Multipass Tutorial - Step 9

This is probably the most complicated step in the entire build up, and is the one part that is not fool proof. You actually need to pay attention here, be careful, and not screw it up. With that said, lets jump into the steps to making the stepped styrene pieces fit inside the pass body.

These are the pieces that you will be using for this step in the tutorial. Here we have the body of the pass, in its current state. Two pieces of stepped or ribbed styrene, and the template that comes with the kit. Yup, THAT is what that little piece of styrene is for!!!

The method I will describe uses two sided tape. Any kind will do. You could also just hold the pieces really steady, and not use the tape. Or you could come up with some other method. The method I demonstrate here is the one I developed that works for me.

Start by putting a piece of uncut stepped styrene onto one side of the two sided tape.

Peel off the backing, then attach the template to the other side of the tape. Save yourself some time and line up one edge and the top of the template to the piece of styrene. I used a jig to cut the stepped styrene that goes into the kit, so the edges along the side should be very perpendicular to the ribs. The point is, you don't need to place the template into the dead center of the stepped styrene and then cut out along each side.

Using an x-acto knife with a fresh blade, cut along the edges of the template directly onto the stepped styrene. Just like before, you're better off doing 10 or 12 shallow cuts, rather than trying for one deep cut. You get much more control with the smaller cuts, and better results. Once you cut the side, then do the arch along the bottom. Whatever your method is, just make sure the end result is that the piece of stepped styrene is the same shape as the template. Don't worry too much about precision on the arch. That part is hidden below the surface of the pass anyway, and cannot be seen. It's the flat edges that are important.

Once you finish your cuts, pull the two pieces apart. In case your two sided tape is really strong, be extra careful not to bend the styrene when you are pulling them apart. Go slowly.

Repeat the process for the other piece of styrene, though be sure to use the OPPOSITE side of the template for the second piece. The picture here shows what the two finished pieces should look like.

Glue the two halves together.

I recommend using a flat surface to line up the two halves along one side. This ensures that they are registered properly. Wait at least 15 minutes for the glue to set before continuing.

Grab your 220 grit sandpaper, and flatten the edges. As you go, be sure to test fit the finished piece in the body. Ideally, with just a little bit of work, you should be able to get a snug fit along the sides. Don't worry about the top and bottom arch while you are doing this sanding. We'll get to those parts next. What's important here is making sure the piece of stepped styrene fits inside the body nice and tight.

This picture shows how I'm test fitting the styrene into the body. Just keep working it until you get it right. Once it is fitting in snugly, flip it over.

Using your x-acto knife, the trick here is to mark lines where the top of the pass and the arch of the button mount are. The end goal is to remove some of the ribs on the styrene so that it sits flush with the body. No gap. By using the tip of the blade to score the styrene, you are making a mark that shows where you need to remove the ribs. Here I am marking the top of the stepped strip.

And here I'm marking the arch. I'm not cutting deep. Just scribing a line into the styrene that I can use as reference. You could also do it with a pencil or whatever. I just happen to find the blade to be very precise.

Once marked, I remove the stepped styrene and start cutting off the ribs outside of the lines I scribed. Use whatever technique works for you. I used my x-acto to whittle the ribs down, then went in with sand paper to smooth things out. I used a couple of different blades, just so I could get into the tight corners and cut out the material as needed.

And here's the end result. The stepped styrene strip fits snugly into the body, and the top and bottom are flush with the underside of the top plate. If this seems at all confusing, the way to understand what I'm trying to explain is simple: Just stack up the bottom, center and top plate with the ribbed styrene in place. Without the ribs removed as I've described, the plates won't sit flush.

We now need to repeat the process for the stepped styrene on the other side. We'll need the top plate for this part.

Hold the top plate in place, and using the same technique as described before, score marks in the stuff using the x-acto blade. Then whittle down the ribs.

This picture very clearly illustrates what you are going for. This is the final result. See the non-ribbed parts at the top and bottom of the stepped styrene? That's what you've been working on.

Now that the stepped styrene piece is all prepared, it's time to glue it into place. Do NOT glue it in prior to finishing both sides of the rib removal. That will make it really hard to get it right. Put a little glue directly into the cavities in the body where the styrene will sit, then press it into place.

Let the glue dry for a few minutes. This is what it should look like now.

Now it's time to attach the top plate. Just like when you attached the bottom plate, get the thing good and wet with your glue. One thing I have tried that seems to work is to wet down the side of the body, but not the arms. Stick the halves together, then once the glue has set, go back in and do the arms next. This gives you a little more time to position it properly, and do it right.

Once the top plate is glued into place, it's starting to really look like a Multipass!!! Great work so far!

Multipass Tutorial - Step 10

This is a very simple sub-assembly step. No big deal at all.

Worth noting again that if you're going to build yours with electronics, you might do this step differently.

Here are the parts you need for this step. One disk, and one thick ring.

Put glue on the back of the thick ring, then press it into place on the disk. Try to align them as best as you can.

