More Threepio Progress

I managed to assemble and paint the upper thighs and hips for Threepio. I then filled the upper thigh with expanding foam. When I dropped in the hips the thighs were too far apart so I pulled them together and left it overnight. This morning there was a foam leak..but I managed to pull most of it of. Paint will have to be touched up a bit..but it's not too bad.

I really had trouble fitting the knees...and sealing them from th inside with tape...but in the end it's not too bad.

I plopped the head on top just to see....also replaced the elbows with 90 degree elbows in stead of 45 degree ones.

Doing a Little Legwork

I had some troubles gluing the lower legs together..but with soem regluing, bondo, etc I think I pulled it off. The knee areas weren't as flat as I would like, but they are holding so that's good.

I also had to repaint Threepio's right foot on the base since I had it gold, but his right lower leg and foot are chrome colored....DOH. I masked it off and painted it n place since I had filled the foot a bit with foam and glue so when I use spray foam to fill this lower leg it doesnt seep through the bottom.

I will add black inside the ankles for where you can see through and then fill it with spray foam for a strong secure lower leg.



Here is the rough skeleton. You can see how cheap gold paint compares to the stuff I got from the UK.

"Look sir...droids!"

I made a base for my Threepio this weekend. Plywood base with sand in layers that I sprayed with diluted white glue.

You can see where it's still mostly wet in the picture. Hopefully when it's dry it will be solid and sand isnt always falling off..otherwise it gets more glue!! Used sandpaper for the sides too...attempted to blend it to the top.

Also dremelled and glued and bondo'ed the feet together..then painted them. The pipe flange inside is screwed to the base..and will connect to the legs 'pipes' to hold him up.

I also added a little detail that only the true Star Wars fans will pick up on. Spot it? I had to make it from a pepper bottle lid...and paint..and some weathering.

Some Threepio Progress...arms and messing around with motion activated lights and sound.

OK..I recorded TK409's intro into my voice box and spliced together a motion sensing night light with Threepio's rice light eyes. I taped one of the lights to my motion activated voice box..so the plan is when the motion activated lights go off...they activate the voice box. Cheesy setup..but ti seems to work.



I want to try to wire these up to a remote controled outlet...so I can power this up and down remotely..in case this works too well and threepio starts talking all the time during a movie.

I had to feed 6 volts to a circuit for the motion sensing night lights..that was designed for 4.5 volts. That being the case I may have to then feed 6 volts to the voice box too..and cross my fingers it doesn't blow!

Here is a rough video I took with my camera. The voice box doesnt pla as loud as I would like so it's really tough to hear in this video...but follow the link in the post below this one and you will hear it! TURN SPEAKERS UP!!!!!




Here are some pics of the progress I have made on Threepio's body. Just to get the arms in this state has been a lot of work with a heat gun, glue, filler, sanding, priming, painting. I am painting everything with the cheapo gold paint I can buy here, and the final coat is the expensive paints I had shipped from England. The torso in the picture below is just normal paint so hopefully you can see how much better things look once that special paint is applied. Obviously the torso in the picture below is not done.

New Theater Greeting

Thanks to some talented people at the Replica Prop Forum I have a new greeting for my theater.

I will have my Threepio use a motion sensor so when you walk up to him his eyes will light up and he will say:

http://www.jeffcohost.com/~tk409/olddata/jason/sound-filter2.wav

Cool!

Rebel Blaster

I got a hold of a Hasbro Rebel Blaster that shoots foam darts and did a few minor mods to it and repainted it.

I also added a bit of a straw to the scope front. The scope still lights up red when I pull the trigger..and it still shoots the foam darts. I should have bought 2 cuz shooting those darts is fun! They stick right to the tv...take that Oprah!

Here is a before pic:
And After:

R5D4 head...DONE!

I actually completed something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I weathered it last night..wasnt happy today so I cleaned it up a bit..and added the drip marks and black around the "motivator" panel.

This was my first weathering experience. I am pleased with the result!

Death Star Surface Tiles

I got a couple recasts of Death Star Tiles used in filming Star Wars, so here they are all painted up and mounted with a reference pic.



No Brenda this isn't the little thing I am keeping from you guys! ;)

R5 Head on Body

Tried out the R5D4 Head on my R2 Body. He looks angry fro some reason. I won't bother with the red features on the body since 95% of the time he'll be R2.

Still working on the ring between head and body..but here is an idea how he will look.

R5-D4 Taking Shape

I got the side and back hydraulics in place and the eyes/greeblies. Starting to look like R5-D4. Still have the back part of the neck piece to work on, and the metal ring under the head.

THEN I will feel it's safe to mount the antenna!

Slight improvement..

So here is the R5-D4 dome....after sanding off the bad parts and attempting to repaint the whitee without ruining the red pinstripes and the reflective stuff around the neck...




It turned out ok..worst part os on the back. I looked at some screen grabs from Star Wars and it's pretty beat up so I think I'll be ok once I weather it.



