Breakfast of Champions

Rumors said they taste really bad. However, the commercial’s pretty good, aye?

Now, fetch me some (blue) milk!

Spray Chroming work started

Just came back from the chroming factory and left Threepio there. In about 1-2 weeks time it will be spray chromed. The process used is very similar to the Spectrachrome system, which is a 3 step progress. First a base layer (primer) is applied, then an intermetidate coat is applied (this layer gives the actual silver-chrome like reflective finish). Finally, a top coat (protective layer) is applied, in which color can be added. This is basically a clear coat with some color tint to it to create the final “gold” effect. For silver, this top coat does not require any color to be added. As probably mentioned before, spray chroming ended up being almost twice the price as normal vacuum metallizing. However, the effect will be much better, actually, spray chroming is the best method to be chosen, and the finish is close to what you see used on automobiles. Compared to normal VM, spray chroming do not have any disadvantages at all, except the price of course. It’s much more durable, and one do not need to worry about ‘orange skin’ effects which tend to be a problem for vacuum metallization.

Spray chromed See-threepio (picture from the Spectrachrome website)

Spray chromed car.

At last, after over 1 year, it’s Threepio’s time to shine! I chose a slightly silverish golden tint for the right leg instead of the pure silver one. I am yet to see the results, so I cannot comment on this choice at this state.

Goodness gracious me, I am excited to pick him up! Hold on for updates folks!

1,2,3,4,5…

Very interesting stuff are happening within the Protocol-community nowadays. At least 2 Protocol Droids are almost finished; Stukatrooper’s one being finished VM’d, Cymico’s going to pick his up from the VM shop as we speak.

3 other droids are also very close to be ready for VM (including mine).

How exciting!

Here is a small teaser from Stukatrooper, which shows his Threepio with dented head as from ANH (Dent on top the head and one on the cheek, including some imperfections near the left eye “brow”). His Threepio was actually VM’d by the same company who chromed the original suit for ANH!

 

Droid Yoga

I must admit that this picture gave me quite a laugh. I challenge the illustrator to put on a Protocol droid suit himself and try these moves! Just walking a few steps can be hard (and painful), and doing the Scorpion, geesh. Mesa give up!

See the rest of the hilarious Star Wars Yoga exercises here.

C-3PO ABS helmet assembly sketch

On request by members of c3po-builder’s club. Here is a quick sketch of the plastic ABS helmet assembly method I used to secure the two helmet halves for wearing. The registration tabs are “sculpted” in fiberglass, and are used to keep the two halves together perfectly once the head antenna and neck bolts are correctly screwed into position. Please note that the head antenna bolt goes through the ‘hook’ on top of the helmet front.

For the fiberglass helmet, the easiest way will be to implement the head antenna-screwing method, together with the neck bolts (This was done for AD in the movies, and this can be seen in some of the behind-the-scenes photos). But the registration tabs are already molded into the helmet, so those are not necessary.

Two C-3PO helmet fronts with the visible 'hook' on the top of the helmet, in which the head antenna bolt goes through.

Can you give me a hand with this?

 

The hand, what a great mystery!

It should be noted that this part of the costume was very unpractical, as the material and design of the hand gave very little room for movement. From the study of behind the scenes pictures, different pictures from exibitions and clips from the movie, it seems like two versions were used in ANH.

Type 1, probably being the one used for the-pick-up-comlink-scene in ANH (see embedded video later on in this post) with separate fiberglass(?) fingers and hand plate over a glove. This type of glove is also seen in the pre-ANH prototype versions as featured in the Star Wars Visual Dictionary.

Type 2 being cast as one piece in some kind of urethane or rubber, and is used extensively throughout other parts of the film. The type 2 hands are also seen to be used for ROTS. The distinguished characteristic of the type 2 hands is its ability to hold its shape, which makes them easy to spot in the movie.

Filming the pick-up scene in ANH proved to be especially hard, as it was simply impossible for AD to hold on and grab things due to the way the hands were made. See 10:47 in the video below:

The picture below is from Steve Sansweet’s book “Star Wars from Concept to Screen to Collectable”, and shows the hand in detail. However, it seems to be type 2, and not the type 1 version.

The picture below shows the newest type (ROTS?) of glove, which is of the type 2 version, and made in some kind of flexible urethane material. My guess is that the hand is made in one mold, with the gold parts spray painted on with chrome spray similar to Spectrachrome (which is flexible).

Original C-3PO Hands of unknown origin. Post-ROTJ? (Type 3?) From the way the fingers are made. Please note how the fingers are connected to each other as “one-piece”.

Video below is from the Muppet show (@0:34) and shows that the type 2 hand is indeed flexible enough to be able to hold on to things such as a piece of paper.

The good, the bad and the..

Bad news: All right, just got off the plane from Beijing with rather disappointing news. Although I spent almost 3 weeks in Beijing, a lot of time has been spent in bed due to sickness. Then came dinners with family, relative and friends. The reminding bits of time I had left, I used on calling around and visiting local factories together with local 501st Garrison members. However, due to time constrains, I did not have time to send all the parts to chroming before I left, and thus all protocol parts have been left in Beijing for the future. I am planning my next visit in June to finish the protocol project.

However, I’ve done quite a lot of research work during my stay. Firstly, I came to learn that most vacuum metallizing/chrome plating factories in China are located in the south, and not in Beijing. Finding a factory which does this kind of work has been hard. However, I’ve obtained a great deal of experience with both understanding the technique, and knowing the situation as it is in Beijing. I have found two very good candidates which one of them I will continue to work with when I am in town this summer. One factory is about 1,5 hours drive from Beijing (In Hebei Province), which does vacuum metallizing. The second factory is located within Beijing (which is a big plus), which uses the chrome spraying technique very similar to Spectrachrome. Spray chroming is by far superior to vacuum metallizing due to its ability to withstand wear and friction, it also flexes with the material, minimizing the risk of the gold plating cracking and falling off. While vacuum metallizing is used for toys and home applicances, spray chroming is more commonly used for cars and arts decoration. The only downside with spray chroming is that of expense. The cost of spray chroming is roughly 2-3 times that of VM. The spray chrome is also applied as a thicker coat than the VM surface.

Surprisingly enough, the price for chrome spraying given by the factory in Beijing was almost the same as the VM factory. And with the Beijing factory being closer to home, it is by far the best candidate.

Good news: An ABS shoe shell, resin greeblie and fiberglass helmet have been sent in to the vacuum metallizing factory in Hebei for test chroming. Once it is finished, I will ask ES from China 501st Mainland Outpost to take some pictures for me.

The project will thus be put into temporary hibernation until I get myself to Beijing..in about 5-6 months. However in the meantime, we can wait for pictures of the test chromed Threepio helmet, and I will keep continuing to post updates about everything See-Threepio.