Zorg 2-1B Droid Build

TatooineMachine · Oct 21, 2018

I have always been a fan of Chris's sculpts or Zorg as we know him. His 2-1B was offered quite awhile back and I always regretted not picking one up. When Chris offered the 2-1B and CZ-3, I had to get them both! His parts are basically perfect and require little prep, unless you drop it as I did and have to repair it! Here's my build!

Right out of the box from Scotland

The only prep required - trim the mold joint & a little sanding at the Alice band

Finished this step

Made recess for the aluminum Alice band

Drilled out the eye holes for the supplied LEDs

I love that Chris cast ZORG in the back of the head

Vintage Shure 55SH microphone

Cut off the cast Shure

Fitted to the bridge of the nose

The Shure is electroplated with 2 layers of coating so trimming it was easy, but then you have to sand off the coating of the complete microphone if you want it to all have the same finish. If you don't then the copper and iridium finish are missing at the bracket area and it looks bad

After shaping and the ridiculous sanding efforts to remove the plating. I picked up a vintage aluminum PL-259 connector for the hose and found a knurled thumb screw on eBay that I had to cut down and shape the rounded end

I milled the back lip so the Shure will sit nice and flush on the mouth

Made a styrene back for inside the Shure to hold the inner details

Not bad for a few hours of work!

3DImpact · Oct 21, 2018

Glad you posted this - I've got one of Chris's 2-1Bs coming as well, so this is a great primer on putting it all together. Thanks - keep up the progress reports!

Dan

Pedro · Oct 21, 2018

Woah!! A real Sure mic! Can't decide if I should be happy or sad to see that. Nice piece!!

TatooineMachine · Oct 21, 2018

Pedro said:
Woah!! A real Sure mic! Can't decide if I should be happy or sad to see that. Nice piece!!

It bothered me a little to tear it apart but it really makes this droid pop! I had to

oblagon · Oct 21, 2018

Nice, thanks for posting this. On the mic, did you repaint it after sanding it down? The bottom looks way too smooth after the band saw.

TatooineMachine · Oct 21, 2018

oblagon said:
Nice, thanks for posting this. On the mic, did you repaint it after sanding it down? The bottom looks way too smooth after the band saw.

No, in fact I stripped all the finish off of the mic. It’s just good old aluminum. The casting on these old mics is very smooth and I just made the end I cut off the bracket to match the rest of the mic.

russellsch · Oct 21, 2018

Thank you starting this thread! I love what you did with the mic. I'll be following this thread intently

opcorn

TatooineMachine · Oct 21, 2018

Base color - Dupli Coat GM Light Blue Metallic

Seth Skywalker · Oct 22, 2018

Nice progress!

russellsch · Oct 22, 2018

That looks so freaking GOOD!!! :love

TatooineMachine · Oct 22, 2018

Light blue/silver coat

russellsch · Oct 22, 2018

What color?

TatooineMachine · Oct 22, 2018

russellsch said:
What color?

Avignonn Blue Metallic Duplicolor BHA0905

- - - Updated - - -

Tomorrow I’ll add the Alice band, magnets, side spikes, and then wash it with thinned down navy blue oil based paint to lightly get into the pitting and give some contrast and highlights.

TatooineMachine · Oct 23, 2018

Aluminum Alice band and magnets - I used Bondo on the inside edge to bond the aluminum strip to the inside of the head & held one side at a time until it was dry enough to let go, the second side I just had to hold it tight to the head recess. It worked great!

TatooineMachine · Oct 23, 2018

Dulled down the Alice band aluminum and Scotchbrighted the neck

I picked up some dark navy blue oil paint and terpenoid to dilute it for the weathering and highlights.....hope it works

zorg · Oct 23, 2018

Hey i recognise that head!

Thanks for posting this, it will save me the bother telling folk

Making good progress, good luck with the rest but i dont think you need it.

Im pretty sure ive seen the real droid mic with the missing plating where they cut off the bracket, just an observation.

Z

lonepigeon · Oct 23, 2018

Nice to see someone else using a real mic. I haven't started mine yet. Too busy and a little scared to cut into that perfect casting.
I'm interested to see how you'll attach it.

TatooineMachine · Oct 24, 2018

lonepigeon said:
I'm interested to see how you'll attach it.

Me too, I’ll figure it out when I start, lol

TatooineMachine · Dec 16, 2018

OK, back from Italy for 3.5 weeks and getting back in the groove of things. Had some time this morning so I thought I'd get back to 2-1B!

I have made a styrene panel for the mic internals, so I mounted it up at top with the Shure screws and the bottom had to spaced so it's level, then I caulked it with black so no light would show through from the eyes. I also added a part from a Kalimar 660 and used some stainless steel mesh to add some more detail - not screen accurate, but I like it!