Make Your Own Endgame Padd

Important Notice:
I put this tutorial together so that individuals could build an Endgame PADD for their own personal use. This page is NOT intended as a resource to be plundered for profit. The templates from my previous tutorial had been downloaded by the thieves at "Starfleet R&D", where they produced laser cut templates they sold for profit. The good news is that my old templates were quite innacurrate, so all of the kits they sold based on my templates include all of the flaws that were present in the templates. The bad news is that they sold MANY kits, turning a nice profit from work that they did not do. I encourage you to avoid these people like the plague they are, and instead use my templates to create your own work of art.

If internet visitors are unable to control themselves, and continue to seek profit based on my works, I will no longer continue to offer these free templates.

PADD built by me using my templates. A screen used PADD from a private collection.

Reference:
My primary reference comes from a set of pictures and measurements provided to me by an overseas collector. This individual was kind enough to privde precise measurements, and permission to use his photos. Recently, I discovered another photo of an endgame PADD on the Las Vegas Hilton website. This photo showed an alternative color scheme and graphic.

Some artistic liberties were taken by me in the creation of my templates. Overall, the body was not symmetrical. I "idealized" the curves on the body and made it symmetrical. While this does make my version of the prop "inaccurate", I beleive it makes it look more "realistic". My vision of prop making is that I want the item you hold in your hand to appear as if it came from the universe where the story takes place. I am not attempting to replicate the item as held by a particular actor.

Note that although this first picture is the primary picture used to create my drawings, the prop is photographed at an angle, creating a foreshortened effect. This image was modified prior to doing my illustrator drawings that are included in the template.
Reference picture 1
Reference picture 2
Reference picture 3
Los Vegas Hilton Picture

I recently re-drew my templates to more accurately reflect the reference materials linked to above. Before, the overall body shape was too squat. This has been corrected.

The total thickness of the padd is .12". Width is 3.54", Height is 4.92". These dimensions were acquired from an overseas collector who owns a screen used piece. Published with his permission. Since each padd was hand made, or made from a master mold, there is always room for discrepancies between screen used pieces. You may find one that is bigger, one that is smaller.

Materials:

Supplies:

Downloads:
Display Screen
Templates
Button Templates

All files are zipped. You can use adobe acrobat to read the PDF files. If you don't have adobe acrobat, you can download it here. Instructions:

  1. Download the zip archive.

  2. Unzip the body templates, and print out a copy or two.
    Check out this Printing Instructions tutorial for a detailed explanation on printing each file type. Print outs will be sized 1 to 1 to the original.

  3. Using elmers glue or a glue stick, glue both template halves to a big piece of .060 inch thick styrene.

  4. Use a coping saw to cut out the general shape, and a dremel to roughly cut out the "Control Panel" and "View screen" parts. Use this as an opportunity to develop your own techniques for working with styrene or ABS. You can get good results from an X-Acto knife, box knife, or any kind of hobby knife you're comfortable with. For these inside windows, your best bet is to make multiple, shallow cuts. Trying to make a deep cut can lead to loss of control of the knife. This can make for a sloppy padd, and cut fingers. Be careful! Use a straight edge ruler to guide your blade when cutting straight lines. For rounded corners, I like to cut way inside of them with my saw or blade, then clean them up later using sand paper or files.

  5. Use a set of jewelers files and clean up the edges and openings for the display screen and the buttons.

  6. Next, glue the two halves together using Plastruct cement. I recommend you slather on a good coat of the stuff, let it dry a bit until it's tacky, then press the two halves together. Because the glue sets quickly, you'll have to move quickly. Use a half a dozen clothes pins to keep the two halves pressed firmly together while the glue sets. Give it an hour or so to set up properly. You can use Testors model cement for this step, but it tends to get lumpy. If you're going to use testors, use minimally, and spread it out thin.

  7. When you're done with that, remove the paper templates that you attached earlier. Soak the padd in warm water to dissolve the elmers and remove the templates. If you used rubber cement, just peel the paper off.

