Introduction: Nuka Cola Clock

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About: G'day everyone. I'm make random things

Morning makers, Today i recently made these Fallout themed Nuka-Cola clocks with my wife. I made the original Nuka-Cola clock and she made a Nuka-Cola Quantum clock.

The original tutorial we saw is here. However that uses warbla which is quite expensive and i don't have any. So i modified this build to use 1mm thick eva foam.

I think the final product looks really cool.

Supplies

Materials:

  • EVA foam sheets - 10mm thick
  • Thin EVA foam sheet - 1mm thick
  • Clock mechanism - You can buy these separately or you could dismantle an old clock.
  • Hot glue
  • Super glue
  • PVA glue
  • Paint - Red and white for the original Nuka-Cola or purple and yellow for the Quantum. Silver and brown for the weathering.
  • Paper to print the stencils

Tools:

  • Utility knife
  • Hot glue gun
  • Paint brushes
  • A compass to draw circles with - or something circular to trace

Step 1: Cut Out the Foam Pieces

First cut two large circles in the 10mm EVA foam. These circles should be about 20cm (8inches) in diameter.

Next, cut square holes in the centre of these circles to fit the clock mechanism and battery pack.

Then cut a bunch of smaller triangle pieces (as seen in the second picture) they should be about 1cmx2cm.

Step 2: Glue the Pieces Together

Glue the two circles pieces together.

Then glue the small triangle pieces evenly around the outside edge about 5cm apart.

I found hot glue to be the pest for this step.

Step 3: Apply the Top Layer

Cut out a large circle in the thin 1mm EVA foam.

This should have a larger diameter than the circles you cut out previously.

For mine, the clock was 20cm, so the thin foam circle was cut to be 26cm diameter. This can be trimmed later so it's best to cut a little extra.

Next, line up the circle on top of the clock and glue it in place.

I used Super glue and found this to be a bit tricky. If you apply too much superglue at once, it may form some hard lumps. My wife did this step using hot glue. Both worked out in the end.

Use your fingers to press and mould the thin foam around the edge ridges and glue it down in place.

Once dry, this should resemble a nice bottle cap shape.

Step 4: Coat With PVA Glue

As EVA foam has lots of little holes a pores, it can soak up the paint which will requires many layers to be painted.

To prevent this from happening and to seal the foam, brush on a layer of PVA foam. Once dry, this will make the foam nice and smooth and ready for painting.

Step 5: Paint the Base Coat

Using acrylic paint, brush or roll on the base coats.

I used two coats of crimson red for the original Nuka-Cola bottle cap clock and my wife used purple for the Quantum clock which only needed one coat.

Step 6: Cut the Stencils

Using a utility knife or exacto blade, cut out the stencils for the words and numbers.

I just made up some quick templates (last image) and printed this on A4 paper.

Step 7: Paint on the Stencil

Using a small paint brush, paint on the stenciled words and numbers.

Use white for the original and yellow for the Quantum.

If you have any leakage around the stencil, use a small paint brush to tidy up the edges with the base colour.

Step 8: Age and Weather

These clocks are supposed to look old therefore we need to age and weather these clocks.

Apply some silver paint to a dry paint brush and wipe off most of this on some scrap paper.

Then lightly brush this around all of the edges of the clock. This will give the appearance of the clock being scratched and worn down to the original metal.

You can use this same technique with some brown paint to add some rust.

Step 9: Add the Clock Mechanism

If you bought a seperate clock mechanism then your ready to add it to your new clock. If not, then you can dismantle any old clock. I dismantled a $2 clock that i bought from Ikea.

Using the plastic case of a ballpoint pen, press down on the 1mm foam (from the back side) which should cut a small circle. (see 2nd picture above).

Hot glue the clock mechanism in place making sure the part tat holds the hands is poking through the hole out the front.

Push the hands of the clock back on the front. I didn't use a 'seconds' hand.

Step 10: Hang and Display Your New Nuka-Cola Bottle Cap Clock

I hope you enjoyed this instructable.

We made a couple of mistakes but i'm really happy with the final results.

I really appreciate any shares on you social sites and any comments below. Let me know if you make on of these :). Also any tips on how these could be improved are welcome. Maybe some LED lights could be incorporated?

Thanks again for reading