Robocain custom build

[OJA]

Candyman. As always, it's been a pleasure watching your skill. I was looking at the youtube link you had. Regarding the left arm. Do you think it can be modified to punch?

[candyman]

Hi guys

I may make the red nuke thing at the end.

I WILL make the monitor that pops out of the head, it will work and will show cains face.

I never liked the punching arm thing, doesnt look like it should physically be able to do it! Im not going to modify it so it can punch.

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Keep forgetting to update, sorry.

Onto the head, back to the cardboard as this is a fairly difficult shape to scale from pictures.

The basic shape here:



but i think overall a bit to big, maybe 20%







so cut it and chopped it, making everything a little smaller, quick shot of paint



a better size, I spent a long time measuring and playing with cardboard, I think overall this is right.

starting with the top in delrin





this is for the front of the head, at the moment all a bit overwhelming as the task in hand is rather difficult. This is the final hurdle though, once over this its all easy.



something like that, its such a funny shape you only have to turn it a few degrees and it looks so different.

[candyman]

forgot these photos yesterday



not sure if this is sloped enough



Im leaving that for a bit so I can think some more

need to make a plate at the back to mount everything on



very hard to get this right, the holes at the back where the head hydraulic cylinders mount have to be ............ in the right place...... I know what im going on about.



fitted up and it clears the chest, made some U brackets



ok back to the stupid head thing, this has to cut the same each side (obviously) so it has a few degrees tilted to the side and a few tilted back at the same time, this is not easy to co-ordinate........... especially when your making it up as you go along





looks like he cut himself shaving, so the back of the head slopes to far down, need to trim that, but then....... its gonna be too short, might have to start again on this.

[Nyonk]

take it slow on head design, if the head is not looking good than everything will be ruin because the head will be the first people pay attention

[candyman]

Yeh maybe, its just trial and error really and im not used to getting things wrong! its annoying


While I go some of the angles right it does tip back too far





I haven't got another piece of delrin big enough so im going to have to come back to this.

I keep finding parts I forgot to make, this is one of them









Also made up a removable plate



and another little plate that sits up high by the front of the collar.

[droutmaster]

man that head sure is a problem to do, it looks simple enough and yet it is really a troublesome one.

btw where did you get that Robocain figure? i always wanted to have him.

[candyman]

the little one? its made by kotobukiya

made some more little fittings



this is the little plate at the front of the collar, im not sticking too strictly to the real one here, close enough.



these are the catches that hold the head locked dpwn when its in park. They are rather fiddly!



tiny tiny



they will attach up here somewhere





Turning some large nuts down to make the big pipe fittings at the top





using some of the micro hex head screws, half a mm thread width

[candyman]

Just a mixture of tube, rod, threaded rod, nuts etc to make up the fittings, when painted they should look correct.

[droutmaster]

man Robocain is coming to life slowly.

[candyman]

yup!

Made up one of the armour plates for the back, the other side doesnt have one in the pictures but I will probably make another for that side, it looks like it needs one.



metal plate for the back



where I have spent a great deal of this year, sitting staring at a picture with a slightly stupid look.



recesses cut and thinned out a bit



rubbed down and holes drilled for tiny hex head bolts, just about spot on i think

[droutmaster]

hey can we see how he looks together so far? compare it to little robcain and a can of soda just to see his size.

[ancer]

i just wanted to say WOW

[candyman]

Nov 4, 2010 0:10:59 GMT -5 droutmaster said:

hey can we see how he looks together so far? compare it to little robcain and a can of soda just to see his size.

Not really, it would take hours to assemble, time i'd rather spend making!

Copy of the left panel for the right side



and another panel I needed to make



should blend when its all the same colour

[magengar]

So far, so, goo, so damn INCREDIBLE... he's not assembled yet.
It'll be well worth the wait to see him completed... this project
certainly rocks this year's finest customs ever made and shown
here at RJ..... I mean that, I've only been a member here since
December 2006 and this custom jammy here is among the best
of many amazing customs I've ever seen on this side of the
RJ hobby kingdom.
Dude, my hat's off to you and I kiss the metal shavings on the
ground you walk on. Awesome job there, bro!

zozo-Magengar

[candyman]

llol, thank you for the support mister.

Got a new chunk of delrin a last, im using the other as a template



cut the sides, this is hard as there is 2 angles to worry about and both sides have to be the same.



using my nifty vice, I can pivot to the correct angle then use my bevel box to twist it in the jaws to get the other angle, make a not of them, then repeat for the other side.



much bigger slant to start with, some of it will be lost when i trim the bottom.



its a good start

[magengar]

What sort of material is that Delrin... is it some kind of
Teflon plastic? It looks sturdy and durable, and nice to
sculpt with.

That head's lookin Sweet already... it's amazing how much
effort must be made to make sure the angle is uniform on both
sides of an object.
"Mirroring" an action done on one side isn't always easy when
dealing with "stereo-asymetoric designs".

LOL! I just came up with that funny term right now.

