1:7 Scale Star Wars Astromech Series WIP

I purchased 7 of these candy holders just about the same time with the same thought in mind.



They had a sucker in the body with the stick protruding from the top of the head. There was a candy powder that you're supposed to dip the wet sucker into for that extra POW! pucker factor when you lick the sucker. The candy was gross; not even my kids would eat it!

The plastic holder itself isn't bad in proportion and detail. Good enough for some quickie astromech droids. I have no idea what I'll do with them now that I'm working on this current project. Maybe a diorama of Queen Amidala's Royal Spaceship droid room from The Phantom Menace?

Troy Downen said:

Odd that, of all the original Star Wars kit re-releases, this one and C-3PO have not be re-released since ROTJ. Of course, the C-3PO kit is a real box of poodoo, so no loss there! :rolleyes

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I'm sure the big model companies use the Internet and forums like this as a source for feedback about the items they produce, and are likely aware of the general opinion of these kits among modelers. Based on various comments I've read over the years I think most modelers consider the MPC/AMT R2-D2 kit to be as inaccurate as their C-3PO and Darth Vader styrene kits, which your research proves isn't true. And with the numerous and more accurate vinyl and resin kits of these characters available, they probably believed the demand for these kits wasn't high enough to warrant another reissue.

Also, RC2 mothballed their AMT division not long after they bought Playing Mantis (and their Polar Lights and Johnny Lightning divisions), focusing on their die-cast collectibles. Now that Round 2 Models has re-acquired Polar Lights, and acquired MPC and AMT, anything's possible. They've reissued quite a few kits that haven't seen the light of day in decades, and have even enhanced and/or improved parts for some of those kits.

Unfortunately, modifying existing steel molds is expensive, so they wouldn't do it unless they believed the demand for these kits justified the expense. R2 could probably be reissued as-is and sell relatively well, but the 3PO and Vader kits are so "off" that they would require all-new (and expensive) tooling.

I prefer styrene as a model kit medium over resin and vinyl by a wide margin, and I'd love to see one of the big companies produce accurate R2-D2 and C-3PO styrene kits in the same scale. I don't think I'll see that happen in my lifetime, but with some of the new and reissued kits that have been produced in the last few years I've learned to never say never.

Details! Love it!

Zombie_61 said:

.... I'd love to see one of the big companies produce accurate R2-D2 and C-3PO styrene kits in the same scale. I don't think I'll see that happen in my lifetime, but with some of the new and reissued kits that have been produced in the last few years I've learned to never say never.

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Imagine someone like FineMolds releasing a 1/6 or 1/4 scale astromech... with an option for R2, R3, R4 or R5 heads. And open panels with tools and arms. Options for lights. Drool... thumbsup:thumbsup

I think Fine Molds would be the perfect company to produce accurate R2-D2 and C-3PO kits in styrene, but they seem focused on producing the ships in various scales for the time being. Besides, I'm still waiting for them to produce a TIE Advanced x1 (a.k.a. Darth Vader's TIE Fighter) in 1/72 scale.

If anyone was going to produce new R2 and 3PO kits in styrene, I think Revell of Germany would be the likely candidate for the foreseeable future. But considering their Original Trilogy ship kits have many of the same inaccuracies as their MPC/AMT kit counterparts, if they produced R2 and 3PO kits I don't think they'd be any more accurate than the MPC kits.

I’ve always wished Fine Molds would do a R2 thru R5 line since they can be easily configured into separate droids. Basically it’s a droid body with different had parts. Even the clear dome head is straightforward. The great R4 up thread with that awesome hexagon head was always my favorite.

Would this also work for c-3po? I know there are some protocol droids throughout SW with same body, different heads, like the LOM. Just the different head and maybe a different front chest piece could be all that’s needed. I always liked that insect headed one. And the ones in chrome, rust red, hoth-white etc would also look great.

Just as long as they get the proportions right. The MPC C3po was crap. I thought it looked awful in 78, and I worshiped the other MPC SW kits as a kid.

I’ve always wondered Fine Molds never did this. Guess they were too busy making another interminable TIE fighter or Xwing kit.

