I have also been dealing with a pot belly on Artoo. The skins are nice and tight around the top and bottom of the frame, however, the center area around the bottom of the utility arm carrier and the front vents is about .25" from the frame. This makes the Utility Arms appear recessed, even though they are flush with the outside edge of the frame. I have attempted to pull the middle tighter, but I can't seem to get that section to sit properly. I have the front vents on order from Marco and the panel that fits around those vent surrounds may pull in some of that area back into shape, or at least a not so noticeable shape. If this doesn't work then my options will be to:
A. Re cut the utility arm covering and splice it to the existing skins.
B. Order rough styrene and re cut the skins altogether. This was a 3 month process for me the first time around.
C. Order the laser cut skins from Andy.
I'm not really crazy about either options B or C. This may just be the nature of working with styrene as it is a flexible material. I can't really glue the material down to the frame as I would like to be able to remove the skins for maintenance if/when needed. I need to wait on my other part orders to arrive, but all in all, I have got some thinking to do.
5 comments:
Hey Jon,
I hope you don't take this the wrong way, But the area around the center vents was not suppose to be cut out. Just enough cutting to get the center vents to fit through.
Can you cut a piece of styrene and bond it back into this area?
I'm not sure if it will hold or if it will make a ridge in that area.
I'm sorry but I don't have anyother answer.
Calvin
Hey Calvin,
I was afraid of that and was thinking along the same lines. The skins were my first parts that I cut from styrene and I made a few mistakes that don't really show... yet. I think if I were to re-do them I can do a better job on them the second time around. I could attempt to bond a piece to the back of the existing skins, but I don't know how that would affect the curvature of the skins.
At this point, I think I'm going to order more styrene. I'll attempt to correct these skins as best as I can and keep them as spare or a second set for an alternate color scheme.
Jon
By the way, don't worry about giving me any criticism. I was a fine arts major and I take all criticism as constructive, so feel free to share your thoughts openly. It's only going to help me along the way.
And thank you for the pointers so far!!!
Jon
I sure hope you don't have to start over with the skins.
How are your skins bonded together?
Any chance of seperating the 2 and recut just the back.
Your skins look good in the pic and it would be a shame to lose them.
Calvin
Ok, I tried something and it worked. I still have a gap between the skins and the frame at the midpoint, but you will never notice. I picked up a piece of styrene locally as the only 1mm that I have left is slated for skinning my other outer leg. I used the 3m tape and stuck it to the inside of the inner skins. This cleaned up and pot belly and the skins are looking much better in that area. I now have 3 layers in that section, so I will need to add some scrap pieces to my outer panel once I'm ready to adhere that to the skins - this will take up the space between the outer skin and the patch, where the inner skin should be.
I screwed the top of the shoulder area to the frame and made some adjustments to the metal rods on the frame as the bottom circle wasn't completely level. I still need to complete the bracing and that might (with a little luck...)happen this weekend. I may even add the rear skins this weekend as well. I have been holding off on those for some odd reason.
I still have a problem with the area near the utility arms. I don't like how they have too much of a gap around the arms. Some putty and clean up work may make it look a little nicer, but I'm leaving myself the option of removing the outer skin and splicing a new layer in there. I'll try to post some pics tomorrow...
Jon
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