Grey sandable primer. It’s available at Pep-Boys. If this is not available, find another lacquer based primer. Avoid testors, krylon, or any other low end product.
- Black paint. Again, I recommend Plasti-kote.
- Sand paper. You’ll probably want 220 grit, some 400, and some 600, depending on how detailed you want to get.
- Modeling putty. Avoid squadron, red putty, and any other air dry putty. I recommend any catalyst driven putty.
- Strong Glue. I recommend using a 2 part epoxy (available at Home Depot), or a cyno-crylate type super glue. If you’re unfamiliar with cyno glues, go to your hobby shop and ask for it.
- Elmers Glue, rubber cement, or some other low tack glue.
- Exacto knife, or similar hobby knife.
- 1/8 inch drill bit and drill.
- Hack saw, or dremel tool with a cutting wheel.
- Scissors.
- Toothpicks.
- 6-32 nut. (available at any hardware store) – optional
- 6-32 tap. – optional.
Ok, let’s get to building. Keep in mind that these steps are only recommended. You don’t have to follow them exactly, and you don’t have to use them at all. They’re simply intended to lend a hand where necessary. These instructions are for a non working version, and do not include instructions on installation of the red LEDs and switch. I leave that for the advanced modeler to hollow out the body and add electronics. Note that the LEDs takes 2v to drive.
First order of business is to wash with warm water and soap all of the resin pieces. This helps remove any de-molding agents that may be stuck to the resin, and also makes the pieces more willing to accept paint.
Once dry, use some of your 220 grit sand paper to clean up the seam lines on the two large resin pieces. There’s a small seam down the back that needs to be sanded smooth. Use an exacto blade to get into the crevices to get out any flash or resin bubbles. For the most part, these resin pieces came out pretty clean, and shouldn’t cause much trouble.
When the seam is clean, you’ll want to flatten out the top of the two large resin pieces. Find the end that has the screw hold bored in it, or where the overflow resin is. We’ll call that the top. Use a disk sander if you’ve got it to flatten out that part. Do this on both pieces. Take care not to sand away too much of this, as you want to maintain the overall shape of the piece. You’ll only need to remove a very small amount of resin here. Do not file off the top bevel of the remote, as it is included in the design. See the illustration below to clarify.
Next, sand off the back flash from the button. This button acts as the voice pick up for the phone, and will be glued into the bottom half of the phone. You can find the rectangular opening on the remote. Sand off the back until it fits into the shaped slot.
Glue the two halves of the phone together at the round parts. Refer to the picture as a guide. Make sure you line up the parts properly so it doesn’t look screwy.
Use your putty to cover up and fill in the screw holes at the opposite ends of the phone. FYI, these holes are there because I used a screw to help remove the casting from the mold. It allowed me to make a much simpler mold with a smaller opening. You may want to consider leaving one of the screw holes open, and using it as a mounting point for spraying. If you use a dowel rod or a wood screw, you can suspend the piece for spraying, allowing an overall simultaneous paint attack. Wherever you leave the hole open will be the top of the phone, as we’re going to cover that with a piece of styrene.
Attach the mouth piece button to the lower part of the phone. Use your super glue or epoxy for this job.
Cut out the drilling template that is included in your kit. Use rubber cement or some other low tack glue to attach it to the top of your phone. Use a 1/8 inch drill bit to drill a hole for your antenna. Use a smaller bit to drill 2 holes for the hex head bolts. I’m not really sure what size drill bit to use here, so eyeball it yourself. If you’re interested in using the bolts to hold the top in place, you might want to thread the holes. Use a 6-32 tap to do this.
Your phone body is now ready for painting. Use your gray primer to wet it down with a few coats. As always, you’re far better off doing three or four light coats than one heavy one. Let the primer dry in between coats.
Once the primer is dry, hit it with your 600 grit sandpaper to get it nice and smooth. Pay close attention to the flat surface on the bottom of the phone, as this part will remain exposed. The top will be covered with styrene, so don’t worry about it too much. This part is optional, and is really up to the artist. Next, blast it with a few coats of the black. Be careful, the Plasti-Kote stuff goes on thick, and you don’t want to over-do it and end up with paint dripping down the sides. Let it dry over night.
Now it’s time to cut out your styrene to make the top of the phone. Using Elmers glue, rubber cement, or some other light tack glue, affix the paper template to the styrene scrap, making sure the lines on the template are facing upwards so you can see it. Once the glue is dry, use your exacto knife or scissors to cut out the shape described in the template. You can cut out the holes for the bolts using a drill bit, or you can just use a twisting motion with an exacto knife.
Once your template is cut out and your holes are drilled, remove the paper template. If you used rubber cement, just peel it off and then rub your finger over the styrene to collect any excess rubber cement. If you used Elmers, just drop the styrene into some warm water, let it sit for five minutes, then wipe it off with a towel.
The template needs to be painted. Spray a few coats of the primer on, wetsand if desired, then blast it with the black.
For the non-working phone, your best bet is to glue the styrene down to the top of the phone using epoxy. Be sure to scrape off some paint and primer from the top of the phone so that the epoxy has something to bite into. If you skip this step, your phone cap could come off without much trouble.
Once your styrene is glued to your phone, it’s time to put in the hex bolts. The bummer is, the bolts are too long. Use your hack saw (or dremel with a cutting wheel) to shorten the bolts. You only need a little tiny length to the bolt, just enough to get it to hold in place. Once you have the bolts sawn down the proper length, use your epoxy or super glue to glue them in place. If you’re interested in using the bolts to hold the top in place instead of glue, you’ll need to make sure the threads on the bolt are not screwed up when you saw it short. To do this, thread on a 6-32 nut onto the bolt. Wind it all the way up to the top. Now saw your bolt to the desired length. Once you get it sawed, unscrew the bolt. It will repair the tweaked threads at the bottom of the bolt on it’s way out. Neat trick, huh?
The antenna is next. Refer to the pictures for proper length. Sand one end of the red acrylic rod flat, and then polish it smooth with some 600 grit sand paper. Place a small drop of epoxy down the hole you drilled earlier, and slide the antenna in to the proper depth. Eyeball it using the picture.
The only remaining chore is to put in the faux led sticker. Use your exacto and a ruler to cut along the edges of the button. Round out the shape with some scissors. Test fit to the hole where the ear piece will be. If it’s too big, trim a little bit off carefully with your exacto. Peel off the backing, and stick it in. Press it in with a toothpick to make sure for a good stick.
That should do it. You’ve just assembled your very own Fifth Element prop! Congratulations! Now send me some pictures of the finished product. I hope you had a lot of fun assembling it.