Moving Right Along

When we last parted, I'd anticipated Dremelling goodness. As usual, things did not go according to plan.

What was my plan? Yes, I actually had one LOL! Well, I'd decided to start by getting all the parts I plan to paint this week primered in the morning, then, while that was drying, start Dremeling away. Well first off, some reading I'd done last night convinced me to do a better job sanding and cleaning everything. Again! This time each piece got wiped down with Isopropyl Alcohol after sanding. But darn if this didn't take HOURS! Not to worry though; as it turns out, mornings right now are a bit too humid to do any painting...so I'd have to have waited anyway.



I ran a string around the groove in the dome ring so that inner part would stay nice and metally. A great tip I gleaned from being a regular reader of the forums at astromech.net!



When the humidity broke, it was hot as blazes out there -- so I had to wait until dusk to get started. In the meantime I broke out the Dremel and some heavy-duty cutting disks. That's when I found out all my little drill-holes were a bit too far from my lines, and Dremelling all this out could take forEVER! Tomorrow, I'm going to drill more holes, I hope.



So, back to getting those parts primed! As soon as the balcony was in shade I went out and taped paper to the temporary painting area I'd set up. Then I carefully took all the parts out there, trying to not get my oily paws all over them. Finally, tossed on a mask, shook the heck out of two cans of primer and went to town!






Shhh -- look! R2 is wearing his skirt on his head!



A slight breeze came up partway through and I ended up painting part of my left arm heh-heh. Somehow forgot to get a picture *whistles innocently*.

Managed to get a few coats on...very lightly each time, and after everything was dry brought the parts back in to spend the night away from any dew.

Tomorrow: pretty much the same schedule as today I imagine, as I sand/wash the primered parts, and then paint at dusk. What's going to be fun is seeing the first of the YELLOW as I paint dome panels!

Any spare time will be spent re-drilling those holes on my inner dome. Wooooo -- living large I tell ya!

Countdown to My First R2LA!

Hello patient readers!

R2LA VIII is next Saturday, and, wanting to bring along a droid a bit further along I've started stepping up my work. ("Finally!" you say)

Today I did the long-avoided drilling on the inner dome. Some of the panels must be removed (for the electronics etc.) and drilling holes around each panel perimeter is the first step.

I'll be honest: this is the part I've been dreading the most in this build. I'm pretty confident around power tools, but I've never used them on metal. Especially metal with a curved surface. Did I say "curved?" -- I meant convex! Aye-yay-yay!

So, I kept hubby home, to have a buddy to hold the dome still, and paced a bit working up my courage. Finally ready, I used a nail to put a little depression to set the tip of the bit into, and squeezed the trigger! And here we have it -- lovely error #1:



Yep, the drill bit went skidding around! Okay -- turns out this is something that only vanishes with practice, and luckily, for all but one of the panels, the outer dome will hide most egregious mistakes! I'll need this practice for the final hole -- the one that IS visible from the outside. I'm going to do that one LAST! As in: later this week.

So, here's how it was done: we started with a 1/8" bit and then widened each hole with a 3/8" bit. There was a break partway through the process as we decided to run out and buy some rubberized shelf liner to sit the dome on so it would resist skidding around while under the pressure of the drill from the side.

My favorite part was using the step drill to completely bore out the holes for the dome "bumps" -- thanks for the tip on that, Victor! Here's where I am today (you can see the area I filed down too):



Tomorrow I finish the cuts and sand them down with the Dremel! Woooo! I looove my Dremel!

Is it a droid yet?

Nooo, not quite! Still a bit (cough) to go...

I've been sanding, sanding, sanding my dome, trying to get the top to fit flush on the bottom. Not quite there yet, sadly. And I decided against pictures this time, as a pic of sanding is pretty dull! Although some take sanding to the point of shiny. Rimshot. ;-)

When I get a bit further along I'll post a nice pic...maybe I'll have some test painting done then too!

Edit:

Update! My husband asked what on earth I was doing, and after I explained he said "why don't you just use that big file there on that dome -- nobody's going to see that part anyway!" Well! Less than 20 minutes of big-filing later and I have two dome parts that fit snugly! WTG hubby! :-D

Sorry Styrene, but the Dome is Aluminum...