I didn't get much time over the weekend to work on my droids, so just a partial update today:

MAIN BODY

My measurements indicated that the MPC kit main body was fairly accurate in diameter and length. Furthermore, the panel markings are (mostly) correctly located and sized. The primary challenge with the main body from the kit is lack of detail, or incorrect and soft detail for the power coupling, octagon port and front vents. The kit also lacks the side vent detail and flat spots at the bottom opposite the leg ankles.



First, some work with a file and sandpaper combined with styrene stock (tube, strip and sheet) yields reasonable representations of the octagon ports (right) and power couplings (left; front shown here both but copy-paste for the backside as well). There is a detail pattern on the back wall of the octagon port that I could not reproduce in this scale. I also noticed after I took the photo of the power coupler that I neglected to fill in the center tube with a slightly shorter piece of rod (it should be solid). I’ll catch that later.



I wanted to show at least one of my droids with utility arms and the data port interface arm deployed. One of the vertical panels was left open and boxed in, and the panel door thinned and shaped to fit the opening once copies were cast. I’ve just loosely taped it on for the photo; in reality it fits better than the photo would imply.



A single utility arm master was carved out of styrene strip that had been curved around a PVC pipe and warmed using a hot air gun. Two copies of this arm will be cast in resin for each of the astromech droids. Having the arms cast as separate components, rather than integral to the main body, will make it easier to paint them even if they are ultimately glued into the main body in the retracted position.

I know, the claw / hand detail is inaccurate…



Of all things, the recessed detail that represents the front utility arms is inaccurate on the main body of the MPC kit. The shape of the arms is just… ugh. So I sanded down the entire front utility arm area on the body and re-covered it with 0.01” styrene sheet.

The utility arm master that I had just carved was used as a template to open up the recessed areas on the main body for the arms to retract into. In the photo below I’m starting the “connect the dots” process of cutting out the utility arm areas.



And below I’ve finished trimming the top utility arm area and I’m test fitting the arm. I’ve stuck some blue tape to the back of the opening to keep the arm from falling through the hole. I’ll put a strip of styrene behind each cutout to form the “box” that the arms recess into.



I'm hoping that this coming weekend I'll be able to close up the main body and start working on the missing side details. More soon...

Metaluna mutant said:

Would this also work for c-3po? I know there are some protocol droids throughout SW with same body, different heads, like the LOM. Just the different head and maybe a different front chest piece could be all that’s needed. I always liked that insect headed one. And the ones in chrome, rust red, hoth-white etc would also look great.

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It's not *quite* as true for the protocol droids, but close. C3PO, K3PO (white Hoth droid), TC-14 (silver from opening scene of The Phantom Menace) and R3PO (red droid from... ? Not coming up with the reference right off hand) all share the identical features. Only color/finish differs.

Sadly, the "Death Star Droid" (so-called by Kenner back in the 70's) seen in the Death Star corridor outside the turbolift, 4-LOM, and the white junk droid seen in the sandcrawler (from the waist up) in A New Hope all have different heads and differences in aspects of their bodies (including limbs). I've looked at a few of them for the potential of making mods, and you're right - it would at a minimum involve sanding down and replacing the C3PO-like features on their chests and back. Typically even more work than that, tho. :cry

But I will be building C3PO and K3PO to pose with R2-D2 and R3-Y2 droids from this current build. I have the Kaiyodo kits for the protocol driods (NICE kit !!!)

EDIT: Wookiepedia says R3PO was on Hoth with K3PO, but the red bugger was an Imperial spy! I didn't know that...

Metaluna mutant said:

Just as long as they get the proportions right. The MPC C3po was crap. I thought it looked awful in 78, and I worshiped the other MPC SW kits as a kid.

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As bad as the proportions on MPC's C-3PO kit were, the proportions on the Darth Vader figure kit they produced in 1979 were even worse. The mask is a mess, the helmet's too small, and the hands and feet are huge.

I love this project! Do you plan to sell upgrade kits?

Are you sure this kit is in 7th scale, 'cause then it would look out of scale with the Kaiyodo protocol droid as that's pretty large and sixth scale.

I have one of those, but lost the head antenna, and have been looking for a good astromech, but the Kaiyodo is impossible to find and I dread and cannot do the mods needed on the MPC kit. Really wish an improved and accurate styrene astromech will be produced soon. The Gentle Giant statue just doesn't speak to me and looks busy... and the Medicom is too small and too expensive.

