At the bottom of each side of the body are these cut outs that provide clearance for the battery boxes on the feet when R2 is in 2-leg position
To cover these I attached a piece of styrene, wedging it between the skin and frame on the sides and gluing it to the base on the bottom.
At the top, I cut a half-moon shaped piece of wood to fill the space between the cut out panel and the skin. I also filled the gap between the outer skin and the panel along the sides with hobby putty.
Once the two main layers of the skins are installed the next step is the detail panels. When cutting the top layer of the skins I made sure to number all the panels since the cut out pieces can be re-cut to make the detail panels. Here you can see some of the solid detail panels cut smaller to leave that narrow gap around the outside.
Some of the panels need to have the inside cut out with rounded corners are shown here.
To make these I started by cutting the panel to the correct outside dimensions. I then laid out the inside cut.
Next, I made a jig for my drill press that held the pieces in the right position to drill the rounded corners.
Here is the panel with all four corners drilled.
From there I used an X-acto knife and straight edge to make the straight cuts. I then used some sandpaper to clean up the cuts.
These were glued in place using liquid styrene cement and held in place with tape and strap clamps.
To attach the inner skins to the wood frame I started by drilling small holes along the top and bottom edge so that I can use nails to hold the skin in place while the glue sets. The outer layer will cover a good part of the inner layer which will hide the nails. To glue the inner layer to the frame I used White Gorilla Glue, https://www.gorillatough.com/product/white-gorilla-glue/
Since I made each layer in two pieces I glues them in place one at a time, further securing them with strap clamps. To glue the outer layer to the inner I used a combination of styrene glues. I first used the Testors gel glue, which has a longer working time then the liquid, being careful not to go to close to the edges with it. I then used the liquid to tack town the edges.
You can see where how I secured the skins with strap clamps and other types of clamps any where I could get them in.
At the seems only a small part of the skin has frame behind it, so I also added some piece of styrene on the back ok the skin to span the seam.
The next step in making the skins was to cut out the paper template so I could use it to trace the template onto the styrene. You can faintly see the lines in the picture below. With the pattern transferred to the styrene I cut it out using an X-Acto knife. This was a very tedious process, you just need to take your time and periodically change your blade. In the spots where the pieces of the skins come together under the legs I left the styrene long and would trim it later during installation so I was sure I would get a tight seam.
By far one of the most challenging parts of building R2 was the skins. The skins are made of two layers of .04 inch styrene. The first challenge was finding the material. I was unable to find any place to get it local. I did find 4x8 sheets online but the shipping costs were outrageous. Eventually I found SIBE-R Plastic Supply which sold 24” x 48” pieces at a reasonable price and shipping.
This was not big enough to make each layer out of one piece, so I did each layer in two pieces, one for the front and one for the back. The seams were pretty small and were under the legs so where easy to hide. This also made the pieces easier to work with.
Below are pictures of the templates for the skins. I took these to a print shop and had them printed fully size. If you have them printed be sure to take some measurements to be sure they are printed at the right scale. The black areas are cut all the way through. On the outside layer you will make cut outs for the panels and the pieces that are cut out are further cut to make panel details.
There is a good article on Astromech.net with more information on the skins..
https://astromech.net/droidwiki/Making_Your_Own_Skins
Inner layer.
Outer layer
