Cost and Time Update

To date I have spent approximately $50 working on this project, with most of these funds coming in the form of supplies and not materials. I have only spent $17 on the materials so far but the rest has come from paint supplies and cutting supplies for the styrene.

Total hours put into working on the project has come to approximately eight hours to date. It would have been much less if I had not had so many problems painting the styrene.

Exploring Other Options

After trying several different methods of painting the stryene, I am still not satisified with the quality of the work. I am now looking at possibly using a different pre-painted material for the painted areas on the droid.

The Pain...ting Continues

After spending several days painting the skins, I still have a lot of work to do before they are even remotely presentable. This weeks option for a R2 Dome is this aluminum dome on Ebay for $125. While the aluminum dome is the ideal solution, the etching may be a little over my experience level.

Let the Painting Begin

I have officially started painting my new droid. Granted this is just the first of what I am sure will be many coats of paint, but the body is starting to look more and more like a droid.

Up next on the agenda is a second coat for the skins, followed by trying to figure out a simple way to make the droid look semi used. I am not going for the "dirty" droid look, I would just prefer it not be crystal clean.

A Learning Experience

As I went about slicing all of the skins for the body, I found that I made numerous mistakes. Mainly in the form of the thinner sections ripping through when I was removing the cutouts. The other thing I noticed is that I don't always cut as straight as I would like. With that behind me now, I am struggling to find a good/cheap way to paint the skins.

My first option was to purchase a model painting system and go from there. After spending time at Wally world, I decided to try their model paint spray in a can and see if it would work. It didn't. But hey for $3 it was worth a try. My next move will probably be to break down and buy the whole spray system and see if that has any potential.

Skin Slicing Complete

After spending about six hours working on slicing and dicing my skins, I have finally finished. I am still working on getting some sort of Sonotube or wooden cylinder to adhere the skins to.

As far as I can tell my next step will be to paint the skins before moving forward. I still need to find a solution for the dome, which I am still looking into.

Let the Skin Cutting Begin

I received the Styrene I ordered this weekend and layed the outline of the skins on top of it to begin cutting it out. The styrene itself was not very expensive, under $17 including shipping. (www.usplastic.com). The process of cutting it out is very grueling. I have been working on it over four hours now and I may be half way through. This is what I get for trying to accomplish this inexpensively.

I also spent approximately $25 in supplies to cut the sytrene. Other than that, my total cost to date is $42.

The Evaluation Phase

I am currently in the process of researching the possibility of building my own R2-D2 Droid. In order to do this, I have to make sure it is affordable and feasible for me to accomplish. The current method I am exploring involves using a fiberglass dome, such as the one pictured, but I have not yet decided to use this method. At this point I will be scanning Ebay from time to time to see what is available.

I am also exploring the possibility of using a Sonotube for the body covered in Styrene. I have just printed out the blueprints for the body panels from astromech.net.

I will update this site further as the process progresses.