Star Tours: RX-24 Captain "Rex" build

[haakesack]

Re: Star Tours: RX-24 Captain "Rex" build

I'll keep you guys posted as there doesn't seem to be a Rex Builders club officially - yet.

This excites me. I love the idea of an R2 builder on the project. What do you guys use for motion control? is it always RC? is there ever any pre-programmed macros/animations? How do you talk to the linear actuators?
I'll be modeling a full Rex in solidworks before I begin construction and I don't mind sharing. Also, some exciting info on the body greeblies coming in the next few days!

We're the official Rex builders club at the moment so welcome!

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This project is fantastic. In case you had missed it, Rex appears briefly in the new Star Wars Rebels episode "Droids in Distress".

Thanks! and I HAD missed it! I'll have to check that out.

 

[haakesack]

How about an exciting greeblie/found item update?

This post I'm relatively excited about. I spent some serious time staring at all of the reference photography and even more time with my google-foo and I've sourced some accurate found items from Rex. I'll start with the least accurate.

Everywhere I've gone for the last six months I've been looking for a silicone or other rubber dark grey coil hose. You'd think they'd be out there. You may even swear you've seen them before. But if you look, they're gone. At target a few weeks ago I found this in the clearance section. It's the wrong color, it's the wrong diameter and it's a garden hose. But by golly, it's grey and I picked it up. If you're even considering building a Rex, start looking for this part now.

Original


Found



This next one was the first found item I sourced. The only reason I found it was that I remembered having seen one clamping the pool filter halves together in my childhood home. Searched for pool filter clamp and BAM. These are called "Marman clamps" and can be found pretty readily. I foolishly did not pick this one up at the time and upon reflection, it seems to be perfect. Luckily the store is just around the corner and has a large supply. It seems the imagineers cut the clasp portion off and pop riveted it on to the final rex. They don't seem to be actually be clamping.

Original


Found



This one guys. This one took some time. I had no idea what I was looking at and could only describe it's shapes. but dangit, I found it. These are Hartwell latches. After looking closer at the shape you realize you've seen them a ton on aircraft but most of the latch is hidden normally! These are aerodynamic push to open, push to close latches for access panels. On ebay the prices vary wildly. So I went to all of my go-to scrap places. No luck. I asked around and found new places. One guy said another might have them. I went to the "other guy" and as I was giving up I saw a room with no lights on. I was sure I wasn't allowed in this room but I would not be dissuaded. I found the switch and oh holy crap. I found them. ALL OF THEM. It was the Hartwell Latch room. Joy turned to instant terror as I realized there were all manner of size and configuration. Armed only with the pictures here on the RPF I took an hour and sifted through each bin comparing physical traits. Nose profile, overall flatness, curvatures, hole placements. I bought 3 Rex's worth. Here they are:

Original


Found



There must be more found Items on this little guy, I have a feeling the entire underside of his head is model bits. I also cant shake the feeling that his eye lenses are old viewfinders or something. The distinct circle with flattened sides triggers deja vu in me. Also the deep blue light they emit and the grey reflection they give off just makes me think they're little CRTs.




Thanks for reading, that's all for now. The work/research will continue and you'll all be the first to hear about it

 

[NeoRutty]

Nice.

Looking forward to seeing how all this goes... keep up the good work!

 

[CaptRex24]

WOW! This is the post I was definitely excited about! Thanks for the info!!!!! Awesome research! I can't wait to see what else could be available to make this guy into a reality using only basic home and everyday items! kudos!

 

[CaptRex24]

How about an exciting greeblie/found item update?

This post I'm relatively excited about. I spent some serious time staring at all of the reference photography and even more time with my google-foo and I've sourced some accurate found items from Rex. I'll start with the least accurate.

Everywhere I've gone for the last six months I've been looking for a silicone or other rubber dark grey coil hose. You'd think they'd be out there. You may even swear you've seen them before. But if you look, they're gone. At target a few weeks ago I found this in the clearance section. It's the wrong color, it's the wrong diameter and it's a garden hose. But by golly, it's grey and I picked it up. If you're even considering building a Rex, start looking for this part now.



