Project R - pt. 4

Over the last couple of weeks, I finished up the masters for the leg pieces.  I'm not 100% happy with all the details, specifically on the knee linkages.  I had thought to pick up some etched brass parts to add some interest to them, but I figure I can do that part during the actual build too.  So, I broke out the mold rubber and poured the rest of the leg pieces.  

I have the main leg assemblies in 4 parts, the foot, the shin and knee linkage, the lower and upper thigh.  The upper thigh is separate to allow for a twist to the stance.   The pours worked out to be fairly clean, and I only needed one re-pour due to bubbles for the lower thigh.  Note to self:  at some point, I really should look into de-gassing and pressure equipment.  Below are what the parts look like laid out and then stacked up.  I still have lots of cleanup to do, especially for the join between the two thigh parts, but I'm content with the main parts. 

I need to work out some aspects of the hip join, and the hip assembly, but that is work for another day. : )

Also, work progressed a bit on the Missile launcher housing.  This one is fairly plain, and it'll just have a couple of interesting armor plates on it to keep with the lines of the Archer.  Most of the detail is going to be in the under-housing heat dumps and the rear exhaust vents.  This one is also a two part cast, mostly so I have a place to pour.  The part needs detail all around the narrow edges, which is where I could pour from, and breaking this in two will let me detail those well without having to worry about seam lines and such. I'll just have to clean the mating point, like the thigh part.

I also got started a bit on the cockpit.  I drilled out the dials on the cockpit I'm going to use, and then poured a little bit of mold material into the space to use as a light diffuser.  It looks like it'll be fine.  I'll print out the dial details in color and overlay them along with the other instrumentation.

 That's it for now..