June 29, 2012

Body Skin 3.4

Finished off recessing another panel the other night.
Only took an hour to 'slice' the wood off to depth LOL.
Then once sanded to get rid of the fibres [bottom left picture], I applied PVA glue [middle picture], then with a paint brush and water [right hand side picture],
painted the PVA all over the recess.
Once dried it was all sanded over again and wood filler applied to areas to smooth over.


Whilst waiting for this to dry I got to work on filling in the gap around the should disc. This was caused by misalignment of marking to where the actual shoulder disc should of gone. (I'll know better for the other one). I'd wrapped cardboard around the edge of the disc and then masking tape to stop the resin coming out. I then applied the first coat.


I also screwed the Restraining Bolt bracket onto the frame.

June 28, 2012

Restraining Bolt bracket

Here is the bracket that will be fitted behind the Restraining Bolt, to ensure it doesn't come off.
 Position marked for hole.
Hole in top to screw to frame.

June 27, 2012

Body & Centre Leg assembly

It was getting late, as usual, but wanted to see what R5 looked like now that the skin was starting to take shape. So here are a few pics :)
Sorry, this pic's not in focus.
Also note that the foot is not locked yet, hence it's position.
As you can see, I don't have the luxury of space in my garage :D lol

Body Skin 3.3 and the grooving goes on :)


Grooved out three more panels and sealed them.

Grooved areas' marked in yellow

R5-D4's Motivator 1.1

Grey primer sprayed up the bits.
Applied more primer onto the area's not previously sprayed up.

I've been thinking about the Motivator being chrome painted. I've seen this done and it does look good, and I was intending to spray it up this colour. But now I think I've decided against, [stick with my original idea], on the grounds that it would look too flash and 'new' for what is supposed to be an old & battered R5 Unit.

June 25, 2012

Body Skin 3.2 more grooving :)

Wood filler applied to recessed panel and sanding started.
Managed to groove seven more panels out over the weekend, then sanded smooth and sealed them too with PVA glue, watered down.


Here's what panels have been done so far, the grey areas.

June 22, 2012

Body Skin 3.1

Sprayed pocket parts white , then glued top part and bottom/sides together.

Marked up side vent slots.

Masked off the shoulder hole, to be filled in with P40 and then sanded smooth.

Sanded the filler around the rear Coin Return.
And then painted over it with silver to blend in.


Grooved and recessed one panel [pic below].
Then a lot of sanding and PVA glue to smooth and seal the cut wood.
Next, to apply some wood filler.


Positioned restraining bolt on body. There is a washer on the hex side of the bolt, but made up a restraining plate bracket and fitted it behind the skin, just to make sure it stays there lol.

This is to prevent the bolt from being pulled out/through the skin!

June 20, 2012

Body Skin 3.0 - Pocket recess & Coin Return No3

Marked, then cut out pieces for vent pocket recess.

Glued together bottom, sides and back.

Test fit in position


cut out coin return No3, bent it into shape.


Next, I primer sprayed up all these bits.

June 19, 2012

Body Skin 2.9 - Rear Coin Return

I've used P40 resin to bond the first of the Rear Coin Returns in place.
R2D2 Coin Return

R2D2 Coin Return
The visible inside join line edges, will be filled, sanded and then hand painted to blend in.
Next is to build the other Coin Return.

Body Skin 2.8 - R5D4's Red Painted Panels


Red spray paint, just like R2D2's blue, there is no specific choice for R5's distinctive red colour. R2 has different 'shades' of blue throughout the films and even scenes!
The closest match favoured by other R5 builders I've read about, is
As used on this R5D4 unit built by Victor Franco's No2 'convertible' R2 Unit.

Another colour choice suggested is Rust-Oleum's Cardinal Red suggested by another builder on the UK R2D2 Builders Club forum.

Well, before I committed to my original choice, I bought a small can of Plasti-Kotes metallic Red spray paint to try out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Re-masked area off for spraying with red.


