Here's the plan

I've finally finalized the color scheme I'm going to use for R6-C9, pictured below. This is it. Final. No going back. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
It'll be a "gun-metal" kind of color. I know what I want it to look like, but how to achieve it I will have to learn. So if I get to paint any parts before C-V, this is the color.

Other decisions: I have decided (for the most part) what features I will focus on getting done and what I will save for after the convention. I am going to focus mostly on the head; getting the skin on it, installing the lights, etc, as well as hopefully getting some automation going for the head turning and talking. If you read my very first few blog postings (2005), I was wanting to make R6 just an automated display and then build another droid with all the tricks (most likely R2-D2). The plans for R6 have evolved several times since. To date, I think I want to be able to drive R6 around by remote, but also be able to leave him standing still while talking and turning his head when someone gets close enough to trigger an IR sensor. So the automated stuff I want to have working by Convention time. As for the body, I'll have it assembled with the legs and maybe skins attached. I've just ordered a set of steel foot shells for the feet. I'm not going to setup the motor drives, just have some temporary wheels installed so he can stand up.

So, in review, by convention time R6 will:
Have a mostly (if not fully) skinned head with lights
Have a completed body frame with legs and temp feet and maybe body skins
Have working automated sound and head rotaion

A small list, but still a big job to do. Hopefully, no, I will have all of this done in time.

I must be crazy.

John

STAR WARS CELEBRATION V!!!!

Today Starwars.com officially announced the dates and location for the next Star Wars convention, Star Wars Celebration V (5). Click here to see the news on starwars.com.

It will be in early August in Orlando Florida. I've never been there so this will be fun, and it'll be a whole lot easier for me to travel there. I missed Celebration IV, but not this one. I will have R6-C9 on display there, ready or not. Hopefully I'll at least have him on his own feet.

I'm still going to take a break for the winter because of the cold and stuff, but as soon as it gets in the 50's again, I'll be making saw dust. Dude, I've got planning to do. The Club is already buzzing about this. I've gotta move it, move it.

Excited,
John

One last time

As luck would have it, the temperature today was in the high 50's so I went back to the shop to try and finish the parts for the version 2 body. I was able to get all the vertical ribs cut to size and they are mostly ready for glueing (except for one or two little details left to cut). This time however, I'm not glueing anything until I have test fitted all the frame parts with all the detail parts plus the skins in case I need to redo a part or some other kind of modification so everything fits where it should.



That's all. Hope you had, or in my case, are still having a thankful Thanksgiving, hope you survived Black Friday (or avoided it in my case), and don't forget that Christmas is now less than a month away. Aren't the holidays fun?!

John

Closed for the season

Didn't really do anything today except for checking some measurements for cutting out the vertical ribs. It's getting really cold in the shop now so as of now I'm halting all major shop work until it gets warmer....being Indiana that might be next week, ha ha.

But don't worry. There's still plenty I can work on at home. There's still all the electronics to buy and/or make, working on the aluminum skins, and buying hard to make parts. Speaking of which, I recently put in an order for several plastic parts that would be near impossible to make by hand with the tools and knowledge I have. I'll post pictures of these things when I receive them.

That's about it. Have a happy Thanksgiving.

John

Got a much earlier start today so i got a lot more done. I had a template from the version 1 body still and since its diameter and vertical rib positions are correct, I used it again to remake all the ribs.

After cutting out two 3/4" disk, three 1/2" disk, and one 1/4" half-disk I placed the template on top of each one and, using a router with a 1/2" x 1" router bit with guide wheel, I cut the rib slots out. The next two pictures are a before and after example.

Three 1/2" disk at 18" diamter.

I don't believe I've shown this before. This is the router bit with the guide wheel. The wheel is the silver ring below the blade. You can get these in several sizes and with the wheel above or below the blade.

Cutting out center of ring #2. Gotta have room inside for all the wires and junk.

These are all the pieces I made today.

All that's left to make is the vertical ribs, the top and the bottom disk. Then it's test fit, test fit, test fit! I do not want to have to remake all these parts again.

It's starting to get really cold here in Indiana (49 degrees F today). The shop is at my Grandparents house in their garage and it gets cold in there during the winter. As such, I will be taking a winter break from shop work until late February or March when it will be warm enough to have the garage door open. I'm going to try to finish building the new body before it gets too cold, but no promises. During this time I will work on other things like the electronics and prepping the aluminum skins for painting.

John

Prep work

Ok, first things first. Let's get the insert installed into the center ankle.




Ok, moving on. I didn't get much done today except to confirm what I need to change for the v.2 body frame and acquiring additional material. I got 4 boards of 1/8" MDF at the Home Depot to use for the Shoulder Horseshoes. The Horseshoes are the extra material on the Shoulders, more on that another time. I also got some new router bits at Lowes and a new router at the Wood Craft wood working store. Turns out one of the employees at Wood Craft makes Star Wars costumes. Him and another employee there geeked out when I told them what I was making with the new router.

Once I got back to the shop I took the clamps off the 2nd leg and TaDa! Just a few more details to add and I can start painting.

Before I get rid of it, I tried the aluminum skins on the v.1 body. Good news is it nearly fits. Bad news is I still have to remake it. I also discovered that the body is a tad too short. You can see the skins rising a little higher than the top of the body.

Left side. Flat area cut right but as I said before a rib on each side is not perfectly vertical.

Right side. Is supposed to look like the left side. Oh well.

I also tried the skins with the body template I used to match all the rid slots. It fits perfectly which means I got the diameter correct at 18". Also it appears the vertical ribs are positioned exactly where they need to be.

I'm off this Wednesday so I'll be back in the shop cutting out new pieces for the v.2 body. I might even try to make a template for the Shoulder Horseshoes.

John

Got Skins

Thursday I received the laser cut aluminum body skins for R6-C9. They are of course exactly the same as R2-D2. Only difference between an R2 and an R6 is the head. The skins come as an inner pair and an outer pair. This is so the panels looked recessed where needed. They will require a lot of prep work. First I have to remake the body frame to fit the skins. Next I'll have to cut out all the panels on the outer and some off of the inner set which will depend on whether or not certain panels will open like in the movies. Once the panels are cut out and the burs are filed down I can start painting the outer set. The inner set will be screwed down to the frame and then the outer set when ready will be glued to the inner set. It will require a lot of work and a lot of time.

These are pictures of the skins. Nice huh? The outer skins are on the left side of the picture. The first picture is the front inner/outer and the second is the rear inner/outer.

Tomorrow I will take the skins to the shop and start measuring to make the version 2 body. I'll also try it on the version 1 to see how close I got.
Until then,

John