Saturday, February 23, 2008

Neon & Back Plate

One of the most sensitive area on the b9 robot is the neon and the backplate it rests upon. Until recently there hasnt been very many choices for a builder to select. There have been some from Fred Barton (See black backplate. This was patterned after the stunt robot). There have been a few that have been of a custom design like Doug Hines (See the grey backplate. He still makes them upon request but is not an approved vendor at this time) and then there were those made by Dewey. Dewey doesnt make them or sell them anymore (see the white back plate). Your only other alternative has been to make your own or modify those identified above.
Not until recently has a new back plate been made available to the group. It is the one made by David Huber. When it first came out it would only fit Dennis Wilbur's neon. So if you had a neon from Craig you were out of luck. Recently I had the oppourtunity to work with David and Richie to remedy that. The result was a neon plate that could hold a 16 or 12 row neon from Craig that was outstanding and had a new twist to it. David's neon has more prominent extrusion at the top plate that just happens to fit the TX2000's neon music synchronizer.

Below is Dave's backplate for Craig's 16 row neon before and after. This plate fits the club standard torso as well as the replica torso. I used a black silicon to adhere the neon to the back plate. One additional note - make sure you trim the backplate as high as possible for the dial lights to pass through. If you dont the excess flashing will prevent the teeth light buttons from being depressed.

And here you can see how it looks with and without the neon installed.

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