Aluminium or Steel ??

okay, i know, i have the possibilities, the skills and the machines to fabricate both versions of a center foot for my R2.

but i am still sure, that the steel version is much more rigid than the aluminium version.

but because i am not intending to drive against a wall or other hard objects that might destroy my work, i let cut a set of both versions.

the steel center foot has 1 mm material thickness...

pic will follow

the aluminium center foot has 1,5 mm.

pic will follow

so 50% more thickness means, to have almost the same strength in the material... almost...

let´s see about the weight of the parts...

People´s Choice

i am still not convinced about the radar eye of my droid O-LT.

it must be a little more flat and square...

and for the rear side of the legs i let the french builders decide...
i posted 9 different designs on the french r2 builder site and until now there is a major voting for this design:

In between

...a little pic of my nurse droid...

Still in the building process...

Primer time

My neighbor added the first layer of.primer to the wooden legs of the new Droid O-LT.

Wooden radar eye

i am not that pleased with the result of the wooden radar eye i built yesterday.

pic will follow

so i will build another one, with a slightly different design... and not from wood, i will build it in styrene.

Holo Projector

the first dome hole was made...for the first HP. a resin piece, that was left on stock luckily!

The great question

...which design would fit the (invisible) rear of the droid.

oliver from england, a well known prop builder and r2 driver for the epsiode 7-9 droids, couldn´t help me to bring light into this mistery...
maybe this droid wasn´t used in episode 9? maybe, when it was used, it was in a cut scene? nobody knows...

so i had some resin parts left on stock to use them on the rear side of the legs...

here are some ideas...

pics will follow

Details

First Detail Work on the new Droid.

Wood works 3

Next on the list; the legs

I made the measurements on the photographed Droid, then calculated it to the right size.
Another visit at my neighbour the carpenter and i got the right Wood.

Some lines with the pencil and several minutes later the four Sheets had the right dimensions:

And later today i could screw and glue everything together...

O-LT Progress

The work continues...

Sandblasting the parts after grinding...

.and fixing a left over clear Resin Radar eye to the Dome....result; way too big!!

Welding works

Here you can see the lower Dome half welded to the Steel Ring:

Wood work 2

First measurements done...and Cuts too...

Gluing alltogether...

Sandblasting

Both Domes got a slight sandblasting.

Pic got lost unfortunately.

My friend Thomas was so kind to round a Sheet of Metal for me.

Size matters

I was thinking about the height of this Droid. In the acrual star wars book they mentioned, that the Dome would bei from an old astromech unit. But i don't think so. My opinion is, that it.is smaller in height and Diameter.
Look at the Dome Size. It's never a 300 mm height. Comparing the size of the Radar eye and the Rest.
So it's smaller.
The Ikea dishes had the right size.

Wood work

First step on the Agenda; getting Wood for the Body. My neighbour is a Carpenter, so this was an easy Task.

Pic will follow

And the Domes are These ones; some.cheap stainless Steel ones from Ikea.

Pic will follow

And the lazy susan was on Stock, too. A little Bit to big for the Body Diameter and a little Bit smaller than the Dome Diameter.

Pic will follow

New Year Project

I don't know when, but the plannings for this year include the build of a new Droid!

OL-T

First parts for it are already on Stock. Pics to that later...

Happy new shit !!

First blog entry of 2020...

Okay what's up?

The episode 9 troops are history, D-O had it's first crash and had to be glued again.