frame

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!