What two things could possibly fit together more uncomfortably?

For a long time I had little comprehension of what Defcon was actually like. Anyone I met who had gone to the conference seemed bent on preserving this allure about it that only added to my aw and curiosity towards the hacker community.

It wasn’t until I met a true seasoned Defcon veteran, Jeff (Krux), that the veil started to lift. Though I have a better idea what Defcon itself is all about, my perception of its attendees is still unclear. Now that I am reading Daemon, the quintessential hacker novel, my imagination is struggling between accepting the somewhat raw and sexy “hacker” identity the book promotes which is cloaked in secrets and at it’s very core, an homage to intelligence…. and my previous impression of the few unapproachable neck-bearded douchebags I’ve met in the past :

Regardless, the idea of making a Defcon flavored pony was irresistibly absurd. It was made with love… as it was inspired by Jeff, the coolest person I know in a utilikilt. ❤

Now I show and tell :

Pony needed to not be bright vomit orange as he was when I bought him… And since I was having issues with the spray paint not drying on my previous projects, I used a more manual approach. Nail polish. Alas, I achieved this nice fleshy, semitransparent tone.

The first thing I tackled was the tiny utilikilt, which was crafted out of black gaff tape for its canvas-like texture…. complements of Mark (Maehem) :

I wanted defcon pony’s little gams to be hairy, so I covered them with glue stick and then wrapped them in scraps of grey fleece. Once the glue was dry, I ripped the fleece off… like a reverse wax job. The fibers stayed imbedded in the glue, and pony acquired a more manly physique. The little boots were made with electrical tape… and the socks are wedges of more gaff tape :

His first badge is a tiny tile of white sheet ABS pinned to a thin leather strip for a lanyard :

The highly specialized accessory is the pair of glowing goggles, which were designed with help from Mark on ViaCad and 3D printed using black ABS. I then added a leather band and some small washers to make them look like the full-scale versions Jeff and I have made in the past :

I wanted them to light up, just like ours do… so I used a couple of color change RGB LEDs that Jeff had lying around. He filed the lenses down with the belt sander so they would fit snugly into the goggle frames without protruding any :

I worked the resistors into the design by adding them to a second piece of dark through hole board that acts as a black badge and hangs around the pony’s neck via its own wire :

Before I crowned Defcon pony with his mini goggles, I repainted some less girly eyes back onto his face and sprayed it a few times with matte finish to keep it from smearing :

I also colored his hair grey (like Jeff’s!) with a silver sharpie :

With that complete, I strapped the little goggles onto his forehead and routed the wires towards the back where I tied them together in a pony-tail with the hair :

The last step was making a small leather ‘laptop’ bag that the coin cell battery would be concealed in. I stitched this together and gave it a long strap so that it swings around the pony’s shoulder and plugs into the male headers I installed coming out the back of the hair :

When you plug the wires in… they do!

Oh, and one last thing………. Well, two last things… :

It isn’t a kilt unless there are a pair of these underneath (that’s what I’m told) :

I’m looking forward to attending my first Defcon next month and making the absolute most out of the experience! There is much more to be done until then in preparation. Enjoy this morsel, there will be more… =]