Make Your Own Portal Sentry Turret Egg Cup

I made this Portal Turret egg cup using materials I had at home. These materials are also widely available at hobby shops. It may be easier to create the egg cup with other methods, such as welding, machine working, 3D printing, etc., but I used what I had at hand. Makes breakfast a little more science-y.

Step 1: Materials / Tools

Here is the materials and tools list. The image doesn't show everything and a few items I didn't use in the end.

Creating the Egg Cup Frame:
Floral or Garden wire, 1.5mm diameter (in black if possible)
Thin Aluminium Wire, 0.5mm or less*
Strong, non-toxic adhesive for metal work*
Various Dowels or other round objects
Helping Third Hand tool or a vise
Pliers and wire cutters

Creating the Egg Cup Decoration:
White Fimo
Black Fimo
Fimo Roller
Flexible Ruler*
Aluminium Foil*
Egg Shell, bottom half and empty*
Dremel & fine sanding tip (optional)*

Decorating the Egg:
Soft-Boiled Egg, cool enough to handle*
Red Felt Tip Pen
Black Felt Tip Pen

Reference Images:
Google Images for "Portal Turret"
http://hellsplumber.deviantart.com/art/Portal-Turret-99072569
http://gameanxiety.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/portal-2-review/
http://www.robotshop.com/blog/images/Turret-portal.jpg

*Not shown in image.

Step 2: Creating the Wire Frame

The floral wire should be fairly stiff, but still bendable. If possible, get it in straight rods and in black as shown in the materials image.

Create the Front Legs:
Take one rod and bend it in half around a 0.5" inch dowel/object (felt pen in image). It should double back on itself. This will form the two front turret legs and a little "seat-back" for the egg to rest on.

Bend the two straight portions as shown, to achieve the front portal turret leg shape. Don't worry about pointing the legs at angles or trimming the excess yet as we will trim and adjust them later. Put aside for now.

Create a ring to hold the egg:
Take another length of wire and bend it around a dowel/object into a ring for your target egg size. Let some wire overlap as shown. This ring will cup the egg about 1cm below the widest point, so use a dowel/object that matches your target egg size. My eggs are "Large" so my ring is 1.5" inches in diameter.

Clip the excess wire from the ring to make handling it easier.

Attach the ring to the Front Legs:
Gently place the egg in the ring then hold the front legs wire to the ring, where the ring overlaps itself. Adjust the ring placement until it looks like a good placement for the egg and legs. The egg should sit over the legs as the turret body would. Pay careful attention to the balance; we don't want the egg cup to tip forward when the egg is in place. See the images.

Using the thin aluminium wire, securely wrap the Front Legs and ring together. See the image.

Create the Back Leg:
Take the leftover wire from the ring (or a new wire) and bend it until the Back Leg shape is achieved. A dowel of 0.25" inch can be used. I used a ball point pen.

Attach the Back Leg to the ring:
Bend the top of the Back Leg wire so that it meets with the ring, between the two Front legs and is placed nicely, according to the reference pictures. Check the potential balance again. We don't want the egg cup to tip backward when the egg is in place.

Using the thin aluminium wire, securely wrap the Back Leg to the ring like we did with the Front Legs.

Cement the wires together:
Using the adhesvise of your choice, coat all the wire wrapped areas. This is to give better rigidity to the egg cup and to prevent loose wire wobbling. You could choose not to glue the wires or to use a hot glue gun for this, but it may not give as strong a hold.

Use the helping third hand or vise to hold the wire frame in place while the adhesive sets.

Trim and adjust the wires:
Once the adhesive on the wire frame is fully set, then trim all the legs so that they are equal lengths and make a level egg cup. The legs may need to be bent to achieve the correct shape and for balance. The Front Legs should be bent slightly outwards. See image.

This wire frame is the entire support for the egg, so make sure it's stabile before moving on the decoration steps.

Step 3: Creating the Egg Cup Decoration

The Portal turrets have white panels and black legs. We will use fimo to make the white panels and give the legs the proper thickness and look as in the reference images.

Create the white pieces:
Roll out a 0.5" inch ball of white fimo into a roughly oval shape. The thickness should be about 2mm. Using the flexible ruler, cut the white fimo into roughly the shapes in the image above. Keep in mind the rough size of the panels relative to the egg. Don't worry about shrinkage as fimo does not shrink.

Place some aluminium foil on the empty egg shell. Gently peel the fimo from the work surface and place onto the foil on the eggshell.

Follow the fimo instructions to bake. You want the fimo to be set, but still slightly flexible. If the fimo is discolored from baking, it can be painted with white craft paint. Allow to cool completely before removing from egg shell. Set aside.

Create the black pieces:
1. Roll out some black fimo to a rectangle a little longer than the wire legs and at a thickness of about 0.2mm.
2. Use the flexible ruler to cut a nice rectangle, then cut that rectangle into 3 pieces, two about 3mm thick and one about 4mm thick.
3. Place one Front Leg over a thin piece and pinch the fimo around the wire. The flat side of the fimo (facing down) should be the front of the leg. Smooth the seam and fimo into a shape that matches the reference image. Repeat with the other Front Leg. Trim any excess.
4. Do the same with the Back Leg and the thick piece of fimo.

Once finished molding the black fimo, bake the black fimo/wire frame per the fimo instructions. Again, it is best if the fimo is set, but still slightly flexible. Allow to cool completely.

You can now Dremel the leg pieces to points on the tips, to match the reference image, if you like.

Step 4: Assembling the Egg Cup

Assembling the Egg Cup:
Using a hot glue gun or adhesive, glue the white leg pieces into place. Use the reference images to get the right look.

Allow to cool and set.

Place egg in cup to test balance and look of the turret.

Step 5: Decorate the Egg

Now we will hand draw the turret's red eye and stripe onto the egg. This is where an Egg-Bot would be handy. :)

Soft boil the egg to desired doneness. Allow to cool enough to handle without burning your hands.

1. Roll a small piece of fimo into a ball, then flatten until it is about 5mm in diameter. Stick this onto the egg in the middle where the red "eye" would be on the turret. Using the black felt tip marker, draw a circle onto the egg using the fimo as a guide.
2. Color the eye in with the red felt tip marker.
3. Dot a small black pupil in the middle of the eye.
4. Very carefully draw a thin black line lengthwise on the egg, above and below the eye. Stabilize your drawing hand by placing your pinky the egg and having the egg be securely nestled in a tea towel.