PZ-4CO build (I'm gonna need help on this one)

[Damndrew]

I'm starting a new project and it's very ambitious. I'm setting out to build Peazy Droid from The Force Awakens, I may steal some from Last Jedi but I prefer the TFA version. I have various thoughts about it becoming a costume at some point but at the moment the goal is the bust/helmet/mask... Everything from the human actress's shoulders up. If I get that far and stop that's one hell of an awesome display piece, if I continue with a full costume I'm a third of the way done. If I quit and it's an unfinished on my bench I'll at least have put up the information for what I've figured out so the next person won't have to start from scratch as much as I did.
I'm in between planning and fabricating. I have a lot of notes, a good set up on how the puppetry will go, and I know about how the electronics should go (luckily my last project have me a crash course with that).

I don't know a lot though unfortunately:
Most pressing, what's holding me up from my next step is I don't know the droids necks thickness does it start on the shoulders an inch in? two? Three? I know it's a single plane wrapping around the back and sides of the neck into a conical cylinder thing but I'm not sure at all on the dimensions and I've been nervous to just try something and see how it goes (writing that just now though I've talked myself into doing just that so hopefully next update I'll have more of an idea, just pull the trigger already).
The central processing dome (the head) is also nerve wracking to start on (again I should just start and I'm going to.)
I have no idea what kind of lights are in her eyes.
I don't know what the black portion of her neck is? I've been assuming black cloth wrapping the structure with details greeblies and wires glued on its quite difficult to see but that is what it looks like her midriff is and I am extrapolating from incomplete information.

This is the biggest (most extensive) project I've done thus far but I'm ready to level up.
Any advice is welcomed. Any info anyone can find would be so helpful.

Pictures are what I could find and the notes I've compiled.

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[Damndrew]

More research progress as opposed to build progress in this progress report.
I realized that rather than working from the middle up and then the middle down I should start at the top. So I started forming the face of the "central processing dome"...
I'm gonna go of on a tangent here. I really don't mind folks who are all up on the star wars jargon. But I can't refer to the Droid head as the central processing dome, occasionally tha dome but not with a straight face. The "sensor and communications receiver planes" are Droid ears or occasionally fins because they are fin like and they're on the side of her dome so I'm gonna call them ears. And at the bottom of her face the opening will be called a mouth instead of a versatile vocabulator port. Sorry for not really being sorry I'm pretty sure you'll figure out what I'm talking about. If I'm really messing up your day, my bad hope you can get over it...
Ok tangent being done. I started with the face and ears as they were the flattest pieces. I have to re shorten the face and cut the forehead part along with the sides. I've cut the back of the head because that is pretty flat also. You can tell by the notes on the pictures that the face most likely consists of 5 parts instead of the 3 (I had originally thought it was a front part and 2 sides). I need to cut the dome sides and dome top and mohawk strip.
I've got to figure a few more things about the wired neck and then the actual neck (actors head cover) and then down to the shoulder stuff and chest piece... Then and only then will I even consider the rest of the costume. I got an awesome message from someone noting that the arms and legs are quite c3po-esque I stuck my fingers in my ears and said "not yet, I'm not ready, lalalalala" but he's definitely close, the two have very similar... Well everything but the shoulders up is very similar. I'm going to have to do a lot of 3po research when and if I get to the rest of the body.

So the pictures with the notes are:

