creature's MSE droid

[savagecreature]

Who doesn't want to build a mouse droid?  This is how I'm building mine . .

I started out by building a computer model. That's pretty much how I start everything.



The computer model is all to scale, including the 1/8th styrene it's made out of.  The next thing was to come up with a cutting pattern. I laid it out in Solidworks and this is what I got. (top shell only, showing)



So I printed it out, glued it on some stryene with glue stick and got to cutting. I needed two of the sides and the frame pieces.

[savagecreature]

After I got all the parts cut out I started assembling the shell. I started with the top because I'm still not exactly sure how I'm going to build the drive train and that will inform the design of the lower shell.

I glued the frame pieces to the tabs on the rim and glued the sides to the front and back of the main body. They look something like this.



I glued the top on and then mixed up some filler from styrene beads left over from the CnC spindle and smeared it on all of the seams on the body.



Then I started to sand the corners down and round them to match more of the vacu-formed look of the screen used shells. I'm pleased with how they're coming out.

[savagecreature]

Well, it's about time I post these photos I took, doncha think?  (sorry it took me so long)

Next I glued the lip from the upper shell along with the internal frame up, into the box of I had already built.  Now it was starting to actually look like an MSE  





I glued some strips of eighth inch styrene around the underside of the lip to give it the proper thickness and just filled in any gaps I found in the shell with some styrene goo.

Next I laid out the bottom just like I had the top.



and then cut it out of eighth inch styrene. I didn't cut the holes for the wheels at this time because I still wasn't quite sure what I was going to use for them. Make my own? Buy some? So I figured I could cut out the wheel wells later in the process.

[kresty]

Cool! I like the white look, StormTrooper Mouse! I wanna white mouse droid. Surely Rebaxan Columni made them in other colors?

[savagecreature]

I would think that would depend entirely on if anyone was using them besides the empire. I would think the empire would only order them in black.  Of course, now that I've said that, I can think of many occasions when the empire had a given item in both black and white. Storm troopers vs tie pilots, etc. There was even an imperial officer wearing a white uniform.  So maybe you're on to something.   I, however, can't decide. You're argument is persuasive (even though I sorta made most of the argument), but in my head I really feel like they should be black.

[kresty]

I couldn't imagine a white one until I saw that white preview video   Wookiepedia says they were intended to be "cute" but most folks ended up thinking of them more like pests.  So perhaps they originally came in pastels and all sorts of colors, and after they tanked in the market, the Empire painted them all black when they bought them on clearance!

[downup]

Wow, really nice work!

[savagecreature]

Wow, really nice work!

thank you! and welcome to the group. Things have been a little quiet, lately. Feel free to shake things up a little! 
Our 1st anniversary is coming up next month and we're planning to celebrate, so things should liven up soon

[kresty]

Getting anywhere with this one?