THE DOME ARRIVES!!!

I was suprised when I pulled into the driveway this afternoon. A large brown box was sitting in front of the door. My dome was delivered! Days like today make me happy for mailmen every where. This this is awesome. I thought it would be a little fragile, but it seems pretty damn solid.

Oh, and my JAG hinges arrived today too. Now that I have these in hand I really wish I had ordered several more. Guess there's always next time.

Leg Work... again... again... again... again...

So after looking at the legs for a few days I decided 86% wasn't good enough. The more I looked the lower the grade went. I finally ended up giving them about a 72% on "doneness." So I took a bit more bondo to the seams on the side of the skins and filled a little ding here and there.

This morning I went out and sanded down the bondo and was suprised at how good they looked. I cleaned them up really good, wiped them down with some rubbing alcohol and hit the primer. Everything looked great! I put on several thin coats of the primer and ended up really happy with the results.

I let the legs sit (or hang) for a while as I watched Florida loose their Elite 8 game. Then I grabbed a can of the Satin White. I must have done 6 light coats and one heavier coat to finish. I left them there for a few hours.

I probably should have left them sitting for a day or so, but I'm very impatient. I masked the legs up with some painter's tape and grabbed my can of "silver."

A side note on the paint...
I read about putting the cans in warm water for a few minutes before painting and I must say it's an amazing trick. I highly suggest anyone who uses spray paint for anything to do this. The paint came out super smooth! Also, the Valspar Brilliant Metal paint is AWESOME! The Rustoleum paint sucks the big one...
Here's the paints I've been using so far.

I couldn't wait to take the tape off. I know I should have left it over night, but oh well. Here's the result!

I think they look great! The Valspar looks like real metal. So much better than the Rust-ole-crap! I liked the results from this so much I decided to spray a coat of this stuff on the hubs and hydro's. I probably should have sanded them a bit, but I didn't. Made for a real soft finish. I'm hoping letting them sit overnight will allow the paint to cure a bit more. We shall see. For now they sure look a lot better than the Rust-ole-crap I used before.

Dome Shipped!

I saw today on the Astromech.net forums that my dome has shipped! I can't wait for it to get here. I'm actually really excited!

First bit of "Silver"

Yesterday I took some parts out and hit them with the silver I picked up a while back. I think it came out Ok... I'm debating if I should pick up some of the Velspar paint that I've seen being used... You decide. Is this "good enough?"

Legs... Again... Again... Again...

Speaking of legs... I still have trouble with the layers of the legs. I tried skinning them first (with the parts from A&A) but the pieces of styrene pealed right off when I tried to sand them a bit.

I then tried Bondo Glazing Putty. It worked on the feet, but it just kept flaking off of the legs, leaving holes and gaps.

Then I hit it with some CA glue. I thought this was going to be the magic stuff. Again, no luck... The glue seeped down into the holes leaving, guess what? HOLES!!!

Now I'm back to skinning them. I did it last night and it looked pretty good when I hung the legs up.

I went out after work today and cleaned them up so I could spray them with the white primer. Overall I'd say "Not Bad". Not 100% perfect... I'd say maybe 87%... Hey, that's a high "B." I'm telling myself that it's good enough.

Looks like now I'm gonna be doing a nice and WEATHERED droid...

If I ever want the end of ANH in the Massassi Temple look I'll go aluminum!

RESIN!!!

My shoulder hub and hydro's came in today. I got them from Don Jarr on ebay. In my uninformed opinion these look great! I cleaned them with alcohol and soap the way Keith described on his site (resinparts.com). Now I need to hurry up and finish the legs!

Couple More Arrivals

This week I got in a few items and picked up another.

My PIC Flasher card, a few relays and some blue LED switches came in. I also stopped in to GameStop and picked up a wireless PS2 controller (and Grand Turismo 5) for my C6C.

I spend a little time and built up my PIC Flasher card, still have to test it... Hope I don't have the common problem with the crystal being bad...

More things ordered

I ordered my PIC Flasher and some switches today. Time to figure out how to wire up switches and relays and convert my logics to 12v!

Productive Day of Nonbuilding

Today I ordered a set of Shoulder Hubs and Shoulder Hydro's. I also sent a message to the resin parts suppliers to place orders for more parts. Oh yeah, got my conformation from Az about my skirt order!

A good day!

Skirt Ordered

Just a quick update! I ordered my skirt today. Vacuum-formed ABS plastic.

I also did a little more filling on the legs and ankles. They should be just about ready. Hope to spray some primer before Friday.

PSIs

I am really starting to love my mailman! He always brings me such cool stuff!

Today I came home to find a package waiting for me. I nice set of PSI lights from Mike Velcheck. This things are AWESOME!!!! I can't believe how bright they are, damn near blinded me when I first connected the power. I can't wait until I have something to put them in!

On to the pics.

Going with the standard red/blue and yellow/green colors for R2.

I'll try to get a short video of the flash/fade effect sometime tonight.

There be Lights Here!

So I decided to take it upon myself to make a set of rear logics. I didn't think it would be too difficult... HA!

Here's the pile of stuff to start it all.

To start I stuck the LEDs into the PC Board according to one of the various templates available. Once they were all in I kinda taped down the sides to get them (kinda) straight.

Then you flip it over and begin soldering...

All done... not pretty but hopefully it works.

Then I pulled out the 30awg wire (this stuff is thinner than my hair!). After cutting 200 some odd 1"-1 1/2" strands THEN stripping both ends you have this mess...

I'm on hold with this right now because I want to be able to test each soldered strand as I go, but I'm not sure how to do that. I've posted about this on Astromech, just waiting for a reply.

Leg Work... again... again...

The CA glue seems to be holding up well. It feels super smooth. Primer is still gonna be the test. Weather still sucks so I wont be able to see if I pass or fail that test any time soon.

On the other hand I put together the "Beefy Ankle Parts." I used Dave E.'s plans for these. Worked great! I also skinned the ankles with styrene so I don't have to worry about filling the bolt holes. (That CA glue works miracles)

Just need to fill in those seems.

SCORE!!

After going to my parent house to help my dad put together some furnature I spotted an old box in the garage. I took a closer look and SCORE!!!

Now all I need to do is pick up an amp and Artoo can scream for joy!

This is the amp I'm thinking of going with. I'm hoping 15W is enough to push a little volume. If you know or have any advice here I'd love to hear it.

Leg Work... again...

Before I went with the Bondo body filler I stopped by my local hobby shop (the only one in this city) and picked up some small sheets of styrene. While I was there talking to the guy working he suggested I give CA glue a try. I decided it was worth it. Here's the one he suggested.

I but a thin bead down the seams that were showing up, let it set overnight (one day per side). I sanded them down again today and it looks like this stuff did the trick. It's raining and windy as hell today so I wont be spraying primer. As soon as I can have decent weather to spray I will. I'm really excited to get these going!

IT'S BACK!!!!!

Astromech.net is finally back up! It's been a rough couple of weeks with the server swap issues, but it's nice to have the site back.