Saturday, July 25, 2009

OT Build

So, I needed a break from building R2 as I sit back and think of how I am going to mount the legs to the body. I have painting to do for the resin parts that I received, some of which I have already done. Lots of "busy work" that won't be posted. In the meantime, I found a very inexpensive way to create a BlasTech E11 blaster rifle, or Stormtrooper blaster. This will be pretty much scratch built from parts on hand. The expected cost was around $50, however, I have most of the stuff I need lying around with the exception of paint, so I'm hoping to keep the total run between $20 and $30, and still keep the appearance as convincing as possible. Ahh - the art of scratch building!!!!

So far, I have the outer barrel prepped and painted, the inner barrel painted and test fitted. The end cap is also painted with the exception of the leading edge. The barrel end needs to be sanded and details cut and applied. I'm on the fence about getting a red dot scope as opposed to scratch building a non functional one. That will put my cost around the $30 mark total if I go that route - still not bad!! Stay tuned - I'm looking to have some fun with this one!!!





Monday, July 20, 2009

More parts arrived...

I received the balance of my outstanding parts orders last week. Monday after posting an update I received Artoo's styrene skirt from Azman - anyone looking for a skirt for a budget build, this is the one to get!!! Well worth the wait!! This one, Az trimmed and sanded for me. The first image is the outside of the skirt, the second shows the bracing from the inside. I'm planning on mounting the skirt by drilling and bolting the braces to the bottom ring of my frame. From the outside, you won't be able to tell what' holding it in place.



I also received parts from Marco in the Netherlands. Again, a long wait period while Keith was out of commission, but very well worth it. I have a little clean up on the parts as is common when working with resin, but very minimal. The parts shown are the coin slots for the front body, the front vent surrounds, the resin booster covers w/piston, and the shoulder hubs. Here's how the leg will look once I have everything mounted.



Oh yeah.... what's this???? Guess you'll have to wait and see...

Monday, July 13, 2009

Details, details...

Not a very exciting post, but I got some painting done during the week last week. I also finished off one vent, building the inset box from scrap styrene. The power coupling details were painted in blue, but not the cobalt that I was using. It's close, but missing that metallic flake in the paint. I had some modelling paint laying around and unless you look too close, I don't think anyone will be able to tell.
Parts from Marco have shipped from the Netherlands early last week. I'm hoping that they will arrive sometime this week. Still waiting on a skirt from Azman. Then, on to continued work on the ankles.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Fixing the front skins.

So, I tried something last night and I think this will work for now. I replaced the panel that I cut out for the front vents. This seems to have corrected the pot belly in the front skins. I will need to cut the holes for each of the vents, but I'll wait until I have the vent holders from Marco.
I also screwed in the top piece of the skins over the shoulders. I had some very small pan head screws laying around and drilled them right into the frame. I'll have to get some flat head screws in the same size and replace these, but for now, they do the trick.
Here is a better pic of the gap on the utility arm section. I may cut this out and splice a new cleaned up panel in it's place. The arms swing out, but only after widening the area considerably. I'm going to try cleaning it up a little, but I'm still "on the fence" with this. For now, I'm just going to let it sit and I'll come back to it after thinking about it for a while.
You will also notice a gap between the dome and the body. I'll have to tweak this, but I have room to play with.