Troy Downen
Well-Known Member
Agreed! That is absolutely the best one-stop source for figuring out which astromech went with which Red Squad member at the Battle of Yavin.
1:7 Scale Star Wars Astromech Series WIP
- Thread starter Troy Downen
- Start date
Agreed! That is absolutely the best one-stop source for figuring out which astromech went with which Red Squad member at the Battle of Yavin.
Troy Downen
Well-Known Member
HOLO PROJECTORS AND RADAR EYES
The MPC kit holo projectors (HP) are vague forms and sorely in need of replacement. I searched for days to find a sphere or hemisphere that could serve as the base of the HP but came up cold until I found this… thing… stashed away in my tools. It’s some sort of wood dowel with spheres at each end. One is labeled “8” (it is 8 mm in diameter) and the other end is “10”. I have no idea what they’re used for, but I judged that the 8 mm end would work well as a master for “smash forming” a shell.
I anchored the dowel in my vise with the 8 mm end pointing up. Holding a small square of 0.02 inch sheet between two clamps, I heated the sheet with a hot air gun and then smashed the sheet over the 8 mm sphere (hence the term “smash form”). I smashed two sheets, one of top of the other to make two layers for base. You’ll see why in just a minute.
I made a lot of rejects…
But finally I ended up with a handful of inner and outer shell pairs that I could use.
The shells were trimmed from the sheet, and it turned out that they were 11/32 inch in diameter. That’s a bit small per the Club blueprints, but it looks okay in this scale.
The reason for having an inner and outer shell is because I wanted to model the mount in which the ball rotates. The holo cowl opening defined by two offset circular cuts. At 1:1 scale it’s two 1.9" circles offset by 0.2" from the middle.
In the photo below, the outer shell with the square cutout will slide over the inner shell which remains uncut. Note that this square shell is incorrect; I returned later and corrected the shape to represent the double-circles as noted above.
In the photo above you can also see the tapered projector lens cover. This was made from 1/4 inch styrene tube which was gently “sharpened” in a pencil sharpener to get the taper. The end of the tube was cut off, then a slightly smaller diameter tube was placed inside the tapered lens cover to make a short stalk. Note that I first closed off the end of the smaller tube so that the “lens” is really just a styrene disk. Once I have cast resin copies of the HPs I’ll have the option to drill out the lens and light it with an LED or similar.
I mounted the lens covers on the swivel balls slightly off center to add interest. You’ll note that I left off the raised ridges on the swivel head. That would be difficult to get right in this scale, plus they would be miniscule and difficult to see on a scale HP. If needed, they would be better represented by a decal (hmmm… I might need to make some decals).
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the HPs that I ended up with. I’ll start casting resin copies once I get the radar eye built.
Next, the radar eye frame needed some attention. After I filled the eye hole in the MPC kit part, I started comparing the kit frame part to the Club blueprints and realized that the eye location is just about right (doh!). Instead, the MPC frame needs the sides to be re-contoured as shown by the black lines in the photo, plus it needs a small styrene strip attached to the bottom to make the part taller.
I also crafted new “greeblies” for the side of the eye frame and scribed a fine line at the bottom for the slot (I would love for this to be a CD / DVD slot on my 1:1 scale model !). In the photo below you can see the clear eye lens that I have used on this master. It's made from clear plastic packaging from kids' "Squinkies". This packaging consists of excellent clear plastic hemispheres 1 inch in diameter. I've already found several uses for them in models and I have quite a stock of them hidden away in my stash - my little girls love the toys so for the moment I have no shortage of supply!
Okay, now I’m ready to cast up a whole mess of HPs and radar eyes for this project! Here I’m brushing the HP and radar eye mold with talcum powder to improve the resin’s ability to “wick” down into the details and reduce bubbles in the final cast:
Dumping out the excess talc:
Measuring the two-part resin by weight for mixing (in this case, some leftover Alumilite White that I had sitting around):
Pouring the resin into the mold:
Watching the bubbles come out of the resin in the vacuum chamber:
And pulling all of those glorious parts out of the mold:
I have a dozen radar eyes and a couple dozen HPs cast at this point. That should be sufficient for this project.
