Finished Repainting Ankle Parts

I was able to finish repainting the blue areas on the remaining two ankle cylinders, and I also repainted the cylinder wedges. The reason I repainted is that I decided to go back and fill small holes and sand smooth these parts.

Ankle Cylinder, Detail & Dome Bump Repainting

I repainted the blue area of two of the ankle cylinders today.



I also touched up an area of an ankle detail and a dome bump switch.

Back to Building

Well, after two full weeks of building inactivity, I'm finally back from chasing R2 around the Southwest U.S..

I wrote earlier that I planned to work on the power couplers this week, but I'm going to defer that until next week, as I have other things going on this week and I want to devote my undivided attention to cutting the skins properly. In the meantime I'm working on minor things.

I decided to sand the bottom surface of the ankle details, and the outboard surfaces of the cylinder wedges, to smooth them out. This means... repainting! Hooray!



After sanding I applied primer, and plan to repaint tomorrow.

Where's R2?

While I'm taking a break from building, try visiting:

Where's R2?

and see if you can figure out where R2 is!

Taking a Break

No joke, I'm going to take a break from building for about two weeks, so I won't have anything new to report here for a little while. When I return to building, I'll probably get started on trimming the inner skins to fit the new power couplers.

Thank you to all my regular visitors, I hope I don't lose you while the blog stays quiet.

-Victor

Painted Dome Bump Switches

Today I painted the dome bump switches blue.

Dome Bump Switch Primer

I'm going to take a shot at painting my dome bump switches blue. This may not be such a good idea, since they will be touched often for powering on/off the dome electronics. I applied primer today, I hope to paint tomorrow.

Odds & Ends for Legs

I performed several leg-related housekeeping chores today.

First, the shoulder hubs didn't quite fit into their holes after the white paint was applied to the legs, so I lightly sanded the shoulder hub holes, and now the hubs fit again.

Second, I noticed that I needed to countersink the wood screw that was holding the aluminum flashing around the shoulder disc in place, so I took care of that.

Next, I hand-painted the armpits for the under shoulder details with Krylon Aluminum Chrome. I didn't want to chance messing up the white paint job on the legs. Hardly any of the armpit area will show once the details are in place, so this didn't have to be perfect.



I wrapped up by gluing the leg strut supports into the hollow part of the ankle. I also applied foil tape around the groove in the leg, to give it its metallic look.

Painted Ankle Brackets

I was lucky enough to find more of the Krylon Aluminum Chrome paint today at Ace, so I was able to paint the ankle brackets.

Ankle Bracket Primer

Today I sanded the ankle brackets and applied primer to them, in the hope of painting them tomorrow.

Finished Cutting Ankle Brackets

Today I was able to cut the left ankle bracket and the strips that go around the back. I will glue these in later, but for now I did a loose fit.



The brackets seem to fit around the leg just fine, but my cuts that form the top of the wooden ankles could have been more level. Oh well.

Finished Right Ankle Bracket Cuts

After taking the nephews to Disneyland yesterday (and picking up a small R2 figurine at the Star Tours gift shop), I was able to do a little bit of building today.

I picked up where I left off on the right ankle bracket, using the Dremel cutoff wheel attachment to cut the area out where the booster cover will go.



I used the Dremel drum sander to round out the area where the leg strut shaft will go.



The test fit looks good.



I will need to cut and glue in a piece of PVC to go around the back of the leg later on.

Resumed Work on Ankle Brackets

This afternoon I was able to spend a little time returning to work on the PVC ankle brackets (one of them, at least).

First, I used a push pin to score the outline that I need to cut to allow the leg and booster cover to pass through.



Next, I used the Dremel with the cutoff wheel attachment to rough-cut the section goes around the leg. (I'll cut the area for the booster cover later, when I have more time.)



I used a course file and a fine file to clean up the edges as much as possible.



A test fit indicates things are close, but I may need to go back and file off a little more material, the bracket is not sitting quite far back enough. It's pretty close, though.

Back on Three Legs, Secured Aluminum Flashing

I was able to pick up the painted legs from Mike's today. I took them home, and couldn't wait to secure the aluminum flashing that goes around the shoulder discs, and fit all the decorations on.



My R2-building schedule will be a bit sporadic for the next few days (family is in town), so I can only hope to get work done on R2 in the near term.

Pat's Shoulder Hubs Arrive

Pat Coajou's shoulder hubs arrived today (it's raining aluminum lately). They do look terrific, but I got impatient and ordered Jason's a while back. Still, I'll be holding onto these.



Does this count as building? (No.)

Finished Repainting Cylinders Silver, Power Couplers Arrive

This morning I repainted the silver areas of the remaining two ankle cylinders.

In the evening, Michael McMaster's excellent power couplers were awaiting me in today's mail.



Mike Senna called to say the painted legs were pretty much dry, so I'll pick those up Saturday morning. I can't wait to get this droid back on three legs.

Sanded & Started Repainting Cylinders

This morning I sanded down the Bondo that I had applied to the cylinders last night. In the evening, I applied masking tape to the blue areas in the center, and repainted the first two cylinders' silver areas.



I'm getting a lot of mileage out of that block of wood with the two 1/8" metal rods in them.

Bondo for Ankle Cylinders

Hey, remember those ankle cylinders whose paint job I got right the first time? Well, it was time to destroy the paint job.

There were little pinholes in the some areas of the resin that I just ignored, but I've decided to go back and fill them with Bondo. That means I'll have to sand and repaint, at least the silver section for each of them, and the blue section for one of them. Oh well...

Painted Coin Slots, Cylinder Holders

Sure enough, we did have thunderstorms yesterday, so I decided to take the day off. Today things were somewhat dryer, although still relatively humid. Not exactly ideal conditions for painting, but why let good judgment stop me now?

In the morning, I painted the resin coin slots silver. When I got home in the evening, they were dry, so I gave them a loose fitting in the skins.



Later on, I painted the wooden cylinder holders white. No apparent disasters that I can see.

Legs Painted(!), Aluminum Flashing for Shoulder Discs

Whoo hoo! I went over to Mike's today, and at long last, the legs got painted.

Mike did all the painting, and I was more than grateful. As Principal Skinner said on The Simpsons, "If life has taught me one lesson repeatedly, it's to know when I'm beat."

Mike applied his expert painting skills to the middle leg first.



Next, it was on to the outer legs. Nothing like wearing a mask in 100+ degree heat, with leg-on-a-stick.




Then, it was time to hang 'em up to dry.



Hopefully they'll be ready to use in about a week (we want them to dry thoroughly). Thank you Mike!!!

I picked up some aluminum ducting (3' length x 8" diameter) at Home Depot on the way home, and used tin snips to cut the pieces that cover the wooden shoulder discs. I have not screwed these into the shoulder discs yet, I want to wait for the legs to come back home first so that I can ensure a proper placement.




I wrapped up by fitting the coin slots into the frame, I plan to paint them silver tomorrow (assuming we don't get thunderstorms in all this humidity, and that I have enough silver paint on hand).