User avatar
By julz
#4938232
Why thank you Chis 😊 long time no see!

Thanks heaps Cole. Its a labor of love. I'm almost finished on the 3d instrument panel and once done I'll cut away what I've made and replace it for something more accurate.

Also FYI I fixed the movie files so they should work now...
User avatar
By julz
#4967767
Just blowing the dust of this thread, and bulk updating all my updates from Dan's spengler 1984 workbench :whatever:

Back in 2020 Jack Doud and I got talking about the pke top mode switch, I knew he had researched this previously and he decided to look more into it and magically dug up some amazing leads/research that the piece came from a tanks kit. from there he started narrowing things down to a fuel tank of a Panzerkampfwagen IV kit.

I ordered the Hasegawa 1/48 kit he had dug up and modded it to get as close as I could but it still ended up looking too small and skinny. I did some more brainstorming with Jack and decided to order some Bandai kits.
I found a few kits that seemed to be similar with different box art. They finally showed up and BOOM 💥 not only does it look bang on, but it also matches up with the rough 3d mockup I did based on the instrument panel im building.
Whats even better is you don't need to modify the part like you had to do with the other kits, it has the right thickness and looks accurate from all the reference angles I've looked at 💪
Sooo I'm happy to stake my pke reputation on the real pke switch coming from a Bandai Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf.H 1/48 tank kit.
This is all off the back of Jacks amazing research and my OCD 🙄

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a 3d estimate print i made, the smaller model and the proper sized kit piece
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User avatar
By julz
#4967769
Worked more into the instrument panel. I acquired a 3d resin printer and started making progress into successful prints and making small tweaks to get the faceplate as close as I could get to fit an iona right out of the box.

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Then I updated my screw points with steel standoffs, screwing the rear ones into the bottom hull of the pke then epoxying the standoffs into place. I took a slightly larger drill bit and carefully enlarged the front screw holes then epoxied the standoff in place then used epoxy putty to fill over the top. All in aid of making it look like epoxy putty but still have the strength of the inner steel.

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User avatar
By julz
#4967770
Next I took the plug and glued the resin printed face plate onto the iona shell.
... Stressful times :sigh:

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for alignment to try and make sure the instrument panel was in the middle I made a small guide of styrene strips to help force the print into position as i glued it in place.

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and glued...

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a little filling and sanding and a quick coat of paint...
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testing out the threaded inserts for the screws - like a glove!

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User avatar
By julz
#4967787
filled in the underside of the tank switch with epoxy putty to better fit around the switch it glues to.

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made a aluminum bracket to hold the light rotary Knob

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Around this time I was brainstorming with Cole over what size the original batteries were. With a scan of the Iona we were able to make comparisons to the 1993 images showing the batteries inside. I made some rough geo to figure out the possible battery size then we went digging for existing battery sizes. We came up with 2/3 AA which is used alot in hobby toys. Using today's equivalent cole pointed me to nimh batteries and I was able to find some solar batteries at the correct size in white, given that I wanted to wrap them with my custom Panasonic battery label.... white was perfect.

Having found the right batteries Cole started suggesting crazy theories about me wiring up the actual batteries in a similar way to the original and then went about designing me a wiring schematic and suggesting appropriate nimh chargers to buy. I buckled under peer pressure and jumped onboard the crazy train. Cole had turned into an enabler to my worst accuracy impulses. :sigh:

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Having looking into how to solder batteries as safely as possible, here is me wiring all the new batteries up. Spoiler alert... I did not blow myself up.

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When trying to install the batteries and match the look of the reference I became frustrated that i couldn't get the same look until it dawned on me that there were 2 layers of batteries in the handle. The ref images hide this quite well unless you go looking for it. so it turned out there were really 6 batteries in the rear handle and not the 3 I initially thought, this brought the total of batteries the original PKE used to 8 x 1.2 volt batteries... :blush::walterpeck: massive derp moment.

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I made little brackets under the batteries to hold them together.

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annnnd I may have decided to buy some vintage batteries off ebay to double check my efforts to replicate the labels. :sigh:

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User avatar
By julz
#4967789
Thank you Toby. I figured it was about time.
User avatar
By julz
#4967790
Next I moved onto redoing my pke wings, the more I looked at the ref the more I realized my wings weren't up to snuff. So back to 3d modeling land I went.

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I designed these wings to be more faithful to the originals. that meant finding smaller leds to fit inside the wings and using acrylic rods to simulate the led plastic like the originals. At this point Cole the wizard stepped in again and said I should use a PCB for the leds. PCB I replied... I have no pcb's. Cole then waved his magic wand and all of a sudden PCB turned up in my mailbox. He's very efficient.

I then designed a half wing to act as a guide to solder my leds and hook up wire.

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A few more tweaks were made to the wing to make the standoff and dubro accessories more accurate.

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Here I'm adding the little bits of 3mm acrylic rods into the wing holes
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gluing styrene strip to seal up the pcb inside
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This is how I protected the inner leds during the painting process but using longer bits of acrylic rod to temporarily plug the holes.
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and a progress video showing leds working... which is a huge relief when one has sealed them inside! :sigh:
https://live.staticflickr.com/video/519 ... LCJ2IjoxfQ
Last edited by julz on March 2nd, 2022, 10:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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User avatar
By julz
#4967794
Next up was getting the right parts together for the dubro connectors for the wings. you solder the steel rods into the threaded couplers.

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Then onto making a aluminum shelf to replicate how the wings were attached in the original.
I wanted to make sure that the shelf and wings could be removed for any repairs so my solution was to make little brackets glued to the inside of the pke that the shelf would screw into.

