Screen

I am going to use a perfectly sized high quality print of a windows screen saver, which will fit behind a clear piece of 0.5mm acrylic plastic. This will create the effect of having a working screen. I will be using an original windows start up screen with bright colours to add to the effect of a working screen.

Keyboard, base and screen

I now have the keyboard and screen sections painted and ready for detail, such as painting the two side rings black, painting in the black acrylic paint detail into the lettering and symbols on the keyboard, I have decided not to use Plastisol as it would take far too long to dry and fitting the high quality printed screen behind a 0.5mm acrylic screen.

I will then need to fit the screen section onto the keyboard section at a good radius for viewing.
I will also produce a simple yet attractive baseboard for the model to sit on.

Keyboard

I have now applied my laser cut keyboard base to the model. Due to slight changes to size when laser cut, I decided to add 0.2mm larger offset so that I could just sand the acrylic slightly till it fits, which worked very well. I will now work out how to produce the keys and lettering marks.

Update!!>>

I have been looking at the best way to produce the keys for the keyboard and how the letters will be done. I looked into rub-on decals, such as http://www.decal-paper.com/rubon.html but as my model may be picked up and played with by prospective clients I have decided to get each key laser engraved and cut. Then once they have been stuck in and painted, I will be able to paint into the engraved letters using a watered down solution of black acrylic paint. Or use Plastisol (ink used for screen printing) ink to rub over the engraved parts.

Update!>>


Here is a photo of my Adobe illustrator file used on the laser cutter. I had to experiment with the engrave power to produce an engrave deep enough to apply the black acrylic paint for the lettering and symbols.

Update!>>>



With the keyboard finally cut with a high power of 80, I applied it to the base of my model. A dab of superglue per key was perfect for keeping the buttons in place. I used fine polyfiller to seal the gaps between the base and acrylic keyboard area and sanded down. With some final fine sanding i applied two fine layers of white primer and proceeded with one final fine sand. I then applied my final 2 coats of my chosen colour. Due to not having any colour swatches given by the designer I had to make the colour as close as possible from images I have. I think I was quite successful, but I may add a fine gloss coat to add the aesthetics.