Nuka Cola Quantum (Fallout) (Asking for ideas)

[Dedwrekka]

Hello!
I've lurked for a while now and shamelessly borrowed ideas from here for my own projects, and now I'm a bit stuck on one of those and asking for help.

I'm making bottles of Nuka Cola Quantum that I plan on handing around to a few friends, and probably carrying on me when I do Fallout cosplay. My thing is that I want it to glow, and in this vein I've thought of a few ideas on how to do it (get a bottle with a dimpled bottom and insert a light, insert a light under the cap, insert a light behind the label, ect). I've seen a few people do different versions of glowing Quantum on here, and they're really great, but I'm hoping I can get a workable and hopefully more mobile result by doing something different. Right now I've been attempting to get the right look with a UV powder mixed in with different liquids, and had some limited success. For sake of reference, the powder I'm using is "Slice of the Moon Sky Blue Glow Powder", it's a mica based uv powder.




So, a little explanation. The first image is a bottle of the powder mixed with mineral oil, and the second one is a few minutes later when the powder settled to the bottom of the bottle. I was hoping the slightly higher viscosity might slow the settling process a bit, but not nearly enough.

So, I'm asking for ideas or advice on making this work. Are there any techniques or materials I might try? Keep in mind that I don't have a pressure vessel, so I'm not sure if I can do clear resin without getting a distracting amount of air bubbles.

 

[BigAdam]

Depends on how long you want them to glow for.

I'd try dumping a load of dye in, then busting a few glow sticks in (crack the plastic off, pour in liquid, crack in the other chemical to make them glow). You'd get an hour or so out of them (only played with cheap glow sticks from local shop).

Other option, use an slightly cloudy liquid, put a tube in the top of the bottom going about ... 3 inches in and pack it with LED's and bats. You'd have a cloudy bottle sure, but it would glow.

 

[McKelly]

I've been playing around with Quantum this evening and arrived here looking for a better way to set my lights.

Here's some tips for the water. I mixed tonic water with some glow in the dark paint (white) and some face paint that's designed to show up under black light (blue) - UV LEDs are used to make it all glow. The quinine in the tonic water glows blue under UV light, and doesn't look too bad on its own, but it's too transparent to look like the game model. The glow in the dark paint shines when the lights go out too, which is a bonus because I want to use my quantum as a night light for my bedside table.

Here's a pic I took with my phone (sorry, it's a bit blurry). This is one of the tests with the lights off (two of 6 lights are on)



There's also a cool blog post I found on creating glow water using paint and hot water.

 

[leviathanworksh]

Maybe try gutting a blue highlighter pen? the pigment wil fluoresce and should not settle.

 

[TheDickMick]

Blue highlighter does not florece. I actually make Nuka replicas and I have tested this. You're better off with either actual blue Glow/Forencense paint and Tonic Water then with Blue Highlighters. The blue is more a colored ink than anything.

 

[leviathanworksh]

Blue highlighter does not florece. I actually make Nuka replicas and I have tested this. You're better off with either actual blue Glow/Forencense paint and Tonic Water then with Blue Highlighters. The blue is more a colored ink than anything.

Ah good to know - I knew it worked with standard ones - has any one tried UV ink - like in nightclub stamps - UV Invisible Ink pad refill for Stamps, Clubs & Bars | eBay

 

[McKelly]

TheDickMick - I agree, blue highlighters are horrible! Yellow and green work fine, but blue seems to be normal blue and not bright at all.
leviathanworksh - I tested out different household goods and art supplies (fabric whitener, fluro ink, vaseline) and I kept coming back to the tonic and blue UV paint. The other ingredients worked fine, but made the liquid too opaque for a good finish. Unfortunately the only glowing ink I can find in Australia is tattoo ink. I'm not sure about the clear UV ink you've linked to, I would probably end up mixing it with the blue UV paint anyway. It's nice to have the liquid remain blue when the light is off.

My big scientific question is - does the brightness of tonic water get stronger with a higher level of quinine?
Here's a few more photos from my experiments.

This one is blue UV paint, a small dash of glow in the dark paint and tonic. It glows a bit after the lights go out, which is pretty cool.

This is a comparison of plain tonic (left) and tap water (right) under UV light.

 

[TheDickMick]

In terms of the qinine, it's a combination of amount of that and the candle power of your UV light. It depends heavily on how translucent the liquid is, too. Absolutly clear isn't bad, but having it a little cloudy helpa reflect the UV light around a bit more. Too much though and you'll blot out the light.

Do you happen to have borax where you are? It's a laundry additive. Works decent as a reflecting agent.

 

[McKelly]

I found a laundry additive with the same ingredients as Borax. I'm pretty sure we have Borax too, I just couldn't find any at my local supermarket. I've mixed up a few different kinds of "Quantum" and left them to settle for a week. So far the glow in the dark paint/UV blue paint/tonic water is winning (if I filter out the floaties).

 

[Remorazz]

Too bad creating Cherenkov radiation within the bottle would mean holding it for a few seconds would kill you.