Gulp!!!

It's been a while since I've done anything to R2 - school hols, work etc. 

But, now my co-builder is back at school I can start making a bit of progress again.

A bit of where shall I start in the DMW and I decided to crack on with the panel cutouts on the skins.

Gulp!!! If I get this wrong then its scrap the skins and make them from styrene.

I had scribed the cut linefor the inner skin and with a 0.75mm thick cutting disc in the dremel away I went. The dremel must have been working hard because it must have stopped a dozen times due to a thermal cut-out.  Eventually the inner piece was done.

Good the flash hides the dodgy bit!!!

 Don't look too closely though otherwise you will see the lines aren't quite straight.  It only took just over an hour to do, so the it will be atime consuming process. And the dome will take even longer as its thicker - great!.

Hopefully the updates will become a little more frequent now as my step-daughter has suggested R2 carrying her wedding ring next August.

Sun's out - must be time to go in the garage!!

I bet you all thought R2 was going to remain a half-finished project. Well, your wrong and as usual I'm right.

Today was the first time in a long, long time that I managed to get in the DMW and carry on with some of the build. That's not quite true I have started on a horseshoe.
It was time to wet and dry the legs, ankles, feet and battery boxes. I have since the last blog been out there and filled and sanded a few bits but didn't think it worthy to write about. Once these where sanded a quick wipe over with some meths getting into the small areas and then placed into the new spraybooth (cardboard on the floor of the van). Just to make sure that the parts were filled I used some plastic filler primer from Halfords. Not to sure what its going to be like but its yellow so I can see where I have sprayed. Thes will be left in the van till Tuesday.

Another sanding due when dry.

                       

The first door is cut.

The shim on the horseshoe was added and then before tea I thought I'd have a look at the skins. I decided to take the plunge and start cutting out a door. Once this was done a needle file removed the small burrs. I only cut out the one door frame as I don't want to mix them up.

Coin slots in and ready to receive.

A set of coin slots from Don Jarr was stuck into the inner skin to make them look good. That was it for the day but I didn't start time lunchtime and had lunch after an hour too!! Got to keep the energy reserves up.









I do have Banebot wheels now ready for the motors. And once the legs are together I can work out what size of castor is needed for the centre foot.

Getting filled in!!!!

Well, not a lot on the build front due to holiday preparation to see Star Wars Weekends in Florida plus the other attractions of course.

Oooohhhh! Nice!

So the two main feet have had the fancy trim stuck on and to help strengthen them the DIY car repairers buddy - P38. A dollop of this was mixed up and worked into any gaps and on the inside (out of view) to give these little bits a help should/when R2-ST hits an unmoveable object e.g. kerb.

R2-ST has its first event planned at Invasion Colchester in August even if its not ready, which I know it wont be. The event is to raise money for charity and has people dressed as characters from tv & film.
Should be good to put faces to names etc too.

Anyway this is what both feet look like with a bit more preparation to do

Looking good Houston.

.

A little bit of this...

My time in the Design & Maintenance Workshop has been spent finishing the halfmoons for the main feet and getting them flat. This meant that they could be glued on and what a difference they made to the foot. It's all slowly coming together now.

The weathered look?

Today, I managed to deaden the nerves in my index finger, by using a scalpel (with a new blade just in case I decided to cut myself again) and cutting the detail pieces for the main feet. The styrene is only 1mm but in order to cut the slots out it meant going over the lines getting deeper and deeper each time. All together there was/were 40 slots to cut out measuring about 25mm x 5mm. How sad is that knowing the size!!!!

Finish the slots before tea - I hope!

It didn't take too long to cut either, once I'd got in the rythym. I even had a little set-up seeing the angle they go to etc, etc..

After this it was a quick mix of the good ol' car filler P38. to smooth over some of the ridges in the battery boxes . The smell bought back some memories of my younger years, but I had obviously forgotten the ratio as I had just managed to smear it over the boxes when it went hard. Thankfully I had mixed the right amount just too much hardener - a mental note for next time.
I'll leave them to completely set while I'm back at work then have a go at sanding/filing them smooth. 

Good, the photos don't show the lumps.

Everything is slowly starting to come together, but still a lot to do. Hey!Ho! good job no deadline.

At last - a 2nd Battery box







To many curves!!!

Yes, as you can guess from the post title I have finally made the second battery box. What's taken you so long? I hear you ask. Well, in a nutshell I couldn't be bothered to make it with all those curved bits but after giving myself a good talking too it has been completed.



Simples!!

The main parts were cut and glued yesterday which was nice and straight forward making a box.









Today was the day both boxes would get their second skin.

Order another pallet of masking tape please!!!

It was easy to cut being 1mm styrene. An idea I copied from somewhere was to give the door a lip. I decided 5mm all round would be good, so instead of following the line a new one was made 5mm bigger. Lining this up on the 3mm stuff was easy but one thing to be aware off is it leaves very little styrene before the curve section. I would recommend that this left to dry overnight before glueing the curve. But I didn't want to do that, so I had a bash at glueing the curves on. This involved some copious lengths of masking tape to keep the 1mm stuff in contact.


That's as far as I got today and I'm please with it. By the time I get back to the DMW they will be ready to finish off.

Rain doesn't stop play....yet!!!!!

A very damp day and work that night mean't some time was allowed in the DMW.

OOOOH! Nice

I decided to start trying to finish all the unfinished parts which kinda makes sense.
The detail pieces on the side of the main feet were cut out and glued on and a half moon
was finished off. Its starting to look so much better with theses little bits done.

More tape than you can throw a stick at.

The 1mm side pieces on the centre foot were cut out rather easier than the same bits on the main feet. Once suck to the 2mm pieces they were filed to fit and glued in with masking tape to hold position.







That was it for the few hours in the DMW, and it was a bit chilly out there due to the heavy rain, but it could have been worse. The main thing is it got me away from Monopoly (normal and Star Wars vesions) with Skye. Winning all the time can get boring.

Look at my skirt!!!

At long last I have managed to work out the skirt. It's taken a while but looking at Jerry Greene's schematic I worked out the angle for the curved skirt pieces. From this, new support triangles were cut out and glued in. The curved skirt pieces were then duly stuck down and left while I went to work.

Today, after beating Skye at monopoly, I was allowed (!) into the DMW (Design & Maintenance Workshop). All the skirt ribs have been filed to the same size and then it was a case of where abouts they went on the skirt. A few cups of tea, a look on the computer and I realised there were marks on the base plate - DOH! With the centre line marked as soon as one side was completed and symetrical, the other end was a piece of cake (or another cup of tea).

Before today I did manage to put the curved 1mm piece on the other foot. This did take 3 attempts though as the plastic kept splitting but perserverance paid off.

Tomorrow may see the other battery box made - but who knows!!