Examples:
Mazinger-Z's red chestplates, one side looks exactly
the same shape as the other. The difference is the shape on one
side is mirrored on the otherside facing the opposide direction.
Great Mazinger's boomerang is centered on his chest, and the pointed
ends measure the same on both sides.
Raideen's left and right face shields with the fangs.
I call these "stereo-asymetoric" ornaments because they're
balance equally on both sides.

The yellow cresent head ornament on Great Dangaioh
stretches more to one side than the other, so the shape
isn't balanced... I wouldn't call that "stereo-asymetoric".

yada yada yada... ;D

Rock On!

zozo-Magengar

[candyman]

Delrin is pretty tough, its good to machine, not so easy to hand sculpt. Its kinda like a nylon.

Originally I was going to open up a cheap chinese MP4 player for the screen



however after looking at this a bit closer the screen will have to be some distance from the board that controls it due to the complex movement the screen will have to do. The pitch of the cable is very fine and trying to solder an extended version on is a bit of a pain. So I have been hunting on the web for a solution, most of the tft screens of about 1.6/7/8 inches have to have a board with them, plus a video source as well, not only that but they are backlit and so quite thick. Finally after hours of searching I have found an Organic display (OLED) that should do the job, no back light and the whole unit is only 6mm thick which I should just be able to pull off. The other downside to the MP4 player is when you turn it on you would have to navigate through the menu to the video, with this module I have bought it can be set to auto play a file as soon as power is applied. Only down side is its a development module and so I might have to learn a bit of programming to actually get the thing to work, oh yeh ands its nearly £90 . If anyone is interested its coming from 4D systems in Australia.

Made up some brackets for the head doors, also trimmed the doors down on the inside to give me some more room.



Im using an old battery as a mock screen, its more or less the correct size! I made a aluminium bracket thing and a brass rod with a little plate on the end thats hinged.



The idea is the screen will twist sideways and slide into the head and the doors close.

Had to carefully remove material from the inside of the head.



Got the doors in and drilled in the right place, they hinge ok, but still a bit of resistance, some screws inside are there to adjust where the doors close so they meet in the middle.

adding a tiny spring to pull the doors closed.



im just hitting this head on at the moment, not 100% how im going to get it to open the doors, screen out, twist and the reverse the whole sequence at the push of a button but im sure I can manage it somehow.

[candyman]

Spent a long time on this but finally got the basic mechanism in and lined up. The doors now meet in the middle consistantly.





Then if you pull the doors open and tug on the "screen" and twist, it opens in the right place! I had to carefully trim away material inside to get the screen in and the doors shut, it has to pull back a long way into the head to give enough clearance. Not only that but the back corner of the screen protrudes above the line of the doors so the lid of his head will have to be scooped out a bit too.



The brass bar that the screen is on slides back and there is just enough head to cover it, its all a bit tight. Now the fun bit, getting it to open and close automatically. I played with a few ideas, boiled down to 2, 1st was to have a screw/ worm drive to move the slider in and out, but for this the screw would have to extend the length of the rod and there is no room. So had to go for option 2, a cable inside a tube..... like the brake cables on a bike. I found a suitable tube, rc car antenna pipe, with a bit of heat they bend and stay in shapes. For the wire I got a reel of wire and found that 3 strands twisted together gave the best trade off between strength and flexibility.



After yet more hours of faffing about I came to the conclusion that having the doors srung shut is not going to work the force needed to open them is quite high, this needs to be done by the screen twisting 90 degrees open at the end of its travel on the brass rod. However im going to push from near the pivot point, it needs a huge amount of force to lever the doors open which isnt going to work, the cable (doing the pushing) will bend.... use thicker cable? cant it needs to make a 90 bend from the body up, turn then out to the screen. SOOOOO im thinking I need this U shape bit that I will mount the door springs to....... then when its pulled back the doors close AND have tension on them, but pushed forward the doors are free to open. I just need to somehow get the cable to open the doors THEN push the screen out all the way.

Did that make any sense? prolly not, in short, this is a ball ache.

[magengar]

A screen... inside his head? Wow, I'll have to find youtube videos
to see that in action! To be honest, I'm not even familiar with
the Robocain character. LOL!
(I may have missed it in the movie)

That's PURE GENIUS using an MP4 player for that part.

zozo-Magengar

[candyman]

had to do away with the MP4 player so its all on the organic oled display when i get it.

I think i got it,

So cut this piece down quite a bit as the screen kept catching on it (so little room in here) attached the springs to the front of the U.



A lot of work in here, lot of trial and error. The screw on the end of the brass bar stops the bar going to far. The little screw up by the screen end just clears the 2 on the bracket (holding the bar in place) when the screen is retracted it passes them then catches the recess in the U shaped piece, pulling it back. Then when the brass bar is all the way back it meets the back of the head where the cut out is and the U shaped bit is pulled back against the head. This is enough to pull the doors shut with a little tension on them.



Just bellow where the brass rod is there is a hole that I can fit the tube...



like so, had to trim the U piece even more as it'd catch on the tube. The wire feeds out and attaches to the pivot on the end of the brass rod. As the wire feeds out the pushes the brass rod out, then it extends fully it pushes on the pivot and flips open.

Bottom line is it kinda works, just need to refine a little more then i'll get a video up.