Imperial Creative Engineering > Custom Figures
Echo_Six's customs
Echo_Six:
Hi all,
I'm new to the Shipyards, but have been posting on RS for a few years under the same handle. Just wanted to post up a couple of droids by way of introduction.
First up is the bantha droid from Mos Eisley. It has 14 points of articulation (shoulders x6, elbows x6, rotating body and head), and an internal clicker mechanism in the body adapted from the POTJ FX-7. Everything was 3-D printed with the exception of the FX-7 arms and clicker, stainless steel hardware, and the beads/sewing pins used for the chest buttons.
For scale and general proportions, I re-sized a bantha droid reference photo until the front of the tread base in the photo was approximately the same width as the Treadwell figure’s base. It’s not perfect, but it was a decent starting point.
The 1 ¼” #6 stainless machine screw runs up from the bottom into a black plastic pedestal that has a recess for a #6 nut, and the lower body sits on the pedestal. The blue lower body, the black pedestal, and the treads were printed separately to make block-sanding the base easier.
The cylindrical base has a series of bumps around the inner wall, and the small disc has a notch that retains a thin strip of plastic cut from FX-7’s clicker. I used JB Weld plastic bond epoxy to fasten the strip to the disc, and the strip is also cross-pinned with a steel upholstery pin epoxied in place.
Although “strong, flexible plastic” is good stuff, it’s not capable of capturing much detail. I designed a sleeve in “frosted extreme detail” plastic that fits over the base. This plastic is brittle and more expensive, but it’s worked well in a couple of non-structural spots.
Using JB Weld two-part epoxy (the filler/hardener that comes in separate tubes), I bonded the disc to the #6 nut and screwed them into position, so that the strip fits between the bumps along the base’s wall. It took a little test-fitting to trim the strip to the correct length.
The disc/nut assembly has to be locked to the machine screw, or it will spin instead of clicking -- At least until the assembly spins far enough up or down the screw, at which point it hits the “floor” or “roof” of the lower body and binds. I used the JB Weld two-part to secure the disc/nut to the machine screw. Super glue or thread locker would probably have been good enough, but I like overkill. As a precaution, I placed a small “gasket” of wax paper between the assembly and the lower body to prevent the JB Weld from oozing down and locking the body up, too. After the JB Weld cured, I removed the wax paper with tweezers and epoxied the cap in place.
Like the base parts, I designed separate “armpit” inserts to make sanding the main body easier. I fastened the body to a machine screw, chucked it into an electric drill, and spun it against sandpaper until smooth. Another use of the “ghetto lathe.” The main body was then sprayed with Tamiya “bare metal” lacquer.
The bump on the inside of the upper rim (around 10 o’clock in the above photos) is a referencing tab that matches a notch in the top cap to keep everything aligned.
The FX-7 arm mounting pegs were sanded off, along with sculpted pegs on the “wrists” to let the arms fit closer together. It would be possible to make the arms more movie-accurate, but at the cost of greatly reduced articulation.
The droid’s “face” insert was also printed in “frosted extreme detail” plastic.
The “neck’s” cross-section is oval-shaped instead of round. The head is attached to the cap with another stainless #2 screw. If you look closely, you can see the notch in the bottom of the cap at 12 o’clock that corresponds to the locating tab on the upper body.
Tamiya "Flat Black," "Sand," and "Rust" washes were used for weathering.
That's it for the first droid. Thanks for looking!
Echo_Six:
Next is the giant mouse droid seen during Vader's arrival aboard the DSII in ROTJ. The tracked giant mouse (rat?) droid only has one POA, the ball-jointed head. (My attempt to incorporate concealed wheels similar to the scanning crew bottom box fizzled...For now.) The wheeled version has seven POA, at least by EE exclusive astromech standards – A ball-jointed head and six rolling wheels.
The GMDs are fairly simple, and completely 3-D printed with the exception of the wheel mounting hardware (#2 screws, washers, and bushings) on the wheeled version, and the #2 screws on the tracked version.
All pieces except the heads are printed with “strong, flexible” plastic. The “polished” plastic option rounded off too much detail, so I used unpolished pieces and block-sanded as necessary. I used Legos as sanding blocks, and went through 150/220/320/400/600/800/1000 grits. The body was painted with Krylon “Matte Black,” and the stripe is Tamiya “Dull Red.” I sprayed the “grille” black, then masked the inner section and sprayed the rim with Rustoleum aluminum. Printing the grille separately made block-sanding easier.
I designed a snap-together two-piece body so that I could screw the neck into place from underneath, but ultimately that wasn’t necessary. The neck has a tight press-fit, but it can still be removed. After seeing the two versions side-by-side, I think I’ll revise the wheeled chassis so that the two versions are the same height.
The heads were printed in “frosted extreme detail” plastic, in order to capture the eyes detail. After painting the head, I “painted” the eyes white by letting thinned white Tamiya acrylic ooze into the lens areas. Due to the slick nature of the FED plastic, there’s not much friction between the head and the neck. I tightened up the joint by placing a drop of super glue inside the socket and rotating the head until the glue dried.
On the wheeled version, I used 2mm sections of 1/8” brass tubing as bushings inside the wheels to help them spin smoothly.
Ricky Bobby wants to go fast.
Again, thanks for looking. Nice place you have here.
Tamer:
First off welcome!
Second, lovely droids. Absolutely awesome.
Third, thanks for showing us the construction! Off to share these to our front pages.
JDeck:
Awesome i like the rat droid especially. I thought of kitbashing one. This is really great.
mr.Jedi1977:
Now that's the way to introduce yourself Fantastic job, and love the step by steps on the bantha droid ! Welcome to the yards "we will watch your posts with great interest"
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