This tutorial is about making a 'real steel' 1:1 replica of the 'Potion of Concentration' from the game Warhammer: Vermintide 2 by the developer Fatshark.

The original design belongs to them.


The 'potion' weighs about 1,3 kg / 2.87 lb, is 19,5 cm / 7,68 inch high and 8,5 cm / 3,35 inch wide.

This project consists of 3 main parts:

1. the glass bottle
   
2. the lights with battery
   
3. the 'cage'

(picture taken from Fatshark's Warhammer: Vermintide 2)

In this part we are working with a lithium battery. False handling can lead to the battery exploding when damaged or shorted. Please inform yourself about the proper handling of lithium batteries before working with them!


First, let's take care of the ominous glow the bottle emits.


The light is created by an array of eight, pink 5050 SMD LED's, parallel soldered onto an round circuit board. The circuit board has a outer diameter of 5 cm / 1,97 inch but the diameter depents on the bottle you're using.

Our goal is to make outer diameter of the circuit board as small as possible while leaving enough room for the LED's.

To do that we mark a centre point on the raw circuit board and draw a 30mm diameter around it (marked as blue circle).

Then we arrange the LED's in a circle, very close around the 30mm circle. It is important to connect all the LED's electrically parallel to each other.

In the centre of the circuit board i placed an latching push button from a flashlight, facing down, that connects to the + poles of all LED's (it doesn't matter which pole you connect to the button, as long as you remember to connect the power of the battery to the right end),

(I know it looks horrible, im realy bad at soldering SMD parts, but hey... it works)

Now all LED's should start glowing once you connect one + pole of any LED to ~3,2V, the button to - (mass) and the press the button. I recomend NOT to use a LiPo battery for this part, since a simple short circuit can damage your battery.


Now with that working, we can take care of the battery part.

For the power i use a 'Samsung INR18650-35E' a 3,7V - 3500 mAh lithium battery. Every other 3,7V lithium battery will do as well but i use this one.

Make sure the battery has a solder tails! It makes soldering easier and safer.

Since a lithium battery with 3,7V has a voltage of about 3,3V (allmost empty) to 4,2V (fully charged), we need something to lower the voltage for our LEDs to ~3,2V.

For that we use a fixed voltage regulator. In our case a 'LF33CV' wich lowers the incoming voltage to 3,3V.

With this we could run the lights BUT before we do that we add a 'lithium battery charger', a 'TP4056' in my case.

This small circuit board allows us to carge the battery safely and makes sure that the battery doesn't deep discharge.

Cut a small circuit board out of a lager one, about the size of the lithium battery charger.

Solder the fixed voltage regulator onto the small circuit board with its depiction faceing upwards.

Then fix the two circuit boards back to back with glue or soldered stiff wire.

Once fixed together, connect the connection points of the lithium battery charger and fixed voltage regulator as following:

• IN + to INPUT +
  
• IN - to GROUND -

Then connect the fixed voltage regulator to the LED array.

• GROUND - to LED array - (since all LED are soldered parallel it doesn't matter wich LED's - pole we connect to)
  
• OUTPUT 3,3V to LED array + (preferably to the button or the LED's will glow the whole time)

Make sure to leave the wires long enough so you can "stack" all parts, so they later fit in the hidden compartment we build earlier in the 'The Bottle' chapter.


Now all thats left is to connect the lithium battery charger to the battery itself.

!Be careful when handling and soldering the battery. Lithium batteries can explode when damaged or shorted!

With that in mind, connect the battery's + pole to 'BAT +' of the lithium battery charger and the battery's - pole to 'BAT -'.

Here pictures for clarification of the poles:
^This is the + pole^

^This is the - pole^


If done right the LED's should light up once the button on the LED array is pressed.

Now to the bottle itself.
It is the base of the whole project and is crucial to build the 'cage'.

The bottle i used is a 6 sided, 19,5 cm / 7,68 inch high and 8,5 cm / 3,35 inch wide glass bottle with a narrow bottle neck to seal with a simple cork.


Finding the right bottle can be somewhat difficult. I found mine in a local shop for glass and wine (they don't sell them there anymore). I would recommend looking online for 0,5L liqueur bottles. You might get lucky there. I also would recomend buying atleast 2, since the glass can easily break within the next step.

With the bottle in hand we will now drill a hole, centered into the bottom of it. For that we use a diamond-hole-saw with a diameter of 30mm.

