Memorabilia Comic Con: 22nd - 23rd March 2014

At the weekend the UK R2 Builders Club attended
Memorabilia @ MCM Birmingham.

I wasn't able to attend with R5, but lots of Club members did.

http://www.astromech.info/home

There are loads of pictures on the internet so keep your eyes open for one or more of these fantastic Droids....... These are the ones your looking for!

Two of these can be seen in this report on.....

Return of The Centre Foot - new support plates

Lunchtime Friday, I cut out some perforated metal plate, from scrap bin in work. Bent an angle to fit the shell inside front and rear walls and drilled some location holes for fixing to wood base.

I didn't get a chance to actually fit to R5, so will post again when I do.....

Return of The Centre Foot

Right, before I start getting stuck into upgrading the Centre Foot any further, I thought I'd try a brace on the Foot to the Ankle. So cut a strip of metal, filed edges and bent into shape.

Drilled two clearance holes for two M5 hex socket bolts.

This was then going to be positioned onto the centre foot to transfer best position for holes to be drilled.................but in my re-fitting the foot to the centre leg...... this happened.

When I altered the internal wood 'plate' to go further up inside the foot shell, I had made it small around the outside edge. As this was what the foot shell rested on.
More repair work!

***** Corsham Sci-Fi Day 2014 *****

It's that time of the year again, the one where I am able to attend an event lol.

This year I will be able to show off R5 with his own dome topped state.

Also attending from the UK R2 Builders Club is
Giles with his R2 Unit, Artoojayzero

Emy Astromech & Zoe Astromech will also be attending, Facebook link here.
Along with Daleks and lots more.

This event grows with each year and has done since
I first visited it when in it's then, second year.

Click on the link to view their FaceBook Group page as well as their website

Check out their pages for up to date event info.

R5-D4 Fully Assembled

So Sunday, I managed to get R5 out of the garage, re-fit a few things and take some photos.....

:-)

R5 centre foot wheel issues......the Saga continues

So Sunday I moved R5 out of the garage to take some proper pictures of him.
See next post for these......

But his new, old, new centre foot still caused me concern!

I found my original angle brackets and dismantelled the centre foot to re-fit these.

These lower the internal wheel platform down more, altering the pivot point.

I've not had the chance to re-fit this onto R5 as yet.

I may be swaying to a two wheel design layout lol, can't hurt to try :D

R5-D4 Fully Assembled......99% lol

Here he is in almost all his glory hahaha,

well, untill I can get him out the garage and take some proper photos..

R5 assembled......but centre foot wheel issues......

Got home last night and got to fitting R5's second (first) leg, back on him. No problems. Fitted his foot and battery box, no problem. Then comes the tricky part lol, fitting his centre foot!

Fitted his centre leg & foot, but that's when the tipping issue arose.

From what I can see/figure out, the new wheel has moved the centre balance point up which causes problems with the leg angle to foot pivot point. I only have the ankle bolt to lock in place, but as soon as I tried to move him, the wheel assembly just tilted backwards [right pic].

So I removed the larger wheel and (still having the old one, pictures below) swapped it over.

I was worried about ground clearance, but am still using the new brackets and it's OK, for now.

Leg Assembly......again

Last night I got to re-assembly Leg No1 again.

The way most of these components were designed to be connected together was not my 'new' idea. I have followed several other R2 Builders builds. And this, along with building the actual components, are mostly not original to me.

Adam Strawson's R2 was one of the first R2 Build's I followed.

The other being Emy by Podpadstudio's.

So here's all the parts....

Left pic shows the front, the right pic shows the rear fixing points etc.

For my build, I secure the Ankle Braclet to the Ankle 'curved' section with a small screw. This holds it in place and will locate the Booster Strut in place.

Next I secure the Booster Strut by inserting the bottom of it into the Ankle Bracelet, then a screw into a bracket on the rear of the top square part, picture below.

Booster Cover over the Strut, and press it down into the dowel location holes.

The other components, the Ankle Cylinder, cylinder wedge and support are already assembled as one piece. These are push fitted into the leg with dowels.

The last three items are the 'Ankle Details' these fit on the lower ankle sides, fron and back.
And the Shoulder Horseshoe assembly, which is pre-assembled.
The centre hub is also a snug push fit.

Battery Straps - set no2

Started 22.01.14

Drilled out and pinned, along with Araldite, the top and bottom pieces of the Battery Straps.

Next was primer, then some wood filler and sanding. Then silver. These haven't come out as well as the first set, but once 'dirtied up' they should be OK.

Lastly, the blue pads were HOT glued in place. Once dried, wood filler was applied to fill in the gaps. Lightly sanded and then touched up with Metalic Blue paint. They were then hot glued onto the Battery Box.

Horseshoe No2 - Hydraulic & Buttons fitted

To make space in the bedroom [keeping the wife happy] I took the Horseshoe back out to the garage and fitted [bolted] the Hydraulic & the two Buttons back on. Then fitted the spacer and finally, pushed the location pegs into the holes on the Leg.

