Photo Shoot

I had a chance to take R4 for a walk today under human power (hopefully there will be a post soon with her doing a walk on her own power!), mostly because I wanted to get some better shots of her in natural sunlight instead of always inside the house.   I'm happy with her progress, and how she looks.  After taking a few shots I noticed that the center ankle isn't straight, but it should be easy enough to fix.  You can see all of the shots on the photo stream on the top right of the blog, but I'm posting up a few of my favorite shots on the post as well.

Center Foot

 It was going to be another hot day, so I got an early start working on the center foot.  My goal was to get the rest of the parts cut out, and maybe get the bottom, front and back glued on.  That said, I managed to get most of the main pieces cut out and glue onto her, and play around with how I'm mounting the foot to the ankle (which isn't going to be how I deal with it going forward, mind you.

As it stands, it looks really nice.  I'm pleased with the progress, and I just need to get the tops put on before I start skinning it.

I did make another variation from Dave's plans (which for the most part I do not do, as they are so well planned out), but I drilled out a hole to put the bolt in.  Originally I was going to keep with my plan to have just a single bolt and a nut on the opposite side, but so far this has been increasingly impracticable.   Just bolting the foot on was a challenge without the top on it, I cannot imagine what it'll be like when I cannot use the top to hold the bolt in place.

What I'll do is either is have the center of the ankle be threaded, or mount a nut into one side of the foot.  And I still need to determine how I'm going to conceal that access hole.

Foot Work

Right now I'm spending more time on doing minor parts, as I save up the cash to get the last few parts I need for the R/C work to be done.

Center Ankle Lock -

I completed the work on the center ankle locks, and they are definitely holding the foot in the proper position.  I'm going to have to modify them slightly to get the foot shell in place as I finish building that, but I don't expect that to be a major issue.

Center Foot Shell -

I started cutting out the center foot shell.  I'm still trying to figure out if I want to make it a removable shell or just glue it to the wheel support structure.  I think I'm going to work from the "make it removeable" aspect, as I can change my mind easily enough afterwards.







Main Foot shells -

I've also been working on fleshing out the rest of the outside of the main foot shells.  They are coming along nicely, and I've done some preliminary sanding on them to clean up some of the edges.  As you can see, I've gone with a similar idea to Calvin's door approach, although I'm guessing I'm going to modify it to be more like the DaveE center foot plans than the door that Calvin currently has in place.
On Calvin's design the wheel cavity is larger, and thus the 1mm detail area that makes the door is stronger from the 3mm around it.   I'm still having to play with this area, though.  I've also been working on the top of the shell, and getting it fleshed in an attached.  I'm learning more camphoring techniques that are working really well, so overall the process is going well, although getting all the parts just the right size is very tricky.
 
The Battery box side is being tricky because of the curve.  Because I have plenty of 1mm sitting at the house, I think I'm going to try warming up a section in hot water before looking to get .5mm to work on the curve.  That said, I'll work with what makes sense.  I did add an access hole to the top of the shell on the battery box side, as I really like how the bolt is working for me there.
 It should be covered by the battery box, and if not it should be close enough to not have to stress on it.  I can reach the other side of the bolt with a wrench through the access door, so removing the foot from the ankle shouldn't be an issue.

Standing

As a quick timeline of important steps on this project -

August 12, 2010 - We attended Celebration V in Orlando, FL.  I was introduced at this point to the "Droid Builder's Room" and got to talk to a bunch of really neat folks that were all in various stages of building a droid.  At this point, I was thinking "wow, this would be cool"

August 13, 2010 - I take to plunge and join the builder's group.  I start figuring out which droid I want to build.

August 16, 2010 - The first official blog post (before I started posting to this blog)

November 2, 2010 - I start a new blog dedicated to the build of the droid.

March 24, 2011 - Megacon 2011.  The spark that got me moving on my droid again!

July 7, 2011 - The first time I get Arfour standing on all 3 legs!

I'm really pleased that she's standing, but it looks like I'm going to have some fixing to do on the legs to get the a little more straight.  All in all I have to say this is probably the best feeling I've had since starting the project. I may need to find a better center caster, and I'll definitely need to get the lock built for the center foot.. but.. ARFOUR IS STANDING!

Christmas in July!

One of the things in this build that you have to be conscious about going into it is that things take time.  If you are getting in on build runs, or just ordering parts, it takes a while for everything to show up.  The last few weeks have felt like Christmas for me, because I've had a lot of parts start showing up for the next few phases of the build.  

Just in the last week I've had the wheels, motors and J.E.D.I. control show up.  By the end of next week I'm expecting that I'll have the power distribution board in.  I'm hoping that by the end of July I'll have the money together to have the motor controller and radio transmitter/receiver in.  Now I just need these stinky feet done!