To drill a hole in the bottle, carefully clamp down the bottle (preferably in a vice) and set up a drill with the hole-saw.

Then start drilling on low speed (about 300-400 rpm) and with very little pressure into the bottom of the bottle. While drilling, constantly cool the hole-saw with water. The bottle might crack if you push to hard or cool to little.

(It should look kinda like this)


Next step is to make a hidden compartment within the bottle to fit the battery and other electronics inside.


For that we need:

• 30mm diameter, frosted acrylic glass tube
  
• some ~3mm thick acrylic glass
  
• acrylic glass glue
  
• transparent silicon sealant

First we cut a round disc that is slightly smaller than the top of the tube, then glue the disc to the top using the acrylic glass glue.


Once hardened, try to fit a small part of the top of the tube into the drilled 30mm hole. It should fit tightly but make sure its not to tight or the tube will break. If necessary use sandpaper to, carefully enlarge the hole in the bottle untill it fits.

Now we have to shorten the acrylic glass tube, so that the battery and all other electronics, fit inside.

First we measure the length of the battery + the circuit boards attached to it.

Then add about 1 to 1,5cm to the measurement to leave some room for the wires and button.

With is our lenght we have to cut the acrylic glass tube, measureing from the sealed end.

Clear the ends of any burrs.

We now take the tube and push the sealed end side first into the 30mm hole of our bottle. (use a hammer if necessary but be careful, acrylic glass breaks easily)

Push the tube in but lave a 3-5mm rim sticking out so we can seal the gap between the bottle and the lower part of the tube.

Use the silicon sealant to glue the tube to the bottle bottom and seal any leaks that might occur.


Once dried, seal the rim of the disc we glued onto the tube earlier, from inside.


And that's the bottle done.

Now with the bottle and light done we come to the most iconic part of the project.


For that we need

• steel strips 10x3 about 1,5m of it
  
• steel sheets 1, 2 and 3mm thick about 15cm² each (better more, mistakes can happen)
  
• steel rivets 6x (4mm shaft and 7,5 - 8mm head diameter)
  
• steel rivets 24x (3mm shaft and 5mm head diameter)
  
• skull rivets
  
• grain tool
  
• ruler
  
• marking compass
  
• pen that writes on metal
  
• paper
  
• drill
  
• welding tool
  
• glue fitting for metal

First, we will make the hexagon base plate of the cage.

For that we take the 3mm thick steel plate and mark the middle of it with a grain tool.

Now measure the diagonal length of the bottle bottom.

In my case its 85mm. Now to calculate an hexagon we simply divide the diagonal length by 2 and set your marking compass to the result. (i recommend adding ~0,5mm to the result, so the baseplate gets slightly bigger)

Make a circle centered around the middle of your 3mm steel sheet.

Then take any point on the border of the circle and mark 2 points on the border.

Place the marking compass on one of your markings and make 2 additional markings.

Continiue until you have 6 (X) marks around the border of your circle.

Connect all marks with a ruler so that you get a hexagon shape.

Now all thats left is to cut it out and file it into shape.


Now to the upper and lower rings.

(They are almost identical)

For that we use our calculation we made before (diagonal length of the bottle divided by 2) and then add 2mm. (For me its 42,5mm + 2mm = 44,5mm)

The result is our distance between each of the 6 bendings.

Make 6 makings on a 10x3 steel strip, each the calculated distance apart. (44,5mm, 89mm, 133,5mm, ect.)

Cut the strip on the 6th mark to shorten it to the ideal lenght.

Bend the strip 120° on each mark by placing the strip vertical into a vise and the hammering it into shape.

That should leave us with a hexagon ring.

You can check your work by simply placing the rings over your bottle.

The rings should fit on tight so they stay on by themselves.

One of the corners will be open. This is important only for the upper ring.

Drill two 3mm holes in all 6 sides, 16mm apart. (These are the holes for the small rivets we use later)

We now place the lower ring around the baseplate we made earlier.

Then weld the ring to the baseplate from the outside, we need the space on the inside for the bottle or it won't fit.

Make sure the bottle fits in the ring and lies flat on the baseplate.

Then drill a hole in the centre of the baseplatte, so that the button of the circuit board later fits thru.


Next part, the 'pillars' that connect the upper and lower rings.

First we place both rings from before and place them on the very top and bottom of the 6 sided part of our bottle.

Now measure the distance from both rings. (in my case 115mm)

This is the length we need to cut our 10x3 steel strips. (6 logically)

Then drill a ~4,1mm hole, in height, slightly shifted to one side in every strip.

