Hi all,

Sorry for not being active for a while, but been through selling my house and glad I'm now out the other end of that. Don't want to go through that again in a hurry!

Anyway, now that R2 has 'finished', and I have money in my account, my mind wandered to what to do in the evenings. Then I stumbled over the partwork from the title. It's already about 2 months in, and I've subscribed starting from issue 1.

There are already some youtube videos out concerning the build, and it was stumbling across one of these that sparked my interest. [If only someone had done a 1/2 scale C-3PO as a better companion for my lonely R2!]

I will update as soon as I get the first delivery. It's a 120 issue partwork and I intend on working on some cosmetic improvements such as painting the teeth so they don't look so monotone and plastic.

I have been watching the video builds on this.Unfortunately its not in USA at the moment. It looks interesting.The teeth look awful though.Maybe Narayan could sculpt the lower jaw to make it look better using his amazing sculpting skills!!

If I could get a lower jaw I would 3d scan it and redesign it to make tooth sockets instead of having the row of chiclet teeth that the kit has!!!

I have seen some video builds there they have painted and weathered the teeth and they do look much better.

Carl

I’ll have my first issues of this next week, courtesy of my “forwarding service” in the UK. I am really looking forward to this one!

OK, so the first 2 issues and my first 'free' gift have turned up. I'm not actually going to start building yet, I'll wait until the next delivery for that.

However, first impressions are ...... impressive.

Each issue's parts come in a clear blister-pack, making it very easy to see if anything is missing or damaged before you open it - although opening it may be harder than I've had to work with Deagostini or Eaglemoss.

I was worried about how well the colour would match between the plastic and metal components, and I still can't tell as I don't believe I've had any metal parts yet. However, the plastic face-plate for the eye/nose area is most definitely plastic and it has a nice bright chrome look to it in the packaging, so who knows.

Issue 1 contains the LEDs for the eyes, the red caps to turn the eyes red [why not just use red LEDs?] the chrome 'eyeballs, three black plastic pieces - one of which will move the eyes left and right, but is not used this issue - the chrome coloured eye and nose plate, and three screws. One of which is a spare.

Issue 2



This isssue also came with heat sealed parts. They include the chrome plastic part for the upper jaw, the upper teeth, and three parts for the upper right arm. The long part is not used this issue, so store it away for now.





Take the black eye assembly from last issue, and the chrome upper jaw part, and connect them as shown.. You will only use 2 screwsat this point, the other holes are used to attach the bottom of the skull later on. Note that the silver part has indents to hold the teeth. The lower jaw will also have a similar set of indents for the lower teeth.


Now for the teeth themselves. Take a thick superglue, and place some in one of the trays the parts came in. Use a cocktail stick or paperclip to transfer the glue as necessary.

As the teeth have posts moulded in, I just used a set of tweezers to hold the teeth and just put the ends of the pins in the blob of glue and then sset them into the plate. The teeth come on a moulded frame and are numbered. The instructions are clear on which number to place where, and it's easy if you take one set off the frame, glue it in, then work on the next one.

I worked from the back with set number 1, and then came forward. I then moved to the back again and glued in the back set on the other side of the jaw. I wiull follow the same system when we come to the lower jaw.





That finishes the head for this issue, we are now going to work on the arm. Take these two parts and align them.




Because of the screws, it can only go on 2 ways, but there is a surface detail which must be matched.




So with this screwed in with the only countersunk screws provided, that ends the progress for issue 2. The face looks like this at the end of the issue.



I plan on working a little on the gum line, filing it out slightly to better match the teeth, but agin, the face plate is only pushed on at this stage.

dont forget to rotate the eyes 180 degrees as they made a mistake, pins are to the top of his head.

thats brilliant, well done.

Issue 4



As of this issue, the plastic blisters are no longer heat sealed. This issue containss the remaining parts for the upper right arm. It is also the issue where you will need a longer screwdriver than those supplied.



What you get alongside the screwdriver I used to actually build the larger piston.



The longer piston goes together the same way as the shorter one from last issue. The fact that this is longer is where you get into trouble if you try to use the screwdrivers supplied.



The actual piston for the shorter unit is made up of this metal shaft and a rubber seal. I used a bit of superglue to keep the rubber on. Not only does it keep it on whilst you tighten the screw, it helps hold it.

This part of the build can be quite tricky. If the screw is not tight enough, the seal may come loose and it's then a real pain to get out of the cylinder to re-attach. If the screw is too tight, it squashes the seal and makes it too tight against the cylinder, risking the seal getting ripped of the shaft as you try to extend the piston. It needs to be tight enough to make the elbow joint stiff enough not to move under it's own weight, but able to be moved if you wish to change the position of the elbow.

As a subsciber, I will be getting the gun with my 7th delivery and will need to check the stiffness of the elbow joints once I have both of them joined to the chest and able to hold the gun.

Once you have added the seal to the shaft, and are happy with how it moves, it is inserted iinto the shorter cylinder and you end up with an assembly like this.



Do the same with the other piston shaft, noting that the longer one has a different shape on the end.




The longer piston is the equvalent to the muscle along the back of the upper arm, the shorter one the front of the arm.



This part from issue 3 now has these rubber components added to it. They will provide resistance to turning this part, part of the shoulder joint, and allow the arm to stay in position when you twist it at the shoulder. Note that thses parts have a cut-away section so they fit better around the disc at the lower end of this joint. They are not cut to fit closely at the toop, this is to ensure they get squeezed during assembly and provide the proper resistance, do not cut material away from these parts.



You are now ready to start the fiddly process of assembling the right upper arm. Note that there are two different length screws to do this. You will also need some blutac, masking tape, or similar to hold the screws in place as you are required to insert them from underneath so they become the rods on which the pistons will swing or rotate.



Take the long arm part supplied this issue and practice getting it to line up with the part supplied in issue 2. There should not be a step in the faces where you will join the shoulder, it took me a couple of tries to get it to line up properly without all the other pieces. Then, as shown here, you put the longer screw into the hole on the left of the part when it is in this orientation. Place the tape over the hole to stop the screw falling back out. Follow the same proceedure for the shorter screw on the other side.



Then take the longer piston, the one with the square end, and place the tubular end of that piston over the longer screw. Place the other piston over the shorter screw in the same manner.



Then take the shoulder joint with the rubber components on,and place it so that one of the rubber components fits inside the slot inside the arm piece at the top.



We are now ready to align and connect the outer arm piece from issue 2. the rubber component will help with this, as will the screws.



Once the parts are aligned, carefully turn the assembly over, remove one piece of tape, and tighten that screw until you are sure it is going in correctly. Do the same for the other screw, then check the alignment again. If all is well, there will be no mis-alignment and you can tighten both screws up. When you have finished there should be no gaps between the two main arm parts where they meet the shoulder, and no steps between them.

Issue 6




This issue we are adding the nose piece to the face, and adding the teeth to the lower jaw.



The teeth are similar to those in the upper jaw, but this time there are 5 mouldings not 4, which leads to an unusual situationwhich I will look into rectifying later. Once again I just took the teeth, one set at a time, from the frame, applied a little glue to the pins, and installed them in the jaw working from back of the jaw to the front, then going to the other side and doing the same. The only poiint at which I deviated from this was for the teeth in the centre at the front. These are only pushed in for now.






It is at this point that you may realise why I have not glued in the front teeth.



Who in their right mind authorised a moulding where there is a MIDDLE TOOTH? I will mark in that moulding where the 'gum line' is to keep from removing material there and changing the fir of the part in the jaw, but above that I intend to file and sand to remove the joints between the teeth and then re-make them so that there are 4 teeth in that part. I will also remake the biting surface as the middle tooth has a triangular upper edge to make it fit better inbetween the upper teeth.



So now we just glue the nose bridge piece into the face, and that's it for issue 6. Just place a small amount of glue on each of the two pins, and hold in place until it dries.



So what we have after the first 2 deliveries is this



And if you are careful, you can balance the face on the lower jaw like this.. Note, the face is still only pushed on to the internal parts at the moment, it is not secured yet.