R5-D4 dome build - on this day 2013

 

On this day going back to 2013........

R5-D4's dome build progress, link to original Blog post here.

R0-D4 Dome update 2020 (Part 2)

Sprayed up the neck ring with plastic-kote  white paint & left it to dry for a day or so. No pics of this but onto the next colour, Red.

Thankfully I still have the original wood neck ring, so that I could match up the painted stripes.

There are four quarters which have thicker vertical bands. These had a stripe of masking tape and the pin strips to prevent paint bleed.

Next came the top and bottom bands, again using the pin stripe tape width, with an additional single thickness vertical line at each centre of the quarters. As can be seen in above picture.

Then the fun bit, spraying with the red metallic’ish paint.

Looking good. I left this for about 20mins before starting the messy bit, removing the pin stripe tape.

I had made sure to corner crease the edges of the over lapping tape, but this isn’t the best way, cutting the tape is. But I didn’t want to damage the paint and it’s not critical. Weathering will cover up and also chipped paint too.

Once all the tape was off, one final picture before being left to fully dry.

R0-D4 - update 2018 - 1.0

Been meaning to finish the upgrade I started on the R0 dome, I didn't get round to actually posting up what I'd done.

Back last year 2017, after I had upgraded R5's dome ring to a rockler type one. I started on R0's dome.

I had to remove the original neck skin as I had attached it to the lower dome rotation ring.

Unfortunatley I had to physcally break the wood as it was pinned and glued in place.

I then used the new R5 base ring to reproduce a new one for R0's dome.

Due to a set back regarding not being able to have a new metal neck made up, I had moved onto building an R4 dome. The neck on this one was drawn up and 3D printed in sections.

I had also decided that the dome looked a bit plain. So decided to add some pin lines lol. In homage to Stuarts awesome R2-S8.

Some of the lines have bled a bit, but this is fine as it will add to the weathered/used effect.

.....so roll on into ......& to the end of 2018, lol and I thought I'd better finish up this dome, well, you never know if it might ever be needed.....

So first off is to see if I can refit the original neck strip. The breaks will need some work doing to make good again, but can't see that being a probelm. If this doesn't work, I may have to look at 3D printing up a new neck ring strip.....

R5-D4's metallic 'machine turn' neck tape - UK UPDATE!!

Last week I had the idea of getting some more machine turn vinyl sticker from the previous supplier I had bought from. But when it arrived it was not correct. I contacted them and they're response was that their supplier had changed the size a while back. They were very helpful tho this doesn't help us UK builders.

Problem is that they had not included this in there add on eBay or on their website!

Here is a size comparrison:

LARGE MACHINE TURN

VERY SMALL MACHINE TURN

I've been back on the internet searching for other UK suppliers of the large format required, but no such luck at the mo. Funny thing is that there are loads more suppliers stocking this in the USA than before, as at least it is available still!

R5-D4's metallic 'machine turn' neck tape

UK builders have struggled to find this and from reading up, most have had to import it from the USA, at addition cost.

R5-D4's silver 'machine turn' tape

A fellow member asked me for info on my tape and where to get it from.
After explaining my luck a few years ago, I decided to look for the elusive 'machine turn' material!

USA builders can find the supplier....... Tape Planet [click for link]

And this place has it in sheet form over here in the UK.

Update, fellow club member was VERY happy with this!

Weathering 1.2 - R5-D4's Head

This morning I started on weathering R5's head, by applying Burnt Umber around the neck, side recess, eyes, top pie panel grooves and around the base of the Antenna. This is just the start. One good thing I've noticed is that the woods imperfections help when wiping off the paint as it sinks into them giving a 'pitted' surface finish.

These pics were taken right after paint was applied, so its still wet. But looked a lot better once dried. Should look even better once rubbed off a bit and ochre applied.

R5-D4's Head 4.8 - Silver Neck Tape

Last night, 1.5hrs later, silver tape was cut, trimmed and applied around R5's neck.

R5-D4's Head 3.3 - neck detail 50% completed

The last two strips lengths were cut, watered down PVA glue applied to them, then strapped in place to dry in shape, later to be glued in place.

Here is one of the strips once it had dried and strap holding it in place had been removed.

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Cut a scrap piece of wood, marked position of domes cross beams, and screwed into place. This is a temp thing for the summer fair event. The stop will allow the dome to rotate about 30 degrees either side of dead centre. This will keep his head central and stop anyone from spinning it 360 degrees. I also added some rubber [not shown in pic] to the ends of the stop to act as bump stops. Help to take any harsh knocks from over enthusiastic rotation of the dome ;D.

Dome rotation stop

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Trimmed to length and glued into place all the neck vertical details & then filled in gaps with wood filler. Once dried, Sanded all over. Next was primer all over. A light Sanding to flatten, then came the white. You should know by now I can't help myself, R5's dome components were fitted for effect lol.

Jawa Sandcrawler pose ;D

And here's his dome in first few coats of white.

A few more coats of white for the dome required

Wired in a push button switch between battery & the light for R5's lower eye. Hot glued velcro to battery & upper face of cross beam of dome to hold battery pack in position [temp position].

R5-D4's Head 3.2 - Neck

Ok, so last week I made a start on R5's neck details.

First I measured and then with a straight edge and stanley knife, cut lengths of strip to go around the neck. I Applyed watered down PVA glue to soak into the wood to help make it more flexible, and harder once dried. This also stop's it absorbing to much of the paint. Fitting the 1st strip to dome. Tricky, used a strap to hold it in place while the wood glue drys.

The bottom strap is holding the glued strip in place.
The upper strap is 'shaping' another 'wet' strip.

This made fitting the strips a LOT easier.

work in progress. starting to apply wood filler

Neck verticals
The verticals have chamfered side edges. So to create this I cut lower strips at wider, using thin hardboard and then upper strips at 5mm wide. These were PVA glued, in the middle, then wood filler was applied to create chamfers. Once dried, they are lightly sanded smooth.

Here are two of the verticals glued in place. These were my first attempts, to layers and shaped the angles with a file.

Lower horizontal strip, still needs an additional piece to achive the depth