September 25, 2011

R5's on hold........??

A while ago, my son asked me AGAIN (missed last year.....oooops), if I would make him a Ghostbusters outfit for halloween. I did start building the proton pack a few months ago but got stumped on how best and how accurate to build it. It's now just going to 'look' like a proton pack, rather than be 100% accurate. Mostly due to time and the fact that it will only be worn for five minutes hahaha, kids!

September 21, 2011

Ankle Cylinder end caps

Finished off cutting out the wood circles needed to make up the end caps for the cylinders.
Next, then ends.

September 19, 2011

Leg cut out & painting components.....

1.5hrs to mark out and cut out first main leg. Three pieces thick, two 18mm + one 8mm = 44mm thickness [guide dimension only]

Picture below has the wood template fixed on still, but rain stopped play at this point. I cut out the centre piece's stabiliser socket. I'll use this as a guide to cut out on the other two main pieces


Next, i'll screw the leg pieces together. There is a lot  of shapeing and wood fillering to be done.

~~~


I sprayed up the one Octagon Port, Coin Slots and the top parts of the Ankle Details [and inserts].
All these components had previously been sprayed with white primer. The results were not what I expected. Where as the Cylinders had been primered grey, the 'dark' under coat made the metalic blue the 'shade' I wanted. The white primer made the blue a whole shade lighter!! I had already un-masked the Octagon Port back plate.





The other components I might re-mask, re-prime in grey and re-spray in blue to get the shade I want. As for the Octagon back plate, this one might have to stay this shade and be fitted to R5's rear.

I then spent another hour shaping the octagon port walls, cutting out a cylinder wedge side template out of cardboard, cleaning off tape residue on coin slot face.


September 15, 2011

Ankle Cylinders - Blue paint!

Bought a small tin of Plasti-kote metalic blue spray, code 135s, from B&Q this evening.

I saw this colour a few months ago and decided that I'd try this one first, hence the small can size.
This is my own personal choice. Some people use layers of purple and metalic blue to achieve a screen accurate colour match. Which achieves a fantastic deep colour. My R5 wont be a perfect replica, close as possible, but not 100%.


Got home and masked off the cylinders. Sprayed a few light coats and left to dry. Also did the wedge face plates, as couldn't restrain myself lol.





Forgot about the other bits I could of sprayed up, but still, I'm really happy with the results.

Centre Leg securing brackets

Milled the centre leg securing angle brackets down to size.
Was originally U-section

Ankle Cylinder - silver spray

Ankle cylinder work - spent an hour last night on the second cylinder,trimming it to fit better on the centre leg. Also cut out from MDF some internal pieces to fix them on with, see prev. post.
Masking tape, ready for silver spray, after the other end cap is primed.....ooops


Ankle Cylinder No1, silver sprayed up.

The not so smooth finish seen on the end cap [above] is to add to the distressed look of the component ;-).

Ankle Cylinder No2.

September 12, 2011

Cylinder wedges

I also measured up & cut out a piece of thin hardboard to be the face of the cylinder wedge. Not sure how to secure bracket yet but do have a few ideas.

Cylinder and plate for wedge, in place, test fit
The sides will possibly be filled in with body filler.

Centre Leg securing brackets

Used some u-section aluminium. Marked its position and then in the vice, drilled three 5mm holes through the aluminium and wood leg. The u-section and the screws will be cut down to size.

Ankle Cylinders

Saturday was a busy few hours. I cut out the cut out section. Slightly roughed up the tube, cleaned up the groove edges, because of the Lathe incident previously.


Used a piece of off-cut tube, I marked a circle & then cut out a disc from 12mm thick MDF (thicknes not important.) Using a file, I rounded off the edges, but kept it a nice tight fit. Drilled a hole in them for dowels. These will secure the cylinders to the legs. Lastly I cut out one more circle and made up another end cap, as before.

Next I cut out the end piece from hardboard (MDF would just split)& filed its edges round. I then marked it central and drilled through the disc with clearance holes. Used two short screws to fix them both together.

not the best images, but you can see the two screws through
the front of the end cap
Cut more circles out of MDF. These go inside the cylinder. Marked them up, then cut a flat face. Drilled a hole in them for dowels. These will secure the cylinders to the legs.
location pin setting.
Filler smoothed over

September 09, 2011

ankle Cylinders part 3....... the story continues

Trial and error......

Plastic Pipe a Lathe, grooving tool and someone who should know better!!! :-D

Grooving the plastic pipe didn't go too well at first, not least because it could only be held so tight before being crushed and distorted. After a few attempts though I managed to produce them to an exceptable standard. Although for the next one I will try another method!

R2-D2 plastic pipe

Next: Need to finish of the cut out for the leg, end caps and fixings for attaching to the leg.

Shoulder Stabaliser - completed 1st one.....

Finished off the 1st stabiliser last night. After almost chewing up the centre knurled piece, I managed to recover it to be usable. We'll just put it down to 'battle damage'    :-D.

 I'm thinking about leaveing the legs long and not machining the angle onto them. The reason for this is that I'll drill two location holes for the legs to fit them into, in the stabiliser reces. Glue will then secure it all in place.

I've seen this done before and it does look good, more 'real'. Weather it will look this good on mine is another thing :-D


Only another three more to make :-)

September 08, 2011

Shoulder Stabaliser update

Drilled the two 'leg' pieces on the 1st Stabilier. Used the vertical Millier, just for ease, a piller drill would of been just as good if I'd of had the time.

I drilled to a suitable depth and test fitted the central knurled piece. It's ends needed to be shortened, which I had allowed for. So onto the lathe..... But during turning the ends shorter, I tried to take to much off as it pulled the knurled piece out of the chuck :-( aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!

Luckily it wasn't damaged to much :-S and managed to salvage it enough for it to be used still..... phew!

Next time I'll machine the knurled part stubs shorter and make the holes deeper, the glue [if needed] will keep it all in place.

September 07, 2011

Shoulder Stabilisers

Machined up the first central knurled part of the Shoulder Stabiliser.


Only another three more to make. Next, to drill holes for fitting into the legs.

September 06, 2011

Forums of information!

Just thought I'd remind anyone thinking of building an Astromech, R2-D2, R5 or any of the other R-series Droids. That the best place to find out, meet fellow builders etc. is to join a forum. I joined a few until I found the ones that best suited me for, basically, being helpful and friendly.

The ones at the bottom of this page are only a few of the ones out there. These are ones that I am a member of and have found to be the ones most Builders use. They are friendly and informative.

The UK R2 Builders Club is especially for us UK'ers, but of course is welcome to all. It's aim is to unit fellow builders here in the UK with others and to build a central area for help, info, parts etc.

As with the forums, if you have any questions about R5 or other Astromech Droids, please feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment below.

September 05, 2011

Legs - at last!

Cut out the paper templates I'd printed off on A3 size sheets, in sections, a few weeks ago. And stuck them down onto 5mm thick hardboard. I screwed two of these cut outs together to make up a template for cutting the main wood sections with the jigsaw with.

The wood I already have is18mm thick'ish, so I'll need two of these & one 8mm section. Making a thickness of 44mm'ish. The 8mm piece will have the middle cut out for power cables for R5's feet motors.

The longest leg section, will have to have its thickness reduced by 12mm. Add the outer section of 18mm + the 6mm left over from the previous operation = 24mm, close enough to 1" the plan size. This will then fit the foot slot.


Time taken so far = 1hr.


P.S. Don't quote me on the correct dimension, always follow the Builder's Club plans ;-D