This is a shot of all the parts and how I installed them. under the shelf, the wings themselves are connected to the iona body via steel standoffs which are also glued to the sides of the iona shell.

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Pke ready for the shelf brackets...
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You then double side tape the bracket to keep everything together, add epoxy to the back of the brackets and then fit the shelf into place in the pke and allow it to dry.
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fast drying epoxy glue into place
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Then you remove the top shelf and then attach the wing by using the wing standoff to screw it to the shelf Top. next add epoxy around the wings steel standoff and relocate the top shelf back into position on the bracket supports you glued in earlier.
Do one wing at a time, allowing the steel standoff to fix to the iona shell while holding the wing firmly in place in its correct folded position flush against the iona wing slots.

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Once the wing standoff is dry you can unscrew it from the panel and add a little more glue to make sure its secure... it will look like the image below.
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Completing both sides you will end up with results like this which wings that sit flush and are able to be screwed into place which also holds the top shelf in place like magic.

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Job done!
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User avatar
By julz
#4967795
Onto finally finishing this build... pretty crazy to be at this point after all this time.
Here is a shot of all the parts I'm putting into this Iona conversion

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repainted the inside of the shell after I had this thing 3d scanned. I ended up having to remove alot of paint because the person that scanned it had sprayed it with a material to make it scan better... pain in the arse

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Finally painted the new wings the right sparkled silver
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Rolling onto the paints I used...
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Successful test...
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adding screen in place. this consists of a piece of harder opaque green plastic... I picked up a cheap folder and cut a bit out of it... then a crosshatched pattern I printed on a piece of transparency. followed with a piece of green film gel, then a piece of 1.5 mm thick clear plastic or acrylic.

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then finishing the rest of the pke body paint with silver spray frosting.
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Really stoked how the detail of the mystery raised area turned out.
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User avatar
By julz
#4967799
wiring up the rear switch and charging port

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creating the contact switches out of 22 guage solid core wire. Cutting small pieces then bending them over small tweezers.
These are then slotted in the holes drilled into the iona and then bent on the inside.
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switch harness I've made loop through the switch wire and then it's bent over on the inside locking the switches in place.
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rear power led wired in place.
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A progress video...
https://live.staticflickr.com/video/519 ... LCJ2IjoxfQ

Onto adding all the electronics. I've had to modify the original circuit board to allow the servos to sit on top.

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A mad scientist's assembly table...
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cables in place, before circuit board is set in place
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an earlier version of a shelf I made to mount the servo's on. I ultimately ended up changing this for the sake of accuracy.
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everything in place
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Last edited by julz on March 2nd, 2022, 10:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
By julz
#4967800
a compassion of an Iona shoe polisher, my converted iona pke and a matty pke meter.

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All assembled, just a few internal paint details to address.

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https://live.staticflickr.com/video/519 ... LCJ2IjoxfQ

Adding sanded acrylic rod to wings.
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I was having issues with the wings not sitting where they should have because of the servos contacting with the batteries on the inside. so I removed a few more things from the circuit board and moved a few more things so I could move the servos further back to where the real pkes were.

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Below are a few videos of the finished product :)

https://live.staticflickr.com/video/519 ... LCJ2IjoxfQ
https://live.staticflickr.com/video/519 ... LCJ2IjoxfQ
https://live.staticflickr.com/video/519 ... LCJ2IjoxfQ
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User avatar
By julz
#4967801
I've released my files on to etsy to help make life a little easier for people wanting to convert their Iona's

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I also put up my templates you can print out. The window graph is meant to be printed out on transparency paper.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zn4p63nt1z0d9 ... QwqpXiqssk

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the end has a tag that is meant to fold into the rotary switch hole to help with alignment
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Hope they make sense!
SeaSnoops, tobycj, universalcreature and 2 others liked this
By WShawn
#4967848
julz wrote: March 2nd, 2022, 4:28 pm
Around this time I was brainstorming with Cole over what size the original batteries were. With a scan of the Iona we were able to make comparisons to the 1993 images showing the batteries inside. I made some rough geo to figure out the possible battery size then we went digging for existing battery sizes. We came up with 2/3 AA which is used alot in hobby toys. Using today's equivalent cole pointed me to nimh batteries and I was able to find some solar batteries at the correct size in white, given that I wanted to wrap them with my custom Panasonic battery label.... white was perfect.

Having found the right batteries Cole started suggesting crazy theories about me wiring up the actual batteries in a similar way to the original and then went about designing me a wiring schematic and suggesting appropriate nimh chargers to buy. I buckled under peer pressure and jumped onboard the crazy train. Cole had turned into an enabler to my worst accuracy impulses. :sigh:

Hokey smokes, I've been scrutinizing those PKE meter photos my friend Bryan took for nearly 30 years, and I never noticed there were 6 batteries in the handle! I, too, thought there were only 3, so I've been working with five 2/3 A size NIMH batteries, producing 6 volts. I guess I'll have to decide whether I want to redesign my electronics at this point to work with 9.6V. I don't plan to be as much a stickler for interior fidelity, but I like the idea of the prop having more heft.

I like seeing your development of the wings. My initial plan was to fabricate a positive from styrene, make silicone molds and design a PCB that could be encapsulated in resin wings. But a few weeks ago I started toying with the idea of getting a 3D resin printer to handle that (plus the fuel tank switch).

I really hope to resume work on mine in the next few weeks. I've had very little creative energy for the past few years to finish it up.

Cheers.

Shawn

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