Jabba's Gatekeeper Droid WIP- Studio 49

[Studio 49]

So a month and a bit ago I finally purchased my own 3D Printer so to run it through it's paces I decided I could finally build something that I had 3D modelled long ago and had just sat on the hard drive, the TT 8L:Y7 Gatekeeper Droid or as it's most common known as Jabba's Gatekeeper Droid! For some reason I alway sound this droid really humorous and decided what the heck, why not build one! Then I can put it on the wall in the work shop That and I've only seen 2-3 other examples of these being built,


So that's enough talk, lets get into it
First up here's the promo video I made for it almost 2 years ago when I finished the CAD model, this'll give some great context as to scale and function

Now with that in mind, onto the WIP for the build thus far
First up was getting all the printing started and glue the parts together as I went

I couldn't help but throw some brass on it even without smoothing the surface

I then continued on to start priming and filling followed of course by a dry test fit

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[Panaflex]

Wow! This is amazing!

Your stuff always impresses. This would be a great piece to have. Can't wait to see it finished.

Tried finding it on shapeways but it won't come up. :unsure

 

[Howlrunner]

Looking great! Any plans on updating the spiked curved hinge sections to make them more screen-accurate? Or adding lights in the eyeball?

 

[Studio 49]

Wow! This is amazing!
Your stuff always impresses. This would be a great piece to have. Can't wait to see it finished.
Tried finding it on shapeways but it won't come up. :unsure

Thanks mate for the kind words. What can I say, I just love building stuff!
As for Shapeways, the video is 2 years old actually so in that time I took it down form Shapeways since because of the size it was in the region of 4 figures with the prices they set, and no one would ever buy one of these for that so I just took it down. Unfortunately it just wasn't viable for Shapeways like my smaller products

Looking great! Any plans on updating the spiked curved hinge sections to make them more screen-accurate? Or adding lights in the eyeball?

With the eyeball, I had thought it would be cool if I could get a wireless camera into the eye and have that feed to a screen so it was an actual functional droid!
As for the spikes, yeah it's something I'm very open too although at this stage I'll likely just go with what I've got just to get him done (since I unfortunately don't have time to do any big remodelling because of my commitments to my Formal studies)

 

[Blue Leader]

That is really cool. Awesome job so far.

 

[Halliwax]

marvelous job!! i always enjoy watching studio 49's creations!!

good job buddy!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yaris]

Me likey!....looks really good, excellent work. Your 3D printer looks like it creates very smooth work, I've seen some that look very ordinary, what brand is it? would you recommend it?

 

[Studio 49]

That is really cool. Awesome job so far.

marvelous job!! i always enjoy watching studio 49's creations!!
good job buddy!!

Thank you mate! I'm just thankful others are interested in what I'm building

Me likey!....looks really good, excellent work. Your 3D printer looks like it creates very smooth work, I've seen some that look very ordinary, what brand is it? would you recommend it?

Why thank you man!
As for the printer I'm using the UP Mini 2. They're an Australian company who make really nice printers. So with the one I have came in at $990 AUD with GST (got free shipping and had it within the week since it just had to ship domestically). Don't let the 120x120mm build volume fool you either, I've printed thing three to five times the this guy like wearable buckets, all you have to do is split the parts up

As for the quality of the print they're really nice, the majority of the pics that you're seeing are on the fine setting which I use for detail parts (you can change the layer thickness as well)


http://store.3dprintingsystems.com/up-mini2-3d-printer

 

[HalfShelter]

Amazing!

 

[Studio 49]

Amazing!

Thank you man

 

[Studio 49]

I had a chance to give the Gatekeeper a quick lick of paint so I took it
Starting to come along quite nicely now I must say

 

[Studio 49]

Made some more progress on the Gatekeeper in the past few days, amazing what you can get done when you get onto the University break
In terms of overall progress It's pretty well all painting and assembly now so on the home straight apart from the rearmost mounting part and the spiked arches on the side which I've yet to print (just waiting to get my 3D Printer back from the technician)


First up I spent quite a bit of time on the centre most layers of the eye and managed to get them pretty well perfect to what I wanted

Next up I got the mouse sander out and rounded off the joins between the spherical parts just for appearances sake

Then I had a crack at weathering up the sliding neck piece (I'm going to ad some more brown to it an then it'll be where I want it)

Then came time for the part I'd been waiting for since I started the project! I got to glue and assembled the eyeball and it looks spectacular (even with filler in the joins still)
Everything has been glued in place and once teh filler is dry I'll sand him back and then give him a few coats of brown and weather him up so it looks like a singular spherical piece

And with the "stalk" section of the droid almost al painted up I did another extension/fitting test and it's working an absolute treat

 

[Studio 49]

So the Gatekeeper is now complete as of Brisbane Supanova this past weekend (one of our states biggest conventions). I got him done just in time for the panel i was hosting with the 501st on Props, Droids and Vehicle building so I figured it was high time I updated the WIP for him
This'll cover everything up until the pictures of the final droid since I want to take some nice pictures of him



First up was working on the spiked arches basic assembly

First test fit

Then came the fun part, I got to have a play with the mechanisms I'd designed!

The next huge problem I faced was the structural integrity of the armature that held the eye in place

I did dome brain storming and by found and awesome way of ensuring it was stable and could be broken down for transport

So what I came up with was embedding a bolt into the eye and then an hexagonal coupler into the arm (think of it like an extended nut)

And the result was a super sturdy set up

Next up was printing and painting up the main base of the droid for vertical display or wall mounting

I made this in much the same way as I did the eye with filling, sanding and painting it in the same rusty type appearance (refer back to those posts if you want details)

Next up was crating a storage box to get him the the convention for the panel this past weekend, and this entire set up cost a ma a whole 20 bucks ;

$10 for the box and then $10 for the foam. This foam padding I use looks fancy but it's stupid easy and cheap to do yourself to protect your valuable props/costumes. I just by those foam exercise mats from Kmart, trace the props onto the foam, cut out the appropriate holes for the item and then repeat that process a number of times, Then you just glue the foam layers together and hey presto custom foam padding

 

[Studio 49]

I finally had the chance to take some nice photos of my Gatekeeper Droid. I'm extremely happy with how it came out in the end, it's better than I possibly could have envisioned. And yes this Droid is fully functional with the head being able to extend outwards and in again. The same goes for the spiked arches with them being able to run up and down along the neck of the Droid. I also made a video today of the completed droid in action tomorrow

 

[Studio 49]

As promised here's the finished Gatekeeper Droid in action
I'm extremely happy with how it came out in the end, it's better than I possibly could have envisioned. One day I may do a some kits for a proper run but not until I get a bigger printer