All done. Give the edges a light sanding if you want. A quarter of this ring will be impossible to sand once you get the whole thing assembled, so if you're going to freak out about seam lines, now is the time to clean up the ones on this assembly.

Multipass Tutorial - Step 11

This is a fairly simple operation. Just a little glue and go.

For this step, you need the pass body, and the button holder assembly that you just put together.

Apply glue to the back of the disk. Press into place. Nudge around as necessary until it is lined up.

Here we see the button surround attached.

Here's a side view of the pass. Notice that all of the layers of styrene are really starting to stack up, and all of the tiny registration errors are accumulating. Now would be a good time to hit this with some sanding paper, and maybe even some putty if you are so inclined.

Multipass Tutorial - Step 12

In order to get the LED to fit into the body properly, there's a few little things that need to be done to it. If you are going to try to make a working version of the pass, you will want to skip this step, and do something differently. The work in this step basically renders the LED non-functional. For a static version, this is totally acceptable.

Here is the LED. The goal of this step is to remove the posts on the back, and flatten it out so it will sit flat in the pass body.

I start with a pair of clippers, and snip off the posts.

Then I take a file, and just flatten them out. I also used some sand paper too.

Here's the final result. An LED with no posts, and a flat butt.

Multipass Tutorial - Step 13

In this step, we prep the LED bezel, and attach it to the body. There's a tiny trick to this step that may not be obvious to the first time builder. This is a very simple step.

For this step, all you need is the LED bezel and some sand paper.

The outer edge of the top face of the bezel has a rounded edge. Use the sand paper to gently notch down the right angle edges. It's hard to find good reference for this part, so just do what you think looks right. Just a little rounded-ness to the edge should be fine.

Here's the trick to attaching the bezel to the pass body and have it being in perfect position. First, place the LED into the hole in the body. It should fit right in perfectly. Do a test fitting of the bezel before gluing. Make sure it fits. If you need to sand out the inside edges a tiny bit, now would be the time to do it.

put glue on the downward facing side of the bezel.

Then slide it over the LED, into its final resting place on the pass body. Nice fit!!

Then remove the LED. All done!

Multipass Tutorial - Step 14

Here we attach to the pass body one of the little surface detail pieces, the one I like to call "the bullet".

Start with the bullet, and as needed, sand away any melted plastic along the edges. If there are any blemishes or whatever that you want to get rid of, now would be the time to do it.

The technique I like to use in this step is to stab the bullet lightly with the x-acto so that it sticks to it. This allows you to position it with some precision onto the body.

I took this photo a little out of order, but you get the idea here. While the bullet strip is on your x-acto, get some glue onto the opposite side. Then just plop it into position on the pass, press into place, and you're done.

You can eyeball the bullet position based on this photo. So far, we are looking really good. The basic assembly of a static multipass is now complete.

For reference, here's what the back looks like at this point. We haven't done anything to the back side recently, I just wanted to put this photo after the one of the front "as is" photo above. It's really coming together now!!

Multipass Tutorial - Step 15

In this step, we prep the body for painting, primer, then paint.

Note that there are a million ways to get these steps done. You don't have to do it my way. If you have a painting technique that you prefer, please don't feel compelled to use my methods. I'm just showing what has worked for me in the past. If you have a way of getting better results, please send me a note and tell me how to improve my tutorial.

Start off with the pass body, two popsicle sticks, and some painters tape.

Tape the popsicle sticks to the body. Nothing fancy. I'm not even worried about what I'm masking off. The point of the tape is to hold the sticks on, not really to mask anything off. The sticks will be used to hold the pass while spraying and drying. Nothing more.

This is the primer I recommend. You can get it at almost any auto parts store.

This shows the pass with the first coat of primer on it. I'm actually making this tutorial a TAD out of order, and I sprayed it with a black sandable primer before I found my gray sandable primer that you see in the photo above. I prefer the gray, as it matches with the top color better. That way,if some paint accidentally chips off, you'll see gray primer instead of black.

And here is the paint I recommend. Also a Dupli-Color paint, available at any good auto parts store. I'm sure you can get it on Amazon.com if you look.

Here's the exact part number. I don't know if this is EXACTLY what they used in the film, but it matches up nicely to frame grabs. It actually matches REALLY well, and I'm quite happy with it. If you find a paint that you think works better, please let me know.

I use a clamp to hold the pass while it is drying. This way, I don't have to sit it down on a flat surface. See how magical that popsicle stick is??

I let it sit overnight. Your mileage may vary. Because I'm going to be sanding the paint, I like to give it an opportunity to dry thoroughly.

Here's how it looks with the tape and popsicle stick removed. You can see there are some pretty serious ridges where the paint pooled up around the edges of the tape.

To remedy this, I take my 220 grit sand paper and go to town.

Here you can see where I've smoothed things down.

From this picture you can see that I've also made sure the lip of the center plate is white, as are the little tabs along the top and bottom.