Mark Thompson from the B9 robot builders club just so happened to have a picture of the creature in his filing cabinet !!! The picture shows the creature in a Camel cigarette ad with a pretty girl on the beach. Mark Thompson's website
I guess that explains the sand in the creatures's shoes. Also the lower whisker she's tugging on in the picture is now missing. She must have pulled a little too hard : )
We survived the zero degree temperatures in Michigan and are glad to be back in Florida.
Today the Robot's new friend showed up on our doorstep. His true origin and name are still unknown but he's reputed to have had a monster part from a tv show or movie in the 60's. It was rumored he was on 2 Lost in space episodes but that's probably just a rumor. If you have a clue who he is please let me know. He's shy and hasn't said anything since he arrived. I told my wife to not start with the "Big Ugly Monster" comments because I won't be responsible for his response.
There probably won't be much robot building this weekend because we're going to Orlando to the MEGACON gathering to scout a venue for a possible B9/Robot builders convention in early 2007.The comment Brian made on the last entry - getting a 60's creature costume "would be worth ducking skillets for a week" was pretty funny. I didn't duck skillets but .... it didn't go as well as I hoped. She called it a "big ugly monster" and was not at all happy with our new family member.
Hmmmm ....
All that I can say is she didn't want a kitten long ago and I converted her to become a cat lover so I can see my work is cut out for me once again. Big ugly monster indeed !!!
I'm taking a few days off from robot building and heading into the frozen wastelands of Michigan today. Haven't seen snow in 11 years so it ought to be interesting.
OK .... Time to fess up. After all this is confessions of a B9 builder right?
Well I'll admit I've gone completely over the edge this time. And I still haven't got around to letting my wife in on the 'great deal' I got on EBAY last night. After all, aggrevating the wife on Valentines Day is not the key to marital bliss.
I found this large vintage rubber monster costume on EBAY that was rumored to be on one of the "Lost in Space" episodes. Granted, I doubt it was actually on "Lost in Space" but it may have been. Regardless, it's an alien monster that I fell in love with. He's not an ugly mean looking monster but rather a friendly looking alien monster that makes you smile. Not that any of that will matter when she finds out. Plus he's almost 8 foot tall !!! I still need to come up with my standard flimsy answers to all her questions once the topic surfaces ... "where are you going to put it", "what are you going to do with it", "why?", "are you crazy?". The problem is I will agree with her. She's absolutely right ..... but ... as Dave Barry puts it "there's a fine line between "hobby" and mental illness.
This costume needs a complete restoration and I'm pretty sure I can restore it like new. I've been honing my rubber molding techniques and will use that knowledge to replace scales that have fallen off. I also have a lot of liquid spray rubber I bought by accident. So once I find the time, this will be an awesome project. Or at the very least, we could take a quick trip down to the everglades to freak out some tourists : )
He will look great next to the B9 robot or even standing guard and greeting visitors by our front door vestibule. Doesn't it look like he could be in a "Lost in Space" episode? A friendly alien of course.
The newest member of our family.
Just a quick note to post a picture of the Bender Torso wrapped in paper. I did this to visualize the proportions. So far I've measured very little and it's all been eyeballed. It looks like the torso size will work. I'll probably apply the styrene skin after I make legs and arms. There's a million things to do on this project yet. Not quite as simple as I originally envisioned. A frame will need to be made to fit in the chest so a door can be fitted.
I got a new 12" miter/angle saw which was what I used to cut the pieces holding the frame together. As with most of my tools, I wondered how I got this far without it. The laser alignment tool on it was a dream. Someday I'm hopefully going to use these tools to build a house so it's a good investment.
On the B9 front, The power pack I got from Bill and Rod needs to be mounted. I need to locate three 1/8" female/female microphone plugs to cement into my torso. On someone's site it details the trick to getting the power pack to fit snug and aligned. Drill the 3 holes a little oversized and then cement them into the torso WITH the power pack attached. When the Epoxy dries, removing/inserting the power pack into the robot should be smooth.
Too cold (and this is Florida) to work much in the garage tonight.
Well, I've decided to pour my energy into organizing a robot builders convention ... specifically B9 robots but I plan on inviting other robot builders also. There's some guys in the R2 club in Florida that will probably be up for it. So far we have 3 B9's committed, Bender, 1 or 2 C3PO's, a death star droid and a life sized RobotCop (for security). Charlie G. from the B9 club told me he and his wife will drive here from Colorado with their B9 !!!! And I haven't even started to promote this yet. I have a feeling that once the planning starts there will be a lot of interest and it's one of those "be careful what you wish for" scenarios : ) In other words, a lot of work. But that's what makes life interesting and fun.
In 2 weeks we're going to the MegaCon convention in Orlando and I'm going to investigate the possibility of having several robot rooms next year. This area of Florida is perfect for a convention in winter. Our nice weather, beaches and proximity to Orlando are a big draw. I also need to talk to someone who's done this before to find out what's involved in planning something of this magnitude.
So mark your calendars for the Winter 2007 Prop robot builders convention.
On the robot building front, Bender is slowly making progress. The shoulders were finished with spot putty and wet sanding. Then a nice layer of hammered silver transformed it into robot's shoulders. Some additional hammered paint was also applied to the head to give it a smooth consistent look all around.
I had a mental block today trying to decide how to build the Bender torso. Lots of ideas but I kept abandoning them. It's a good thing there's no a hurry in this project. I'll give it another go on Sunday.
Shoulders being prepped and painted
Busy superbowl weekend and progressing on robot projects.
As usual, I had to redo B9's claws and wrists. After shooting a couple of coats of primer and one coat of paint I realized that my sanding was less than perfect. Lots of scratches and small bubbles still showed. Sanding all that paint and primer down to the resin took hours and a few layers of skin from my hands. But they'll look good when the final coat of paint is applied.
Most of the weekend was spent doing the shoulder and neck section on Bender. A lot of time was devoted to the design because I wanted to give him a removable head. It will be nice in the future when repairs are need or if Bender needs to be moved. Making the B9 so it came apart in sections also took a lot of time and thought but it was well worth it.
I made peace with my rotozip and it actually was the perfect tool to cut notches in the MDF to position/sink the stainless shoulders. The shoulder section is made of a couple pieces of MDF and some stainless faucet or pipe covers that I got at the habitat for humanity outlet store cheap. The arms will fit in them perfectly. The rotozip also was better than using a drill to start the holes in the hard stainless steel metal. The shoulders are attached with 4 bolts into the mdf. The Christmas tree stand conveniently covers the bolt heads.
The neck as I've stated in the past is a plastic christmas tree base trimmed back. The head is attached to some plastic drain covers and a large (around 6") piece of pipe is connected to another drain plate that's bolted to the bottom MDF part of the shoulder. The attached pictures show it better than I can explain.
I also shot foam into the area under the neck (Christmas tree base). The foam expanded and made a tremendous mess. I wanted the foam as a base before I laid in fiberglass between the head and the neck. When it came time to do the fiberglass, I first covered the bottom of the head with thin styrene and taped it into place. That way I could slide the head out after laying the fiberglass. That actually turned out pretty good. I still have a lot of fileing and filling to do but the part for the head is smooth and perfectly sized. Another advantage of a removable head is it's posable. I can turn the head left or right using this technique.I just got a beautiful set of B9 wrists and claws from Rod and Bill. Really nice quality. This is a big part of the robot's appearance so I'm looking forward to finishing them and fitting them. Yesterday and today I spent sanding them and filling some of the bubbles with spot putty. Tomorrow I'll shoot some primer on them and apply paint on the weekend.
So many robot projects so little time .....
