January 2, 2008 - Foot Fetish

So, I got started on the foot shells. These will sit outside the hardware that allows each foot to roll (including the motors and drive systems for the outer feet). My wife thought that I was ordering the whole foot, completed and ready to go, when I ordered the shells. Like the dome, there are economies of scale to consider when building on a budget. Rather than getting completed feet, what I got was essentially a huge model kit. I was completely aware of, and fine, with this, but my wife's into total instant gratification. Ah well...

The construction process was pretty straightforward, although I did find a couple of parts that were missing from the kit. Luckily, Andy had already noted that there were some problems with this batch of parts. These foot shells were part of the initial run, so the fact that there was something missing is like testing out a new piece of software. Replacements are on the way, so I had to work around them.

Like I said, construction was pretty easy. As you can see, it didn't take long to get all three feet put together (mostly).

Of course, I bulled ahead with construction. If you noticed in the picture above, one of the feet has the lower, detailed skirt installed, while the other two don't have the lower skirt yet. This is because there is an inner panel that goes inside the details. The picture below shows the foot without the inner panel. It's not obvious, but the lower detailed skirt is beveled inward from the rest of the foot. This means that I have to figure out a way to get the inner details inside, without tearing it all apart.

Here are the inner panels, laid out on the foot. How am I going to get them inside...?

With a little finagling, I managed to get the inner panels in place. Luckily, even eighth-inch styrene is pretty flexible, so I was able to get two pieces in without a problem. I had to spread the lower skirts out just a bit in order to get the shorter panels in, but I did it without tearing the shell apart.

In order to reinforce the joints that I pulled apart, and to shore up every other joint that exists, I pulled out the hot glue gun and started gluing away. I went through a ton of hot glue sticks on the first foot, and will have to go over to the craft store to get more.

With any luck, I'll get the feet fully built up in the coming days, so that I can show you what they look like on the feet I built before.

Bob
January 2, 2008