Up next: Feet and Legs
The MPC kit holo projectors (HP) are vague forms and sorely in need of replacement. I searched for days to find a sphere or hemisphere that could serve as the base of the HP but came up cold until I found this… thing… stashed away in my tools. It’s some sort of wood dowel with spheres at each end. One is labeled “8” (it is 8 mm in diameter) and the other end is “10”. I have no idea what they’re used for, but I judged that the 8 mm end would work well as a master for “smash forming” a shell.
I anchored the dowel in my vise with the 8 mm end pointing up. Holding a small square of 0.02 inch sheet between two clamps, I heated the sheet with a hot air gun and then smashed the sheet over the 8 mm sphere (hence the term “smash form”). I smashed two sheets, one of top of the other to make two layers for base. You’ll see why in just a minute.
I made a lot of rejects…
But finally I ended up with a handful of inner and outer shell pairs that I could use.
The shells were trimmed from the sheet, and it turned out that they were 11/32 inch in diameter. That’s a bit small per the Club blueprints, but it looks okay in this scale.
The reason for having an inner and outer shell is because I wanted to model the mount in which the ball rotates. The holo cowl opening defined by two offset circular cuts. At 1:1 scale it’s two 1.9" circles offset by 0.2" from the middle.
In the photo below, the outer shell with the square cutout will slide over the inner shell which remains uncut. Note that this square shell is incorrect; I returned later and corrected the shape to represent the double-circles as noted above.
In the photo above you can also see the tapered projector lens cover. This was made from 1/4 inch styrene tube which was gently “sharpened” in a pencil sharpener to get the taper. The end of the tube was cut off, then a slightly smaller diameter tube was placed inside the tapered lens cover to make a short stalk. Note that I first closed off the end of the smaller tube so that the “lens” is really just a styrene disk. Once I have cast resin copies of the HPs I’ll have the option to drill out the lens and light it with an LED or similar.
I mounted the lens covers on the swivel balls slightly off center to add interest. You’ll note that I left off the raised ridges on the swivel head. That would be difficult to get right in this scale, plus they would be miniscule and difficult to see on a scale HP. If needed, they would be better represented by a decal (hmmm… I might need to make some decals).
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the HPs that I ended up with. I’ll start casting resin copies once I get the radar eye built.
Next, the radar eye frame needed some attention. After I filled the eye hole in the MPC kit part, I started comparing the kit frame part to the Club blueprints and realized that the eye location is just about right (doh!). Instead, the MPC frame needs the sides to be re-contoured as shown by the black lines in the photo, plus it needs a small styrene strip attached to the bottom to make the part taller.
I also crafted new “greeblies” for the side of the eye frame and scribed a fine line at the bottom for the slot (I would love for this to be a CD / DVD slot on my 1:1 scale model !). In the photo below you can see the clear eye lens that I have used on this master. It's made from clear plastic packaging from kids' "Squinkies". This packaging consists of excellent clear plastic hemispheres 1 inch in diameter. I've already found several uses for them in models and I have quite a stock of them hidden away in my stash - my little girls love the toys so for the moment I have no shortage of supply!
Okay, now I’m ready to cast up a whole mess of HPs and radar eyes for this project! Here I’m brushing the HP and radar eye mold with talcum powder to improve the resin’s ability to “wick” down into the details and reduce bubbles in the final cast:
Dumping out the excess talc:
Measuring the two-part resin by weight for mixing (in this case, some leftover Alumilite White that I had sitting around):
Pouring the resin into the mold:
Watching the bubbles come out of the resin in the vacuum chamber:
And pulling all of those glorious parts out of the mold:
I have a dozen radar eyes and a couple dozen HPs cast at this point. That should be sufficient for this project.
