Evercoat for Second Outer Foot Shell

Outer foot shell #1, meet your ugly sibling, outer foot shell #2.



Time to start applying Evercoat to the seams and gaps on outer foot shell #2. This time, I was much more judicious in my application of the Evercoat filler. This means that I will have less sanding to do, but certainly means that I will have to do multiple passes in order to fill all the gaps I missed on the first pass. But since that happened anyway when I applied Evercoat in huge amounts everywhere, it shouldn't be a lot worse this time around.

First Outer Foot Shell Wrap-Up

Time to finish up the first outer foot shell.

One spot above the curved area needed a little work.



There was also a spot toward the top of the foot shell that won't even show when the battery box is mounted, but it was mocking me. I sanded the primer off at both spots in preparation for one last round of filling with Evercoat.



A light application of Evercoat does the job.



Once the Evercoat had dried, I sanded it smooth.



On goes the primer, for final inspection.



This gets the Victor "It's Good Enough" Seal of Approval®. Final painting will come a little later.

Now, time to do it all over again for outer foot shell #2. Whee!

More Primer for First Outer Foot Shell

This evening I had a chance to apply some primer to the work I'd done over the last couple of days to help smooth out portions of the first outer foot shell, at the bottom of the curved area.



The good news is that the work I did looks acceptable to me.




The bad news is that I missed the fact that I need to do a little bit of filling at the top of the curved area on one side. The battery box won't cover that portion. So I'll fix that up next and hopefully that will be it for the first outer foot shell.

Evercoat Touch-Up for First Outer Foot Shell

There are a couple of small discontinuities at the bottom of the curve of the first outer foot shell, that won't be concealed by the battery box. I decided to take care of those tonight.



I applied a thin layer of Evercoat to the two spots that needed work.



Followed by sanding after the Evercoat had hardened.



Hopefully I'm done with filling and sanding for this foot shell. I'll apply some more primer to verify that this one is done. If so, I get to do it all over again with outer foot shell #2.

Primer and Touch Up Work for First Outer Foot Shell

Time to prime.



A coat of gray primer helps show the defects in my filling effort. As I mentioned earlier, I'm purposefully not worrying much about the area that is concealed by the battery box.



I found a few spots here and there that could use some extra Evercoat, so I sanded those areas, filled, and resanded.



Another shot of primer shows that the refilled areas look better.



There is another spot or two that I am going to lightly touch up and reprime before declaring victory, but it's getting there.

More Evercoat for First Outer Foot Shell

I know I wrote that I would apply primer and then look for more areas that require filling, but I just had to hit one or two spots with Evercoat first.



Once again, I used 400 grit sand paper to sand it smooth.



Ok, next up I really will apply a coat of primer and see how it looks.

Light Evercoat Work on Outer Foot Shell

Tonight I spent a few minutes filling in a few small gaps and voids remaining from yesterday's first sanding of the Evercoat I had applied the day before.

As I did with the center foot shell, I marked the areas to be filled with blue pen.



I used a small amount of Evercoat and applied it with a toothpick to the areas that needed filling.




After the Evercoat had dried, I went straight to 400 grit sand paper and sanded it smooth.




I can see a couple of minor areas that could probably use another round of Evercoat, but I think I will spray a mist coat of primer next and see if I can find any other spots I missed before making the next pass.

Sanded Evercoat on First Outer Foot Shell

Let the sanding begin. Starting with 150 grit sand paper.



Well, that put a dent in it.



Next, I moved to 220 grit sand paper. Getting a little closer.



Finally, 400 grit sand paper.




There are a few pinholes and voids that need small touch-ups, so I'll work on those next.

I'm not going to try to make the middle section of the curved area perfect, because a) it is hidden by the battery box, and b) a good chunk of it will be cut out to accommodate the motor. It's in pretty decent shape as it is anyway.

On the other outer foot shell, I will go much easier on the Evercoat. This took an eternity to sand, and it ends up being a waste of both time and material.

Encased First Outer Foot Shell in Evercoat

I managed to find a refill tube of Bondo hardener at Home Depot, and prepared to start Evercoat work on the first of the two outer foot shells.

The "before" picture.



The "after" picture.



I used the last of the Evercoat hardener (the light green areas), and then moved onto the Bondo hardener (the beige areas). Sure enough, the Bondo hardener seems to work fine with the Evercoat filler. Hopefully it will sand just as smoothly too.

The end of the curved area needs extra filler, as the side pieces come up a bit short. Not pretty.



He should be well protected, if he survived the freezing process, that is.

Started Sanding Outer Foot Shells

Time to start sanding the work I did yesterday.

I intentionally cut the pieces I glued in yesterday a little long in certain places, planning to sand them down to size.



Fortunately, styrene sands very quickly.



While I had the sand paper out, I decided to sand down some of the overlap/overhang areas that form where the interlocking segments of the A&A foot shells meet.




That's all the fun I had time for today.



I need to pick up some more hardener for the Evercoat before I can move forward. Mike Senna says that Bondo hardener will work with Evercoat, so I may use that instead.

Styrene for Outer Foot Shell Skirt Corners

Today I returned to the outer foot shells. This time, it was to close some gaps in the corners of the skirt strips at the bottom of the shells.

Some of the gaps called for the spare styrene scraps from the window strip cutouts. I tested the fit first, and I could see I needed to sand the bottom to fit the angle where the filler piece would sit. (Sanding the angle took all of about five seconds.)



I then put the piece back in place, and marked from behind where it should be trimmed.



I used the inelegant hacksaw to cut the piece to size. I probably could have used the wire-cutter portion of my needle nose pliers, but I know at least one half of the styrene piece would have shot across the garage, never to be seen again.



One by one, I repeated the process for each corner, gluing the pieces in place as I went.



Some corners required just a thin layer of styrene to fill the gap. I cut scraps out of some spare 1/16" styrene that I had left over from the skirt build.



I'm using Testors glue once again for the styrene-to-styrene gluing.



I'll let this dry overnight and hopefully tomorrow I can sand any overhanging areas down to size, and then I'll move onto the Evercoat phase.

Logic Surrounds Arrive

Well, I have very little to show for myself lately. However, on a positive note, David Shaw's most recent work of art, the front and rear logic surrounds, arrived today.



I have been ridiculously busy with work and business travel recently (to my blog reader in Beaverton, OR, I drove through your scenic town on the highway) and have had very little time to work on droid #2. Things should start to ease up, so I hope to get some work in shortly.

One minor setback: The Proctor Glove casters that I'm using on the center foot for droid #1 will not fit into the center foot shell for droid #2. The center foot shell on droid #1 is cut about 1/4" longer than spec front-to-back, whereas the A&A footshells seem to be spot-on. I will either need to replace the 3"-diameter wheels with smaller ones, or try to find casters that fit.

Center Foot Shell Wrap-Up

Time to wrap up the prep work on the center foot shell.

First, yesterday's Evercoat work needed to be sanded smooth. I had also scraped a little Testors glue from the window strip area.



Done.



One last shot of primer to check the results.



Looks good! It's ready for painting, but I'm going to wait on that until I've built the center foot (from wood).

Next up, the outer foot shells. Those will probably take somewhat longer...