Love the work you are doing.

Troy Downen said:

....and R3PO (red droid from... ? Not coming up with the reference right off hand)...

EDIT: Wookiepedia says R3PO was on Hoth with K3PO, but the red bugger was an Imperial spy! I didn't know that...

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I think the spy angle is just EU stuff.

But don't forget about the other protocol droid on Bespin (that was rude to C3PO), and there is a third droid on Hoth (not including C3PO), in the Hangar, who is a dirty silver. You can see both R3P0 and the silver one on the attached pic.

But back on topic...lovin' how these are coming out. looking forward to seeing more progress.

NAZGÛL said:

I love this project! Do you plan to sell upgrade kits?

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Good question. I have toyed with the idea, but I'm not sure that I'm comfortable placing the burden of my modeling shortcomings on others. Even if I provided resin replacement / upgrade parts, there would still be considerable work for the modeler to complete. For example, I still haven't crafted eye stalks or antennae for R5 (I will, but I'm not sure that I'll cast resin copies. I'll probably just hack out 3 sets for this project).

I don't know... I'll keep considering it.:confused

Too Much Garlic said:

Are you sure this kit is in 7th scale, 'cause then it would look out of scale with the Kaiyodo protocol droid as that's pretty large and sixth scale.

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You bring up a good point. My measurements indicate that the MPC R2D2 kit is 1:7 scale. I have not yet measured my Kaiyodo C3PO kit nor assembled it to the point that I can pose them together (the vinyl pour stubs need to be trimmed). Now that you've raised the point, maybe I need to trim the Kaiyodo kit and see how they look together!

Too Much Garlic said:

... Really wish an improved and accurate styrene astromech will be produced soon. The Gentle Giant statue just doesn't speak to me and looks busy... and the Medicom is too small and too expensive.

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You and the rest of the world, buddy! Here's rooting for Fine Molds !! :lol

seven said:

I think the spy angle is just EU stuff.

But don't forget about the other protocol droid on Bespin (that was rude to C3PO), and there is a third droid on Hoth (not including C3PO), in the Hangar, who is a dirty silver. You can see both R3P0 and the silver one on the attached pic.

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That's a great screen capture! So that's not C3PO in the foreground? Hmmm... dirty silver you think? I really like that picture. R3PO to one side, gonk droid in front of the unidentified protocol droid, an R4 in the background and what appears to be two R3 units in the far background. I LOVE it !! :thumbsup (Guess I need to break out the Blu-Ray ESB this weekend and look for that scene)

Troy Downen said:

You bring up a good point. My measurements indicate that the MPC R2D2 kit is 1:7 scale. I have not yet measured my Kaiyodo C3PO kit nor assembled it to the point that I can pose them together (the vinyl pour stubs need to be trimmed). Now that you've raised the point, maybe I need to trim the Kaiyodo kit and see how they look together!

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Kaiyodo's C-3PO and R2-D2 vinyl kits are supposed to be 1/6 scale. Of course, MPC's R2-D2 kit was believed to be 1/6 scale as well, and you see how well that worked out. :lol

To be honest, I think your idea is best--put 'em together and see how they look side-by-side regardless of their alleged scales.

THREE-LEG STANCE

R2 is up on all three legs and I wanted to show you progress in getting there. First, when designing the main legs I built three grooves into the recessed area where the shoulder hubs attach the main body to the legs. In the photo below you can see, on the inside face of the main legs, the three grooves highlighted by the red arrows. The cylinder held above the leg in this photo will run through the main body left-to-right and represent the shoulder hubs to which the legs attach. The red arrow also highlights the ridge built into the shoulder hubs. This ridge will point down on the main body, and when aligned with the center groove on the leg, R2 will stand upright on 2 legs. The other two grooves on the leg are approximately 35-38 degrees from the center groove. When the legs are aligned with these grooves R2 will be in his 3-legged stance.



Okay, that explanation was clear as mud. Here’s a photo showing the shoulder hub installed in the main body. See how the legs will attach?