...or is that aluminium?! :-D Okay, I feel a bit like a traitor, but I'm using an aluminum dome -- the R & J dome to be exact. It's a thing of beauty, but it does add quite a bit of weight. So it's not a complete styrene build...more like a Frankendroid!

After I finished applying metallic striping to my inner skin, I set work on the body aside until it's a bit cooler, as my next step involves some painting.

So, out comes the next big part of the droid puzzle: the dome! Luckily for me, excellent R2 Build blogger Victor Franco has the same dome (see his blog on the lower right) so I was able to refer to his posts for this part. At least at first. I could see right away the "gap" issue, so I skipped ahead and started removing panels prior to the big sanding I know is coming. Like Victor, I kept attached any panel that would need tracing onto the inner dome later. Standing on the shoulders of building giants, I am!

Instructions for panel-removal called for sawing off three of the wee connectors on each panel, then twisting off the fourth. I chose to saw off only two (on opposite sides) -- so the twisting would be on two connectors -- eliminating some sawing! Woo! Yeah, I'm lazy that way. But it worked!



I used a hacksaw blade, and wrapped one end in toweling so I'd not saw my sawing hand. Good call there, I'd say.

I started filing off the little nubs but ran out of time before finishing. I'm off to a convention in Baltimore for the weekend, so...see y'all next week!

Gimme Some Skin!

So I spent a couple of days fussing with my inner skins -- I'd tape them on, find a gap, pull them off and try again! I must have re-taped them down about six times before I was not completely displeased. They are still not perfect, but I had to commit at some point! I carefully glued each seam and let the droid sit for a full day while the Weld-On did its thing.

Well, it worked! This droid is now solid as a rock...woooo!

Today I fussed some more -- filling in a couple of spots with some scrap styrene. I then taped on the outer skins in preparation for my special "faux aluminum frame" experiment. I ran pencil lines along each spot where the inner skin would peep through (unless it was to be a white area -- those I just marked for paint). Then I affixed metallic tape along each line. This should create the illusion of an aluminum skin...I hope! I plan to paint the outer skins (in curved position) off of the droid so I don't lose this effect.

Unfortunately, I ran out of tape precisely when my local hobby shop closed. Will continue tomorrow!

Wooo-Hoooo! Another Frame Is Born!

Finally we have gone from 2-D to 3-D! Frame contruction took about 5 hours. Do I have any advice or tips? Why, yes I do! Purchase as many small squares as you can reasonably justify. Waiting for each upright part to "set up" takes most of the time. Here is my start:



Have I started a model of the coliseum? Stonehenge for Spinal Tap? No, it's the start of level 2! I used my taller squares to be sure the rings were even.



Here is where it started to get tricky -- tiny errors multiplied later. Be careful!



She's not perfect, but she'll do. Frame done! I used tape to force some parts together. Will add some extra stryrene in places needed tomorrow. The cutting process caused most of the problems: some pieces weren't precisely the same height/width due to imperfect edges from the "breaking/snapping" method of cutting styrene.



A "frame-is-finished" builder tradition: trying on the skins! Some minor filing will need to be done before they are glued on, but HEY we are starting to look really droid-like, eh?



All in all, I'm glad I did this by myself. If I wanted a perfect droid, however, I'd pay to have the patterns laser-cut. There were so many tiny issues -- things that I will see forever, but that hopefully not too many others will notice. But WHEW I've got one major part done!! Huzzah!

Post-CV Inspiration!

I had such a fantastic time at CV, mostly in the droid room -- 75 droids! Droid heaven!!

Renewed and inspired (and finally rested), I've started back on my build. Today, I prepared to construct the frame. I thought prep time would be around...oh, one or two hours, and then I'd be on to the actual building! Bwahahhaaahaha!

Preparation consisted of the following steps: score pattern marks into styrene, remove pattern, wipe adhesive off with faux turpentine, soak in sudsy water, scrub, rinse, air-dry, drill any needed holes, counter-sink as needed. Whew! Pics are below, and frame-building finally begins tomorrow! Really, I promise!





All ready for frame assembly tomorrow: