Heroic Pixel

Sideshow IG-88 Review

rxprime — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:35:45 +0000

Well finally got my Ig-88 figure…then found out I had a dead camera battery, so after a quick charge I got to getting it unboxed and figured out.1st the Packaging is very much like the other Sideshow 12″ figures except when opening the box you are not presented with accessories on the left, a brief story in the middle and the figure on the right. I just figures since he doesn’t have that many accessories they are all packed in the same tray as the figure. But Sideshow has take to stacking the accessories under the figure in a 2nd plastic tray.Accessories are very nice but minimal for IG-88, he has his long blaster, a shorter standard storm trooper blaster with holster, some mines and “instrument pins”(read small silver and easy to lose out of the box). All of the mines and Blaster holster have magnets in them that attach to his bandolier. VERY COOL His light up base is cool but not fitting for IG-88 I plan to switch it over to Vader when I get Boba so they both can have a carbon chamber base.

The figure is a bit confusing, he his many joints and parts that twist but without an x-ray style view to show where all the articulation is, its hard to tell what is supposed to move and what is just a seam between parts. He does feel light and fragile in hand. Some of his joints like shoulders and the extendable parts of the legs are very tight on mine. I can only move one arm at the shoulder without some real force applied and his legs were a bit of a scare to extend and retract. The hight of the figure with legs retracted is the same as the sideshow vader and just barely able to stand up in an Ikea Detolf, on his light up base. with legs extended its likely he would still barely fit on a normal base.

His colors are more of a warm rust/copper than the latest vintage collection figure, but they are not off putting. In details the hasbro has more detail but i think that may be more the detail is just more compact due to smaller size figure. One of the bigger complaints I have seen is his eyes just stand straight out form his head, and in ESB he has to look down and Vader and I understand that criticism but if you take him out of that scene the figure looks fine just looking forward.

I like the figure but at almost $200 I have let go the thought of having all the ESB bounty hunters, I can not justify $200 for a Dengar or 4Lom. I am glad to see Sideshow going away form the clone repaints, and get back to some OT characters. But most of all i;d like to see a staggered release schedule so that we are not getting 2-4 new figures at the same time. so I could afford more =-)

Some photos of the Figure here and more at my Flickr page.

Foot work Pt 2

rxprime — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 01:54:36 +0000

Not all tools are power tools, Well the dremel is about dead, and repairs are going to take longer than I have vacation. So I looked around and a plain simple, CHEAP hacksaw is the answer. $8 at home depot got me a 10″-12″ hack saw and 3 metal cutting blades. I was able to use the last of the dremel to make sure I had a slight grove to cut most of the aluminum with.

Blood, Sweat, Progress

A bit of Sweat, and one small scare when the blade skipped and got my thumb a little and I had 4, 1/2 motor holders. Now, I just need to figure out how to reattach the motor holders parts and then mount the motors and wheels.

Opened up motor holders

Now I am pretty sure this is going to work and I have wasted no money on parts I can not use. Also its nice to have the feeling of a custom part on my R2. Below are more pictures of how the motor and wheels will fit. It was a few trips to Lowes to get bolts and things that would fit from one side to the other.

Drive Train

Foot work Pt1

rxprime — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 01:34:12 +0000

Well mistake #1, I was unsure what type of drive system I wanted to run R2 with. Some builders use the NPC 2212 motors for big aluminum droids. Benefits to this system is most parts can be easily found online or locally. “some assembly required”. Now I picked up some rectangular tube aluminum for this drive system.

THEN…I found a really good deal on the Razor scooter motors from Razor at 40% off msrp. So I ordered 2 motors, 2 chains, and 2 wheels…

Only to realize once the motors and wheels arrived there was no way they would fit inside this foot frame.

After a short “pep-talk” from my wife about how not to waste money online. I figured out a way to salvage the tubes.

Foot shell,

I taped them off with blue tape to use as a cutting guide. I used some of the metal cutting Dremel wheels to etch and cut this, things were gong well but I think the job was to much for my 300 series Dremel. It got really hot and I think I burnt out the motor.

Not sure what the next step is, going to look at repairs on the dremel and for something else to cut this aluminum so I can keep moving forward.

2 wheels, 2 chains, 1 motor

rxprime — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:20:01 +0000

After some long hard thoughts about what type of drive train I was going to do it really came down to what I thought would be as simple who has the parts in stock. I found a sale going on for the scooter motors wheels and chains so I placed my order only to get shorted one motor. I can make the drive shells with only one but it’s not ideal, and I have o wait until another
motor comes in to get R2 on his feet.

Lets get some Legs on him

rxprime — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 22:07:00 +0000

I have decided to go with the Mike Senna “leg pipe design” meaning the frame has 2 lengths of pipe running form one shoulder to the other, with the one smaller pipe inside the larger for strength.

Pro side to this set up is most of the parts are off the shelf form your local hardware store. The cost is also fairly low.

Cons Finding pipes that fit within each other can be maddening, I spent about a month going to different Lowe’s, and Home Depots trying all the pipes they had. Along with being told they would not thread the type of pipe I would have preferred.

