Those lids are a great idea for holding his ears. I'm gonna have to use that trick.

Quote from: russellsuthern on May 05, 2020, 05:11 pm
So today I spent a lot of time sanding his head.

Also, I found something in the street that would be quite nice for his "eye sucker".
No idea what it is. Part of a toy perhaps?
Anyway, I think it'll look quite good...

It has gaps in the sucker part. I can't decide whether to fill those gaps or not.
Filling the holes would make it more accurate, but I actually quite like the "gappy" look.
I think it looks quite funky & unique.
What do you guys think?

I quite like the "gappy" motif.  It makes your design distinctive, something "your own" without going absurdly "off model".  Besides, depending upon the method of attachment, should you later grow bored with the "interface", you can easily swap it for something different.

Sincerely,

Bill

I echo Redfern in liking how your sucker gives K9 a more unique appearance, and think you'd be totally on the money to keep it. I did find, however, that a small suction cup, easily available from Poundland or any hardware store, was right on the money too. Having both might be the way to go.

Love the way you're holding the ears in, I'll certainly be nicking that!

That's looking fantastic Russell! Seriously great job I am so envious, I've got something that could help with the overall finish of the build. Try buying a few cans of filler primer spray it'll just help smooth everything a bit more if you go over it all with a few coats

The "sucker" is a stick for a balloon (the base of the balloon sits in the cup and the bit just above the knot is passed through the slits and back round to anchor the knot under the cup and the balloon atop it).

No idea where you get them, other than already attached to a balloon given away at a storefront as a promotional activity as a cheap&cheerful alternative to actually filling balloons with helium.

it could be a possibility to modify toy arrow suckers?

Thanks for the comments & advice, guys.

I think a lot of people do use the sucker end from a toy arrow, easily found in the pound shop, but I always thought they looked a bit flimsy.
I think I'll stick with what I have found for now as I like the look of it.
(Thanks for the I.D., No More- a balloon holder makes sense. )

Kit-Kat:  Yes, I'm certainly going to use some form of undercoat or primer before the final paint job, but I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to go about it yet. It will depend on what I can find & what I can afford!


Cheers,


Russell

Looking amazing Russell. If your interested, I have a battery pack of pulsing lights which would look great on K-9s control panel. I have a couple of these band would be happy to send one to you if you like.
Yellow, Red, Green, Blue

Thanks Ciderman,
That's very kind of you, but I actually have 2 or 3 of those exact light sets knocking around in my tool box.
I bought them way back when I was experimenting with different ways of lighting up my Dalek ears. 

Best regards,


Russ

Hi all,

Did a lot of sanding until I got sick of it, so I spent some time clearing out my TARDIS.
I'm sure I'ts bigger on the inside, as I got five bin bags of rubbish out of it!

Anyway, I managed to find some other bits for my K-9 build:



Some wire for the ears, a hoover tube for the tail attachment & some wheels!

They are about 3.5 inches, so I'll have to set them into the body a bit so he doesn't raise up too high.

For those guys who own a K-9, how high do you have the clearance between the base & the floor?

I guess it's a trade off between it being high enough to overcome obstacles, but not so high that the wheels are too obvious.

Any thoughts, guys?

Many thanks,

Russell

I remember I had little castors on my first K9 but pretty sure he stood too tall and the clearance was massive...



I would think that was about 2 inches? I imagine you need to look more at...



half an inch at least? There's still a fair amount of clearance considering. Maybe thats why the bumper tubes are there, to hide the wheels some more.

Your K-9 looks great!

I was thinking about one inch clearance, including the bumpers...

Regards,

Russ

Quote from: russellsuthern on May 07, 2020, 11:37 am
Your K-9 looks great!

Long gone unfortunately! But the boy (now 5) is obsessed with K9 and has encouraged dad (thats me) to build another...

Hi all,

Another lovely day
The missus took some pics of me hard at work...
 

I wanted this to be a true "lockdown" build, where I only used stuff I already had, but that idea soon went out the window,
I had to nip out to the hardware store to get some glue, filler & primer.
The whole things cost me about £15 so far.

I sprayed some primer on it, then gave it the first coat.
I really resent paying a fortune for cans of auto paint, & I wanted to try something a bit different.
I found a small tin of black & a small tin of white paint. I mixed them together to create a grey paint, which I used to give him his first proper coat:







It's really a bit darker than it looks in the pics, as it was a really bright day.
The paint ran a bit, which will need to be sanded down & the head came out really rough, although it doesn't really show in the photos, but once it dries I'll need to sand the whole thing down with some fine sandpaper to get it really smooth before adding another coat.
I'll definitely go a bit darker with my next coat.

But, I am in a bit of a quandary...

Most of the builds I have seem do use a metallic spray paint as their top coat & it does look good, but I was looking at pics from the Invisible Enemy, which is the era I'm going for & I think it doesn't really look that metallic, almost like a regular gloss grey?

So, do I splash out the cash & go metallic, or stick to the budget option & just use a gloss grey?

As always, any comments are gratefully received! 

Hope you are all well,

Regards,

Russell

In my experience, Mat Irvine is always amenable to answering questions about the various props he now looks after. He is the 'custodian' of one of the original K9s so why not ask him?

His website gives his contact details: mat@matirvine.com

I hope this is of help.

T