Probe droid very slow build

Hi guys, as some of you may know by now , I am awaiting probe droid legs from master Lee.
Lee was very generous to accept my comission , I am very lucky he took this on , I am unsure of whether I could have pulled those off! After seeing
lees and Guys build thread on the probe , I decided I had to have one!

The probe droid is one of my favourite ships/machine in the Star wars universe, I attempted a build many many years ago, before I even knew the RPF existed, now with more experience and information found here, I am able to have a shot at scratch building this.
no doubt is a complicated build so bare with me on this very , very slow build process.

I wanted to originally vac form empty domes for the upper head, lower head and upper body (will call these the "PR domes") out of 3-4mm styrene , which they said it would be more than sufficient in strength.
I figure vac forming would not distort the mold or buck as silicon may do when casting.

The next step was to make the bucks the way I have seen here , by cutting fins to a desired shape than covering them with some kind of sculpt putty.

Although I have seen photos that it does work , after 2 attempts at this , it just did not sit right plus unless ran with a lathe, again no true roundness can be achieved, not to mention the labor intensive procedure.

these were the original attempts.
version 1:






version 2:
was a 2 piece top head



neither of those I was happy with.
After talking to the guy who vac forms, also injection molding and some other stuff, he suggested the domes be mastered by a CNC.
I took the drawings and they were plotted by tracing them.
The material that is used in the making of master molds was used for these.
the rear of the PR domes were going to be as hollow as possible






With this mold or actual heads , it can be easily vacformed over for armor plating.
Problem discussed today is that if I wanted to do a small run of these as EMPTY PR domes, these could not be feesable as the material itself is way too expensive and takes quite a while to machine.

So my next step is to either to remove the millimetres required of these domes to be able to get them vacformed OR go back to square one and cast these up, which I dont want to do!
Vacforming these molds is not easy as the upper and lower head tappers in therefore it cannot be just vacformed with out having a complex mold that retracts.
They will try a few more options with the facilities they have in the shop before proceeding .
At least I would like to have access to a finished mold should the need of reproducing these became a "wanted" item.
Will post as I know more , once we get past the domes, then we start the "skirt"

thanks
Marcel

You are doing GODS work. I want... nay, NEED a set from you, when you figure it all out. This is going to save everyone so much trouble, and again, you are a SAINT for approaching it this way.

So how much are we talking to get a machined set made if the vac/cast options don't pan out?

ALL HAIL MARCEL!

Marcel that is a great insight, and you address the one BIG problem on the head, the "pinch" at the upper/lower join.
I have had it in my head that the ILM prop used found items, that pinch would just lock a buck in tight, unless, they then split the form where the material needs to be removed for the larger of the eyes.....its all very odd.

You look to be throwing the book at this, and i would do my best to vac this, you could use four pulls, to make two halves of the head....in other words, each upper/lower dome, would be made from, an upper/lower dome, sanded in, giving you that pinch?

If that makes sense lol.

bests..........lee

hi Jason, thank you for the compliments.
My idea was to divide most costs amongst all who wanted them,
if i went with vacforming , its not much at all .
please dont quote me 100 percent , but if I went with vac , he did mention $7 to $10 each part. I think it was for 2.5mm but we put the idea on hold due to that problem in removing the vacform.
Anyways you got that thing I want that you are doing with ZK???
I would love a copy of that!!

Also Jason,
if I start talking costs here , there is a slight chance the mods will change this thread to the junkyard and I dont want it there.
when I sort out or collect ideas form you guys I will make a special thread for these.
Give me a week or so,
again thank you for being first post!!
Marcel

Lee go again please?
so four pulls? how ?
my guy said he wanted to grab that mold and make the bottom section a jig where it contracts.
This way there is one piece to the top with a pinch and one to the bottom with a pinch, the pinch is small , it the top part of the head that comes in.

Looks good bud. How much do those weigh?

marsattack said:

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Lee go again please?
so four pulls? how ?
my guy said he wanted to grab that mold and make the bottom section a jig where it contracts.
This way there is one piece to the top with a pinch and one to the bottom with a pinch, the pinch is small , it the top part of the head that comes in.

Yeah, half way Mars, just got your PM buddy lol. Id maybe go the "split" route though.
If you mark each dome where you can splice up to, dril a small hole, and cut with an exacto, this will stop the cut splitting any further, and allow you to pop the buck out of the pull.......probably easier in theory though right LOL?
Id be up for a set anyhoo, who knows, i may yet build by ULTIMATE Probe Droid one day......as i said before, never, say never lol.

lee

it looks like MDF but its some sort of plastic, when i mentioned the name the other day to you , it was actually the manufacturers business name as the vacformer referred it as.
It does not weigh much but its very hard.
this can be superglued, puttied ,sanded and cut

Great great stuff, Ooooh I may be interested also. I'm convinced the head domes are vac formed then split in 2 and re joined, this would make sense and it would keep the trench around the equator?

awesome Guy, will try the one that does not require to cut the mold first.
so Guy if you doing another like Lee then sell yours to me , then i wont have to go through all this mate!!!lol

Zombie Killer said:

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I think you are right Lee about using found parts.

Its just a hunch Glen, hell i could be way off, i even spent an age looking for stuff laying around in ILM shop photos lol.

lee

marsattack said:

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awesome Guy, will try the one that does not require to cut the mold first.
so Guy if you doing another like Lee then sell yours to me , then i wont have to go through all this mate!!!lol

It would take a very large cheque to pry this from me mate

Courtesy of Marcel.....

This looks exceptional…
Mars attacks once again!

High regards

MARK

Thats the sprit...thanks for posting Glen! I see you decided to split the pull, looks fine, as i said, a smal drill hole will stop it running on.
Your gonna have a blast building this one, its still a huge jewel to me!

lee

I don't think the seam is a big deal either. A strip of styrene behind to support it and some glue and it will be fine. It will get covered in armor anyways.

Correct. By Grabthar's Hammer, we will play by the rules.

Just a very quick one, but, im pretty sure the lower pull on the props head is more shallow, than the top anyway Mars.

lee

Id buy that for a dollar bro! Oh meant to say, were all done, gotta get to the weekend to pack ya gear bud, and its all yours!