Philip, a long-term Brain Damage visitor, and someone who helped out with a couple of articles in the website's predecessor printed magazine, has been hard at work putting his creative skills to the test in a fun project, which he details below:

I thought I would ask the nice people at Brain Damage if they would share with fellow Pink Floyd fans a project of mine that might be of interest to their readers. If you are reading this, then they have been kind enough to agree!

A while back I came across a company (scale3dworld.com) that “prints” figures from the world of music, films and television and noticed that they sell a set of Pink Floyd figures including instruments. And so I thought it would be great to create a small Floydian concert scene. However, when I saw one of the kits being sold by a company called Racing Rooms Xtras (theracingroomxtras.com) the project took on a whole new dimension.

The kit is a pre-printed stage with side and roof struts, mock speakers and four sets of LED lights which can be programmed to flash various colours in sequence or respond to sounds. This meant that the lights could flash in sync with the music!!! I realised that this could take my Pink Floyd “event” to another level. So I bought a stage kit and ordered a set of Pink Floyd figures from 3D World.

All good stuff so far. However, as we all know, Pink Floyd are renowned for their extravagant stage shows and so I decided that more was required. I sourced more LEDs including an extra programming unit. I also decided that the stage would be based on “The Wall” concerts which would provide the perfect backdrop (and it was the first time I saw the band live at Earls Court in 1980). So by this time, I was painting figures, wiring and soldering LED lights, building a wall and creating the classic circular screen that is a feature of every Pink Floyd concert.

I had to make the microphones and stands but the hammers “screen” is a 120mm 3D printed coaster fixed to a backing sheet of plastic that I cut to size so I could mount the LEDs onto it and then individually soldered the connections between them. (A total of 75 soldered joints.) For The Wall itself I researched and tried a few options and decided that Lego bricks with smooth top pieces work best.

However, as you may notice, the figures represent mid 1970’s Floyd. Not really ideal, but they were the only band figures available. So I decided to embrace the inconsistencies and put in other celebrations of Floyd past and present with a disregard for accuracy. (I would much rather be happy than right!!!) These include David Gilmour’s current guitar strap of choice, Nick Mason’s butterfly tee-shirt from Pompeii, a pink pig of the 1970’s/80’s and Roger Waters’ tee-shirt from The Wall concerts.

So the finished model has nearly 150 bricks in The Wall and 74 separate LED lights. The LEDs are programmed as three different groups, one illuminating the stage and flashing in time with the music, the second surrounding the circular “screen” and strobing in different colours, and the third is illuminating the pig as it starts its journey over the audience.

If you would like to see what the stage looks like when music is playing and all 74 lights are working, check out this video. There's also a longer version I've posted with more music.

Our thanks to Philip for sharing this fun project with us all!