Up next: Feet and Legs
Darth Brass
Sr Member
Dude. That's awesome. I'm loving this project!
Troy Downen
Well-Known Member
Hey guys, thanks so much. It's one thing to have family or co-workers say "nice job", but to have fellow modelers - most here on this forum with finer skills than mine - compliment my work means a great deal.
Yes, I thought the model was probably issued in 1978, but someone had said they felt it was probably 1981 so I put that in as a question. But 1978 would be my best guess.
Legs are “in the can” and I started working the main body. Good results there so far. More pictures soon.
Yes, I thought the model was probably issued in 1978, but someone had said they felt it was probably 1981 so I put that in as a question. But 1978 would be my best guess.
Legs are “in the can” and I started working the main body. Good results there so far. More pictures soon.
Troy Downen
Well-Known Member
FEET AND LEGS
Up to this point, the R4 and R5 heads and the holoprojectors have been 100% scratch-built. But the feet and legs from the MPC kit can be used as a basis for accurate versions via some heavy modifications.
The MPC kit feet were terribly inaccurate, in both shape and size. Fortunately the left and right main feet are symmetric, so I only had to build one master for those in addition to the center foot.
First with the center foot: this is the worst. The taper of the front and back of the foot is entirely wrong, plus the foot is too narrow and too short. You can see in the photo how much the taper needs to change to adhere to the Club blueprints.
The sloped sides on both masters are really the only part salvaged from the MPC kit because I felt they had good half-moon detail that could be saved. The front and aft ends of each foot were rebuilt, plus a groove was added down the center of each foot for the leg to insert into. Also, 0.10” square stock was used on the bottom of each foot to make the feet taller. Here they are work-in-process (WIP):
And here are the final masters with detail added to the sides alongside cast resin copies. Note that the sides of the resin copies have been sanded to give that tapered shape to the bottom of the feet.
The battery boxes took a good deal of work as well, but I failed to get WIP photos of them. For the hydraulic cables connecting the battery boxes to the feet, I’ve cut 14 gauge copper wire and bent it to shape. Once painted, it’ll be perfect.
The center leg from the MPC kit was hopeless:
To scratch a new center leg, a wooden dowel was sliced lengthwise just slightly off-center (not an easy thing to do; check out the Rube Goldberg contraption I put together in my miter saw!):
Rectangular stock was sandwiched between the half-cylinder pieces and a styrene triangle was epoxied to the end as the new center foot interface. Lots of sanding and putty later, a new center leg emerged (I still need to add the small ankle cylinders missing in this photo):
I tore apart the main legs from the MPC kit and salvaged the shoulder “horseshoe” as well as some of the ankle and the leg itself:
Liberal use of styrene tube, half-round stock and sheet permitted a reasonable facsimile of the main legs to be built. The point of rotation in the middle of the shoulder (“shoulder hub”) was a compromise (it should be recessed) but looks okay overall. Not shown in the photo are the ankle cylinders and wedge which I later added and are integral to the cast resin copies.
I only recently learned that there should be grooves on the inside of the shoulder horseshoe. All of that research and I missed it! If I had known a week earlier I could have built it into the model. Well, too late now!
Despite missing that horseshoe detail, I’m particularly proud that I was able to get that thin groove around the top of the shoulder built to a reasonably thin scale and also a consistent width across the shoulder.
In fact, I’m darned proud at how well these legs turned out; far better than I had initially hoped. But – and here’s the big BUT – I cheated a bit on these. I realize that, technically speaking, the left and right legs are NOT symmetric due to the detail on the side of the shoulders…
However, I felt that my ability to get left and right leg masters built that were exactly the same length and consistent in features and details was pretty slim. I also looked through a lot of footage from the original trilogy and saw that on film the 1:1 scale astromech props were not consistent in which detail on the shoulders faced forward (that, or perhaps the film negatives were occasionally flipped?).
