Finally Finished The Skirt!
Sorry it's late! October was something of a busy month. I finally got the skirt finished, after a bit of an issue whilst printing one of the sections I
managed to just print the top but still had to cut it down a bit, wasn't too bad though because the cut part is actually facing upwards so it will not be
seen.
I managed to enlist the help of my brother James to give me a hand work on R2 this month as well, he spent the day sanding down the skirt after it had
been filled. I did try to get away with Poly filler but sadly that did the job but didn't turn out very good. When fitting the skirt, because the 3D
models are designed for the CS:R droids and mine is a CS:L I did have to do some hacking at my droid, yes it felt awful!
I had to open up the center foot hole at the bottom to allow the skirt to sit inside of it. All I need to do next once the skins are completed and
painted is find a way to secure the skirt into the body.
Finishing The Skins
After the skirt was test fitted, and I was happy with it, we moved onto the skins. The front skin has been stuck on and it looks great, I do think however next
time I will either get them laser cut or just go for the aluminum ones as hand cutting the styrene was a pain for me. My hand ached for days and there were a
lot of imperfections but I guess they're unique in a way!
We managed to get the rear skin stuck on next, now I had a bit of trouble with this as for some reason the plans for the rear skin are flipped. The way I
noticed was after printing them, the octagon port on both rear skins are in a different place, essentially all I had to do was flip the already cut skin
around but typical me went off to do something else, came back and forgot, so I glued them together, and I am now spending everyday kicking myself over it.
I had to snap the outer skin off, sand it back and basically just start it again.
I did manage however to save the inner skin, the sanding part was a mistake as by the time it got hot enough to start melting away and removing the broken skin,
the inner skin had started to melt and weaken so don't use an electric sander on styrene!!! Even though I don't have the outer rear skin, yet I stuck the inner
one on anyway. I went and bought some primer for the legs and body, I managed to get a can of the Rust-oleum primer as well as a Wilkes own brand primer.
Only a few pound difference but a few pounds can be a lot to a new builder on a tight budget. Honestly I couldn't really tell much difference, I haven't stuck
any more paint on top of the primer yet, but they both went on great!
Primed Legs
So the skins are sorted, the skirt is sorted, I then moved onto a bit of painting. I managed to get the legs primed up with a few coats. I do need to take
them off and maybe give them a few coats of a PVA sort of thing because the wood is just absorbing the primer and you can see a lot of the wood underneath
and that is after about 3/4 coats of primer. I'd advise you do this before you prime your legs.
Right now here is where I usually have issues.... the 3D Printer — dun duuuuuuuuun! I have started to print the lower ring, I decided that as much as I
would LOVE one of Lee's stunning aluminum domes, I simply can't afford it. Plus that was one of the main reasons for me getting a 3D printer in the first
place. I have been working non-stop with this printer, trying new profiles, bugging the hell out of other 3D printers asking for help, printing test pieces
etc. It's coming along slowly. I did print some pieces of the lower ring which will attach and fit over the lazy susan, only problem I am having currently is
the ring is pretty much the exact size of the lazy susan and my dremel is out of action at the moment so it is hand sanding or using a sander.
Problem being is the hand sanding takes a lot of time and I'm not a patient person, the sander goes so fast it melts the PLA. It is a case of sanding back the
inside of the lower ring so it goes around with the susan and doesn't catch anywhere.