Wingspan's Baby GONK Build

[Wingspan]

I know many of you will have seen this already on Astromech.net but I thought I'd reproduce my Baby Gonk build thread here in the interest of growing the site.  So far it's the only thing I've got to contribute here!

On to the build:

I've had the idea for a while now to build a smaller scale "Baby GONK" droid.  The new little guy will house the charger for R2 which seems fitting for a power droid.  I want this project to be the opposite of R2...that being FAST and CHEAP.  A few days work max and I set  a budget of $50 for materials not counting any junk I happen to have lying around to re-purpose (I consider that free).

I picked up a pair of 12qt. storage containers at Walmart for $2.94 ea. Then I went to the dollar store and spent about 20 minutes looking for anything that might pass for a greeblie and any left over blinky Christmas light junk.  I found $12.27 worth of crap that I think I can work with.  Last stop on the shopping trip was the hardware store for a can of dark green spray paint and a 3/4" dowl rod.  That was the biggest budget buster...$14.34.  

Total spent $32.49!  I think that's going to be the total outlay.  The rest of the droid will be built with whatever I have on hand.  

Time to pile up the stuff I bought along with a section of hose from an old shop vac, old computer parts (both saved for this very purpose), and some off-cuts/scrap wood from my R2 build:



First up is the feet.  I thought about using plastic containers or junction boxes for this until I found a chunk of plywood big enough to make them.  This hefty bit of timber is an offcut from the main structural "U" shaped element of my R2 frame. I sketched a basic pair of GONK feet directly on the block and hacked away at it with the table and band saws until I had a pair of feet.  These two feet are actually still one piece of wood.  The gap between them doesn't go all the way thru.  There is still ~1/2" of plywood connecting them at the bottom.  When I was happy with the shape of the feet I drilled them for the 3/4" dowl and then cut a larger recess around the dowel for the vacuum hose to fit down into.







More leftover birch ply formed a tray the top of the legs fit into.  This will hold the charger later on.  I made the tray so the weight of the charger will sit level and centered over the feet.



The lower storage bin is screwed to the above tray from the bottom.  I put a thicker piece of wood between the rear of the tray and the storage container so Baby GONK will look up a bit at R2 while he is charging him.

Starting to look like a GONK!



Moving on to Greeblies!

At the dollar store I grabbed small containers, little flashlights, some blinky light up stuff, and a few cell phone camera lenses.  I also have some circuit boards, heat sinks,and cables from old computers I've scrapped recently.  Not sure what I'll end up using or how, we'll just see what happens! :p:p:p

[Wingspan]

I continued sticking bits and bobs on BG (Baby Gonk) until I was satisfied.  There are parts of two flashlights, two "wide angle" cell phone camera lenses, 3 old computer heat sinks, and old RC plane transmitter antennae, a food strainer, some stick on wire keepers, and few switches, some old RAM boards, and panels cut from the container lids.  The wires are cut from on old computer monitor cable.

At this point I'm calling it ready for paint:





Then I decided the feet looked too plain, so I passed them over the table saw a few times to create panel grooves.  Then the joy of wood grain filling:

[Wingspan]

I used Krylon Fusion rattle cans for paint.  It is supposed to be good for plastics, hopefully it sticks to the containers well enough.



I know Gonks are usually very monotone, but I wanted to add a bit of color to mine.  My thought was that Gonks are a sort of military ground equipment.  The markings on that sort of thing are usually just stenciled on so while the green paint was drying I drew a few patterns on card stock.  I'm not very fluent in Aurebesh , but I think this it a "G" for Gonk.  









After the markings had dried a bit  I  tried a "chipped paint" effect on the markings.  This was done by spraying some of the green into a small container and applying it with a sponge.







Once the paint is dried and the droid reassembled I'll do more of this effect with a metallic paint to simulate the green chipping off revealing the metal underneath.

More to come!

[Wingspan]

The BG's electronics are about as simple as it gets.  I pulled the dollar store Christmas decorations apart and all the flashing/blinking action is entirely within the LED's themselves.  All I needed to do was supply 3v and a way to turn them on/off.  The flashlights I cut apart for the "Hp's"  had 3 AAA battery holders.  I only needed two batteries to supply 3v, so I tapped the battery holder after the second AAA.  The holder is then zip tied inside the upper body half:





The LED's were hot glued into the Hp's and wired to the batteries through a rocker switch on the back of the droid:



Electronics done, time for final assembly!

[Wingspan]

Let's stick this little guy together!





The charger is held inside with a Velcro strap.  The wall plug exits through a hole drilled at the lower rear of the droid.  The charge leads pass through the front with Anderson Power Poles (My connector of choice for pretty much everything).



Assembled!

[Wingspan]

The weathering will be a multi-step process.  It started with the chipping I did to the markings with the green paint.  Next step is to repeat that process around the rest of the droid with a lighter color to simulate the green paint chipping off to reveal the surface underneath.  First I planned to do this with a metallic silver, but the effect was too bold.  Instead I went with a grey color, more like a primer than bare metal. I planned to do a lot of chipping so this less bold color works better, IMO.  As before, I used a sponge to apply the paint.  Dip the sponge in your paint, blot off most of the paint on a paper towel, then lightly touch the sponge to the surface.  Try to do a random pattern and don't always use the same bit of the sponge.  I did get a bit of a repeat pattern in a few spots, but it's not too bad if you aren't looking for it.










I've been throwing paint at this little guy fast and furious.  At this point I'm going to pause and let everything dry for a few days.  Then I'll do some very light dry brushing with a metallic silver and finish up with a few washes with a gunky oily color to dirty the whole thing.  The final washes will also take back a bit of the chipping effect and make it less pronounced.   He is pretty much finished at this point though!

[Wingspan]

Doing his job, charger connected:

[Wingspan]

I just realized that this should have gone into the Build Thread subforum. My apologies!

[kresty]

Thanks, much appreciated - & I know how to move build logs, so no worries!

[kresty]

Doing the admin-y thing I didn't take time to take a good look at the thread initially, well done, looks great! Very helpful!

I added a Wiki page for GNKs, with a link to your build log - http://www.rebeldroids.net/wiki/index.ph...wer_Droids