Front Vents - Fitted 2.2

Fitted top vent and bracket, found id not elongated the holes enough, but got it to fit in place eventually.

I've already marked out the lower vent hole, just need to have time to cut it out. Would REALY like ot get it done before his next event.......which is November 23rd @ the Fleet Air Arm Museum.

Front Vents - Fixing Bracket **UPGRADE** 2.1

Last night I wanted to mark and fit the top front Vent onto the brackets I had fitted ages ago, see Front Vents resin set post.

For whatever reason, rushing, it being late, not enough light in my garage..... I didn't notice that one of the two brackets I had fitted wasn't long enough to actually be secured to the Vent. So Plan 'B' is now in effect. This is actually how I thought I could of fitted them, just like the Power Couplers, in the first place lol.

So rummaged though scrap metal box and found some thin sheet metal. Measured, marked & cut a strip off. Then bent to shape and drilled fixing holes for it to be screwed to the inside frame.

The curved area along the bottom was so that only one of the Vents opening's won't be blocked. The one remaining, which can be seen in the picture below, will have it's opening traced onto the bracket, once it's been fitted and then this will be drilled out.

Next thing was to drill elongated holes [width ways, though not visiable] in the bracket and then drill and thread tap holes in the rear of the Vent. Am using M5 metric thread and hex socket head bolts.

Bad Motivator - upgrade work in progress 2.1

Here is the first of the re-positioned parts glued together.

I've used araldite glue to secure

The wires sticking out resemble the wires that can be seen in images from the film. OK, granted, not red with brown spiral ones lol, these will be changed. 

Also looked at fitting a low power red LED under the mesh.......if there's space to fit it!

Above pic shows just the LED.............

.....................Pic below shows with a diffuser and wire mesh [temp positioned] in place. The mesh will be pressed further down inside.

There is just enough space inside the Motivator, once the washer and nut are fitted. Just need to wire up the battery properly and fit a switch...... not another switch! lol

Next piece is to fit the second component onto the Motivator. The 'flat' area seen in the first pic above is where it will be fitted.

R5-D4's Head 4.0 - Neck ring silver tape

I wanted to make sure that the silver tape would actually stick to the painted wood. So I cut some up and tried them in place.

Without camera flash

With camera flash lol

I've not added any more, as much as I would like to..... :D. As there is still a log of work to be done, filler, sanding, primer spraying up. And then of course a clear coat to seal everything.

R5-D4's Head 3.9 - Red pin stripes on Dome.

Bought second tin of P38 body filler and carried on where I left of lol..... So after more filler, sanding, filler and more sanding, the top of R5's head is really starting to take shape.

After fitting the lights last night, it was late, but just wanted to try out the red pin stripe tape I'd bought.

Am so so about how it looks......

For now it will do, but am definatly going to attempt to mask off and spray lines up. The reason for this is two fold.

1. The colour doesn't match the Red already on the body.
2. There are gaps between the join lines of the tape.
3. The lines are raised slightly because they are 'stuck on'.

Hahahahaha, yes, I know I said TWO points, but the third one had to go on the list ;)

R5 Eye Lights pt2

Last night's work. Half hour wasted, wireing up the wrong (blown) set of LED's :'(

Then un-soldering them, and then re-soldering the good LED's :-). There are three Blue LED's, one for each of the main Eyes. At the moment they are running off little 'button' cell batteries that came with the glasses, see prev post on Eye Lights. These will be upgraded along with the LED's at a later stage.

Couldn't find a switch in junk box :-( so had to make do with terminal block for now :-)
Then hot glued everything into position.

Horseshoe No2 takes a bit more shape

This work I did last month, but forgot to post to Blog.

So I finished glueing the two sections together, then glued in the dowels to locate the horseshoe to the leg. Next wood filler was applied all over the join lines.

Then light sanding and a bit more filler.

Next was drilling holes. I marked the position of the shoulder Buttons [these fit in the square sockets] and also the Hydraulic Unit. The top Button has to be angled slightly, as per the plans, but also for screen accuracy :). So a small strip on hardboard was trimmed and glued in place at the bottom edge of the socket. Although this wont be seen, I'll apply wood filler to blend it in.

Here you see the Horseshoe with it's first coat of primer. Still a bit to do tho. But need to get the Dome finished.

R5-D4's Head 3.8 - Cone takes shape

So late last night, I got round to starting to apply P38 car body filler to the fibre glass resin already in place on R5's dome.

Now to start on smooooothing this little lot out!

R5 Eye Lights

My Son had a novelty pair of blue LED light up glasses.

But the arm broke off so were then no good.

Then I had an idea..........insert mad scientist laugh :D

Tested the brightness of the LED's in R5's eye.

These images shows R5's eye with two LED's shining through from inside the eyepiece

Not to bad. I want them to be bright (for now) so they can actually be seen.

R5-D4's Head 3.7 - Cone forming BEGINS

The other night I cut up cardboard strips and PVA glued them onto the dome. Then got to work on the glass fibre mat and resin.

The blue you can see through the resin, is cardboard.

Phew this stuff stinks!!! LOL.

Next will be the application of P38 filler.