Yesterday evening I took my whole frame apart and finally got it glued together! I used Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Glue Max. I am so glad I had clamps to help line up most of the major portions of the frame while it dried. Unfortunately there were a couple spots that didn't set as flush as I needed. So after letting the frame set for at least 24 hours I hit those high areas with the orbital sander tonight. I also have one frame piece that has been giving me trouble from the get go, that I left out when I constructed the frame. I plan on adding it in later (because of it's location this will be completely possible) but need to do some trimming on it to get it to sit properly into the notches of the vertical pieces.


Today I did more work on the frame, getting it sanded, and after a quick wipe down, primed in white (2 1/2 spray cans- luckily I had some left over form another project- used 2 kinds, and by far got the better coverage from the cheaper Ace store brand). I'm actually planning to paint up the frame in metallic green to match the accent color on the exterior of the droid. Interior color is not something that seems to be very important for the most part. I think it would be pretty cool to have it look like a metal frame inside when I remove the back door, and my kids insist that Whistler is green inside. So green "metal" frame against interior of white skins is looking like where we're headed. Hopefully it turns out as cool as it is in my head. (I have a couple test pieces of wood that I also primed tonight to test this out on first.)


(Primed frame with dome that is half primed, half silver coated (still requires sanding and touch up work on painted portion.)

A Little Bit of Paint

Tonight I finally had a chance to do a little more work on Whistler. It started this morning actually when I took my kids to Home Depot for their free building class. I thought I'd swing by the spray paint and check on the green I had been planning to use for my droid. I couldn't find it anywhere, and the people seemed to have no idea what I was talking about, but suggested I check next door at Hobby Lobby. I didn't think they'd have what I was looking for, but figured it was worth a shot, plus I needed to pick up some flat black enamel for my husband's work on his 501st costume. No luck there for me, so I was starting to think maybe they had stopped making the color shift paint at all. And I was beginning to really kick myself for having not picked up any back when I had seen it at a store months ago. (With the hefty $20 per can price tag I figured I'd wait until I was ready to actually paint something.) So I decided I'd try my luck at Lowes. And there it was! And the price has recently come down to the still absurd cost of $15 per can, but it's still less! So to avoid this paint frenzy in future, I decided to go ahead and buy 2 cans. I still needed to make a stop at my local Ace hardware on the way home though, and came across a metallic green there that is priced comparable to a standard color, so I picked up one to do some testing with. I showed both to my husband this evening, and it turns out the panic was for naught, because the metallic looks like it is the winner in the looks category as far as a color match as well as in the price category. Thankfully we figured this out without even doing a test with the color shift, so I have 2 cans to return the next time I'm down by our local Lowes.

After all the color stress was over, I wanted to at least get SOMEthing painted, so I taped up my dome and gave it a first coat of metallic. I'm using Super dome, and the previous owner was kind enough to start lining it out and to have primed it for me. It needed some light sanding, but I soon had taped off the entire upper portion where the green panels still need to be lined out, and was ready to paint the lower section of the dome with a first coat of Valspar Brilliant Metal in Silver (66010). I figured I'd give a quick coat to my fixed holos at the same time. The weather tonight was good... little to no wind, and still in the upper 50s, so I ran outside and painted them up. I did have some problems with the initial flow on the paint, and the first section I painted will definitely need some sanding before a 2nd coat. I ended up with 3 very silver fingers, and a few drips off of the drop cloth because of a leak below the spray head. But so far I am very happy with the results. I brought the pieces in to dry fully over night, and the reflection is just beautiful. I can't wait to get it sanded up and the 2nd coat on... maybe tomorrow evening. And then get started on lining out, taping off, and painting the panels.


Primed dome, sanded, taped, and ready for some paint.


Just after painting. you can see one of the drips that needs to be sanded out below and just right of the glorious reflection.

