Life sized V.I.N.CENT. buildup tutorial

[Beagle Bill]

Starting a new thread to chronicle the builup of a V.I.N.CENT. kit to help serve as a guide for those that are building one of my kits. The kits are pretty clean straight out of the mold. The following pictures show one of the kits that has had the majority of the seams sanded. No bondo has been added yet in these pics, just main sanding done, the openings for the front claws has been cut out, and the halves of the head glued together.

Here the joins on the head halves have been sanded flat and the eye holes cut out. To get the surfaces of the head flat, I took a scrap piece of plastic slighter bigger than the diameter of the head, sprayed it with glue, then attached pieces of 100 grit sandpaper to the plastic. Then it was just a matter of holding the parts level and moving them back and forth over my homemade sanding block.

The openings for the eyes need to be thinned to about 1/8 of an inch, this must be done with a Dremmel. USE A RESPIRATOR AND EYE PROTECTION! I cannot emphasize the importance enough, these parts are fiberglass, and you do not want the dust getting in your eyes, or your lungs!

Here are the two halves glued together. I recommend gluing the center eye post together first, using superglue and zip kicker for a fast bond. Then start on the joins from the edge of the eyes to the front of the ear holes. After that, finish up the joint along the back of the head, keeping the parts as even as possible.

The corners of the eyes will be rounded out with sandpaper wrapped around a wooden dowel.

Any slight seams will be evened out with a thin layer of bondo and sanded smooth.

Main parts of the kit stacked up to get an idea of how V.I.N.CENT. will look. A simple armature will be built so he can be supported by a pole, and the head will be suspended up from inside the body with the armature extending through the head to hold the hat stationary while the head turns, like the original.


More pics of the bondoing and surface prep, as well as creation of the armature will be posted shortly.

Bill

 

[dexter1138]

Looks Great!


Dex

 

[jonny5]

Have you considered the need for a slip ring (over the central pole) to bring power to the rotating portion of the head? Presumably there will be need to motorize the eyes.

 

[Beagle Bill]

I don't believe the eyes were motorized on the original. the only time you actually see them move is at the end of the movie when Old B.O.B. dies, and it was a tight closeup, so they were most likely puppeteered by hand from inside the body. There is a great deal of room inside the head though, at 15" diameter, so if a builder wanted to add motorized eyes, it should be possible!

I am boxing in the compartments on my first buildup, then making sure the doors fit as well as possible. The separate resin doors that will come with the kits should fit well, as the section to cut out on the body is pre-etched into the fiberglass. I am boxing the compartments in with 1/4" Sintra, it is a lightweight, strong PVC based plastic. I will be providing templates for adding the compartments, although a little adjusting will be required on the individual units due to small variances in thickness of the fiberglass bodies. I cut all the parts and glued them in to the first buildup in one evening. It should go even faster with later buildups as I now have a pattern. First they are fit into position with superglue and zip kicker, then they are JB Welded from behind for added strength. Any gaps between the compartments and the bodies will be filled with a little bondo and sanded flush.

Claws are a perfect fit for the compartments.

Bill

 

[Cyberman]

Very nice!!!:eek

 

[Beagle Bill]

I'm using 1/4 inch aluminum plate for the armature. This is the same thickness I used for the first V.I.N.CENT., which weighed around 75 pounds, so it should be more than enough to support the lightweight fiberglass builds. The main difference is the scratchbuild had the plate running from front to back just below the head, behind the lighter colored panels. The fiberglass buildup will have the plate mounted in the lower section, allowing for more room in the body for electronics.

The edges of the plate are rounded to give a better fit to the fiberglass.

The plate will extend from just behind the lighting slot below the belly monitor to the bottom part of the back section.

I will be using 3/4" pipe floor flanges for mounting the pipes to the plate. There will be a steel pipe from the bottom to the dislpay stand, and another running from the plate to the hat.

The floor flanges I am using are made by Anvil, made in Houston, Texas. I highly recommend these over the cheap, inferior quality ones carried by Lowes and Home Depot. The ones they sell are made in China and have nearly a third less material in them, and they will break on occasion. In addition, the threads are not always true, so when the pipe is screwed in it may not be at a 90 degree angle. I bought the Anvil flanges at Ace hardware, they cost a little more, but when you plan to have a big fiberglass robot suspended three feet on a pipe they are worth it. You will need 4 of the 3/4" flanges.

More on the buildup in the next few days, I am preparing a rig to make sure the pipe rising up out of the center will be 90 degrees so the hat will sit straight once it is screwed on.

Bill

 

[Beagle Bill]

Got the aluminum plate fiberglassed into the body. Here is a shot inside looking toward the rear of the body.

Shot inside looking to the front of the body. It doesn't have to look pretty, it just needs to be strong. This aluminum plate isn't going anywhere! Note that the leg holes have been cut out, they will have to be cut out eventually anyway, this gives you more access to the inside of the body while fiberglassing the plate in place. First I tacked it in place with superglue and zip kicker, then started layering fiberglass over it.

Before the plate was fiberglassed into place, the upper pipe was screwed into the flange and held centered by four straight edges hotglued into place on the top of the body. This ensures the head and hat will be level when attached.

Here is a good side view of the aluminum plate and upper and lower flanges. Excess fiberglass will be trimmed away.

Body sitting on the display base. I used a 24" round table top and another Anvil pipe flange.

More pics coming soon!

Bill

 

[Braddock001]

Looks great Bill!

 

[amish]

Now I have to re-watch this movie. I think it has been about 20 years since I saw it.

The kit is really fantastic. How long does it take for you to make a single kit?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[SiliconRiot]

You need to make a working PC case out of that bad boy...!!!!

 

[Beagle Bill]

Hey, Tom! I am having the fiberglass work done at a professional mold shop, they can lay up a body in a few days, but they have to fit it in with all the other projects they have going on. I'm pouring up the resin detail parts here at home. Speaking of which, here are all the detail parts molded up!

He might be a bit large for a computer case, SiliconRiot, as he's about the same height, width and depth as a washing machine or dryer! Looks even bigger on the pole for the levitation effect!

 

[jediscout]

This 'in progress' thread is so cool. I can't wait to see the progress over time. I still have my little vincent action figure .

 

[gyoung2993]

OMG.......That is SO SWEET ,and I thought I had something .............................. when I look at my original VINCENT model kit ,still in the box ......that is just , BAD TO THE BONE....

 

[Funky]

Wow, this is an intimidating build.

 

[Cadeian]

I have to admit that I was never a huge fan of this design, but that aside - This is some very, very cool work. I can't wait to see it done!

 

[Nate1885]

first thing i thought: that would make and AMAZING case mod. Cant wait to see more

 

[Braddock001]

This is as big around as a washer.. You could put a blade server or 4 pc's ..
Mine will have actuators and motors with a pc to run the wave files and screen.

EKG with grid
ekg (YOU CAN USE THIS VIDEO) - YouTube

I got some desighns for raising ,lowering and turning the head-
claw and blaster exstention-
chest drill-
Led lighting options-
all with remote
Working with a sound guy on wave files-
This will be awsome!

 

[Beagle Bill]

Quick update, I've been busy molding up parts for the kits I've already sold!

Also of interest to "Black Hole" fans...

I've started an interest thread in the junkyard for a Sentry bust.
http://www.therpf.com/f13/sentry-robot-bust-black-hole-132619/

Beagle Bill

 

[Clutch]

Too cool!!

 

[Plugz]

Looks awesome! Even though the movie was less than good, the robots were pretty neat.