BB-8 Panel Nomenclature?

[kresty]

She's got 6 panels/sides.  What do we call them?  Here's my take.  I numbered them like a die (clockwise), just because it seemed arbitrary.

These are from the static model at the exhibition.  The rear/bottom-ish one there was hard to see, so I just marked the orientation of the tabs.  Panels 3 & 4 have tabs pointing directly at the closest panels (aligned with the seams).  The rest seem to be at 45 degrees to that, pointing at the triangular void between panels. 

[savagecreature]

Okay, this will be broken into multiple posts, so please bear with me

First, let's establish that the reveal droid and the display droid match.  I figure Kresty's panel numbers are as good as any, so we'll go with those moving forward unless someone comes up with something better.

Panel 1:

(I know there are better images, but as long as we can see it I figured it was good enough and I didn't want to spend all night matching photos)



Panel 2:



Panel 3:




Panel 4:



Panel 5:



and, last but not least
Panel 6:



You can see that the images from the stage reveal and the images from the display droid show the same chevron alignment (align with panel seams or not align with panel seams)

As Kresty suggested, there are only two with chevrons that align with panel seams

[kresty]

Typo, so I updated my post.

[kresty]

As Kresty suggested, there are only two with chevrons that align with panel seams

What confused me is that in this post http://www.rebeldroids.net/forum/showthr...459#pid459 your model photo has adjacent panels pointing at each other across the seams, however the two that have that orientation are a mockup.  I presume that was just a draft...

[savagecreature]

Okay. Now for my CG version (which is still in progress. I probably should have put this stuff in my thread instead of here, but this seemed like where the conversation was happening)

Showing that my panel arrangement matches the real droid:








Between the three images all panels are shown along with overlap to establish orientation of all six panels

So . . there we go! We now know where they all go in relationship to each other and we have a way to name them.  I'll stop hijacking Kresty's thread and go back to posting the CG version in mine.

[savagecreature]

As Kresty suggested, there are only two with chevrons that align with panel seams

What confused me is that in this post http://www.rebeldroids.net/forum/showthr...459#pid459 your model photo has adjacent panels pointing at each other across the seams, however the two that have that orientation are a mockup.  I presume that was just a draft...

Oh! Yes. That is exactly true. (and see, I said you were right. Twice!) I'm rotating the chevrons on each panel into alignment as I complete the interior of the panel. Through the magic of computers, I initially just created one ring with chevrons and then duplicated it six times into the correct position around the sphere, except that the chevrons were all pointed the same way as the first panel I created.  Note that only one of the rings visible in that image has any detail on the rings. I haven't gotten to the other two yet.

[kresty]

Wow, looking amazing.  Gee, looks like you even have the right size ;-)

[kresty]

Hmm, was realizing that if we call the orange round bits panels, then calling the triangle bits panels too might be confusing.

I've noticed that the triangle plates don't all seem to be the same either. They all have 3 "fastener" type things, and the ones I see in my photos have what looks like an access door along one edge nearer one of the fasteners. However some have 4 ticks sort of opposite the "door" and some do not. The couple I saw looked likely identical though.

Eg: the 123 triangle has ticks, but the 236 triangle does not (#'s are of the orange rings surrounding them).

I'm guessing the "door" helps them remove the triangular panel like we saw in the Lee facebook post? Looks about right to shove in a couple fingers and yank off a panel?

[savagecreature]

We could call them ring panels and white panels. Ring panels, at least, seems appropriate. Maybe something better than white panels? Access panels? We could alternately call the ring panels utility panels, as utility arms come out of them. (ooo. I think I like that better)