aluminium

The list of things to come…

So, even though my droid is starting to look pretty finished when it comes to construction, there is definitely a number of things that still needs to be fixed!

I’ve taken the liberty to create a “TODO” list.. or a R2-2DO list, as it were…

R2-2DO:
=======
Shoulders:

  • Fix ridges in second horseshoe
  • Finetune second shoulder shim
  • Dress second shim edges in aluminium tape
  • Prime second horseshoe
  • Fix small things that WILL be showing up after priming with Tamaiya Putty and sand
  • Skin second shoulder hub in aluminium

R2-D2 Dome:

  • Cut open dome under blank panel for easy access (thanks Edwardo)
  • Dremel out Aluminium PSI holder (front) for fitting of Teeces PSI.
  • Insulate Teeces PSI properly
  • Sand painted (primed blue) panels
  • Paint painted panels in proper colour!

Body:

  • Cut out side vents
  • Cut out pocket vents
  • paint pocket/side vents (blue)
  • Fix/adjust long doors on front to add another layer for stability.
  • Work on hinging doors on styrene frame
  • Make Charging Bay Insert
  • Make inside of “large door” on front.
  • Alter back unpainted panel to act as door for switching droid on and off (thanks Sigge)
  • Make unpainted panel door insert
  • Prime body and bondo/sand accordingly
  • sand/paint blue panel
  • sand/paint utility arms
  • mount utility arms properly (currently only stuck in place with velcro)
  • find aluminium power couplers!
  • paint octagon ports (blue)
  • paint coin slots (blue)

Skirt:

  • Bondo skirt properly
  • Prime skirt
  • bondo/sand as needed

Center Foot:

  • Cut out wooden thick shim for center foot, to raise droid slightly.
  • Attach wooden thick shim to frame (under skirt)
  • Add magnet holders to foot plates in order to stick them more firm onto the foot
  • Fix 3mm alu strips

Main Feet:

  • Skin “ridge” in both feet for better look
  • Prime and bondo right foot
  • Attach styrene pieces on inside foot shells for KHF’s to screw in to better.
  • Fix 3mm alu strips

Legs:

  • Insert metal tube in pivot point/mount on ankle
  • Add steel mount for magnetized shoulder hubs
  • Possibly sand holder for new, alu shoulder hubs for perfect fit
  • Fix/remake Ankle Cylinders
  • Fix Mount for Ankle Cylinders
  • Fix Mount for Ankle Wedges
  • Fix Mount for Ankle Cylinder Holders
  • Paint Ankle Cylinders
  • Paint Ankle Wedges
  • Prime Ankle Cylinder Holders
  • Prime legs
  • Bondo/sand as needed.

PAINT THE WHITES! *woohoo*
Weather and enjoy a complete droid!

Future Work:
Dome:

  • Sand top part of split inner dome further for better fit
  • Cut inner dome pie panels for Life Support Scanner and Periscope

Secondary Dome:

  • Fix faulty FLD.
  • Cut holes for FLD, RLD
  • Drill holes for PSI and HP’s
  • Mount HP’s
  • Mount PSI’s
  • Mount FLD&RLD
  • Find and drill holes for rockler mount
  • Mask for blue panels
  • prime and paint blue panels
  • Fix unique sound scheme for secondary identity!
By |2016-12-06T00:01:25+01:00September 14th, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on The list of things to come…
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Fixing my shoulder hubs..

So, after fixing my first horseshoe, I’ve almost finished my second horseshoe. Same procedure as the first one, I decided it was time to fix the bad shoulder hubs.

The hubs in themselves were not bad, but I had them covered with aluminum tape, which is not really ideal. It rips easily, and I need to be able to take them out when packing the droid to go to conventions, I decided to go with another method.

Just look at how bad it looks… and this is the good side!

So, first step is trying to rip the sticky tape off…

Once the tape was off, the hubs were very sticky. I first tried to use this stickiness to help with the aluminum sheets, but this was a mistake. A good, nice clean with a solvent was needed to get the glue remnants off.

I cut a long strip of aluminum and gently bent it around the hub, secured one end with two screwes, and glued it into place with CA glue. I let the glue set for a few hours.. and just look how good it turned out!

After a little bit of fitting with my skins, and sanding away from the skins with my dremel to make the new hubs fit, I mounted the hubs on my legs once again!

This looks MUCH better! Next up: repeating the process with hub #2, but as I’m currently in Los Angeles to perform at the Magic Castle this week, it’ll have to wait a little while! =)

By |2016-12-06T00:01:26+01:00September 4th, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Fixing my shoulder hubs..
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More tiny detail work….

Today was time to do some of the small bits I have postponed for some time.

Really, some of it was really quick temporary fixes in order to get the droid looking as complete as possible for the upcoming holidays.

I started with the legs. Just look how nice they are now =)

I started with cutting out foot strips of styrene and painted them silver. At the same time, I painted some extra pieces of styrene as well, to double up as temporary side vents and pocket vents until I have had time to cut the real vents out.

Also in the paint process were my shoulder hubs. I painted them all silvery, which works quite well. Even though I will have proper aluminum in the end, this really helps the look of the droid until that’s done =)

Another thing I added, was screwing the legs apart and inserting the ankle bracelets that I made a run for earlier. Looks a lot better!

All that’s missing on the legs now is the ankle cylinders and holders and wedges, otherwise they are pretty much finished!

Once the foot strips were done, I finally got to insert my braided hoses into the feet and battery boxes! It really helps the overall look! =)

I cheated a bit, though. I only fixed the front of the feet. No stripes on the backsides yet …

The feet really starts looking good!

Now, about my pocket vents and side vents. I have not had time to cut these out, so I really cheated on these ones!

I took a piece of 1mm styrene, painted it silver and took a blue thick marker, and my steel ruler, and simply drew lines on them!

Horrible, I know, but at least it fills up the gap in the body! =)

The front pocket vent, I tried to cut out and put a piece of styrene behind it (made blue with my marker above) and glued that together. A 5 minute job to get something that looks sort of like a pocket vent.

Side vents are even more horrid… are you ready for this?

Now, these are closeups and no legs getting in the way, but as a temporary solution, I think it will work well! I’ll get to work on these from mid july when my vacation actually starts! =)

Once that was done, I looked over my center wheel, modified the position of the caster inside the wheel, as it really needed to be moved forward from my road test earlier this week. Hopefully it will be sturdier and run a bit smoother now! =)

One last thing that I did that was actually not a temporary fix, was taking apart my holo projectors and adding felt pads inside the HP holders, which will keep the droid from rattling so much on uneven surfaces.

Now, it’s time for midsummer holiday!

By |2016-12-06T00:01:28+01:00June 21st, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on More tiny detail work….
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