A build update

I have been planking the underside of the body. Compared to top, this i pretty easy and straightforward. I used 1.5mm pinewood in the middle for extra strength. This is where the bottom part of the robot will be attached. the outer planking is 1mm pinewood, but 15mm wide instead of the 10mm that I used on top. 

 Planking is almost finished!

I cut a hole for the cockpit. I'm doing some measuring with the doll body to figure out what the cockpit will look like. I have been looking forward to designing the cockpit, and I have a few ideas that I would like to realise.

I also have to start thinking about how I want the lower body to look like and of course the legs and arms. 

To hell, back and forth

A update from the weekend. Since I run out of wood I made a short stop at Materialbutiken on Folkungagatan on Friday afterwork. they didn't have 3mm balsa sheets so I got the 5mm instead.

Now I wish that I had used 5mm for all the formers, it's not as fragile and flimsy as the 3mm. But I don't think it's worth the extra work and money, and it wont show when it's finished anyway.

After finishing the formers I started with my personal hell. the doubt you feel when you put the first few strips in place and realise how much work there is ahead. It's much easier to strip plank if the wood is square and can be bent i two directions, but I chose to work with a thin 1mm x10mm pinewood. Since the wood strip only can be bent in one direction I have to cut the inbetweeners to the right shape. Time consuming and patience trying...

When you get this far you can almost feel the light in the end of the tunnel, but in the same time the "why?" always present.

Strip planking is more or less done!
There are a number of ways I could have constructed this shape that probably would have been much easier. For me it's the hard part that makes it worth it, and I also like the not super perfect look that the wood strips create. For me it's almost like the brush strokes on a painting.

First day of building

The new build has started! I had plans on buying small band saw to be able to work in harder wood, but decided against it for the moment. The main reason I only work with "silent" hand tools is that my work bench is located in my living room and my wife and daughter is not happy if they can't hear the television... I'm planning on doing more of my work outside, but since it's snowing at the moment I decided to build the frame out of  balsa wood.     

First small step on the new Robot

I have began drawing some plans for my next Wood Robot! The other one is not finished, but most of the work left is sanding but since I have my workspace in my living room, I prefer to leave that to when I can work outside.  The new robot will have a child pilot in an open cockpitt, the size of the robot will bee a little smaller but the height will be similar to the old robots (110cm).

All of the robots in this projects have heritage from classic sci-fi robots and this one have War of the worlds as inspiration. But instead of a alien craft like the original, I want to build a "destroyer of worlds" robot as if it was a classic sports car that a 1/6 scale action figure of my daughter will pilot.
When I became a father I felt like some parts of my old life had to end and in the process my new life was created. This robot will represent that change

progress on the actionfigures

I have finished the short-arm cardigan and have turned my attention to the head sculpts.
I'm trying to find a good skin color (and hair color for the Björn doll).

 Still have to find some black shoe laces for the all black Converse shoe on the Björn doll.

Here I have a different Björn head, different hair color and black eyes.

I have not decided which one I like the most...

Preparing fabric

I have prepared more fabrics with sugar water and I'm leaving them to dry over night.

I tried 1:1 sugar and water mixture this time, It's more sugar than last time and I think I need it because the fabric for the cardigan is super stretchy and I want it as stiff as possible. 

Moore clothes

I have been working on some more clothes for my action figures. I finished a tank top for the "Johanna" doll but I still have to make a cardigan.. I tried to paint the head sculpt, but I haven't found the correct skin tone yet.   

My first experiment with sugar water proved to be successful. It proved very useful when working on the V-neck pullover. I found that it was possible to sew with higher precision when the fabrics were treated with the sugar water solution. When I had all the pieces in place I used hot tap water to rinse the sugar out of the fabric. And it worked perfectly! when the fabric dried there was no trace of the sugar.

I was not happy with the collar on my last shirt, so I decided to make another try.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to do it better and ended up with a different result.
This time I managed to make better looking collar, but I'ts not perfect and I haven't decided if it's worth the extra time to perfect the shirt collar. I have to give it a rest for a few days, if it still annoys me I will give it a new try.

If I make another try I might have time to cast some super small shirt buttons, even if they wont be seen in the end...

Experiments with textiles

I'm no expert when it comes to working with textiles, but I'm not a expert in woodworking either... I just like to learn as much as possible about the materials I need to use to reach my goals, and right now since I'm making 1:6 scale clothes I'm trying different tings to make tings easier. One thing I find very hard is soft stretchy fabric that always seem to slide away. I was thinking what if I can find something that I can make the fabric stiff to make it easy to work with and then wash it and have it back to normal? And my first thought was to go Punk! I know punkers  use sugar water to get a hard mohawk, and it should probably work on textile as well?

      

This is my first attempt and I have no idea of what the best mixture of sugar and water is yet but for the first try I used 1.5dl boiling water and 1dl sugar ( maybe a little much ).

   

I tried different methods of drying: natural air dry, microwave and ironing.
Everyting turned out pretty much the same but if you like to iron it you have to use baking paper because the heat makes the sugar sticky.
 

The sugar water works very well so far, the otherwise very soft fabric get a more firm/stiff feel to it and makes it much easier to work with.
I hope it washes out with out a trace as well.

To be continued...

Heads and clothes

A first date is not complete without the people. In this case me and what will be my wife is represented by 1:6 scale actionfigure stand-ins. I bought cheap well articulated actionfigure bodies from Ebay, even if its tempting to try to make my own actionfigure body it has to wait for another project.

I started with my own face, I made the head sculpt with Supersculpey and tried to make the haircut I had at that date back in 2005. I'm going for a semi realistic look with a comicbook touch... 

Step two, Smooth-on silicone mold and Smooth-cast 310 urethane plastic casting.
I will sand the casting before coloring it.

Same step with the Johanna head.

On my own small self there is a lot of complicated clothes to be made. I made decent attempt on the shirt, I might try to cast some small buttons and some other small details but I like the fit.
The Cheap Monday slim jeans was a lot harder. I made every part of the jeans correct to the original. but I have to rework my design a little because right now he can't sit without having his ass hanging out... It takes me about 5-6 hours to make a pair of jeans, so before making a new attempt I have to save up some more patience. But in the mean time I have a pullover, a black tie and a parkas jacket to keep me busy.

I was thinking about making my own Converse shoes, but decided to leave that for another project. I bought shoes and stockings from E-bay. But I made the dark blue shorts, I had to rework my design a few times to make them look right even when sitting down (I've learnt my lesson). I might still do some small changes or add details but over all I'm happy with how they look. I'm also working on the clothes for her top, but is still looking for the right fabrics.

Shoulder, arm and head

Time for shoulders, head and arms. Shoulders is not that much to talk about, boxes built in the same style as the rest of the robot. 

Arms was a lot more complicated, especially since the first pair I built ended up being too small.
I used balsa wood for the round formers, feels like cheating but saved a lot of time since I don't use powertools. The outer layer is the same pinewood material as the rest of the robot.

I wanted a Lego style arm and made a rounded end made from balsa wood.

I forgot to take photos when I was building the hands but I'm pretty happy with the end results.

Head and arms is in place! all the wood parts is now finished, I still have some sanding and small adjustments left.