Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build: Completed!

[LrdSatyr8]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

Today I've been working on finishing up 3PO... Now that the poly clay is dry and hard on his head I began to foil it. I really forgot how much I hate foiling. It's a pain in the royal tuckass. Next time I may just end up sending one of these out for a real vacuum metalization. That would save a whoooooooooollleeee lot of time and punishment! Anyway, here's the results:

After I finished, I was looking at a couple of photos online of 3PO and noticed something about his hands I had totally missed before. On the back of his hand plates are 3 little pistons that hang off over the end of the plate. At this scale they are really tiny so of course I had to fix that situation ASAP. I pulled out some sprue from the 3PO kit and proceeded to stretch out some thin filaments. Then I cut 6 equal length peices off and glued them hanging over the edges in place. Since i still had all my foiling stuff out, I foiled them as well. Looks so much better now... what do you think:

More to come soon.

 

[ModelMakerMike]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

Thnax lrdsatyr8,
that was very helpful.
I think I may pick up some of that foil stuff.

 

[Glorfindel]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

Those new hands are a world greater then what was in the kit. Great job on that.

 

[LrdSatyr8]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

Those new hands are a world greater then what was in the kit. Great job on that.

Its just the little details like that, that once you fix, the model is no longer a model... it becomes a replica! Its amazing how with just a little effort on these old kits (even though they were made for an 8 year old) can make them come alive. This is what I LOVE doing... what amazes me even more is that no one else even considered it before. Just by changing the hands a little, fixing that bump on his head and putting some gold foil on this one kit, truly makes 3PO come alive. I just hope you all enjoy him when I'm finished with both of them and have them on a base together and lit up! Should be quite a show... and I hope I'm doing justice to these kits.

 

[YOULI]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

BTW you have noticed that C3-PO is not entirely gold ? One of his leg is actually silver.

 

[LrdSatyr8]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

BTW you have noticed that C3-PO is not entirely gold ? One of his leg is actually silver.

In all actually its not exactly true... it really depands on which movie you watch, however, each movie was never consistant in this matter because in some scenes you see a silver leg in the other its all gold (look at ESB when he's getting his legs put back on by R2 in the Falcon both legs are gold, however, on Hoth in some scenes, he has a silver calf). In any event, you can spot the various versions of the "Silver Leg" in the follow manner:

ANH - Right lower leg below knee joint silver, including foot.
ESB - Right lower leg below joint with both feet gold
ROTJ - Right lower leg silver with joint, both feet gold
TPM - Not counted as most was wire and sub frame (duh)
AOTC - Entire leg was rusted silver look all over
ROTS - Complete leg entirely gold

So... depending on which version you ae talking about and which movie and specific scene you're talking about will greatly determine the color of the leg itself.

 

[LrdSatyr8]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

With the above information I came up with this:

So... depending on which version you ae talking about and which movie and specific scene you're talking about will greatly determine the color of the leg itself. However, for this incarnation, I think I'm going to go with the ESB version.
So, with him completed... I figured I would take a few pics... now mind you, the base and the arms aren't glued on, and are only there to help him stand on his own at this time.

As you can see, his eyes do light up.

And of course I went with the silver leg... decided to go with the ESB version... I can't believe how difficult it is to show that it's actually silver when taking pics. I think i took 20-30 pics to show that his leg is silver and each time it appeared gold except for these two pics. The reflection of the gold from the other leg just makes it look gold, even thou its silver. Weird...

Hope you all enjoy this... more to come soon.

 

[ModelMakerMike]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

I think he's ready to be..."Sent to the spice mines of Kessel....smashed into who knows what."
I like it.

 

[YOULI]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

Great job !

If i remember correctly the clear eyes were red, didn't they ? Your's were just clear plastic or did you make some resin replacement ?

 

[LrdSatyr8]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

Great job !

If i remember correctly the clear eyes were red, didn't they ? Your's were just clear plastic or did you make some resin replacement ?

Guess you missed the first post! LOL... here it is again...

They provide a dark red plastic single piece for both eyes. Not a very good likeness at all. So I used that piece to create press mold in some clay and using hot glue, I fabricated my own eye peice. Behind each of the sockets I painted the back of them black and scraped away three areas on each socket to allow light to pass thru. The look is pretty close to the orignal.

So basically I used Hot Glue as a replacement for the eyes. Its not entirely clear, but it's just opaque enough to let the light shine thru and gives a pretty good look to the eyes.

 

[LrdSatyr8]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

Today I spent on the fiber optic panels. I've finally come to a realization that after drilling hundreds of little holes with absolutely no satisfactory look to them, I decided to use just plain old card stock paper. Why you may ask? Well... the holes are tiny. Matter of fact, the rear logic panel measures 16mm wide x 5mm high, and the front panel (which is two different panels) measures 8mm wide x 11mm high. Now in that area, I created a template that I printed in black and white:

You can use it for your project as well... I had to figure this out by myself thru trial and error. That's the actual size I printed. And when I printed it I used the default setting of my printer at the best possible resolution I could get (at 72 dpi) at 100% scale without any special features turned on. I ended up printing it 4 times on 1 piece of card stock paper (That way if I messed up I had 3 more backups). Once I had it all printed up I took a needle and put it into one of my hobby knife handles and using a magnifying glass, I proceeded to poke the needle thru every single white dot methodically.

