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!!!

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...

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.

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.

Layered Shoulders

I got a start on my layered shoulders. The first one is glued up and ready for glazing putty to seal up the seams. I haven't attached the layer between the shoulders and the leg as I will paint the edge of that first. I also need to come up with a way to attach these to the legs so they can be removed for maintenance. I like Dan Baker's idea with the speaker mounts, but not sure if I can do that with my leg design. I added reinforcement bracing, so I have half of the open space of the original design.

I received a couple more parts this week. My 12v power distribution board arrived from Dan S. and I also received an amplifier for my soundboard. Hopefully, I'll be able to wire up and test my wireless sound system in the coming weeks.

One step forward....

I balanced out the utility arms so they would fit with the skins, however, after looking at the skins, I'm not happy with certain areas. The area around the utility arms needed to be cut open to allow the swing of the arm to pass through the opening in the skin. This makes the whole opening look way too big, even though the arm itself is barely passing through. It doesn't look too bad in the pics, but up close, it looks rough and oversize.

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.

Utility Arms and Large Data Port

I spent a good portion of last night installing the utility arms. Yesterday I found some nylon inserts for the utility arms to protect the screw hole from wear from the threads. I built up my hardware and....

It failed.

The nylon insert fit with a number #8-32 screw - the only size I could find with an OD of 1/4", which is the diameter of the hole in the utility arm. Although it seemed like a good fit in the store, when installing it, there was a little bit of play within the insert, and the arm would dip at the unhinged end. I had built the lower arm assembly with standard machine screws, nuts and washers. Problem was, when all was tightened, the arm was evenly horizontal. However, when the arm was opened several times, the components would loosen, and the arm would slump down.

I used a different method on the upper arm, using a modified t-nut at the top. I had to remove the prongs to get it to set as low as possible as the Large Data Port (LDP) needed to sit on top of it. This arm, once tightened, stayed in place. After several attempts at correcting the lower arm, the lightbulb clicked on and I replaced the assembly with one similar to the top arm assembly and.... well, it worked!!

The skins will need some modifying to allow the arm to swing out freely, but otherwise, fit pretty well.

If you look at the unhinged ends of the UT arm carrier, you can see a small bumper on the side wall. This will allow the arm to come back into the proper position and also protect the tip of the arm from colliding with the plastic wall of the frame. They are not visible with the skins installed.

The LDP is installed with double sided tape, left over from my skins. I used a layer of .040" styrene to even the frame area with the t-nut. It's a very strong bond, but I have been able to pry the tape off of styrene with very little damage. The mount is very secure, but in emergency, I can still pry the dataport off if needed.