So - and this is just between you and me (shhhhh….) - I am going to use a single master to cast all of my left and right legs. I’ve noticed that Hasbro does the same thing on their 1:18 and 1:6 scale figures, and they’re the professionals, right? Frankly, 99% of the people who see these models won’t know the difference. And as for the other 1% (including me), well we’re all nerds who really should get a life anyway, right?
Look at all of those sexy legs! Five sets so far; about half of what I’ll need for this project.
Hey, I taped things together and propped the R5 and R4 heads on the WIP main body and took these photos last night. The R5 head sits too high on the body, and the R4 sits a bit low. I’m still working on that head-body interface. But it’s starting to look like an astromech! Woo hoo!
Sorry for the glare in the photo - all of that white styrene and resin is reflecting right back at the camera!
Up next: The main body.
Up to this point, the R4 and R5 heads and the holoprojectors have been 100% scratch-built. But the feet and legs from the MPC kit can be used as a basis for accurate versions via some heavy modifications.
The MPC kit feet were terribly inaccurate, in both shape and size. Fortunately the left and right main feet are symmetric, so I only had to build one master for those in addition to the center foot.
First with the center foot: this is the worst. The taper of the front and back of the foot is entirely wrong, plus the foot is too narrow and too short. You can see in the photo how much the taper needs to change to adhere to the Club blueprints.
The sloped sides on both masters are really the only part salvaged from the MPC kit because I felt they had good half-moon detail that could be saved. The front and aft ends of each foot were rebuilt, plus a groove was added down the center of each foot for the leg to insert into. Also, 0.10” square stock was used on the bottom of each foot to make the feet taller. Here they are work-in-process (WIP):
And here are the final masters with detail added to the sides alongside cast resin copies. Note that the sides of the resin copies have been sanded to give that tapered shape to the bottom of the feet.
The battery boxes took a good deal of work as well, but I failed to get WIP photos of them. For the hydraulic cables connecting the battery boxes to the feet, I’ve cut 14 gauge copper wire and bent it to shape. Once painted, it’ll be perfect.
The center leg from the MPC kit was hopeless:
To scratch a new center leg, a wooden dowel was sliced lengthwise just slightly off-center (not an easy thing to do; check out the Rube Goldberg contraption I put together in my miter saw!):
Rectangular stock was sandwiched between the half-cylinder pieces and a styrene triangle was epoxied to the end as the new center foot interface. Lots of sanding and putty later, a new center leg emerged (I still need to add the small ankle cylinders missing in this photo):
I tore apart the main legs from the MPC kit and salvaged the shoulder “horseshoe” as well as some of the ankle and the leg itself:
Liberal use of styrene tube, half-round stock and sheet permitted a reasonable facsimile of the main legs to be built. The point of rotation in the middle of the shoulder (“shoulder hub”) was a compromise (it should be recessed) but looks okay overall. Not shown in the photo are the ankle cylinders and wedge which I later added and are integral to the cast resin copies.
I only recently learned that there should be grooves on the inside of the shoulder horseshoe. All of that research and I missed it! If I had known a week earlier I could have built it into the model. Well, too late now!
Despite missing that horseshoe detail, I’m particularly proud that I was able to get that thin groove around the top of the shoulder built to a reasonably thin scale and also a consistent width across the shoulder.
In fact, I’m darned proud at how well these legs turned out; far better than I had initially hoped. But – and here’s the big BUT – I cheated a bit on these. I realize that, technically speaking, the left and right legs are NOT symmetric due to the detail on the side of the shoulders…
However, I felt that my ability to get left and right leg masters built that were exactly the same length and consistent in features and details was pretty slim. I also looked through a lot of footage from the original trilogy and saw that on film the 1:1 scale astromech props were not consistent in which detail on the shoulders faced forward (that, or perhaps the film negatives were occasionally flipped?).
