Flashback 2012 - R5's Rear Hatch

Here's a flashback to this day back in 2012.

R5-D4's Body Skin 1.8 Rear Hatch upgrade
I had an idea to create a two part rear hatch for accessing inside R5, but once the wood was cut out, it wasn't strong enough, so had to create a one piece hatch.

Click on this link to view the Blog entry.

R5-D4 - 4 years on

Posted up this picture on instagram last night, showing the difference four years on from when R5 was finished being built. When I say finished, of course I just mean fully painted & assembled, as there's always something you can update or improve on.

A lot has happened over those four years, conventions, charity events, club events, Midnight release events, TV apperance plus a few others VERY special moments.

Picture shows, on the left, 2014. Nice white, clean finished droid. On the right, 2018, a four year veteran of events, plus faded paint over time, two lots of applied weathering, plus bumps, knocks, dents, scuffs that have built up over the years of use, just through wear and tear.

There are two builder camps, those who build a clean droid and others who don't lol. I'm definatley in the dirty camp as it adds to the authentic film version people know. I have been asked many times if my R5 is THE R5-D4 seen in the film! Now that is a serious compliment!

R5's dome rotation upgrade 1.6 - metal ring

My co-worker Steve, who's just a little bit handy with welding, said he'd be able to roll and weld up the new lower dome ring. So I drew up some sketches and talked through what would be needed. He then took the metal strip home over the weekend and got to cutting and welding.

this supplier has materials & options available to be cut to your own required sizes.

Metals4U

The cut material didn't need much deburring, only along one edge. This option is available on contacting the company. Steve welded on four 'tabs' that would be drilled and countersunk/t-nut's fitted to the wood part of the ring. The ring then screwed back in place onto the dome itself.

Welded ring with location tabs

This just shows the fit and tab position. The bearing isn't shown, hence the tab to wood gap.

Next was to mark and drill fixing holes in the tabs.

Next was to then press fit in the t-nuts and screw in the counter sunk bolts.

And of course, the test fit on the dome (held in place for photo)

The gap was needed as wanted to ensure correct fit, and wood being wood, it's not perfect lol. The gap fill be filled with fiberglass & resin, then smoothed off with filler.

This metal ring add's strength to the lower neck.

Weathering 1.4 - more Body/skirt & Centre Leg/foot

Body weathering update pics..... with and without camera flash lol.

Centre Leg, Skirt & Foot Shell....

Weathering 1.3 - Body, Leg, Outer Foot and Battery Box

My attempt at weathing R5's body. Started next to the fitted rear hatch and worked my way round. The Leg got in the way so moved onto this lol. This then led down to the Battery Box. I then turned him round and carried on with the Body, working down to his skirt (no pics yet).

I got round as far as the Centre Vent's but didn't take pictures, will do for next post.

This is by no means perfect, not that it's supposed to be, just my interpretation.

Body Skin 5.4 - Silver groove painting & Clear coat

Hand painted the last recessed panels groove yesterday morning :)

I also touched up any other little bits, plus the inside face of the cut outs for the centre vents.

So today, I set up R5's body in the spray booth in work and applied clear spray all over!

Body Skin 5.3 - White & Silver

So here is the final painting stage of R5's body.
Primer applied, left a day before lightly sanded.

Next came the white spray paint, using Plasti-Kote Satin White. Re-positioned mask off area before spraying up. Underside of body also needed touching up with white.

Wasn't 100% happy with the surface of the recessed panel, so after more sanding, I applied some more wood filler to smooth the surface. Once dried, this was re-sanded.

Then I re-re-masked off the body, this time along the edges of the front panel and Octagon Port. And sprayed white, one last time. Not the best pic.

Next I masked off the vents to be sprayed up with Plasti-Kote Silver.

Half hour later, silver vents complete......well, till I fit the grills.

It's all white.......part 2

This morning, early start, finished sanding wood filler on recessed panel, and on the battery box. Then applied some more Satin White all over.

Next the shoulder horseshoe needs sanding and more white.

Then once dried, the vents will get masked off for spraying up Silver.

Body Skin 5.2 - Primer to last area of body

This morning I got to work on masking off R5's body ready for primer spraying.

Then left it to dry over night. Light sanding over area, then repositioned masked off area to allow white to blend in with pre-sprayed area.