My Parts consist of:

1 Black Gas Pipe, side 1″ in diameter and 18″ long.

1 Galvanized water pipe, 1.25″ diameter and 18″ long.

2 pipe flanges, one for each side/size.

This makes up the beefy parts of the shoulders, I also picked up hardware to attach it all to my shoulder hubs and legs.

About the hardware, I just got what would fit and enough that I have about 1.5 time amount I needed to have extras just in case I lost one or needed to replace it.

Some builders get pipes that are shorter than the 18″ or they have the store cut them/cut them at home. I went with the 18″ out of ease of use and I would not have to worry about grinding down any slag from the cut. Also on the pipe, some builders have had good luck with EMT Conduit, it only comes in 10′ lengths form the home improvement stores, and some employees will give trouble with threading the EMT for the flanges. It is however quite a bit lighter than the gas pipe so for weight savings its a great product.

The total length between the pipes should be in the 19″ range(not exact) so all I am doing is adding a bit more weight to the droid but also I think it will make him rock solid.

If you are looking for more info about this leg method searching for “Gas pipe” “Senna pipe Thing” work well on the Astromech builder forums. Also Victors Blog has great pictures.

Here you can see the Legs mounted to the Frame with Skins to test fit everything. The other picture shows the tow pipes within each other on the work bench.

On with it

rxprime — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 21:45:52 +0000

No more distractions Celebration VI (6) has been announced and I would love to have a droid to show, along with a friend of mine has mentioned that he would like my R2 to make and appearance at the Phantom Menace 3D opening.

I am full steam, and empty wallet ahead with getting a R2-D2 replica rolling and looking like something recognizable.

If your build it, you will BUILD IT

rxprime — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 21:12:41 +0000

Workspace- A needed space set aside to do work, not needed to be cleaned or for other functions
.

This is what I needed. With some quick searches on Google I found many cheap/free plans for a work bench. Well Free is always the better route for me so I basicly took the pictures show and some mesurments of the space I had and went to work buidling a space to build R2.

Matterals were

6 or 8 -2x1x8 Sutds from Lowes- About $3.50 each.

Some 3.25″ deck screws- I got the big box so I have plenty of extras- $7.50

One sheet of a heavy plywood. $12 or less

So Less than $50, and i’m sure it was much less than that.

Drill, Saw, tape mesurer, and Level I had already.

I figured I could put a 5 foot long, 18inch deep and 36 tall bench in the corner of my garage.

*tip* make sure when you looking for any typs of wood its straight, 2 of my studs were not warped, I was able to use them at shorter lengths for other items but if I had not gotten extras it would have been a trip to return or buy more.

Below is a picture of the final bench, its not exact and my cuts a a bit sloppy but its sturdy and works for what I need it to, and If in a few yeas i need to make another one at least I have the experience.

Building a better collection

rxprime — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 14:18:23 +0000

Back in September It said I was packing it all up, and did in anticipation for our move into a new house. I had hoped to be in this house by Halloween, however it was more like Christmas when we moved in. So I am finally unpacking the collection for display again, and wanted to show the space with furniture but without much out.

I am using a total of 6 Detolfs from Ikea(the glass cases) two small shelves from Wal-mart, and an old book case from i don;t know where. This space should allow all of my sideshow 12″ figures the best of my Hasbro 3.75″ figures and the few Transformers I still have and want to display.

Once this is done I will start on the garage, all the moving boxes will be out of the way and R2 will be full speed ahead.

1st Injury!!

rxprime — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 01:52:48 +0000

While CLEANING UP from the prior post, assembly of the frame I was moving the sheet aluminum skins and 2 of them caught and scratched my inner arm. Nothing major and very little blood but. I thought I would document the good along with the bad.

1st of many??

Frame Assemble!!

rxprime — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 01:47:19 +0000

After dry fitting the frame a few times and waiting for my aluminum skins to arrive(to test fit), I finally glued the frame all together. I used normal Elmer wood glue, it was cheap and seems to hold well. It also has a longer cure time so I was able to make sure everything was together correctly without worry of it drying to fast. No matter that I put the frame together 3-5 times I still had one part i was unsure of when all of the parts were laying on the table and i was gluing it all.

Rear of frame.

I started at the bottom with the front uprights, working out form there, once I had 2/3 of them on I then fit the “middle” ring, as this is the only part that touches all ribs other than the top and bottom plates. I then went back and fit in the other cross parts. I left the “leg” supports for last.

A quick test fit to make sure i had everything tight, i put the skins right up on the frame.

wood frame with aluminum skin

Fit was very close to perfect, the skins shape is off a little due to to box they have been in but very little effort will be needed to expand them a bit and that’s all they will need.

With everything fitting I finished by gluing the leg supports and then the top plate, wrapped 2 30″ bungee cords around the ribs to make sure everything was tight and let it set to cure.

Add the rear door to the picture and this is where I am now. Next will be installing the legs via the “gas pipe” method.

Rear Door with frame.