Thanks for reading, that's all for now. The work/research will continue and you'll all be the first to hear about it

Super Post!!!! A couple of questions...Where would you recommend we find these latches? Whats their measurements? Was it here in sunny Cali? So I can go to Target and find that hose!

 

[RvanAken]

Wow nice thread, I knew of this tee months ago. I went o Disneyland Paris with my family and could have taken some pictures of the European one. He's still the captain there. Star tours was the one ride I really wanted to do and almost didn't get to do it. Luckily we had some time left before closing time so I could go with my brother in law.

Looking toward to the build.

-R-

 

[haakesack]

Re: Star Tours: RX-24 Captain "Rex" build

Super Post!!!! A couple of questions...Where would you recommend we find these latches? Whats their measurements? Was it here in sunny Cali? So I can go to Target and find that hose!

Thanks for all of the kind words! I'll send you the locations in a PM. all of them are in Southern California in the Los Angeles area. If anyone else would like to know, just let me know

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I'd just about kill a guy to see Rex in action again just so I can make better notes on his movement etc.

 

[CaptRex24]

Re: Star Tours: RX-24 Captain "Rex" build

Thanks for all of the kind words! I'll send you the locations in a PM. all of them are in Southern California in the Los Angeles area. If anyone else would like to know, just let me know

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I'd just about kill a guy to see Rex in action again just so I can make better notes on his movement etc.

Thanks buddy! You're awesome. I wanna help as much as I can. Next time I head over to Disney, I will try my best to snag pictures of the bottom of his head so you can see whats under his head. Thanks again!

 

[RvanAken]

Any progress? Just wondering.

-R-

 

[haakesack]

Any progress? Just wondering.

-R-

Hi there! At the moment I'm doing work in illustrator that is time consuming and not very interesting to hear about (essentially making line drawings of photos). I'll use these to better inform my 3D modeling. After the 3D model is done it'll start to be build time. Also I'm learning some arduino and wrote code that will make his mouth work properly. I'd like to do a live test of that soon...

 

[usajdm]

They had him on display at D23.
Sorry, but couldn't use a flash in this exhibit.

 

[usajdm]

 

[haakesack]

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Oh wow! Thanks for all of the pictures. Now I feel dumb for not going to D23.

 

[usajdm]

Re: Star Tours: RX-24 Captain "Rex" build



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It was real good this year.
Lots of good stuff on display.

 

[haakesack]

Re: Star Tours: RX-24 Captain "Rex" build

It was real good this year.
Lots of good stuff on display.

Well big thanks for taking and uploading so many pics. It's really difficult to get good 3/4 shots like this in the ride queue and it'll help a ton as a reference.

 

[usajdm]

As soon as I saw him I thought of this thread and your project.
Hope it will help.

 

[Jakeinator123]

Did we ever nail an exact measurement for the 3p0-eye-mouth or earpiece? I'm itching to mock something up and think I might be able to with all these new reference photos.

 

[haakesack]

Did we ever nail an exact measurement for the 3p0-eye-mouth or earpiece? I'm itching to mock something up and think I might be able to with all these new reference photos.

Hey Jake,

Yeah I think I've got it pegged (finally). The ears are 4.5" dia , the head dome is 11" dia and the visible outer dia of the 3po mouth is somewhere between 1.4" and 1.5".

I'm about 2/3rds of the way through a new CAD drawing of Rex since usajdm posted more pictures and the dimensions are finally agreeing with themselves. With the 4.5" ears, the mouth size was only about a tenth of an inch off which I'm happy to blame on parallax/distance to camera. Feel free to mock up but if you hold out for a few weeks I should be able to get a completed CAD drawing up which should save you some serious dimension-figuring time.

Here are a couple of pictures of whats going on:

 

[Howlrunner]

The world needs more obscure droid replicas!

 

[Jakeinator123]

Feel free to mock up but if you hold out for a few weeks I should be able to get a completed CAD drawing up which should save you some serious dimension-figuring time.

Here are a couple of pictures of whats going on:
/QUOTE]

Holy ****** dude! And I thought I might be able to finally contribute something to this :| Looks really good! If you are second guessing any measurements, I was thinking that both the metal neck rod and all of the screws have got to be standard. What measurements do they have now?