R2D2 From Front:

Excuse the pink, but it was the only solid back drop I had for the shooting day. This is my last version of R2D2. Many ornaments still missing. Unfortunately, I no longer have the tools (time nor will either) to finish it completely. I still think it looks pretty cool!

R2D2 From Back:

I am proud of having made a metal back door panel. I am not proud of it being taped with transparent packing tape. Unfortunately, making hinges for the door panels was one of my biggest challenges. If you managed to solve this problem, feel free to drop me a note!

Leg Top Side

The legs were a major improvement over the previous implementations. I was able to add most of the original detail plus most of the ornaments. There are still some missing, though. The metal pieces backed on blue were made on the lathe and are aluminum. The center piece is silver painted fiberglass. Making that out of aluminum was close to impossible. Heck! Making it out of plastic was one of the parts I am most proud of on my entire life!

Leg Bottom Side:

More hard work that proved to pay off. The amount of details in these parts is something you should take the time to work on. Remember you don’t have to build the originals from a single piece. I actually glued a bunch of different wood parts together and then made a mold. The resulting piece is a solid one piece!

More aluminum ornaments on the leg. At first I thought about making them plastic. But painting them would have made them look ridiculously cheap. And since making them on the lather was not that hard, I went for the real thing. I mean, real looking, because these are just metal rods!

Side Foot:

A better close up of the feet. Notice there are some ornaments like the power cables going to the battery power packs and some other little metal planks. Since they were just ornaments and I literally ran out of time, there was no chance to add these. Will I ever? Unfortunately not...

Foot Mechanics:

A good view of the feet wheel and housing. I will detail this mechanical contraption some time later.

R2D2 from the Back

In here we can see how lousy the leg power pack panels came to be. This is a very hard part (although it looks simple) if you don’t do it correctly. My recommendation? Spend tons of time imagining on your head how you will implement this.

In my R2D2, this is where the motor resides. Hence, this part is not only an ornament but a structural part as well.

Front (and Back) Sensor:

I am not certain what is the name of this sensor, although the MPC model kit calls it the Aerial Band Sensor. Whatever the case, this was another of the hardest parts to make. It actually consisted of an aluminum pipe with the weird sensor shape in the center and then all molded together as a single piece. The plastic copies were then painted silver. They do not look as good as if they had been metal. But to make these metallic, I would recommend having them CNC’d. I bet somebody has done it already and they are being sold on the web. Good Luck!

R2D2’s Head Analysis

The head will also take lots of time to perfection. Extreme care must be taken for it to look good. At the end, however, you will fill triumphant, as this is the segment with more details (colorwise at least)

Head Top:

My R2D2’s head is comprised of two parts. To the right is the top portion, which basically starts on top of the two silver  and blue colored rims (that I call the head bottom).

The top portion will house all the electronics for the mood sensors, dual color lamps. If you have an hollographic sensor, this is where it would go. Notice that I have none of the three hollographic sensors. I did manufacture them, but look so lousy, decided it would look best without them.

Head Top (Innards):

From the inside, you can see the fiberglass finish. I also added two prongs which interlock to the head bottom rim.

The dual color “eyes” are actually flash light reflectors with two color bulbs which are switched with one of my electronic boards (not shown).

The center “eye” is just a cool lens I bought on a surplus store. There is nothing attached to it.

Head Bottom (attached to neck mechanism)

The lower portion of the head is basically the rims. There are two interlocking prong holes which match the upper segments prongs. This was very hard to align, but you better make sure you do, or the head will look hideous!