  8. Take some sand paper and clean up the edges of the padd. Try to get the two sides of the padd as uniform and symmetrical as possible.

  9. Sand the bevel into the edge. You could use a dremel tool with a bevel attachment to cut a nice, smooth bevel into the padd. If you don't have a dremel, or a router, use a set of files to get the general shape, then clean it up with a sanding block. Worst case, do it all with your sanding block.

  10. Now there's a pesky little detail we have to deal with. You see the little oval looking cutout in the lower left hand side of the padd? This is the part where the green "led" goes. Time to deal with that. I recommend you take a piece of .050" styrene and hand cut it to drop straight into this opening. Alternatively, you could take a scrap of you .060" styrene, cut it to shape, and then sand the back of it down a little so that it sits slightly below the surface of the padd body. Best bet is to eyeball this. At the end of the project, you want you "LED" to lie flush with the PADDs face.

  11. Primer the body with a plasti kote primer, and give it a good wetsanding to smooth it out. Then blast it with a few layers of colored paint. When using Plasti-Kote paints, remember tha they are a dish best served hot. Warm your paints up by leaving the paint cans in direct sunlight for an hour or so before use. You can also warm them up in a pot of hot water. Be careful here! Don't blow yourself up! Paint on a couple coats of thick, wet paint. If you get a booger in your paint job, wet sand it out with some high grit sand paper and then apply another coat.

  12. You have a couple of choices when it comes to painting the "button panel" on your padd. You can paint it, or you can apply the black decal that I include a template for in my graphics download. To paint, use some "painters tape" to mask off the body, but leave revealed the viewscreen and the opening for the "buttons". Now blast it with a couple coats of black. To use the decal, just print it out, trim it to size, and adhere with two sided tape.

  13. Once everything is painted and dried, it's time to tackle the green "LED". I can't tell if it's a piece of painted styrene, a piece of vinyl, or a piece of tape... or something else. I am going to use a VERY thin strip of styrene. Cut to fit, paint it up, and stick it on using epoxy. I'm not even sure what the exact color is, but you can probably find a good krylon match at your local Wal-mart. Because this is such a minor detail, I'm not paying too much attention to it.

  14. Now for the styrene "buttons". Download the templates and print them out.

  15. I haven't spec'd out the proper ribbed styrene for this step, so go to your hobby store, find the Evergreen Plastic rack, and use your best judgement. Glue the templates onto the proper styrene and cut to the proper size.

  16. Round off the corners using your sand paper.

  17. Paint the styrene parts the appropriate color. Use the reference pictures above to decide which color scheme you want to use. Black or Grey, you choose.

  18. Use a two part epoxy to glue the layers of styrene together.

  19. Attach the ribbed styrene to the padd body using epoxy. Be sure to scrape off some of the black paint with an exacto knife to expose the raw styrene or ABS underneath. This will give the epoxy something to "bite" into.

  20. For the graphics, I'll leave it up to you to print them out. Do what you think looks best. I encourage you to check out my tutorial on printing graphics in reverse and backing them with vinyl. You may want to give this technique a try.

  21. Once you have printed the graphics for the main viewscreen, trim them up so they fit into the main window. Use an exacto knive and a straight edge. Back the graphics with two sided tape, and slide them into place. When you apply the graphics, be sure to work from one side to the other, pressing down as you go to avoid bubbles.

  22. I think I know what the little blue jewel at the top of the padd is, but I don't have a source for it. For my build up, I use the same crystal reflective paper that is used on the underside of the voyager phaserrangs. if you don't have any of that, go to your local drafting supplies store and ask around for blue reflective crystal stuff. Ideally, you'd find some kind of triangle shaped "jewel" that has a clear dome, and the color underneath. Refer to the reference pics for placement.

  23. All done! Now take some photos, and e-mail them to me.

Thanks for using my tutorial. If you find any errors in it, spelling problems, or parts that just don't make any sense, please drop me a line with your suggestions. I love improving my tutorials and making them easier to use. If you have any requests for other tutorials or projects, send them my way.