Building a Portal Turret with motion controlled audio and lighting

In this Instructable I'm going to show you how I went about building my very own life size talking Portal Turret from start to finish. This is a fairly in depth project that will cover every stage of construction and all the techniques I used along the way. Hopefully there will be a lot of information that you can pull out of this and use for all kinds of different projects.

For those that are unfamiliar with Portal, It is a fantastic puzzle game made by a studio called Valve that requires you to use two portals to solve all kinds of different puzzles.  It is really a fantastic game.  The turret for which this instructable is about is one of only two characters you interact with in the entire game, the other being GLaDOS.  The central AI of the complex.  The Turrets are so adorably deadly that I had to have one of my own.  Since nobody makes them I had to build one myself.  A little bit more work but definitely worth the effort.  Lets get started.

Materials and Tools used are broken down for each section.

Step 1: To Scale Blueprints

The very first step in the project was deciding how big I wanted to make the turret. I got in touch with someone at Valve and they told me that the turrets in the game stand 58 inches tall. Due to the nature of the design, I decided that making one this size would be prohibitively problematic and very expensive. I decided a more reasonable height to undertake was about 36 inches. This also seemed like a great size to display it once it was finished. This way it wouldn't take up an enormous amount of space in my place.

I had a friend of mine, Tyler Garrison, who is a wiz with Illustrator whip me up a set of blueprints with a height of 38 inches to the top of the antennas.  I then printed them out to scale and pulled all the measurements I would need from them as I worked through the project.  My friend did an outstanding job adding in little extra details like the Aperture logo and other details on the blueprints.  These blueprints will also make a great poster to hang on the wall with the finished project.

Comments

[Brainss]

This is awesome!

[imBobertRobert]

oh dear lord portal blueprints you can read!
you already won life by making this, you don't need to try again :P

[christopher eccles cake]

what was the total cost? i'd love to try and make it but it looks so expensive with all those customized laser cut pieces.

[Wolfgirl232]

So...I'm actually going to be building this using your tutorial for my engineering class, thanks to your brilliant documentation! Just a few questions though... Is it important that the paint be Valspar? On one of your parts lists it merely says "primer"...does this refer to the Valspar? If not...what is it exactly? Did you use any other dimensions of guides aside from the blueprints? If so, what?

Thank you for your patience!

[aldovisini]

This is such a cool project! Im making some for my school project now, also making a defective one :P
Any possibility you could upload the full size resolution of the blueprints? to me at aldovisini@ gmail.com

[coocooachoo568]

I absolutely love this project. only problem is, i have no clue whatsoever how to mold. i've never done it before. do you think you could explain the process in a much more simpler way? for instance: your materials for one of the molding processes were:

Smooth-on Rebound 25 silicone rubber
Thi-Vex II silicone thickener
Smooth-on Plati-Paste
Mold release agent

do you think you can tell me what order they go down in on the molding surface? and do they have to each dry completely before the next material is poured on?

[CitizenSnips]

I would recommend going here as they have far more information then I could ever give you. If it is something you are interested in, take the time and see what you can learn.

http://www.reynoldsam.com/media.php

[KontaKt]

why didn't you put this one in the game.life challenge too?

[Cristiano Ronaldo]

(still alive (Portal)

Aperture Science

[monsterlego]

Wrong starting line.

*ahem*
This was a triumph

[Gr3at_Whit3_North_Guy]

WAT WHY U NO PUT IN GUN SHOOTING SOUNDS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[monsterlego]

lol

[Krayzi99]

im going to make this, and then make a sentry turret(https://sites.google.com/site/projectsentrygun/) and modify it for this! 

[halosk8ingking]

i was wondering if the eye design was up on ponoko or if you could upload it some how. it would a great help to me
-halosk8ingking

[Darmani]

Hi, this is so cool, I would really like to give it a shot at making a turret, I like the size you used, would you care to share the measurements?