Not to bad a colour shade. I just need to tidy up the edges, and then cover it all over with dirt! :D

June 18, 2012

Body Skin 2.7 - Back on R5's body again

Whilst waiting for paint to dry, I carried on with the cutting out and grooving on R5's Skin.
I finished off the front recessed vent slots and outside edge groove.
R2D2
The skin is now weak at the end of the slots, so rather than try fitting a piece of wood behind, that would need painting up blue, and then trying to fit it to the curve of the skin.
I used some perforated metal sheet, that could be bend to shape.
R2D2 R5D4

This is how it should look once glued (P40 resin) in place.
R2D2 D5D4
I then grooved the outside edge of the front coin return.

Body Skin 2.6 - Rear Hatch recessed panels


The top panel tock over an hour and a half alone to do, more aching fingers :(
R2D2
Applied PVA glue to seal the recess edges
(The dark/shiny areas in the recessed panels)


Applied some wood filler and then did some light sanding.
Next, masked of the areas, ready for spraying with grey primer.


I didn't mask off right up to the edge as these needed re-spraying up as well.


Applied some more wood filler in places.
Then some more primer.

Next, masked it all up again for it to be sprayed white again.
******* What a nightmare!!! The whites a different shade ?!?!?!? *******
Had to feather the edges, once dried, and then re-mask the panels off AGAIN, right on the edge of the panel grooves. Once dried, you can still see there is a difference, but now only on the panels themselves. This makes them look like individually assembled panels ;)

June 11, 2012

Body Skin 2.5 - Rear Hatch recessed panels


Marked the three vertical panels out that will be sprayed red.


And marked out the recess in the top panel. I then scored the lines and used my groove tool around the edges to start and get a depth. Next I started to slice thin layers with a Stanley blade.


The centre panel took just over half an hour.

The reason why I've done this after spraying up the hatch is simple. I wasn't sure how I was going to do this or if it would work on the wood! I was thinking of paint the panel recess to give the illusion of depth. But I wasn't really happy with this, so thats why it's all a bit mixed up :)


June 07, 2012

Body Skin 2.4 - Rear Hatch in white & Silver

Have sprayed up the rear hatch now in a few coats of white satin [Plasti-kote].
Lightly sanded between drying to get it nice and smoooooth.
R5-D4 R2-D2

Next was to mask off the grooves, this was done just to prevent any of the silver paint going on my nice white paint.
I masked off a bit at a time and then removed it, to prevent any smudging and transfer onto the white paint.
Masking tape being applied
R5-D4 R2-D2
A steady hand!
R5-D4 R2-D2
Rear Hatch now with silver grooves
R5-D4 R2-D2
Just a close up of the grooves
Next I masked off the whole rear hatch and silver spraying the two Coin Return panels.
Rear Hatch, masked off with yellow paper [colour is optional] and sprayed silver.
R5-D4 R2-D2
Masking removed, Coin Returns now in silver.

Rebelscum.com: Save The Lars Homestead: Mission Accomplished

Rebelscum.com: Save The Lars Homestead: Mission Accomplished

Tee-Threepio: Human Cyborg Relations: "I think we'd better go inside.."

Tee-Threepio: Human Cyborg Relations: "I think we'd better go inside..": Hello all, I'm back from the Jundland Wastes where I had a great time helping the team work a little bit of magic, restoring the Lars Homes...

June 01, 2012

Body Skin 2.3 - Spraying up Rear Hatch

Went to The Range (a UK based 'budget' type store) and picked up some more spray cans. Primer and White Satin, not bad at £4.99 each for large cans.
Normally around £7 in DIY stores.

Update, pics of Rear Hatch in grey primer. First coat.


Applied more wood filler to hide screws and panel pin heads. Started scoring and grooving out main body panels! Noticed a difference in the hardboard, its more 'fibery' than the board used for the hatch.

Next I sorted out the rear hatch catch.

Finally, sanded the wood filler smooth and then sprayed a few more coats of grey primer.