MSE-6 Build notes

[Roger Booth]

Bit the bullet this week and started my MSE-6 build.

I drew out the plans a few weeks ago and converted the imperial measurements to metric, I don't think it'll be 100% accurate to the original but on paper it looks very close.

I wasn't sure what to build the shell from but decided to keep the top as light as possible with all the weight in the base for stability. Aluminium, ply and foam board will be used for the chassis and base with ply and foam board for the top. I've purchased an old RC car from Ebay, this will be chopped up and re-built to a wheelbase length closer to the original. (I believe this is twelve and a half inches) Sounds will come from a bluetooth speaker

It's the top shell I've put together first, made from foam board sheets glued together with no more nails.

   

   

More to come soon

[savagecreature]

awesome start. Welcome to the group!

[kresty]

Looks like a great start, thanks for sharing!

[Murasaki]

Fantastic to see another builder ... Welcome to the group.

[Roger Booth]

Ok, so foam board might not be such a good idea for a 1:1 scale MSE-6.

   

Extra pieces were stuck inside the shell to strengthen but I've already damaged the top and a couple of lower edges, nothing that filler wouldn't fix but I don't want to have to keep fixing it. This first attempt in foamboard hasn't gone to waste, I can test fit parts to this before commiting to the finished droid.

The rectangles that form the joining edges to the two halves of the shell was made from layers of thin ply to achieve the correct thickness, both halves were fixed together whilst they were squared off to make sure they matched.

   

I looked for an alternative material to make the shell from and settled on 3mm plywood, it's fairly light, strong and easy to cut/work with, a mix of epoxy and wood flour was used inside to strengthen the joints.

   

   

   

I'm still waiting for the RC chassis to arrive, should be this week.

IC's and IC holders and large PCB boards have been ordered from China, this will probably take a few weeks to come through so more on this later.

[savagecreature]

Awesome. Sorta looks good as plywood Is there a bottom shell in there that I just can't see in the photos?
1:1, huh? does it seem huge to you? Every time I see a 1:1 MSE it always looks positively giant to me.

Every time someone posts a build update it makes me feel like I'd better get back to work.

[kresty]

Plywood sounds like a great material choice!

I looked for an alternative material to make the shell from and settled on 3mm plywood, it's fairly light, strong and easy to cut/work with, a mix of epoxy and wood flour was used inside to strengthen the joints.

[kresty]

Awesome. Sorta looks good as plywood   Is there a bottom shell in there that I just can't see in the photos?
1:1, huh? does it seem huge to you? Every time I see a 1:1 MSE it always looks positively giant to me.

Every time someone posts a build update it makes me feel like I'd better get back to work.

They all look big to you 'cause you build such small droids ;-) 

They are surprisingly large the first time you see it.

[Roger Booth]

I do have a question about the height.

I cut out the bottom section last night and taped it together.
After stacking the shell bits together, the first thing I did was give it a quick measure all over. I went back through the notes I made when researching and saw a note I'd made about the height of the original prop.

My notes say 25cm as the height, mine measures 27.5cm when sitting flat on it's belly, I have triple checked all my measurements and followed the blue print to the letter but even this gave me 27.5cm as the finished height.

Should I trying to loose 2.5cm somewhere or leave it as it is, in terms of proportion it does look correct when compared to other pictures?

The only mention about height appears to be on the Gryffin guide which goes into the history of the film prop in some detail.
I just have this '25cm' figure in my head and it's now bothering me.
Should I be bothered or just get on with it?

I know it's a Mouse Droid but should it be this big, it's massive, just hope the RC car chassis will take it.

[kresty]

Like Savage said, they're big! Your wood choice is probably heavier than the plastics, but Lara's Lego droid is 20 lbs. The shocks are bottomed out (we printed rings to hold them up), and the axles look like they want to bend (we were going to upgrade to metal, but they've been that way for years now), but it works!

Of course we knew it was going to be extremely heavy, so we got a crawler for the body, but it runs well. I suspect most decent R/C cars could probably handle yours, though probably not a $10 target special.