Super Mario "?" Block: Part One

[Chonzo]

I finally got to the hardware store. I purchased a cord with a socket attached and came to find no 40 watt bulbs fit the size socket said cord came stock with. Branching out of my comfort zone, I bought a ceramic light mounting base and decided to try my hand at wiring.

There is no greater joy than not really knowing what you are doing, plugging the franken-light in, and having it work (especially when so very few things seem to ever work on the first try)!

With that out of the way, I began sawing out a circle in my wooden box. Note to self: invest in a proper saw/dremel. It ended up a little less than smooth, but sand paper helped. With the hard stuff out of the way, I moved on to sketching out the "?" on the face of the box.

With that done, it was on to painting. I initially only achieved a first layer on the face before my neck stiffed-out from looking down for the past few hours of the whole process. I gave it a first test run.

I soon discovered that the goo wouldn't flow. To be fair, I didn't expect it to as there was no funneling system for the heat. I did get some neat columns which allowed the dye to be added but I knew I had to funnel the heat properly first. Using tin foil, I made a makeshift funnel until I can get back to the hardware store and, voila! Behold; it flows!

So today, I finished painting the other sides. Now all I need to finish this is to go to the craft store and pick up some sculpy to form the 8-bit coin topper, paint that and do another layer on the box/touch ups! Oh, and make a proper funnel. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out as a prototype. With tax returns, I'm planning to make a few more, one for each of the core Super Mario Bros items... possibly to sell but nothing is final yet. Once I have the sculpy I can begin work on the Venom base...

[Erin]

That's really cool!!!

[Josh Langley]

I like the way that turned out. Hopefully you do one for Metal Gear similar to that, cause if you did i would have to buy that one from you.