A- the droid face close up. From the workshop picture. This has the possible breakdown of the face into 5 pieces instead of 3 also has the ear thickness
B-has an amalgamation of all the force awakens chest piece up scaled to approximately the same size so I could see what info that gleaned.
C- dealt with the math side of things and the actor in the costume where she was under the suit. Using the tools that a person is 8 heads high (7.5 heads when the feet shoulder width apart) I wanted to see where her head was as it is obviously hidden also how much was going on above where her head stopped.
D- eyes breakdown still working on this. I prefer to err on the side of TFA as apposed to the last Jedi but There doesn't appear to be much difference at all in the eyes between TFA and TLJ but the tlj pictures are clearer so it's easier to determine what the eyes consist of. I'm thinking that it's an orange or what is called a warm white light in the back of the socket (the Iris of the eye) and cool white (bluer toned white) LEDs for the center front of the eye (the pupil). I really am no expert at electronics and if anyone has any ideas I'm desperate for info.
E- is from the scene of pz working on an x wing. It is one of the few pictures of her back at all (I did find a pic of someone taking a picture of the back of the toy which helped also and I'm not above using that info scaling it up from less than six inches to more than 6 feet if that's what I need to do)
In this pic I outlined all the "panels"in red to see how much materials I need. (I did arms too though arms aren't part of the build. The arms contain the actors arms and I needed to figure out where her shoulder was to figure out other stuff.) The pauldrons I have to figure out. I've actually looked into helmet builders because the largest quarter sphere is almost the size of a normal person foam helmet. I'm hoping to adapt it from that anyway... This was when I was planning on working bottom up (middle up actually) instead of top down.
The last three pics are the first things I had cut out the ears are very close the face still needs a bit of work... (The ideas for the face are rolling in my brain but can't explain it yet, not am I ready to pull the trigger on it yet.
I noticed on my phone where I write this up that the notes on the pictures can be difficult to read so I tried to explain them more here. If that's better it not good enough let me know.

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[Damndrew]

Ok update video from YouTube and pics.
I had the pictures previously of the antenna or ears. Now I'm trying to figure out where they go on the head and what angle they are at.
https://youtu.be/W84pLYs7jJk
I should probably expect this by now but when I get stuck I should research and I then I find that I need to do a few other things which should be my next area of focus.
I wanted to find out where the ears (fins, antennae, receiver planes) are in relation to the head (or dome) but I'll do way better completing the dome. The back and sides are done as is the fronti should attach the front to the sides and then curve the whole thing into the dome part. I have a better plan of what those steps are now. (The picture with the ear placement and neck wires helped there)
I did find where the first picture of the first post came from it's in the character encyclopedia that's the pic for PZ-4CO's entry in assuming that makes it more official. It's confirmation on my mind that it's not just a fan drawn picture anyway. A portion of that pic also was used in the neck wire and ear placement picture.

Ears aside I made pretty good progress on pz's neck. It's a big flipping cone. Well it's a frustum, which is a cone with the tip cut off.
Electronics I got a bunch of lights for the pupil of the eyes. I still need an orangish ring for the Iris but I think I have to order those. So that may not be till November.
Electronics store also had good computer fans because the mask will be very stuffy.i got one large one for the top of the Droid neck blowing down on the wearer's head and two more smaller ones for the bottom of the neck (which is the wearer's neck too)

I found some styrofoam half spheres at the craft store that might be used later for the shoulder pauldron things or a form for them. I'm still not sure how to do that kind of ball shape in Eva foam but I'll get there. The chest piece construction is on hold till I finish the other pieces. But I'm under the impression that the back of the Droid neck humps and gives the back a distinctive shape a long hump sort of... The chest is relatively flat, c3po-esque (as someone stated), and it wraps under the actors armpits to connect to that hump area... Just realized between the hump and the shoulder pauldrons there's quite a bit of room for a few decent sized batteries between the eye lights and fans that'll be useful.

So the pics on here first there is the neck wire and ear placement pic.
Then the dome's back and sides formed around a bunch of paperback books
2 pics of the Droid neck frustum followed by a self portrait of me in the neck
Finally 2 pics of the bottom of the Droid face. I forgot to mention I glued the side of the face triangles to the face portion and they bend in a way that the face looks pretty close. I'm hesitant to do any final cutting on the mouth and around the eyes but I'll hopefully suck it up and just frickin do it this week.

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[Damndrew]

Hey everybody I've made progress; I haven't given up.
I made a progress report video here

which is a bit easier than trying to explain through typing and still pics

 

[dukeduel]

How is this project coming? I'm looking into doing this build. I want to see what you got!!

 

[Damndrew]

How is this project coming? I'm looking into doing this build. I want to see what you got!!

Not great I'm backing up a few steps to hopefully go forward...
I did get a new soldering iron for Christmas but have been working on other projects... And I have a hang up about soldering that I need to get over.
I did get inspired from Adam Savage's dinosaur build he makes a chest harness that I should be able to replicate fairly easily if I can find a good sized piece of sheet aluminum.