Working on the "curve"

I have to say, most of the curved parts that I've had to work on so far I've found really awesome ways to work through.  Be it using the trim router per Dave E's plans, measuring and getting the right hole saws of various sizes, or using a dremel with a hole cutter on it, they've all come out looking really nice.  That said, the curves where the battery boxes sit are probably going to end up being the most challenging parts that I've worked on:

The trick is that the curves here do not make an exact circle, so it becomes challenging.  Given that I took trigonometry in 1990-1991, I'm going be really challenging myself to find a smooth solution to cut these particular parts.

Should be interesting to see how it turns out!

Stinky Feet!

It's been a long 6 weeks, but I am making some slow progress on the feet at this point.  There are a lot of fine parts that have to come together square, and some of this has been a bit challenging, but so far everything looks to be working properly.  I've done a lot of testing of the connection between the ankle and the foot to makes sure they line up properly, and so far so good.

The curves on the inside are going to be the next big challenge.

Shoulders and Ankles

It's been a while since I updated this build log, but that doesn't mean I haven't been making progress.  The framework for the ankles is done, as are the shoulders at this point.  I should have the superstructure on the center ankle completed this weekend, and then be working on the framework of the feet.

My current schedule puts me starting the electronics during the summer, which will be nice because summers in Florida are not the best time to be working outside.  Once I have the superstructure of all the parts done, though, I have a LOT of detailing work to get done.  But I'm really excited about the progress I've made so far.

Shoulders

So I have several photos from my adventures building the shoulder hubs.  This is mostly a pictoral update, but I may edited it later with more details on each section.

Why Arfour?

I've been meaning to post about this for a while, as a general blog post:  Why did I choose to build R4-P17?

The biggest factor is that I was initially too intimidated to build R2-D2 when I was joined the club.  R2 is iconic, and I felt that on a first pass I'd be way too "nit picky" with it.  Is the color blue right, what if this one part didn't look just the way it should, etc.  But I really didn't want to build a generic droid, or one that saw little (or no) screen time.  Arfour seemed to be a good middle ground:  She's a named droid in the new trilogy, she gets a reasonable amount of screen time, and is a part of the Jedi's fleet.  This settled which droid I was going to build.

Then I read Don Bies' blog about her - http://blogs.starwars.com/droids/1.  If I hadn't sealed the deal already, it totally re-enforced my desire to build this particular droid.  The fact that it's a droid that had more than a passing part in the movies, even if only a couple of cameos really, and that George had discussed the actual design and color of her made it even more interesting.  The fact that there are seemingly few of this designation at most of the conventions should make her stand out a little more and be fun to wheel about, too.

Shoulders

I didn't realize that I hadn't posted up about the shoulder build to the blog yet.  I'll have to add photos later, but the shoulders are framed up, countersunk and can take the weight of the main legs on them at this point.  They still need a lot of finish work to them, but they came out really well.  I'll put up a post with more of the "how I did it" once I have the photos added to the gallery, but the short and long of building the styrene shoulders are a - make sure that the circle cutter is sharp before you start, because the thing is scary beyond all reason,  b - you have to be ultra precise on the fins to make sure they are the same height and square else it gets annoying, c - be ultra careful to keep consistent when you are countersinking or you can end up making two of the same shoulders, and d - be careful with installing the bolts (and the inside bolts are a pain!).

The good news is that they seem really solid, and even while not perfect should do fine for the project, and were easy to build even if nerky.  Tomorrow I'm planning on getting a couple of sheets of 1mm and some weldon 16 so I can start doing more finishing work on the legs and shoulders to finish out the month.  I can say that the project overall is getting more and more exciting as I start to see the progress and I'm starting to see the droid look like something other than just a can sitting on my workbench.

More about Legs

Last night I completed the initial stage of the 2nd leg, enough so that I can start working on the shoulders and begin reinforcing them later this month before I put the top on and skin them. They are far from complete, but I'm learning a lot on this part of the project, and really getting into my groove. Since these parts will never really be seen again after I put the top on them, I'm wanting to take the time to discuss them fully, and document what I did. This is not only for others that may stumble upon my blog about the build, but also for myself when I go to do build #2.

The pipe I used in the main leg structure is a 1/2" CPVC plumbing pipe. I chose this because of price, availability, dimension and weight. The CPVC was easy to cut, very durable, and stays in place. I used a 5/8" boring bit to cut the holes in the leg struts, after measuring 1/2 way up and across from a set corner. What I did was mark each piece on the order onto the pipe and which was was up, so the holes were more in a straight line than the first leg. On the first leg I had a lot more cleanup once the struts were attached before the LLC pieces would weld.

I doubt I'd go the CPVC direction a 2nd time, as the pipe tends to have a bend in it. It's strong, and very lightweight, and having a little give to it helped with any light mistakes on the struts, but the tendancy to have the bend in it made it very frustrating to get put on. What I ended up doing to get it to lay flat in the tray was to put 7 1/2 lb weights across the leg structure to keep it flat. That also introduced an issue of the struts not keeping perfectly square to the LLC portions. if I had to do this again I'd attach the LLC and then the struts so I could put 90's on to keep the struts straight while weight was on them.

