Yearly Archives: 2012

Another quickie..

I realized that a post without pictures is not as fun as it may seem…

Following last night’s update, I have glued and screwed the metal housing to my shoulder hub in to place

The aluminium sheet has been stuck in place with E-6000 glue and screwed down in the ends. This should definitely hold! The seam is also on the least visible part of R2. You’d have to look straight up into R2’s arm pit to see the joint, and you’d only see two of the screws anyway.

Once this has set, I will need to adjust the right arm opening slightly to allow for the slightly larger hub to fit into the socket.

And I’ve also glued the skin almost all around the Battery Box.

See? Looks MUCH smoother and better than the first time around! I know where I went wrong. I was in a building frenzy and didn’t have the patience enough to take things slow, one small step at the time. I wanted to finish everything NOW NOW NOW!

So.. In the end that has caused me a lot of extra work, fixing up small things that I was not 100% happy with. Tis was one of them. Now, I’m starting to feel much happier about the battery box!

There are a few other small bits and pieces I may go back and look over one more time, but on the whole, this is really starting to look good!

My paint plan is as follows:

  • prime right leg
  • prime right foot shell
  • prime right horseshoe
  • prime right battery box
  • paint right leg
  • paint right foot shell
  • paint right horseshoe
  • paint right battery box
  • paint groove in right foot motor holder
  • paint ankle locks
  • touch up center foot detail plates
  • touch up center ankle
  • touch up back side of left leg
  • paint inside of long door
  • clear coat body
  • clear coat left foot shell
  • clear coat left battery box
  • clear coat left leg
  • clear coat center ankle
  • clear coat center foot
  • clear coat center foot detail plates
  • clear coat doors for body (4 of them)
  • clear coat ankle locks
  • clear coat ankle cylinder holders
  • clear coat right leg
  • clear coat right foot shell
  • clear coat right horseshoe
  • clear coat right battery box

This may look like much, but really, the clear coating is relatively quick, and the touch ups is just that.. A few sprays and it’s done!

Really, it is only one more leg to prime, sand, prime, bondo, paint white, let dry, sand, paint white again and finally wet sand!

That is the time consuming procedure when it comes to the paint job! It’s worth it, though!

 

By |2016-12-06T00:00:59+01:00November 1st, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Another quickie..
Read More

Just a quick update…

… to let you guys know that the work is progressing!

I have no pics to go with this, sorry, but here is where I’m at since last time!

I’ve fixed up the second power coupler as per the first one.

I’ve removed the aluminium tape from the second shoulder hub and started skinning it in aluminium. I need to glue the aluminum outside tomorrow and screw in place then this is finished!

I also decided to remove the skin on my right battery box and sand the uneven bits on that one down, to make it nice and smooth. This has been done, and tomorrow, this will be skinned again! Last big part in styrene! Woohoo!

I’ve also been working on fine tuning the shoulder shims some more, and looking in to mounting them more precisely, so I can switch the horseshoes around, should I want to. These are now more snug, and I’ve fixed some irregularities in their shape as well.

I’ve got a little touch up to do on some of the painted parts: a few sprays of paint on the center ankle, the center detail plates, and the inside of the left leg. After this is done, they are ready for clear coating!

The body is ready for clear coating, as is most of the painted parts!

The idea is that this weekend will see the last of the bigger construction of the droid, so I can clean up my office/work space! Once the bigger tools are away and order is restored, it will make the small work with detailing and weathering, as well as working on the new controller electronics so much easier!

I feel confident and happy that I may only need 3-4 more paint sessions, and my entire droid is finally painted and clear coated!

The idea is to get the last leg and foot primed so I can bondo and sand and fix over the weekend, and get the rest of the droid clear coated before friday!

The last few steps is really something I’m looking forward to, as it is these steps that will really give R2 his personality!

By |2016-12-06T00:00:59+01:00October 31st, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Just a quick update…
Read More

Fixing up the power couplers

For a while, I have been searching for a pair of aluminium power couplers to replace my old, resin ones!

After looking around for months and months, I bought a second had pair from Daren Murer, who made my lovely dome for my droid!

These were used and painted already, and used a different type of mounting that I had in mind, so I had a bit of work to do!

First off, This is what they looked like when I received them:

The paint is a bit thick for my taste, and the finishing on them is a bit scruffy looking, no doubt as a result of the weathering of the droid the were on before arriving at my place!

After cleaning it up a bit, it looks like this:

Next up is masking off the areas that should not be painted…

After painting the pieces, this is what it looks like!

Old one on the left, and the freshened up version with my own blue colour on the right

Now I’ve only got to fix up the second one. Mounting inside the frame is already fixed and tested! =)

By |2016-12-06T00:01:00+01:00October 28th, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Fixing up the power couplers
Read More
Go to Top