Thats the strips already done.

We can now weld the strips to the upper an lower ring.

This is by far the trickiest part.

The goal is to weld the 'pillars' on the rings without reducing the room for the bottle.

To make it easier i made a template i made out of thin copper, i bend around the bottle and then used to hold the 'pillars' against when welding.
(BILDER Kupferhülle und + Balken)

Weld the 'pillars' from the outside to leave room for the bottle.

Check regularly if the bottle still fits or if adjustments are necessary.



I had to split the 'cage' part because i ran out of space :(

The probably most time consuming part of the project. Use the reference from 'the basics' as reference to help making the following templates.



we make ourselves a template.

1. cut out a square piece of paper that is 35x35mm
   
2. draw a circle in the centre, using the diameter of the rivets head
   
3. fold it 2 times to get a smaller square
   
4. draw an elipse from the outer corner to the circle without crossing its outline
   
5. cut out the elipse to get a C-shape
   
6. unfold the paper

Should look kinda like this:
With that in hand we use the template to mark and then cut out 6 crosses from our 2mm steel sheet, using a fretsaw for metal.

(A fretsaw for metal)

Once we have the cross shape, use a file to finish the shape and then drill a hole in the middle fitting for the shaft of your rivet.

Here the steps from template to finished cross:
Those things take forever.


First the template.

The template is a beak like shape, 29mm high and 21mm wide made out of paper.

Now we prepare the steel sheets we need the template for.

Take the 1mm steel sheet and cut 6 rectangular sheet's, slightly bigger than the template.

Then mark the middle were we going to bend the sheet.

Place the sheet in a vise along your drawn line.

Take a robust piece of wood we can use to bend the sheet.

Place the wood against the sheet in a slight angle and then carefully hit it with a hammer.

If done right the steel will bend only slightly above the vise and give you a clean bend.

Keep going until the sheet has a 120° angle.

Now drill the holes fitting for the small rivets shaft. (3mm diameter in my case)

Use the template we made before to mark the outline onto the angled sheet and cut it out.
Just a bit of fine tuning with the file and done.



Just as before the template first.

This time its and arrow head like shape, 35mm high and 18mm a the widest point.


Then, just as before, make 6 angled sheets slightly larger than the template.

Mark the outline of your template onto them and cut.
File and done.



These are skull shaped tin rivets for biker clothes.

All you need to do is to file a 120° grove from top to bottom of the rivet so each skull fits onto the 'arrow head' later on.
We glue them on later, after were done welding.



With all parts now in hand we weld them onto the 'cage'.

We start from the top of the bottle:
We take our 6 'arrow heads' and weld them, pointed upards onto each corner of the top ring.


They can be welded from the inside, above the top ring.


Remember to NOT weld the opening in the top ring shut!

Weld the 'arrow head' in the open corner to only one side.


Next the iron crosses:
Place the 6 remaining rivets into the designated holes in the iron crosses.

Then stick each cross onto one 'pillar' and weld them together from the back side.

Make sure to file the weld down to leave room for the bottle.

Here already welded and filed down.


Now the 'plauge doctor's mask':
Each on gets placed on the bottom ring, tip upards and then welded from below.


File down the weld to give the 'cage' a stable and smooth base.


What to do with the glue?
Final finish of the cage.

Glue the small rivets into the holes in the top ring.


And the little skulls onto the 'arrow heads'.

With all the part done, we can assemble our project.

First we fill the bottle with a light blue fluid that diffuses light to obscure the view of our battery compartment.

The light blue color gives the fluid, combined with our pink LED's, a darker purple glow.

I used a blue coolant used for liquid cooled computer systems and diluted with water until the color was perfect.

Now plug it up and look for leaks. (use the silicon sealant if necessary)

No leaks? Great!

Now place insert the battery + LED assembly inside the battery compartment.


Battery is now barely visible but that will change once the LED's are turned on.


:)

Then place a isulation, like a thin piece of rubber on the base of the 'cage' to isolate the circut board from the steel plate.

All that's left now is to inserting bottle into the 'cage'.

And here we are.

This is my first tutorial and i have to admit, it took way longer than i anticipated.

Many rewrites, checking for grammar and spelling. (probably still missing many)

Maybe not perfect but im still happy with the outcome.

I might change and add some parts in the comming weeks.





Has the quality of the pictures improved and wich lighting looks best?