Treadwell WED-15 droid build : Part 21 : Base / arm 4 upgrades / manual

 This post covers a few topics:

• Base problem 
• Arm 4 alternative version
• Arm 5 claw 3D printing
• Arm 5 claw articulated 3D version
• ‘Stick Droid’ manual - John Stears
• Propstore auction - R2-D2

September:

I noticed a few months back that I’d missed a detail, whilst following the plans. They show the front lower edges as being 90°s but are actually angled like the upper edges.

See picture:

So I’m going to have to modify this somehow!

This will require the removal of the front and rear screws from the bottom (done).

Next, I marked up the cut line.

I just need to get hold of a circular saw…..

October:

I dug out my Star Wars encyclopaedia just to see if it had any treadwell stuff in and it did!!!

This is quite a clear image. One part that caught my attention though was the lower left utility arm.

Previous images give the illusion that it has a cylindrical ‘mesh’ around part of it, but in this picture it looks like half cylindrical discs, similar to old electrical contacts.

Zoomed in picture:

You can see from the contrast highlighted centre area that there’s a distinct stepped layout of the layers. I went with cylindrical discs as this still matches up with the other images.

So i drew this up in AutoCAD and 3D printed the new pieces. I CAD’ed them up in half sections for the arm and the discs as separate parts, this results in better quality prints, less support waste, but also better painting opportunity.

To help with alignment, I added a location ridge and groove. The image above shows this, the ‘discs’ are a close fit but the CAD image doesn’t account for the filament expansion, hence the gap.

Next up was another arm the same as the claw one, but this one will be static.

I ordered another claw from Amazon & have painted up the 3D prints.

October 20th:

Continuing on with the slow progress, I found time to measure (using a digital vernier) and draw up the ‘claw’ end pieces. I made the claws a little thicker to add strength, then 3D printed off a set. I also printed off an internal piece to help locate the claws when I glued them in to place.

As part of the development process and creation, I drilled holes and added pins to recreate the pivot points (as shown in previous image no2).

This version is a fixed claw one.

Started at attempting to do an articulate version.

There is definitely movement lol

All these models will be going up on my Prusa account, once finished.

Propstore auction: November 2023

Two items got my attention (neither I can afford though 😆) and these were the instruction manuals crafted by John Stears, for the droids in A New Hope, in particular the ‘Stick’ droid or as we know him, WED-15 Treadwell droid.

I have always wanted to recreate this manual in full. Utilising copies already found over on the www.rebeldroids.net forum as a guide, I was able to search and found some high quality images of the manual, via a previous auction (site) from earlier in the year.

So I saved these and added them, along with some pages I had to recreate.

I will include an updated section, specifically for my own build.

The second item is the R2-D2.

This is because I know the owner personally, funnily enough, all the recent droids that have come up for auction via the Propstore, I’ve known the owner's. Fingers crossed for some good bidding 😎👍🏽