Long and awesome post

Been a little while since I did an update again - apologies to my loyal fans.

So where are we at?  Well, I've been working on Ankle cylinders for a start!

I poster about the a little earlier.  Here's one of the ends taking the last cut on the lathe

The next cut had to be done on a CNC mill.  Not sure if I mentioned before, but l'm lucky enough to have an awesome girlfriend.  An added bonus to having this awesome girlfriend is getting to use her Dads CNC machine ;)  But I must point out that she is awesome despite her Dads mill.  (I'm obliged to say that)

And here they are, with cylinders themselves in the back ground cut to length.  The tube I bought off eBay, it's nice stuff!

Quick test fit :) They're nice and tight!  Each of them is within a couple of microns of the inner diameter (id) so are pretty snug.  Shouldn't even really need to fix them!  But a little bonding won't go amiss. 

After giving the cylinders the lathe treatment, it was their turn for the mill to get the squared edge cut out.  

Now I've seen a lot of parts in the group get lightened.  The "Diet treatment".

Beat 86 grams guys.  I dare you!

They fit great on my center ankle.  These are just sitting on the ankle here, however the outer ankles seem to be a bit wider,  Fortunately I only had time to do 2 of these, so when I came to do the next pair, I went widened the gap to allow them to fit.

Next job ticked off is painting the Radar Eye and a couple of other details.

 Here it is all primed and ready to go.  I left it a few days before painting it, so had to test fit it ;)

I really like the albino R2 :) It grew on me!  However, it had to change.  I was curious to see how the engineers layout dye would work on silver paint.  Turns out, it looks pretty damn sweet!

The method I went with was to paint it silver, let it cure for about half an hour and then coat in lay out dye.  I wanted to see if the two would bond any differently.  I don't know if it made a difference, but I'n very pleased with the finish!

(after a bit of weathering) 

The resin power couplers didn't turn out so great though.  I washed them the same as all the other pieces, the primer went on fine, and the final coat was just the same.  However it all went ripley on me minutes after painting.  Not sure why.  I'll sand them down and try another coat and see what happens

With R2 all running fine and dandy, lights and sounds and a bit of colour, I took him a long to see our good friends Jonny and Tamsin

One of them was particularly excited to see him.

I'd prepared a personalized message for them.  I'll see if I can get it embedded in the video, as the quality isn't great on this video and you can't read it all.  But this is a really great video!  May want to adjust the treble on your speakers though...

The message was a great touch.  Made possible by my good buddy Brad.  He has taken the Teeces lighting kit and made his own code (BHDLights - strongly recommend you check it out here)

This seems like a good time to plug his blog.  I would highly recommend you check it out.

http://bighappyduder2.blogspot.co.uk/

If you've been impressed by my R2...pffft.  Ain't seen nothing yet! I owe this guy a lot.  He's been invaluable to me with his wealth of knowledge and generous nature.

Cheers dude :)



That's it for now!  More big plans and little jobs on the cards for the next update