In the photo below you can see R2 temporarily taped together with his legs mounted in the 3-legged stance. In this photo I have the center leg mounted on R2 for the first time. I had to adjust the center leg length until I arrived at this angle for R2’s stance (the Hasbro R2 is in the background for comparison). It looks about right to me, and my angle measurements show the legs to be approximately 35 degrees from body centerline. Close... I’ll now cast center leg copies at this height.



A bit more on the center leg and the skirt. In the photo below the MPC kit skirt has been backed with a styrene circle and I’m building walls inside the skirt. In this photo you can see that I’ve glued in place the left and right walls (straight) and the front curved wall. I will glue in the back curved wall next.



In this photo you can see that I’ve completed the internal walls, but I’m having trouble with a very fine gap along the edges of the skirt where those styrene walls were glued in. I use “whiteout” correction fluid to fill such hairline gaps where my 3M Glazing Putty or CA glue just won’t settle into the joint. It usually takes two or three applications of the correction fluid, but once I give it a few swipes with a fine sanding stick the hairline gap will disappear.



Let’s turn this droid upside down to see if it’s a boy or girl… (Perve!) I’ve been digging through my spares box to add greeblies inside the skirt just in case anyone wants to look up R2’s skirt! (Perve!) Since this area was undefined in the movies (or the props, as far as I know), I’ve used artistic license to try to follow the best traditions of ILM greeblies. Unfortunately, as you can see from the photo, any future I might have working for ILM is pretty limited based on my poor efforts here!

But… Is that a center leg or are you just happy to see me? (Perve!)

C-3PO COMPARISON

I made mention that I planned to display at least two of my astromechs with protocol droids from Kaiyodo. But if the Kaiyodo C-3PO is 1:6 scale and this astromech is 1:7 scale, how will they look together? In reality, the difference between 1:6 and 1:7 won’t be too bad. But let’s check it out.

The Kaiyodo kit is hollow cast in vinyl, and as a result has pour stubs on the end of each component. In this photo you can see the stub on the knee, and in the background you can see the torso. These stubs are hollow and simply need to be trimmed off the part. Sometimes it helps to heat the vinyl with a hair dryer (not too much!) but this vinyl happened to be very workable so I skipped heating the parts.



Although easy to trim with a sharp knife, vinyl does not sand well. However, I wanted to thin the walls of the upper torso so that I could slide it down over the waist. I used the Dremel to hack away at the vinyl inside the torso and managed to get enough gouged out that I could come back with a knife blade and trim it up afterwards.



Here you can see the torso fitted over the waist; this arrangement will permit me to pose the protocol droid a bit. I can lean him forward or back just enough to do what I’ll need for each diorama.



Okay, I taped the protocol droid together and posed him and an astromech together with their Hasbro 12” collection equivalents.

First, the protocol droids. Look at the difference in height! The Hasbro TC-14 on the left measures at exactly 12 inches in height. The Kaiyodo kit measures at 10.75 inches. If that Hasbro kit is 1:6 scale then Anthony Daniels comes in at a whopping 6 foot tall! Hmmm… I don’t believe that he’s quite that tall. If the Kaiyodo kit is 1:6 then he’d be 5 foot 4.5 inches. That’s a bit closer, I would think. Maybe a bit too short? If the Kaiyodo kit is 1:6.5 then he’d be 5 foot 10 inches. Perhaps.



The upshot is that the protocol droid kit is somewhere around 1:6 or slightly smaller. Not too far off from the 1:7 astromech. The scene I intend to recreate with these models is the photo below.



So in looking at the comparison below you can see that R2 is a bit undersized in comparison to the Kaiyodo kit, but it’s not so bad that it looks odd. I have a bit more work to do on R2’s ankles which will make him just a bit shorter, and I need to work on the body intersection with the dome (which will make him a bit taller), but overall it should still work.



But boy, look at those two R2 units together! The Hasbro figure is on the right. Since these are essentially the same height, it makes the Hasbro R2 even further out of scale with their protocol droid than the Kaiyodo kit.

IMDB has Anthony Daniels Height listed as:

5' 9" (1.75 m)

So the Hasbro kit might be close.

Thanks for looking that up. So the Kaiyodo is about 1:6-1/2 scale.