Star Trek Voyager Satan's Robot Captain Proton

[renaissance_man]

"INVADERS!"
I 3D modelled this last year during lockdown with the intention of finishing it to celebrate Voyager's 25th Anniversary. Unfortunately I didn't quite get around to finishing it off in time, so this is in celebration of the 26th of Anniversary of Voyager and the newly opened Indiegogo campaign for the documentary.

The main body with integrated side arm pauldrons is all one piece. The front access panel is 3D printed separately. There is a thin piece of shaped 1mm thick styrene inside to back the eye and speaker cut out. This was easier than trying to mask and paint it after painting the main body silver.
The wrist gauntlets, grabbers, leg covers and boots are all separate resin printed parts.
The legs have internal acrylic rod supports and are covered with the material that lines the thermos/cool bags that you would take on a picnic.
There is wire in the arms to give support.

One thing I had planned to make by hand from 1mm styrene was the speaker cover between the eyes and the front access panel. It proved to be a tad fiddly and getting it cleanly stick to the main body was proving to be trickier than expected so I opted to leave it off this first version and in my head canon justify it as being damaged by Captain Proton! :smile:

I've since tweaked the model to have the speaker hood integrated.

The original robot from the series.

 

[PhuketAussie]

nice work, I love these classic and Retro classic robots, they've got so much character!

 

[renaissance_man]

nice work, I love these classic and Retro classic robots, they've got so much character!

I agree.
One of Voyager's funniest moments was the scene where Satan's Robot gets clunked by Tom Paris, sulks and says "Invaders"!
Classic.

 

[PhuketAussie]

Absolutely!

 

[renaissance_man]

 

[renaissance_man]

A short video looking at the model.
Thanks for watching.

 

[renaissance_man]

I 3d modelled the speaker hood to the mouth area on the second model which I had originally planned to make from styrene for the first model.

 

[spclfxguy]

Nice work! I actually made the costume for the show!

 

[renaissance_man]

Nice work! I actually made the costume for the show!

Thank you for the compliment.
That's amazing. What was the main body made from? I'm guessing something fairly light weight.

 

[spclfxguy]

I had my friend at the Warner Brothers Tin Shop roll a couple, maybe four, of [I believe] 18" diameter rings out of 1" aluminum bar stock, I then joined the rings together with more 1" bar stock, using pop rivets. For the skin, I used some sheet styrene (I think .020).

So there was a ring at the top of the tube, right where it transitions into a cone. there was one positioned above and below the level of the arms eyes (where the performer puts his arms through), to add strength, and to create a solid attachment point to join the shoulders. A fourth ring was located at the bottom of the tube.

The styrene was joined to itself, down the back using a piano hinge. It was pop-riveted to the frame. Arm holes were cut at the location determined by fitting the performer. The shoulders were attached using piano hinge segments with a removable "L-shaped" pin/wire (like an Allen wrench, but 8-10" long) on the front and back sides. (This is how the C3P0 costume fastens his calves to his shins - only his are smaller door or cabinet hinges)

It was necessary to remove the shoulders in order for the performer to don the costume. He basically had to lift his arms in a surrender position, and the main tube was lowered over him, and he would feed his arms through the holes.

The tubing I used for the flexible parts of the costume was essentially the same kind you might find being used by sewer workers or that is used to air condition an aircraft, while at the gate. It was purchased from Grainger or McMaster Carr (I forget which). I bought several diameters because I wasn't sure which I would need until I had the body built. I really only had about a week or two from the phone call asking me to build it to the time it was due on set. I had to buy more than I thought I might need of everything, so I wouldn't be left in a lurch, at 1:30 in the morning with 6" shy of tubing, etc.

For the forearms, I went to a restaurant supply company and bought a couple containers (like for storing a bunch of potato salad - look closely and you can see the handles on each side of the container). They were a perfect fit for the diameter of the flexible hose, and had a nifty taper to them, so they didn't look super-duper clunky (like that mattered on this robot?) I attached a wooden dowel to the inside of each of the containers, so the performer could have something to hold onto, and manipulate the arms.

The hands were built out of styrene and, I think, some left over parts (the lids?) of the containers. Lower legs were styrene. The cone at the top and the shoes were both made using L200 foam (like cos play foam). The top of the head was open (well, it had fabric) to allow for body heat to rise up, out of the suit.

The grill on the face was some strange bit of stainless steel (razor sharp edges!) surplus junk I had picked up long before needing it,

The big, round rivets all over the costume came off of another robot I built for a Foot Loops commercial - they were basically just cast urethane hemispheres. The whole thing basically was suspended by straps that would find their place as the costume was lowered onto the performer.

I suggested we leave the arm hoses super long, and have the performer release the handles on cue, dropping the forearms straight to the floor, when he loses power. We showed the director. It got a pretty big laugh. I can't recall if it made it into the episode, or not. I have to admit, I kinda borrowed the idea from Lost in Space, whenever Dr Smith would pull the power pack of the robot. That **** used to crack me up!

Anyway, I know it was way more information than you asked, and I could have simply written ".020 Styrene" and probably satisfied you.; LOL!

My only regret on the project is that because there was so very little time to build it, I never took a single photograph of the stupid thing! Nothing during any part of the process or on set, or anything! :-(

Again, really nice work! I'm just now starting to get into the whole 3-D modeling/printing thing, myself, and just barely making my own stuff using tinkercad.

Do you have STL files you are willing to share? I would love to check them out!!