DIY Pip-Boy Digital Photo Frame

This was one of The Wookie's Yule gifts.  He's more than a bit obsessed with all things Fallout, so when I got this idea, I was stoked and worked on it in secrecy until the grand unveiling!

The photos of it on didn't come out so well, but there are much better ones of it off at the bottom, so stick with me.  This is a pretty long tutorial.  I did this all working off of screen shots of the game, and, of course, it isn't exact as I had to work with the frame shape.

First, I used Tulip Slick fabric paint in Deep Red...











...to paint on the small buttons and stripes, and the little backing for the large dial on the bottom left.  Now, I needed some buttons.  What to do...

I took some beads that were the right size and shape and, using the same fabric paint, I filled the middles in and let that dry.

While that was drying, I figured it was time to work on the gauge.  I found this tiny charm in my jewelry stuff, so I used wire cutters to trim off the bail.  I used another one just like this, cut in half with the same wire trimmers, for the dial part.  I didn't take a picture, but for the ridges around the edge, I just took a pair of jewelry pliers that have the little teeth and crimped around the edges to make the ridges.

...wait...Okay, here's that 'before' picture of the awful couch I painted and made better and somehow in the folder for this post.  I was wondering where that went...

Moving right along...

 I took some acrylic paint and, with a teeny brush, painted on the actual gauge meter-thing-part.  Ignore the thing on the left.  That was my original dial, but I realized it was WAY too thin and ended up using the other charm.  This would have looked better had I had a plain charm, but I was working with what I had on hand.

 Once everything is dry on the buttons, it is time to paint!

I painted the frame itself with nail polish...I just mixed some greens with black until I came up with the right color.  Sort of a deep, greyish, oliveish, blackish...mix.  I did the details with a small brush in back and grey, and painted the buttons black on the edges with red and orange in the middle, and red and yellow in the one that was 'selected'.

Here it is painted, without the buttons.  Time to glue!

This is the glue I used, and I swear by this stuff.  It works on *almost* every project I use it for and it is the best thing I've found so far.

Once glued on, this is how it turned out...With flash...Where you can actually see the details.

It isn't perfect, but the Wookie was pretty stoked with it and I'm very happy with how it turned out considering it is kludged together.

<3

WW