Threepio DONE!!!

Finished off my Threepio last night! I'm pretty happy with it..

That OK paint looks great, but if you apply too thin it looks pebbly..and too thick it looks smooth, but it can run and takes FOREVER to dry! Seriously..weeks later if you hold a part it will leave fingerprint impressions!!

I made a video clip. The motion sensor light thing I made works decent enough..but if I leave it on when you walk up to him and wave a hand in front of his face his eyes light up..perfect. Trouble is the voice box doesnt trigger until the lights go OFF! DOH! It isn't too bad for volume. It sounds REALLY quiet in the clip cuz my camera has a crappy mic!

I have a remote controlled outlet switch...so I just press a button an a keychain and the lights go on then and the sound..so that works. That way during a movie or if he gets annoying I can turn it off. The voice box is triggered by the lights going on and off so if they aren't on he doesn't talk.

I also have a base form a C3PO dashboard driver toy. I removed the figure from it and mounted it to the top of the nearest stanchion...so you can press the button and he says 10 or so random phrases.





CRAPPY mic on camera..turn up speakers!!!!!

Threepio..getting closer

Here are some updates of my Threepio. He's missing a lot of greeblies, and I have to properly mount the eye lights and sound box in the head...but getting closer!!!


First pic in 3d if you can do the crossed eye viewing..



Next pic is normal for those who can't..



Here is a pic of my collection of Firefly autpgraphs including my newest one signed by Nathan Fillion (thanks Aaron):



Lastly here is a pic of my Sarlacc Pit rug at the bottom of my stairs:

Progress pics IN 3D!!!!!!!!!!

I am totally serious....

I took these pics...each side is from a slightly different position. If you use something called a crossed eye teqnique you can see these pics as one 3D image!!

The way I do it is kind of blur and cross my eyes until I am able to pull one image from one side to line up with the other image. Then I have to focus the image and all of a sudden I am seeing these tings in 3d!!! TRY IT!!! You should sit back so you are able to take in both images at once.

If you have trouble try using the teqniques they mention here. http://www.angelfire.com/ca/erker/freeview.html

Here is my Threepio done up to the belly.


Here is the Torso...I managed to get the paint runs a bit less (on the front). Hope when it dries it flattens out.

Just for fun..here is R5-D2..IN 3D!!!!!!!!!!!! Man this is cool! Hope you are getting this to work by now!

Update

Not much to update...

I've been working on Threepio's chest and torso. Lots of parts on the chest, lots of dremelling, lots of filling, lots of sanding...

I did apply some paint to it last night and this mroning. I dunno..that paint from the UK is GREAT looking, but thin coats leave a texture..and when you spray more..it really smooths out and looks great so when I did that this morning it ran all over. I just hope when it dries it won't be too bad and another coat of paint over top will hide the runs. DAMN.

I also have the belly wires all in place..I took a plastic carpet and painted some lines on it for wires, then added a bunch of random wires on top of that. I attached it into the body with velcro.

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..