[Wolf979]

My heart is melting. I love Portal, and the turrets are my favorite characters in any game ever. Fantastic Job. Just wondering, does it say "I'm different"?

[laxbro890]

How much would one of these cost to buy?

[TrevorBane]

Can you provide a schema of the electronics?

Or is that on another site?

[CitizenSnips]

Sorry I never drew up the schematics for this since it was really just connecting together pre made components. Don't think I would be able to go back from memory and create one as its been awhile since I wired it all up.

[goldenplatypus]

I too would love a portal turret. I would be glad to buy (one of) the one(s) you have already or a portal 2 turret if you decide to make one. [e-mail] I'm only 12 so my parents wont let me pay toooooo much for it but if you can, I can work something out

[podote]

Awesome!Do you think you could make one for me? I'd pay for eveything, including shipping, and labor. [e-mail] if your interested

[CitizenSnips]

Unfortunately I'm not building anymore turrets right now. Working on new projects!

[Suizezem]

Hey =) just a wonderful one, really love it.

I have a Q about how much smoth-cast you used for this project =)

=)

[CitizenSnips]

All the pieces used just under a gallon. All of the leg pieces are solid so that used up a lot of plastic.

[Nelyan]

Man, you really just kept on trying 'till you ran out of cake. And I am SO jealous of this. You should show it to someone at Valve. They may buy it. Or not.

Just... Amazing.
(Psst: The cake is a lie.)

[firez]

hey, is it possible to use common bits and bobs instead of the laser cut pieces?


i think it might be possible

[CitizenSnips]

sure, you could really built it out of anything.

[brendanmulcahy]

could u tell me where you got the quotes?

[CitizenSnips]

I just pulled them off the web. Portal Turret soundbites is where I started looking.

[brendanmulcahy]

thans

[dMFNt]

Excellent work CitizenSnips! I think I'm going to try and give it the old college try with your portal turret here.

One quick question regarding the eye. Are your two designs saved anywhere on Ponoko's website?

[P0rt4L TOO]

i dont see where he used the acorns. sum1 explain pls?

[CitizenSnips]

The acorn nuts are used to create registration marks between the two halves of the molds. You can see them right in the first picture of Making the molds.

[P0rt4L TOO]

oh those are acorns? they look like nuts n' bolts. Also, i will prob get help from the art teacher @ my school, but I would like some backround info incase she has trouble helping me recreate it aswell. in the molding steps, after you placed the foamcore in the line going down the middle of the turret, set your registration marks with acorns, how did you get the exact opposite holes for the registration marks on the other side of the foamcore when you set the mold for the other side? or am i thinking about this wrong? a website reference or a short explination extending upon the directions you had given in step4-making the molds on how you did those specific steps involving the division line and registration mark placement.
Thank you SO MUCH!
Stay awesome,
Joey

[dhawkins5]

"Acorn nuts" are a type of hardware "nut" that fits on the end of bolts. You may have seen them on the ends of bolts used on swingsets etc, to make them moderately safer. Search "acorn nut" (with the quotes) in google images. Disregard the pictures of acorns that fall from trees and check out the "acorn nuts" that are shiny. They are great for aligning things because they have a rounded top that helps guide the two pieces together and a hex pattern that helps prevent rotation.

[P0rt4L TOO]

OHHHHHHHH NVM. when to sleep then staired @ the pics for like 5mins this morning lol. i got it. awesome tutorial btw:)

[saucybagles]

if weight is not an issue couldn't you simply smooth paint and gloss the clay and not mold the pieces for roughly the same effect on a budget? im sure the aluminum could support a extra few pounds...

[CitizenSnips]

Potentially you could do this yes. My master was quite heavy though and I'm guessing the stress on the legs would have eventually caused the whole turret to collapse. It would be worthy a try though if you wanted to try and save some money.

[rmuijen]

is it possible to make 1 for me? i must have it!! i dont care what the price is i want to buy it !

[CitizenSnips]

I'm not making any more at the moment. Sorry. Working hard on new projects!!