...a long time ago...about 25 years ago actually I made a lifesize rc R2 out of cardboard, sweat and a lot of tape. It made it through one sf convention before I had to mothball it because of rain the very next day, lol. Now after a long thought process over the years and after visiting so many conventions (last being the celebration III and IV). I decided this is it. I love a challenge, I've love the entire astrodroid concept as well as Star Wars (of course) and face it R2's the real hero. So this is my attempt to recreate a hero to us all R2-D2 as well as a newer hero R2-R9. Fell free to leave comments and tips....Best Regards Thomas
 

Monday, January 14, 2008

Great tempo until the glue ran out...

So far so good! I added these progress pictures so you can see where I'm at. I hope they give you a feel for the process. Believe me, this IS fun!! The first artoo is skinned but the glue ran out on the second, so I have to wait a few days before I can finish "him". This little break gives me sometime to straighten up my little "droid workshop". It’s amazing, if one doesn’t pick up after each session, how things accumulate everywhere, lol. Anyway, as you can see the skin is made of a very strong yet flexible Plexiglas that’s 2 mm thick. I found it to be about the same weight as wood with the same thickness but extremely flexible. Another great thing with using plexiglas is that I just placed the drawing (blueprints) underneath and just trace. Once the skins have hardened onto the frame I just etch away the line details. Certain areas like the doors, vents and so forth will require that I cut away whole parts and then glue another plexiglas layer from the inside of the “body”. But that won’t happen until after I return from the USA business trip.













Comments on "Great tempo until the glue ran out..."

 

Blogger SuperDad said ... (January 15, 2008 at 6:14 AM) : 

Man...you are making some huge progress!! WOW!

Looiking great!

 

Blogger The life of thomas said ... (January 16, 2008 at 1:38 AM) : 

Thanks Jason... once I got started it was easy to keep up the pace. Gotta try and not leave out nor forget the family quality time as well ;)

 

Blogger Calvin Thomas said ... (January 17, 2008 at 5:13 PM) : 

Yea, That family time can get you into trouble.
Have you tried to paint the plexi. yet?
I haven't seen anyone use this before and I'm dieing to see how it turns out.
Calvin

 

Blogger The life of thomas said ... (January 17, 2008 at 9:36 PM) : 

I did a few tests a ways back and the results looked good. I am amazed how strong this kind of plexi is and surprised that no one has tried this before, but in all honestly I stumbled over this idea when I picked up my domes. I talked with the plastics expert there and we discussed my r2 projects. I happened to mention that I would use wood or styrene for the skins. He said out of the question and just gave me all the sheets I would ever need, lol.

Anyway, I have a lot of etching on the bodies still to do as well as adding some minor structural support. I'll probably etch both entire bodies first which will take a week or 2 and then dependent upon the weather try and get some painting started. Unfortunatly the weather in sweden these days isn't quite ideal for painting just yet :( So I won't begin painting until after my USA trip.

Thanks to you I'm looking forward to picking up my lazy susans',motors' and with any luck vex transmitters. I have tons of questions for you about vex later. while I was surfing around the internet about r2, vex controllers and robotics it was pretty cool to see your name in almost every forum out there. You have really been through alot of R2 issues.....so in my book you're my expert on almost all of my artoo questions ;)

 

Blogger SuperDad said ... (January 18, 2008 at 9:58 PM) : 

Calvin will be my Vex go to guy too!!!

 

Blogger Anna said ... (January 19, 2008 at 7:18 AM) : 

I don't think you need to bother about family quality time as long as we can share our livingroom as the creative space for all of us. We COULD bring in a WOW PC as well. ;)

 

Blogger Calvin Thomas said ... (January 20, 2008 at 12:52 PM) : 

Hey, You asked me about the interface between your Vex setup and servos.
Well here's your answer:
http://www.vexlabs.com/vex-robotics-signal-splitter.shtml

This is new and will replace the Vex Micro.
Calvin

 

Blogger The life of thomas said ... (January 20, 2008 at 9:26 PM) : 

Thanks calvin...I read about that from the previous link you posted. Wouldnt that splitter be useful for you as well?

Thomas

 

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