Clone Wars: LEP Servant Droid scratch-build

[Howlrunner]

Here's one you don't see very often..... (probably cos they're the Clone Wars equivalent of Ewoks )

While waiting for the correct size hemispheres to arrive for my Jabba's Door Droid build, I was wondering what I would do with the (hemi)sphere's I already had (I dunno, I'm obsessed with transparent baubles at the moment for some reason!). While watching Clone Wars it struck me - an LEP servant droid would be pretty easy!

There are actually lots of different styles of LEP droid (I discovered) - the ears (shape and length), eyes (size, colour lighting, and with or without horizontal slats) and mouth (mouth slot or no mouth slot) are different. In the end I decided to go with BNI-393 (aka "Bunny") from Season 5 Episode 13 as she(?!) is actually a proper character and has quite a bit of dialogue and interaction with R2-D2.

So, first off, what size should she be (I'm only going for head and neck here - not the full droid)? Based on this picture of LEP 171-B assisting Tan Divo with his investigations, I figured that relative to Divo's face, the head should be a sphere of approx 10cm diameter.

So, one 10cm diameter clear acrylic bauble, a pair of compasses, a ruler, needle file, 400 grit sandpaper and my trusty dremel gave me this:

Add a couple of cut down and sanded lengths of acrylic tube and some Milliput:

Building up the top and back of head:

Sides of head and jaw/chin detail added:

And that's as far as I've got just now. Mouth interior (just a hollow black cuboid) and starting on the ears next....

 

[Halliwax]

wicked cool!!

 

[Empatojayos]

Damn that's one crazy character, but sure is a great creation!

 

[Howlrunner]

Been working on the ears. Starting with the DVD of the episode and eyeballing the shape and proportions of the ears to make a cardboard template of the main sections:

Then transferred that to 2mm styrene to cut out the main shape 4 times. And then started cutting sections to start building the ears into the correct 3D shape:

Making a mess:

Still a lot more faces to go on the ears....

 

[Iggy]

Woah! Crazy awesome build so far. Keep it up. I look forward to seeing the neck and body come together.

 

[Howlrunner]

Been working on her all day on and off, so ears are now built. Just sanding and gap filler on them to go...

The next two pieces I'm not sure on - anyone got any good ideas? I need two truncated cones for where the ears attach to the head, and another slightly larger one for where the head attaches to the neck. I'm been looking at plastic shot glasses, hair and shampoos lids, all sorts in the supermarket today, but nothing with the right gradient on the sides. Need something with a bottom diameter of 3cm....

Also, open to ideas for the neck. Something flexible would be good, but static is also fine. Can't find anything with the correct gradient again, as it's narrower at the top than at the bottom. I did see a glass bottle that looked about right, but do not want to have to cut glass - must be plastic, wood or something dremel-able!

 

[E Williams]

That is so COOOL! I love those droids and you have absolutely nailed the face. Awesome!!

For the ear base: have you tried dresser/cabinet pull knobs, or maybe the wood shapes aisle at the craft store? I think they usually have some small cone pieces.

 

[Lichtbringer]

Shoot me a pm with your wanted size/angles. I will see if i can find some glueable material to put on my lathe.

Probably you also need it threaded in their centers?

 

[Howlrunner]

E Williams - Yes, I've looked at cabinet pull knobs online (not in actual physical stores yet) - this is the best I found - http://www.thehandlestudio.co.uk/oa...eter-oak-and-aluminium-cone-cabinet-knob.html It's OK, but not really right.

Also found wooden building block cones online with a base diameter of 30mm. They look good (if I sanded down the point), but the website has a £15 minimum order plus £10 P&P, so not a route I want to go down....

Shoot me a pm with your wanted size/angles. I will see if i can find some glueable material to put on my lathe.

Probably you also need it threaded in their centers?

Thank you for your offer! You saying that actually made me remember that one of the guys in my local 501st Squad posted up some pictures on Facebook of wooden pens that he had turned recently. I messaged him his the dimensions and he's going to make them for me from beech and give them to me when we meet up at a Con this weekend. (And no threaded centres needed - just a hole to allow the bolt head to sit inside)

So, as of right now, Bunny's head is almost finished. Ear bolts will be going into production tomorrow. Eye lenses and lights still needed. Also neck attachment point and neck. Still trying to figure out something for a tapered neck....

Anyway, here she is at the moment....

 

[Howlrunner]

And the ear cones are done! To collect them on Saturday...

Head's been primered, so it's back to filling and sanding again...

Trying to work out colours too. Main head seems to be a mid grey(?), with light grey(?) ears, eyes and chin, and dark grey(?) headband and ear blocks. Can't quite decide if they are supposed to be different shades of grey though, or if they should be different shades of silver/metal. The Treadwell droid in the 2nd pic in my first post is silver aluminium on the OT prop, but looks grey in the Clone Wars cap. So that makes me think I should actually do Bunny in silver and gunmetal. Thoughts?

 

[Howlrunner]

Neck and head attachment truncated cones also done by the same guy in my Squad:

 

[kev1969]

loving your skills :thumbsup lookin forward to seeing this completed

 

[Howlrunner]

With the ear cones and neck pieces I've been able to get Bunny finished - bit of paint, and wiring up her eye lights. I've weathered her far more than she appears in Clone Wars, but wanted a more "lived in" movie feel.

 

[Lichtbringer]

I like it, a lot - but it needs a body.

 

[CatfoodRob]

My goodness, that is spectacularly good . Well done !!!!

 

[Iggy]

I like it, a lot - but it needs a body.

Ditto that! Haha. Very nice though with the light up eye sockets.