I promised a few here that I would post some finished pics of my latest project, a life-sized Operation game table commissioned by Explorium Denton.
I wasn’t sure which category to post under, as I utilized many skill-sets that would fall under any number of Talk forum categories:
3D Fabrication - all the organs and bones were 3D printed.
Electronics - simple circuitry for the buzzers and LED nose
Creative Arts - hand-painting the organs and bones, sewing the bags the body parts sit in
Digital Media - creating the vector graphic (thank you @Nick for the assistance getting it printed)
Wood Shop - the wood framing & construction of the table itself
The table works the same as the smaller version you all played with as a kid. The buzzers sound and the nose lights up when your tweezers touch the edge of the hole through which you are attempting to retrieve a body part. I created two sets of tweezers so more than one person could play with the table at a time.
The red body of the table is an enamel-covered wood frame in two pieces, connected by a piano hinge so it can be folded in half for transport and storage. Four caster wheels fit into holes on one side, held in by rare-earth magnets to prevent them from falling out when taking the the table up or down.
The face of the table is a custom graphic printed on a sheet of 4x8 3mm PVC (except the red body part lettering, buzzer and plug graphics which I cut from vinyl using my wife’s Silhouette) protected by 1/8" Plexiglass.
The organs and bones were all 3D printed. After some cleaning up, they were then sprayed with several coats of primer to fill in the layering and other textures as well as give them all a solid base before being hand-painted using Fashenhues ceramic stains for a (what I think is) life-like appearance.
The two sets of tweezers were fashioned from bars of aluminum, connected to the table by coiled audio cable (think guitar cable) whose 1/4" plug connects to either side of the table.
It was a lot of fun making things up as a went on this one - but I think it all turned out rather well!