Leg No2, is now complete :)

Braided Hose's set No.2

With everything else I'd forgotten about my second set of Braided Hose's. I'd test fitted the securing screw into the hose ends to keep them in place in the Knurled Hose Fittings and then put them away in a storage box. So here they are masked up and ready for 'Brass' spraying.

Brass????? ....................Yes, brass.

Technically they should be a 'copper' colour, but I liked the colour and it will help to be one of the 'key items' to look out for when people see an R5 in picture on the internet lol.

And sprayed up.

The camera flash make's it look like the ends haven't been sprayed, but they have.

I then clear coated the hose and the Knurled end fittings.

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 4.7 - clear spray coat

Tuesday night, I stripped R5 of all his eye 'sensors', Dome rods & motivator brackets. This was in preperation for clear coat spraying.

I was planning on doing this Wednesday, but remembered i wasn't going to be in work. Then Thursday I needed to finish off some silver detial work & remove parts from R5's body, ready it also to be clear sprayed up.

So today's the day. I applied masking tape to the inside of the Domes holes and using works spray booth, got to clear coat the Dome.

Photos to follow.......

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!

Horseshoe No2 final white spray work

With all this spraying being done, I remembered to finish off the Horseshoe no2.

Satin White applied. then once dry, clear coat went on.

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.

R5 gets some peace and quiet from me.....

The work i had planned for tomorrows lunchtime on R5,will have to wait, lol. I forgot im going to Wembley tomorrow (half day in work). Going to watch England v Denmark with my young Son and his county football team :)

Oh well, an extra day for the painted parts to dry hard lol.

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.

R5-D4's Eyes - LED holders

I machined up three LED 'plugs' for R5's eyes.

Material used was Polypropylene [plastic]. I measured up the hole and made the plugs as snug a fit as possible. I try to look ahead (lol no pun intended), and if I need to take his eyes off his head/dome again in the future, I want it to be a simple, painless process. The last set of LED's I hot glued the leads in place to the inside of his head, which ment trying to uninstall them a bit of a pain. With these plugs, The LED's will be hot glued into them and the 'plugs' push fitted into the rear of the Eyes, actually the rear 'spy-hole' locking ring. See pic for a clearer understanding lol.

The brass ring spacer(s) helps to stop the rear of the spy-hole unit from being pulled through the wood dome skin.

More info on my home made (machined) Eyes click this link:
http://r5-d4astromechdroid.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/r5-d4s-eyes-update.html

More on the brass ring spacers, click link:
http://r5-d4astromechdroid.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/r5-d4s-eyes-spacers.html

R5's weigh's how much!?!?!

Centre Foot & Leg
Way back in 2012, after finishing his centre foot (leg) build, i weighed it.
The weight was 4Kg's [foot shell, internals inc. wheel and the whole of the centre leg]

The recent upgrades i've made, inside cut-out of foot shell [see above], new lighter tho larger scooter wheel; internal mounting for wheel and brackets to connect to centre leg, may alter the final weight of the centre foot, but I can't see it being by much. So for now I'll use this weight.

Legs
I first weighed both leg's. Fitted with their shoulder disc's and bolts in place, they both weighed excatly the same.....5.5Kg's each!

R5's Dome
I also re-weighed R5's dome. Before the 3 recessed boxes or his dome cone were done, it weighed 4Kg's. After, with the cone & everything else added, eyes, rods etc, it now weighs 6.5Kg's.
I was a bit worried at first, till I read about others (aluminium) domes and their weights! :)

Feet
The feet, which are non motorised just scooter wheels at present, fitted with Battery Box & Braided hose, weigh in at 3.0Kg's each.

R5D4 Body
OK, here goes! The body, without batteries or anything......as he doesn't have electrics yet, weigh's 14.5Kg's.


Total weight of R5 at this stage is...........42 Kg!

Body electrics......LED work to Pocket Vents 1.0

The Real R5 & mine lol, doesn't have a lot to look at. No periscope, flashing lights, charge bay indicator lights etc. So he looks a bit boring when out and about. So I thought I'd join the rest of the builders who add a little bit extra with some LED lighting.

I was thinking of rear illuminating the coin slots. This has been done and is something i may do later on. The plan is to use the two remaining blue LED'S, to light up the two Pocket Vent grills.

So I spent an hour wire stripping, cutting, trimming cable to terminal blocks. Then I got to wiring the cable up to the battery and see how it looks.......

..............well, I was a bit disapointed to say the least! The LED light needs to be diffused as it was to focused.

Moving on, i found my stash of computer mother boards and one in particular section caught my eye. My idea was to mount this behind the grill and shine the LED in between it and the grill mesh??

This would concentrate the LED's light, and if looked inside you would only see the circuit board :)