Legs, Side and pocket vent progress

Well with summer for the kids over and time on my hands I got back in the workshop and finished cutting the legs pieces out. They still have the paper pattern attached for the moment so I know what layer is what. Just need to cut out the shoulder circles now.

 Next on the to do list was working on the side and pocket vents. The resin ones I have didn't fit the curve of the body and trying to warm them and bend them to the proper curve didn't work out either. So I decided to start from scratch with styrene. The side vents were the easiest to put together so I got them out of the way first. I used 1mm sheet for the front and .80x.25 strips for the ribs. Another 1mm sheet finished off the back.

Just need to paint them up and install them now then finish up the pocket vents.

Starting on the legs

No photos this time around. I started rough cutting the leg pieces a couple of weeks ago then had a slight bump due to a broken bandsaw blade. I got back to work on them again today and I'm happy to say that 4 of them are now done. They just need some small detail work in the shoulder area. Will try to get back to work on the other pieces tomorrow or this weekend. After that they get skinned with some styrene.

Ports and redoing vents

Got back to work on my little R4 after a few weeks off.  I finished up painting the power couplers and got one installed on the back. Need to do some touch up where the red showed through on the edge. The octagon ports are also now installed with a bit of trimming to the frame so they could sit in the right spot.  Coin returns are also installed..

Got to thinking what I could do with the resin side vents and pocket vents. They just didn't want to fit and while warming them up allowed us to bend them slightly it also created more warp then helping them fit. So.. after much grumbling and digging through my stash of left over styrene I got to work on cutting out new ones. Just need to make a trip to the hobby shop tomorrow for a few things. And remember the paint scheme I have for them.

Painting the body

I spent the past weekend painting up the body section then started the process of fitting and gluing in the ports. Yes, that's a second frame she's sitting on.. or rather the first one I started with.

Skins!

After a small set back with the frame.. had to redo it due to a slight backwards tilt that couldn't be fixed.. I finally got back on track and started getting the inner skins attached.

A few staples just to hold it in place then reinforced with silicon behind the skins where they meet the frame. Details from the outer skins went on next by using some 3M adhesive spray and touched up around the edges with thin CA glue.

Now to work on the back details. Trying to decide if I want to cut the back section to make a door or leave it as is and use the top for putting things inside.

Inner support ring

Photo of floral rings I used for my styrene dome. These are 18" already so they only need a little bit of trimming after gluing them together to fit inside the dome for support.

Dome update

It's been awhile since I posted something. I've been working on little things like chipping out sections in the frame and dealing with paint that won't stick to some resin pieces. Removed the paint, sanded them down the best I could and now need to finish cleaning the last of the paint if I can so I can start over on them. Definitely a Grrrrr moment. Most of my progress has been on the dome though by getting the all the pieces finished up and the eye is now mounted. Yay!

Worked some more on it this morning and the panels are now attached as well as the HP's. Trying to figure out how to mount the pieces of plastic mik jug that I trimmed out for the PSI's now and how to attach a tube behind that for the lights that will go in later.
Lights! I'm planning on putting BlinkM's in the HP's and behind the PSI's. The logic displays will be fiber optics.. just waiting on all the supplies to arrive now. Last thing to go in will be a switch for the power that runs the lights. I'm thinking behind one of the dome bumps or the top pie panel.