Titan Forge Cyberpunk March Diorama

One of the models that got a lot of patrons salivating was the ED-209-alike robot (with pilot) in the Cyberpunk range for this March. I must admit, I was temped. It looks great. But I was already half a dozen open-lock tiles into my diorama and couldn’t really see how I could make it fit, without it dominating the entire scene.

I was determined to “tell a story” with my diaroma, so instead, plumped for the car that appeared in the modular terrain folder. After all, I’d already printed a double-width roll-shutter door – what better to go with a garage, than a car to live inside?

Nope. It’s not a DeLorean. It doesn’t matter that they’ve even sculpted the letters DMC into the front bumper. It’s nothing to do with Back To The Future ok?

Actually, I’d already thought about making a Back To The Future scene. I mean, with a souped-up DeLorean model, who wouldn’t? But in the end decided not to. And not just because I could only find slightly cartoon-y low-poly models for Marty McFly (without spending a fortune on CGTrader) – I just felt that I needed to stick to “dystopian cyber future” and not get distracted by “80s blockbuster retro”.

One thing was for certain – whether this *was* the DeLorean from BTTF, or just some random futuristic vehicle, it wasn’t going down onto my tabletop without first being stuffed full of unnecessary technology. Mostly flashing, controllable LEDs.

Originally I’d planned on making the walls of the model at the front and back bumpers super thin and putting 1206-sized LEDs behind them, shining through the cured resin. But after making one of the smallest pcbs I’ve ever made….

…I struggled to fit it behind the wheel arches, to make the LEDs sit behind the headlamps. So I took a Dremel to the front…

…and rear bumpers of the car, to create a nice big void.

These missing sections will be re-printed with clear resin, so that I can stick the LEDs behind them then pop them back into the car at a later date.