Next Stage..... Body Skin 5.3

Body Skin 5.1 - Side Vent work No.2 & Rear Pocket Vent

Started cutting out the side vent slats yesterday and finished after work today. using a Stanley knife to score then a hacksaw blade to cut carefully along the lines.

Next was watered down PVA glue to the cut edges to seal. Grill supports are cut up scrap pieces of wood, these will be for fixing the side grills inside the body.

Rear Pocket Vent
I glued the pocket part of the Rear Vent into place.

Applied wood filler....

......................once dried, sanding is required.

Front Vents 2.5 - mesh fitted

Got round to bending, cutting and drilling the last piece of angle bracket. Marked and drilled upper mesh location holes. Screwed them back into place.

Front Vents 2.4 - mesh

I wanted to make vent plates to block the view of R5's insides. So I marked up some perforated left-over metal, cut with metal cutters and drilled holes. Then used a grinder to remove sharp edges.

These Im not sure to spray black or leave as they are??? Am leaning towards as they are.

Body Skin 5.0 - Rear Pocket Vent build

I found the rear perforated metal plate I had cut and sprayed, from when I made the front one. I then positioned the grill, behind the Vent slots. Next I cut a strip off an off-cut piece of hardboard and PVA glued it onto the wood frame to hold the grill in place.

The guides are glued in place, one vertical strip on the left hand side frame upright, the other on the top piece of the Pocket Vent itself. Mock up pics 2 & 3 of grill in place, from inside and outside.

I then marked up the main body's 2nd side vent, ready for cutting out. Again, I already have the grill cut and painted from when I did the first ones.

Body Skin 4.9 - Rear Pocket Vent build

Friday night I got some more work done on the last three panels & vents.

I finished off recessing the long rear panel. This took almost half an hour! Then a sanding all over the exposed wood, to flatten the now exposed fibres.

Rear Pocket Vent
As I already had the pocket hole, I used a piece of cardboard and inserted it through the opening. I then used a pencil to mark the curve of the skin on the inside. This was then transferred onto some hardboard and lengths extended to allow for the internal pocket walls to be fitted.

I then cut out two pieces the same, top and bottom, here they are glued together.

Next came the side pieces.

Applied watered down PVA glue on all the cut wood.
Ok, so here are the vertical slots in the Vent, being cut out. I've used a combination of Stanley knife Dremel.

Just one more slot to cut out tomorrow.

Body Skin 4.8 - The last area of R5 get's it's groove on.....

....................I've got to come up with some better titles!

I decided to not put off any longer the work that needed doing on R5's last remaining area of his body.

Brief HIstory of work:
When I first started marking out and grooving his skin, see pics below, it was all new to me. So I gradually worked my way through the build, learning as I went. I only got so far round his body, then fitting his skirt to the frame and then primer applied and before I knew it I was spraying him up white.....just to see how it would look :D.

So last night I disassembled R5 of his Dome and Legs and started work on the last panel work. With the use of a Stanley knife and my own special tool, I started to carfully score and then groove out the last 'recessed' panel. The grooving is fun, the recessing is NOT fun!

The vertical slot's I'll do later on.

Next, I started to score out the grooves.....

Then comes the fun bit.......grooving.

As the hardboard is made of fibers, when you score to a shallow depth, you break them and create an edge. Then when you use the 'Groove' tool, the hardboard peals off in strips. I then used a fine grade of sandpaper to smooth out the groove. Once all this work has been done, I'll apply watered down PVA glue to seal, and then another light sanding.

Then I started on the LEAST fav part of the panel work.....which is probably why I stopped at this point, my fingers were hurting! lol. I scored the inside recessed area and then used a second Stanley blade [not in handle*] to shave out the recessed area.

*caution when using blades not the way they were intended to be used!

And this is as far as I got before I......my fingers.....called it a night lol.

Body Skin 4.7 - Painting Silver Grooves

The other week I started to paint all the grooves on R5's body, silver. This is to give the effect of the skin being dual layered and the under layer is still aluminium. When I did this on the rear hatch, I used loads of masking tape to prevent paint from going on the white painted skin.

This time, I trimmed the small paint brush to a fine point, saving on masking tape and time.
Doing only this much, took over an hour to do. Time fly's when your having fun lol.

Not great images, but when viewed large, you can see the silver in the grooves.