So - and this is just between you and me (shhhhh….) - I am going to use a single master to cast all of my left and right legs. I’ve noticed that Hasbro does the same thing on their 1:18 and 1:6 scale figures, and they’re the professionals, right? Frankly, 99% of the people who see these models won’t know the difference. And as for the other 1% (including me), well we’re all nerds who really should get a life anyway, right?
Look at all of those sexy legs! Five sets so far; about half of what I’ll need for this project.
Hey, I taped things together and propped the R5 and R4 heads on the WIP main body and took these photos last night. The R5 head sits too high on the body, and the R4 sits a bit low. I’m still working on that head-body interface. But it’s starting to look like an astromech! Woo hoo!
Sorry for the glare in the photo - all of that white styrene and resin is reflecting right back at the camera!
Up next: The main body.
Zombie_61
Master Member
People are probably remembering when they built the kit as a kid, and not taking into consideration (or forgetting) the fact that the kit was released twice--first by MPC in the Star Wars packaging in 1977, then by AMT/Ertl in the Return of the Jedi packaging in 1983.
cavx
Master Member
I only recently learned that there should be grooves on the inside of the shoulder horseshoe. All of that research and I missed it! If I had known a week earlier I could have built it into the model. Well, too late now!
Despite missing that horseshoe detail, I’m particularly proud that I was able to get that thin groove around the top of the shoulder built to a reasonably thin scale and also a consistent width across the shoulder.
I am sure that it says in the credits that R2 was built by a toy company. I am guessing that in 1976 it was more cost effective to layer up the legs than machine them from solid bar.
Troy Downen
Well-Known Member
A "flock" ? "Herd" ?
I plan for 12 different versions which will mix the R2, R3, R4 and R5 models. At some point I'll post photos of each of the serial numbers I plan to build, but I don't want to embarass myself too much if I end up only completing one - or NONE ! :lol
Troy Downen
Well-Known Member
Please correct my faulty recollection, but I seem to recall SW being re-released in theaters in early 1978. :confused
Zombie_61
Master Member
Just to be clear, in my previous post I was referring strictly to the release dates of the R2-D2 model kit, not the movie.
With regards to the movie release dates, as far as I know it was re-released in theaters in 1978...and '79, '81, '82, and the not-so-Special-Edition in '97 (not counting special screenings).
MonsieurTox
Master Member
Awesome work ! I love all the work put in them ! The R4 unit is my fav, cant wait to see them all finished !
Jaitea
Master Member
Really fantastic work, I bought an R2 bubble bath for my kid around the time of episode 1 (1999-2000) the bubble bath was all used and he played with the R2 for a while, then I conviscated it from him and took it apart to try and make it more accurate.
About a year later I picked up another 2 of these in a bargain basket but they had missing heads, my plan to make alternative astromech droids.
Your progress has made me consider resurrecting this project
J
About a year later I picked up another 2 of these in a bargain basket but they had missing heads, my plan to make alternative astromech droids.
Your progress has made me consider resurrecting this project
J
Troy Downen
Well-Known Member
Agreed. So I'm thinking that the kit was probably NOT released in 1977 since even Kenner could not get action figures into the stores by Christmas of that year; nobody had a clue the movie would be such a hit. So MPC probably didn't get the kit into stores until the following year when the movie was re-released. Despite the 1977 copyright, we probably didn't see the kit until 1978. (?)
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
Troy Downen
Well-Known Member
Really fantastic work, I bought an R2 bubble bath for my kid around the time of episode 1 (1999-2000) the bubble bath was all used and he played with the R2 for a while, then I conviscated it from him and took it apart to try and make it more accurate.
About a year later I picked up another 2 of these in a bargain basket but they had missing heads, my plan to make alternative astromech droids.
Your progress has made me consider resurrecting this project
J
What scale is that little guy? Certain features are remarkably similar to the Hasbro 6" action figure.
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