The part I like the most are the reinforcements I put up at the top of the pipe near the shoulder. This is the one section I had been contemplating since I first saw the leg designs last fall, and I like how this came together. One of the big things that Dave E puts in the plans is that reinforce near the shoulder where the major part of the stress will be found. By adding the extra strut right near the top, and welding it to the shoulder supports, I should be sharing the weight (and associated stress) onto the leg itself, and allow the entire superstructure to take the stress instead of just that one shoulder support. Time will only tell if I'm right or if I'm going to be re-building/repairing these, though.

Getting a "Leg" up

This week has been dedicated to getting the legs built.  I spent a lot of time working on the parts this week, and with the tools I mentioned in my last post, things have been moving a lot easier.  The one thing that I was concerned about, though, was the support beams in the leg.  The plans call to reinforce the legs, but I thought they could use something different than just a few reinforcement strips.  What I did was add another brace for the leg tube, that was joined the top segment of the leg.  This way the stress that would normally be isolated to where the leg meets the shoulders should be shared with the leg tube, and balanced through the whole leg.  Time will tell if this improvement helps or not.  At this point I need to work on the 1mm parts and place the top onto the leg to finish this first one up.

Close up of the Reinforcments

More shots of my  modifications

The nearly completed Leg

The bottom of the leg

Side shot

Leg with the top on (but not attached)

The way things look right now, I should get the 2nd leg to the point where the top is ready to be put on by next weekend.  My personal goal is to have the legs and shoulders done by the end of April, and if I can keep this kind of pace I think it's doable.

This week also marked the first time that I ordered resin detail parts.  I have an email out to JediKeith to see about getting the resin details for the dome in the near-ish future.  I also am getting in on a run for the power distribution panel.  Before long I'll need to order the dome drive, and drive motors.

Things are definitely getting exciting!

Post-MegaCon update

It's a twap frame!

It's been a week since MegaCon, and I've managed to get more than a fair amount done on R4.  The frame is now to the "stabilize and prep for skins" point, and the bearing is ready to be mounted once I'm ready.  And I finally started on legs!  I have 1 leg almost completely cut out (I just need to buy some 1mm styrene before I can cut out the last bits) and I'm to the stage of welding.  I've been learning more about techniques and how to actually get the most out of the parts that I have, and it's really helped.

Tools:  I ended up picking up a metal square, it's making a drastic difference on how accurate I can make cuts, even versus other metal rulers I have.  I also picked up a sanding block (instead of just using the paper for my mouse sander) and it's made evening out the rough spots a lot easier.  Lastly, I got a "bastard" file, which is making cleaning up uneven spots a LOT easier.  Thanks Todd for the suggestions, they have really helped!

Techniques:  You would figure after spending 6 months working with the knife that I would have figured it out by now, right?  Nope.  I have been holding the blade at WAY too shallow of an angle, and it makes the cuts take FOREVER.  After fiddling around a little bit this week, I'm at more of a 45 degree angle now, and it's making a massive difference in the quality and effectiveness of each cut.  It may sound like a small thing, but stuff like this definitely makes me feel good when I figure it out.

Other materials:  I ended up getting a new 4' table (the parts in this last update are sitting on this table now.  What I'm using it for currently is to hold parts while I work on other sections, as my workspace is limited.  It's also small enough that eventually I can bring it inside if needed as well.

The start of the 1st leg!

I'm planning on going slightly off plans for my legs, mostly in the support area.  I have the top section welded, and I'm moving forward.  Finding the pipe for the main housing was a little bit of a challenge, but I think my father-in-law has some 3/4" outside diameter pipe that will end up working nicely. I'll post up more leg shots once I have more to show.

MegaCon 2011

MegaCon 2011 has come and gone, and it was an amazing amount of fun.  I'll post up some good photos of the work I got completed on the frame while at the show (amazingly enough) once I get a chance to get a little more settled.  It's always a blast to get together with the rest of the Southern R2 builders, and this was absolutely no exception.  The Hoth scene was a complete success, including various photo-bombs by Wampa's and Snowtroopers on people.  I'm really inspired to get more done at this point, so hopefully I can build some momentum going forward at this point.

Painting the Dome

I'm reaching the next pause in the frame design, so I'm going to spend a little more time on the dome, specifically the paint job.  So far it looks really good, for a first coat.  I'm planning on spending some time sanding it lightly, putting a 2nd coat on, then sealing it.

Because R4 is inversed colors from R2 (the main dome is red, where the pie panels are silver/platinum), what I'm contemplating doing is getting a metal tape/sheeting that I can cut the panels out of to make them metallic, instead of just using paint.  This will give them a raised look (like they are moving parts), and make them easier to install.

Progress

It's been a while since I had a chance to really sit down and work on arfour.  In November I ordered a skin set from Chani, and it took a little while for it to come in.  Without the skin set, it was near impossible to figure out which piece of the top of the frame was too tall.  Last Friday I went over to Todd's and we got the issue figured out, and I had a chance to trim and start constructing again.  With MegaCon only 10 days away, I'm hoping I can have the frame nearly done, and the legs a bit further along before the show.