Well, it's been a busy week here at the Terran office of Industrial Automaton. We're stuck with substandard equipment and manual labor, building astromechs one at a time...

I finally took the plunge. I've spent the last couple of weeks painting goodies (here are the vents with just the inner red, and then with the chrome metallic paint... ooh, shiny!), and I still have a pile to paint... I just got a new shipment of body-related parts! Back on topic, though, I finally got the inner and outer skins on the frame!

As taught by the gurus in the R2Builders club, I started by gluing and stapling the inner skins to the front and back of the frame. The octagonal vents were already in place, but they were located inside the inner skin.

To line up the outer skins with the inner, you start in the front. With the inner skin stapled to the frame, you slather the backside of the outer skins with 3M Super 77 spray adhesive and, before it dries, get the outer skins attached to the inner. Lining the outer skins up is tricky, because there's a lot less material, and it has to be just right. The group of six "coin slots" provides a great way to line them up, since they are a large group with lots of corners. Of course, I was worried about scraping off the great paint job I did ( ), but it was awesome to see it come together.

There's a little bit of gap-osis and some pulling away at the corner, as some of the spray adhesive dried before I got it stuck to the inner skin. That's super glue becomes a droid builder's best friend. You dab a drop or two wherever needed, give the offending panel a couple of gentle pushes to get the glue flowing between the pieces, and then tape the living daylights out of the panels. For more troublesome areas, I have a large collection of clamps that have been put to use.

That's it for now. I'm getting a bit high on the super glue fumes, as it bonds the styrene. I'm hoping to get the last few bits glued up tomorrow, and get a coat of paint on the body this weekend. Oh yeah, before that, I need to drill the holes that will accept the pipes that support the legs. With any luck, I'll have pictures that actually look like a droid!

Bob
September 20, 2007