What
This is a conversion kit for the properly scaled 2023 Hasbro Astromech body to make your own clear-domed R3 astromech droid.
Why
While researching the BT-1 conversion, I came across some auction photos of some R3 heads, and decided I wanted to also do an R3 astromech with a clear dome. Simple as that. This project was done in tandem with my BT-1 Conversion Kit and they share a universal stem that I made to fit the new 2023 Hasbro Black Series Astromech bodies, such as R2-D2, R5-D4 and R4-6DO.
Process
This is a bit of a departure from what I normally do. I initially tried to do it by modeling the dome solid, with details cut into the bottom of it. Then I printing it in clear resin, with the idea of painting the underside silver. Unfortunately, I have never been able to print acceptably clear parts.
I got the brilliant idea to look into vacuum forming. I purchased a ~$100 Dental Splint vacuum forming machine and some 1mm thick dental splints and set to work designing a buck. It took me approximately 4 revisions of the buck just to get the first good pull, but that was really just me learning how to use the vacuum forming machine.
I found some really good reference photos of several R3 units online and started modeling the internal details of the dome, and I realized that the new astromech body has a central stem that encroaches part-way into the head area, so I had to essentially work that into the design. While doing that, I was learning more about the vacuum forming process, and found ways to get the dome looking way better than I had hoped at the start of this process. The problem of how to apply paint to the panels on the dome was puzzling. I tried painting the outside manually, but I don’t have great brush control.
RC car bodies are often clear, and painted from the inside, so they don’t chip and the plastic is already glossy. I decided to make a mask for airbrushing the inside of the dome and after 3 tries I got one that worked perfectly, repeatedly.
There are full instructions (3 sets!) for painting/assembling the kit, vacuum forming and post processing the dome, and using the mask to paint the dome.
Parts list:
Astromech Stem.stl
Paneled Dome Buck.stl
Plain Dome Buck.stl
R3 Head Base.stl
R3 Head Anvil.stl
R3 Top Sensor.stl <– Print in clear resin. This part is translucent on the real droid, and clear resin works well here.
R3 Standard Eye.stl
R3 Cylinder Eye.stl
R3 Holoprojector.stl
Painting
The R3 units had a large round mirror or mirror tape on top of the base. On top of that was a metal anvil or or frame of some kind, and it was painted a light metallic blue. 2 brass tinted tape drive units and various other parts, including the clear top sensor part, which I printed in clear resin, and then hand painted some chrome on.
The paneled dome should be painted from the inside using the mask (stl provided). The instructions include additional painting instructions and recommendations.
Download
This model is now available on my Cults3D page.
Categorised in: Droids
