finish

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…
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Many more small fixes…

I can really tell that the day when I have nothing else to do but to get the body painted is closing in, and fast!

Today, I spent first sanding off the skirt that I puttied up good yesterday, and the results look good!

(note Tiny R2 in the background…)

Naturally, there were a few places where the need for a little extra putty was making themselves known, but from a scratch built skirt, it looks pretty ok, I must say!

Even more so after it is painted!

I went over the places that needed a little more putty and will sand those off and then the skirt will be left alone until the body is primed!

The rest of todays work was actually spent in removing the temporarily mounted pieces, such as the rear power coupling…

The same hi-tech mounting system (duct tape) was used to fasten the coin returns, and.. well .. basically everything except hot glue in a few places (also removed) and finally the front power coupling, that is actually mounted quite good!

The resin coupler was only painted with a quick layer of silver and then brushed blue on the corners as a quick and dirty paint job for midsummer’s..

Another thing I was not all happy with, was my LDP. Even though I was very happy with the shape of the LDP, it drooped somewhat in the middle, and it sort of bugged me a little.

I removed the LDP, removed the magnets on the backside, and attacked a 1mm styrene backing to it, making sure to remove the droop as I superglued this piece in place. Since the LDP was a little bit crooked in the back end, I also added another 1mm piece to the back that was gradually sanded away once it reached the middle of the LDP.

LDP when drying with a new white styrene backing. This needs to be painted, of course. My plan is to paint the styrene backing black once the rest of the LDP has the correct colour.

This is the new backside of the LDP, with a new mounting magnet. I decided to use the same mounting system with magnets as before, although I needed to move them somewhat to make up for the now slightly thicker piece.

The new mounting magnets inside my frame. This is actually better, as I can use the top part of my armbox holders as backing for the magnet, rather than just a piece sticking up out of nowhere!

Now a LOT better. I’m happy!

What else, you may ask?

Well, I hinged another door, this time the small power charger door. I have made a pretty good door to this one, but it is slightly thick, so I need to chamfer the inner part of the door to make it open and close without issues.

The door is just a quick thing, really. I also took a steel ruler and cleared out all crevasses on the skin, where the inner skin is showing to make sure they are crisp and clear and not filled with old glue residue.

Lastly, I did something that was really needed: cleaned off most of the old 3M sticky spray I could find that was still on parts of the frame, and gave the inside of the frame a good vacuuming!

All in all, my R2 is now more naked that he’s been in 6 months! Most of the extra pieces are removed and I’m currently looking in to proper ways of mounting them, while preparing the body for the upcoming paint job…

I’m guessing my next job will be the battery boxes.. I know one of them really needs a little TLC to look its best!

By |2016-12-06T00:01:18+01:00September 23rd, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Many more small fixes…
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Looking up R2’s skirt…

After a couple of days with the flu, and still done 2 gigs and a casting session (drawback of running your own company as a performer), I was finally starting to feel good enough to get some time to do some building.

I have my list of things to go through, but nothing on that list seemed appealing to me today.

I did, however, start with drilling holes under the bottom plate of my droid, to have decent mount points for my octagon ports!

I took out the octagon ports, measured up on the bottom of the droid where the openings in the skins were, and then used a quick paper template in order to measure out where I needed to drill and countersink.

These will be underneath the droid, and will not be noticed. Technically speaking, I could glue countersunk M3 screws in place and bondo on top of them, if I don’t want the screws to be seen, but partly, I need to get the correct length screws, and partly, I don’t really see this as a problem at this point! =)

Another thing I got done while I had the droid upside down, was to treat the skirt with bondo (Tamaiya Putty, to be precise) to remove any irregularities. This will need to set until tomorrow and then sanded to smooth perfection!

After this has set and been sanded down, I think it will look just great! =)

I’m starting to run out of things to do until it is paint time… =)

By |2016-12-06T00:01:18+01:00September 22nd, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Looking up R2’s skirt…
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