I wanted to work on the control panel today, I've been real busy so I decided not to spend a lot of time on this. It's not one of my best attempts, I only put about 2 hours into it. I just wanted to hammer it out as it's one of the last remaining pieces. After this I just need to finish the front wall and ceiling pipes.
So I started with a piece of MDF and cut holes for the buttons and the pipe connector piece.
Painted the whole thing red, painted the pipe pieces a silver metallic, and I took some scraps of styrene and cut and painted them gloss black. I used a piece of leftover plexiglass and cut it for the top, then outlined that piece in some pin striping tape.
I had some scrap rubber runner material left over from another project so I decided to use that inside the pipe.
Since I rushed this, I made a couple of mistakes. I meant to cut a piece of styrene just an inch or so smaller than the MDF to use as a second base, but forgot. So instead I just added a few pieces of styrene as accent pieces. I also forgot to Dremel out the center nub in the pipe, so I had to run runner pieces on either side. Oh well, that's what happens when you rush.
I used arcade game replacement buttons and back lit them with LEDs.
So ultimately, I was going for this:
But for under $12, ended up with this:
And here it is in the room:
I think it looks great, adds to the feel of the room. And since it's not a prominant piece, most won't know I had to cut a few corners.