Frame Beginnings

I spent time last night sanding all of the frame parts and test fitting them together. Thanks to Thomas' excellent work, most parts only needed light sanding. And everything fit together perfectly. There are some natural holidays between layers in some of the plywood that I need to fill in. Then those will need re-sanding, and I can complete frame assembly. (And update my progress to 2%!) I was very excited to log onto the Droid Registry this morning and update my progress to 1%!

My Frame Arrived!!!

Today I finally received my frame in the mail from The Droid Builder a.k.a. Thomas Clark! It's a wood frame pre-cut to the Senna design, and I can't wait to get started on it! Time for some sanding, gluing and assembly! Work can finally really begin to unfold here. So hopefully I'll have some updates soon on how things are progressing.



Thanks Thomas, everything looks beautiful- can't wait to get started!!

Work Has Finally Begun

I finally have some parts and have been able to do work beyond just research. First to arrive, was my MSE droid shell.

Then some various parts I got from someone who is getting out of the hobby.

And a set of Chani's budget skins... which I went to cutting out right away- here they are cut.

I've been doing general trimming as well as cutting the skins. It's so stellar to finally have something to work on. It would be better however, if UPS hadn't walked all over the package with my skins in it, and managed to crease both inner and outer skins for the front AND back. I'm hoping that once they are on the frame it won't really show. *grumbles*

PARTS!!!

I haven't updated in awhile since there wasn't really anything to report. Mostly I've been doing research and ordering some parts to get started on my build. I did some more work on my R2 trash can... but have been so busy with the kids' stuff recently that hasn't seen much action either. Then yesterday, my parts started arriving. Hooray! What a great birthday gift to me! Yesterday it was my side project (MSE-6) shell that arrived. That meant I spent the night trimming that up while hanging in Droidchat. Unfortunately it also meant that I sliced my thumb open.. not with the knife, but on the corner of one of the styrene pieces. Fun!

Today included stops at Ace, Radioshack, and the local hobby shop doing parts recon and shopping... now I just need to get some pictures of my new goodies so I can share. :-)

Here is a somewhat updated one of my trash can at least:

A Start...

To start my process, I have been doing lots and lost of research and reading. There is a wealth of information avalible through the R2 Builder Club. It makes the project so much more approchable, but also at the same time a little overwhelming. So many choices as far as how to construct pieces, and where to buy parts etc. There's definately no shortage of information. It's just a matter of compiling the right information for your droid and what you want to do with it within your budget etc.

To give myself a start to getting a real feel for where parts go in relation to one another (something I fine invaluble) I decided to construct a drawn mock-up of R2-D2 on a F size, Sterilite columnar trash can with a domed lid. I started out using some front view reference shots in the club galleries and used a pencil and bendable ruler to get down the basics of the front panel.

My 4 year old daughter LOVES the trash can projects, and has already claimed the finished project as hers. She insisted on "trying it on." I was informed that she would wear it for Halloween, except that she wouldn't be able to walk well in it. So she informed me that she will either wear her Ahsoka or Queen Amidala costume. We have experience with the walking droid problem from this past Halloween when she dressed as a GNK. She won the local festival's home-made costume contest, but had trouble walking when we went trick-or-treating, and after the first half hour changed into something easier for a 3 year old to manage.

But back to the project at hand... last night I spent some time using Sharpies and coloring in the areas I had lined out in pencil earlier in the afternoon. I was really rewarding to do this, as looks a lot more done than with just the pencil lines. I wasn't able to do the silver portions since that pen had dried out, but it was still enough to get my daughter very excited this morning when she saw it.

One mistake I have already made: The domed lid fits down over the top edge of the can. I forgot to take this into account and start the body design below this point. So when the dome is on you lose the top part of the design on the body. It's always good to learn these kinds of lessons on an inexpensive $10 trash can mock up rather than on a much more expensive droid construction. Plus, it doesn't seem to make any difference to the eventual owner. :-) I haven't yet decided how to address the legs on this- whether I want to do a foam core type build, or if I want to just draw them on, or do something else. I still have a lot of drawing work left on the body and dome before I have to really worry about that though.