The neck piece that goes over the reflective stuff is 1/2 done. I had to file a bevel on each section so that took a while, but here it is just sitting there for now.

My dome greeblies (antenna, hydraulics, eyes) arrived yesterday...woohoo!!

Sunday Morning Blues!!!!!!!

I was planning on posting my progress...now I'm posting my disgust!!!!

After putting on the red pinstripes last night I figured I'd give the whole thing a coat of clear gloss to seal it up!

Not sure if it's the type of paint, or the fact that the garage is -20 but I RUINED the paint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stupid clear gloss. I guess I have to let it dry and re-assess! SWEAR!!!!!!!!!! EXPLATIVE!!!!!!!!! CURSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Not much news

Just thought I'd update. Haven t had a lot of time. I have been filling the seams and sanding R5-D4's head here and there//and the parts for it are on their way.


That's about it!

R5-D4 Head Welded

Woohoo!! The head is all welded up.

Gotta fill seams...add greeblies, paint etc.

Hero Panel Update and a new R5 head progress

I did some more work to the Han in Carbonite 'hero' panel. I added the white pinstriping to the green light area, and some more detail to the rectangles beside it. Iwas going to try to take a clock radio and have the digital display from that fit in here, but the ones I had didn't seem to be the right size, and likely couldn't have been split to fit, so I just painted the lines as if it just isn't turned on. I am pleased with how that turned out.



Here is a pic with the lights off showing the green glowing in the dark. This pic was overexposed..I wish it really looked like that....it's only about 1/2 as bright in the dark.


I also finally got some help tack welding together my R5-D4 head flatpack. Here is how far we have gotten with it.

Side Panels Progress

These are painstaking and tedious...and not all that accurate.

The 2 on the left side are mostly done..just need a couple more greeblies. I painted the insides of the recctabgles metallic, then poured clear resin into them. Worked pretty good. For the 'hero' panel on the right I have a LOT more greeblies to find then add. I did the same with the resin being poured but added white acrylic for the white areas and glow in the dark green for the light up panel. It does glow in the dark a bit. I actually wanted the green panel to be more white translucent with the green glowing from behind, but this will do.

Man these panels are a tedious thing.....I still have panels at the top and bottom of Han in Carbonite to finish off and paint too..

Trial Paint...

After looking at the pics I concluded that I would paint the main part of the panel with just primer..mist it with metallic chrome to make it look metal..then I will paint the recessed areas with the chrome paint.

I am really looking forward to pouring some clear resin in the recessed areas to give that glass screen look they have.

Then it's GREEBLIE time!!! :)

Here it is from this morning....just grey primer with a metallic misting. It loks a little shiny in the pic..primer was still probably wet. It doesn't look that glossy in real life.





Here is a pic of one of the real ones. I think in that pic the lighting is different and gives it a darker warmer gray.

Han in Carbonite Panels...and updated stairway

I've been slowly working on my Han in Carbonite side panels after finishing the basement. Tough to have the motivation and time these days.

These panels are going to take FOREVER...there are a lot of them..and with only an hour here and there not much is getting done. Of my unfinished projects these I am the least enthused about...so I will get them out of the way.

Hor the 'hero' panel that is supposed to light up green..I think I might paint that light area with a green glow in the darl paint, then cover that with some clear resin. SHould look kind of cool, and be easy.

The panel backing parts I have pieces from when I cut out the frame, so I am using them to make that part. The panels I got from a guy on the RPF. They arent very accurate, but they are a starting point. WIth a lot of painting and adding of greeblies they should be close enough.







I also have move all my signed pictures to one wall..making room for 3 star wars posters going down the stairs. At the bottom is a Lord of the Rings Poster with some swords, etc. I really wanted to hang my HUGE Middle Earth map, but there is no room. That and Gollum will have to reside somewhere else.

Theater DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was the most exhausting and dirty 2 weeks I can remember!! Now I need another holiday!!!

Here are the results...the only thing missing are my 3 Force FX sabers that I will hang on the bulkhead. It is a pretty large room..but I sure managed to fill it up! Movies look and sound GREAT! Had some problems sorting out speaker wires (my labeling went wrong) and my video wire from the Xbox 360 was NOT working and I was PISSED~! Once I took it apart again and cleaned off some paint it worked good...WHEW!!

The painting I worked my BUTT off doing and I was pretty choked when I pulled off my masking tape and it ripped off the paint underneath. I have lots of touch ups to do...but not just now.

This Is Where The Fun Begins...

Been working like crazy on my basement (with a LOT of help!). Last night we finished hanging the drywall!

Next step...taping and mudding..YUCK!!!!!!!!!


This pic is looking towards the front of the room. The screen I project onto (painted) will start just to the right of the window.



This pic also looks to the front of the room. I shoudl be able to somewaht cebter the screen on the wall and have an image size of about 115".



Towards the back of the room. In the lower right of the picture you can see the risers I have also been working on. The theater seats will sit on them. The smaller one goes in front for 2 seats and the larger one goes behind it for 3 seats. In front of all of them will be the leather recliners (3).



Other back wall.