Enhanced BB-8 from Star Wars

Revell-Fan

Revell-Fan

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Howdee, fans! :)

A few days ago I found a nice model of BB-8, the (attention, @DanBKing ;) : ) sp-heroic (! :D !) astromech from Episode VII.

http://n8s.deviantart.com/art/Bb-8-Papercraft-528519084

That fellow is so cute that I immediately put it on my build list.

This model is about 1/3.5 scale. It features a nice silhouette and a very nice texture, but on closer inspection I noticed that some elements were distorted and others were missing. So I swang into action and exported the unfold as image using imcold's excellent pdotools program.

Now I am tracing the pattern in CorelDRAW to turn it into a vector graphic. I'll be correcting the lines and adding new ones on-the-fly. This is how it looked after exporting:

0.jpg

This is a short preview of the traced pattern:

1.jpg

The bitmap underneath will be deleted later-on when tracing is complete. Main tracing is almost done; detail work is next. So stay tuned for updates! :)

(EDIT: Info on scale corrected)
 
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Looking good R-F!
I'll wait until you have built your version, before I attempt mine ..... ;)
Are you gonna try the water shaping technique on your build ????
 
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I guess so. :) I have just joined DeviantArt to get in contact with the original designer. There are many people who like the model but who also would like to see a better texture on it (all print-outs are "blurred", they say). I'll send him the enhanced pattern and ask him to upload it either on his site or on zealot (or maybe on both ;) ):

http://n8s.deviantart.com/art/BB-8-and-R2D2-528521568
 
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This is a cool little model!
I am glad to see that you are cleaning it up!
I hope that the orininal designer will like the work that you are putting into it!
 
For the record: The creator of the paper model is Nathan Spencer. He did a great job with the unfold; assembly is a lot of fun. :)

The parts:

DSCF1543.jpg

I started with the head.

DSCF1545.jpg

The middle eye.

DSCF1546.jpg

DSCF1547.jpg

A few additional parts to make the projector eye:

DSCF1548.jpg

These are laminated to cardboard and attached to the head:

DSCF1549.jpg

DSCF1550.jpg

DSCF1552.jpg

The antennas will be attached later. So far the lines and detail of the head looks very good to me. Let's move on with the body. :)
 
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The smaller half of the main body.

DSCF1553.jpg

The cleaner lines look much better than the bitmap texture. However, the assembly showed me several areas which did not line up properly yet and had to be reworked.

DSCF1554.jpg

Especially the circle parts on the sides are badly aligned. I have edited the lines again and will continue the test using the revised parts.

DSCF1555.jpg

CU! :)
 
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:)

Now comes ... Round 2 (!:D!).

DSCF1556.jpg

The two halves of the body are assembled separately...

DSCF1557.jpg

... and then joined together:

DSCF1558.jpg

I went the quick way and used some tape for the test. ;)

DSCF1559.jpg

The revised lines are much better now albeit not quite perfect, so a second correction will be made.

DSCF1560.jpg

The top and bottom covers line up very well. Because another revision of the ball is on its way the cover pieces haven't been glued to this one.

DSCF1561.jpg

While work on the body continued I chose a somewhat different "stand" for the head...

DSCF1563.jpg

... Meet - Darth Droidus! :D

DSCF1564.jpg

I couldn't resist putting the head onto the correct body though to see how both look together. BTW, I noticed that the head does not require any mods to make it movable. Just do not glue it to the body and you will be able to put it anywhere you want. ;)
 
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Great work R-F!thumbsup

This will make a nice rainy day build ....... :)
I am gonna definatly try this model using water shapeing, so I will probably build it outside on the rainy day in question ....... :lolsign:
 
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With the antennas attached it will be 19 cm tall and 10.8 cm wide. So it has to be re-scaled to be in scale with the other paper figures I have made / will be making (I have adapted the info on the scale in post #1 of this thread accordingly). I will not re-scale it for the test-build though because I like it the way it is. :)
 
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You may already grab the unaltered file from Nathan's deviantart page (link in post #1). ;)

BTW, I just received word from Nathan. He likes the result very much. :) I'll send him the updated file asap (too bad the holidays are over, so I can work on it only late in the evening :Coffee: ).
 
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