back door, power couplers and paint!
Sooo, more building fun!
Yesterday we had another semi-fine day here in Germany (it was a little windy, but that doesn't stop me!) so I painted the last missing blue pieces, the large data port and R2's utility arms. Of course I messed up the paint job on one of the utility arms and had to redo it, I wonder if I will ever learn not to be impatient... oh well ;)
Here's a pic:
Today I went to the workshop again to work on the "main" droid, and did another step towards the finish line. First I finished the back door magnet attachment, which is basically an improved rip off of what Oscar did (thanks again ;)).
As you can see on the following pic, I installed four attachment points on the frame, with round holes in which I installed screws. The holes are just big enough to take the magnets I'm using, which I glued to the back door today. The screws hold the magnets in place, and the holes make it impossible for the door to move up and down, perfect - I hope! I couldn't check yet, as the glue I used needs 12 hours to cure. I'll go there to check it out tomorrow... patience, young padawan, you must learn patience... ;)
Another thing I started working on today was attaching the power couplers I got recently. I had some scrap plexiglass left, and needed brackets for the couplers, so I took out the heat gun! and it worked extremely well... I'm not reinventing the wheel here, so just check out the picture and you'll see how I attached the couplers:
simple solution, but works pretty well :)
Here is another pic of it mounted into the droid (the belts you see are there to hold the back door in place while the glue on the magnets dries):
and here the secured backdoor, waiting for the glue to dry:
That's it for now! All I need now is my r/c receiver to arrive, 2 or 3 more building sessions in the workshop, a nice day to paint the skins and legs and we're pretty much there :)
And there are still three weeks to go 'til Jedi Con... I'm quite positive that I'll make it! :)
dome drive installed
Ages ago I bought a dome drive on the club, as I knew that I'd need it one day. Well, the new droid's coming together now, and I guess there's no better place to put that dome drive than into the new R2. So that's what I did today - I screwed on the Rockler bearing and with a few tweaks I also managed to install the dome drive. I think it worked out really well :)
Next I will work on the back door attachment via magnets, got the idea from Oscar - Thanks for that!
Oh, as we had a really nice and sunny day here in Germany yesterday I thought I might just take another pic of my dome, as it looks so gorgeous in sunlight. Here it is:
more progress
Hi guys. Jedi Con is coming closer, and I'm starting to feel the pressure. I got my ticket the other day and it says "R2 Builder", I guess I'd better have a droid on display ;) There's always the first droid, but I would rather present the new one...
I made good progress on him, finishing the assembly of my skins - including a back door, which I dremeled out. I first tried using scrap skin pieces as a guide for the dremel cutting wheel, but found that it was a lot easier for me doing it freehand - If you're doing it, just try it out and see what works better for you :)
I then used stock "UHU" glue to glue the skins together, probably not the strongest bond, but I wanted to have the option to be able to take them apart if I ever have to.
I also managed to finish the foot drives, and I'm now waiting for a receiver and speed controllers to finish my Vex based r/c system. Hope that will all work out, as I'm kinda new to all the r/c stuff, but I've already had a fair share of helpful mails from fellow builders, so I'm sure I'll get this sorted.
In the meantime I will try and install R2's details, and I better get the skins painted - One month to go, lots of work ahead of me... But working under pressure usually brings out the best in us, doesn't it?
Here are a few update pics:
The body - this time with all 3 feet attached and with wheels!:
The foot drive, version 1 (has been revisited since, but I don't have a new picture, so this one will have to do ;)):
On a side note, I'm taking payments for the Jedi Con shirts that have been ordered now, and will order them next week - Looking forward to those! :)
That's it for now - as Bob Ross would put it: "I wish you a happy [building], and God bless my friend"
Power couplers & scooter motors arrived
Hey guys, another little update.
First my set of power couplers from McMaster arrived today, and they're awesome! I started working on the paint job right away, as in I masked the faceplates with masking tape (annoying job, but you gotta do it... or not?!)
However, I didn't really feel like masking everything on the main part, I found a great way around that though! The local car parts store where I get my R2 blue actually had a little "touch up pencil" in the same colour I used for the other parts, so I just took that and tried it out - and it worked like a treat - no masking, minor cleanup and I got that sorted :)
It's not 100% yet, but a little "touch up" should do the trick ;)
I also got two electro scooters today, which I ripped apart to get to the motors and all the other things I will use on R2.
That's it for today! Next thing I'll have to do is build some motor holders for my outer feet... and I'm actually looking forward to that! R2 building really IS fun!
progress on the droid, a new costume underway!
Hi guys and girls. Been working on the droid again last week, and now I've got the resin skirt I got from Marco and the outer legs put on. I put the third leg on and placed R2 on his feet to take a mock-up picture of R2 standing, so here it is:
On a sidenote, I started working on a new costume that I might finish by Jedi Con as well.
Here's how it started:
a little fast forward and I got this:
That's it for now!
side vents finished
As I didn't know what to do tonight, I finally finished filing the side vents (yeah, the ones I started in June last year). Not 100% perfect, but 100% hand filed - now that's an achievement as well, isn't it? ;)
The backing part is just a piece of styrene painted R2 blue - not quite to club spec, but it'll do for that part. Here they are:
Frame finished, skin snaps
Hi guys 'n girls. Had another building session on Friday, and the frame is now completed. I also started putting in the skin snaps from Daren, which work really well - I just need to tweak the upper frame circle a bit to add the third set of snaps, but it's coming along rather nicely. I think I'll achieve my goal to finish this droid for his first outing at Jedi Con.
Another thing I did was placing the radar eye a little lower, as I wasn't all too happy with it before. I checked several reference images and realised the original R2s had it really low, so I put mine lower as well - and I like it a lot more now... here a before and after comparison:
Before:
After:
That's it for now. More building coming soon :)
