Pockets Almost Done

Today I sprayed some primer on yesterday's handiwork.

Some of the pockets look like they are done.



Others might need a bit of work.



Either way, they're pretty close to being done.

More Evercoat for Pocket Protectors

Tonight I sanded the primer I applied the other day to see how smooth the seams were on the MDF liners inside the under shoulder detail pockets.

There are some minor discontinuities here and there.



I made a second pass of Evercoat over those areas. Probably overkill, but I'd rather not do this again.



Once the Evercoat had dried, I sanded with 400 grit sand paper.



The surface feels pretty smooth now. Tomorrow I'll hit these areas with a little primer and review. Hopefully they'll look good.

Evercoat and Primer for Pocket Protectors

Today I applied some Evercoat to the seams where the MDF inserts in the under shoulder detail pockets meet up with the edge of the wooden legs.



I used a toothpick to apply the Evercoat to the leg, which probably isn't the best way to achieve the desired results. The razor blade I usually use is too caked with old Evercoat, and I was trying to pinpoint the application of the stuff. Eh, live and learn.



Once the Evercoat had cured, I sanded it smooth.



Finally, some primer to check the results.




Not too bad, but I'll probably give them another once-over with Evercoat, filling small dips and seams.

San Diego Comic-Con 2009

While not quite droid building or a droid building event, San Diego Comic-Con featured several droids, so it goes into the blog.

I managed to attend Comic-Con today only, which was plenty tiring! There is so much to see, and an ocean of people (like 120,000 or so).



Let's start with some of the other R2 Builders I saw.

William and Nikki Miyamoto were navigating HAL-1138 around the lobby, joined by Max Cervantes and RT-R2.



Chris Romines, Oliver Steeples and Amy Sjoberg also joined an impromptu droid builder gathering.





Chris Romines (R2-A1) and Vince Sanchez (R2-D2) had their droids parked at the Dark Horse Comics booth.



We caught up with Matthew Senreich and Tom Root of Robot Chicken, and chatted for a few minutes.



Clone Wars director Dave Filoni was also nearby.



Speaking of droids (a few pictures ago), Sideshow Collectibles had their R2-D2 on display. I'm sorry, this thing just looks wrong! The skirt in particular is really off. The pictures don't do it (in)justice.



Tons of fun Star Wars-related stuff, both at the Lucasfilm booth(s) and at partner booths.








And not to be left out, the non-Star Wars stuff.







Even more pictures here.

Finished Sanding Pocket Protectors

Whee! Time to sand the rest of the MDF inserts in the under shoulder detail pockets.




Hmm... looks a lot like yesterday, but it's not.

Done with that segment.



And done with the other. The part fits in nicely. Repeat for the remaining pocket and done.



I still need to apply a little Evercoat to the seams, but I won't get to that until Sunday at the earliest. Comic-Con in San Diego awaits tomorrow, although my R2 will be staying home.

Sanded Down First Set of Pocket Protectors, Glued in Second Set

Tonight I sanded down the MDF pocket liners that I glued down yesterday, and installed the second set.

I started with coarse sandpaper to remove a lot of material in a short amount of time.



"Well, switch my grits!" As I got closer to the surface of the leg, I switched to 220 grit.



400 grit finishes the job.



Same thing with the other leg.




Once the sanding was done, I turned to gluing in the MDF inserts on the other side of each leg. The inserts are cut close to the proper size, but some sanding is required to get a correct fit.



Once a test-fit of all the pieces looks good, it's time to glue them in.





Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to sand these down, and then I'll need to give them the once-over with Evercoat to fill small gaps and seams.

By the way, I did consider painting these before gluing, but I figured that I'd probably mess up the paint job during the installation process, so I decided I'll paint them later.

Started Gluing Pocket Protectors

Tonight I glued down two sets of the MDF lining that goes into the pockets for the under shoulder details.



I made sure the actual under shoulder detail would fit before gluing, and once glued, I fitted the part in the pocket again, as it helps keep the MDF in place.



Once these have dried, I will sand them flat, and then I can work on the other two sets of pocket protectors.

Searching Broken

Just a quick mention that it seems the "Search Blog" feature is not working at the moment. It's been non-functional for several days, and many (all?) blogs on blogspot.com are affected. Hopefully they will fix this issue soon. If and when they do, I'll delete this post.

-Victor

Mounted Ankle Cylinders

Tonight I mounted the ankle cylinders to the wooden legs.

First, I created a paper template to pinpoint where on the resin cylinders to drill the holes. The holes are a little over a half inch deep and 1/4" in diameter, for the short wooden dowels that I'll use to mount the ankle cylinders.



I repeated this for each resin cylinder, and test-fitted the dowels as I went.



Next, it's time to drill matching holes in the legs. Here's a step-by-step description of how I went about this for each cylinder.

First, I grabbed a fresh piece of paper and taped it tight around the resin cylinder.



Next, I took a couple of the wooden dowels and poked them through the paper, and into the cylinders.



With the holes punched through the paper, I removed the dowels and set the cylinder on the ankle as it would rest when permanently mounted.



Then, being very careful not to move the cylinder, I untaped the bottom part of the paper from the cylinder, and taped it down to the ankle.



Next, I carefully untaped and removed the rest of the paper from the cylinder, and taped it down to the ankle.



Here's my sophisticated, high-tech leg positioning system, as I prepare to drill the holes in the leg.



I centered the drill bit as best I could above the holes in the template and started drilling.




The moment of truth: Will all the holes match correctly?



Yes, success!



Repeat 3 more times, and I'm done.



One of the cylinders on the center leg is very slightly off-angle, but it's so minor that I don't think I'll do anything to correct it. If I do address it, I'll probably widen one of the holes in the resin cylinder and then JB Weld the dowel in so that it sits correctly.

Having said that, I took a look at droid #1, and it has the exact same issue, and I never really noticed it before, so I seriously doubt I'll do much for this droid either.