I would pause now and then to check my work to make sure they all lined up properly, and there were times I would mess up and have to go to the next printed area and try again.

Finally after several hours and many hand cramps later, I finally had all the holes necessary for the fibers. The "poked holes" method seemed to work pretty well because each fiber fit thru the hole perfectly. So now it's time to thread the fibers. I took a small votive candle and lit it and kept it over to the side of my workbench. Not for ambience, but for each fiber I need to mushroom the end. How you do that is you hold the end of the fiber close to the flame, but not so close as to catch it on fire. What happens is the end of the fiber will mushroom at the end. This will prevent the fiber from going all the way thru the hole when you pull it thru. But, as I mushroom each fiber I make sure it is not damaged. If you get the flame too close it will char the end the light won't pass thru it, and if that happens you just cut it off and mushroom the end again and check once more. Once you know its clear, you can thread the fiber into the hole. This was almost as difficult as drilling holes!

So a couple hours later and lots of eye strain and hand cramps, I finally got all the fibers in place on the front logic panels. I flipped it over and used some Elmers Glue to hold the fibers in place. You don't want to use any other type of glue because it will damage the fibers themselves. Elmers works extremely well for holding and gluing the fibers in place.

Now you know I couldn't just end this chapter without testing out the lights. So here's what it looks like and I gotta say, it looks absolutely fantastic!

Now I just gotta thread the rear panels and I'll be ready to cut these out and glue them in the dome! Hope you all enjoy. Lemme know what you think so far.

SIDE NOTE: I think this card stock paper will be awesome for a diffuser for the front and rear mood lights as well.

 

[Grendels]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

That is looking good. Seems you found the solution!

 

[LrdSatyr8]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

Spent the day today doing tests and mixing paints. My collection of paints has gotten pretty old (about 15-20 years... but amazingly they are still good). I mixed up some Gloss Dark Blue, Gloss White and a little touch of Silver to give it a little bit of a sprakle. I've decided to paint the panels on the dome this color because the blue clear plastic of the dome panels just don't look right at all and I need a color that I can use over the rest of the body that will match that color. The biggest problem with gloss paints (I hate working with them) is the fact that they take forever to dry and the slightest touch while its still uncured becomes forever immortalized in the finish. So, it will have to take a good day to fully cure before I attempt to even try doing anything else.

I did however get a small video made of the rear logic panel lit. Its not as in focus as it should be... when I get the entire dome finished, I'll do a more proper video and try to get it in focus. The blubs I used are from a toy ball that you can change the color on by pressing a button... for each time you press it you get a different color. It's got 3 LEDs on it, Red/Green/Blue and once you cycle thru all the colors, it will begin to fade slowly from one color to the next. You can see what I filmed here:

R2-D2 Rear Logic Panel Light Test

But basically I drilled a couple of holes for the front and rear mood lights. I used a 3/8 inch drill bit that seems to be the proper dimension for this. I'm also going to drill out the front projector under the eye box and put a white led in there steady on. I also toyed with a couple of ideas for the front arms. Not sure how I'm going to do those yet. I think I'm gonna have to cut those parts out of the body and then fabricate the arms individually (not sure if I should make them moveable or not, probably not).

Still trying ot work out how I'm going to affix him to the base. I know I'm gonna have to run a wire down thru his body, but I also know that he is on rollers. Not sure how I'm gonna do it yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. More to come tomorrow... hope you all enjoy so far.

 

[ModelMakerMike]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

That logic panel looks great!!!!

 

[LrdSatyr8]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

That logic panel looks great!!!!

It looks alot better then I hoped... now I gotta work on the circuit board to drive the LEDs to lit these properly. Then it will look perfect.

 

[Grendels]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

Nice, the fade looks good. I fixed your YouTube link. All you have to do is past over YouTube, no need for the tag.

 

[LrdSatyr8]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

Nice, the fade looks good. I fixed your YouTube link. All you have to do is past over YouTube, no need for the tag.

Very cool... wasn't sure how to do that with video... alot of forums don't have the video BBcode active.

 

[JohnSimmons]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

That looks awesome mate!

 

[LrdSatyr8]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

PAINTING DAY! Yeahhhhhhhhh... today I spent most of the day painting details. I'll robably end up spending more time doing this because you have to get the details right or they just don't look good.

Have I mentioned before I hate painting with gloss paints? Well... add to that, painting with gloss paints on chrome! Talk about a nightmare. You can't see what you're painting to get a good reference of what you have and haven't painted! Major pain in the butt.

I'm still trying to decide on whether or not i'm gonna paint the main dome silver. The bit of sanding I did on it don't quite work and I can't sand anymore to get that slightly dullish aluminuim look. I may have to see if I can get some Alclad and paint it with that. What to you all think?

 

[Grendels]

Re: Classic MPC C-3PO and R2-D2 uber detail build

I would strip the chrome and use alclad. That stuff is pretty easy to use, just make sure you put down a primer first. Also if you are working with the chrome, there are a couple of extra steps involved, but not much.