And now for another mod. I worked together with the company Nacon to create a mod that should promot the upcoming Robocop game. So I decided to build the ED-209 from the original movie. The mod already was shown at gamescom. Unfortunately only in the business area. Now I got some time to finish the rest of the work and start the worklog already. I got some renderings from the video game. I took them as a reference to creat my own version of the ED-209. Many parts will be 3D printed, but others will be molded and cast in resin. Cause this specific version will be raffled away, my wife got the idea to directly build a version 2.0 once this project here is done. Already got a long list with improvements and changes I want to make to this one. But first lets finish version 1.0
Then it was already time to start. I have worked on multiple pieces at the same time, but I will try to organize the pictures as good as possible. Sterted with the feet that are mainly printed in PLA. To reduce a little bit of the weight, the front and side pieces of the foot will be roto cast later, but the template is printed in resin. And most of the parts were done. Most of the parts from the leg will be attached to an inner core that will hold all the weight of the mod. Inside the inner core, I already included all the holes for the mounting. Will have more detailed pictures later. Then I started sanding down the layer lines in my PLA prints. I also gave the resin parts a quick sand. Even if they are printed in resin, a slight sanding will really improve the later apperance.
There may be some more reference material available for you. Amazon have just started a "Making of Robocop" docu-series on Prime Video https://www.primevideo.com/detail/RoboDoc-The-Creation-of-RoboCop/0RPSA43P1MQ8QRYGJLREOGRICR
And here is a picture of the two parts of the inner construction of the leg piece. They will be just pushed onto a 2x2 cm aluminum profile. This already holds up püretty good, but I also included two 6 mm threaded rods just for a better mounting. This way, I dont have to glue any parts, but could theoretically make changes or take everything apart if needed. Then I printed all the pieces for the outer shell of the leg. First sanded everything with 120 grid sanpaper and then glued all together. Smaller parts were printed on my Prusa MK3S and the larger ones on my Elegoo Neptune 3 Plus. The Neptune is a decent printer for the price, but the parts need more post processing than the Prusa ones. All the larger gaps were filled with Miliput, a two part epoxy putty.
Unfortunately, I just realized now that my camera messed up the white balance in some images.... After the main construction of the leg was done, I started with the detail parts. Working on this little part on the top and bottom side of the leg. As I need most of the details multiple times and also in more or less the same look. I decided to make mold and cast them in a cold-cast technique. This way, I will save some time in the Post processing, and all the metal parts will have the same look. First, I printed both parts in resin. This alone saves a lot of time in post processing as resin sands much better than ABS or PLA. Also much less sanding is needed. Then I built a simple card board mod box. I used Mold Star 30 (not 20T) as my silicone. A simple one part mold was more than enough for this simple piece. For a cold cast, you first need to dust the mold with some metal powder brfore pouring the resin in. I used Smooth-Cast 305 for most of the pieces. The cast parts looked a little dull right out of the mold. After polishing with some steel whool all was nice and shiny. A quick weathering with a brown and black wax followed.
The next detail were also first resin printed and processed. Cause the back side of this pieces was important, I needed to make a two part mold. First I made a clay bed and layed the pieces on top. After the first half was done, I simply needed to spray a mold relsase on everything and made the seconf half. And the entire mold was done. The larger detail parts was just cast in normal resin. The smaller parts were cast again with a cold cast technique.
Next, I worked on the mid sectinn of the leg. First all parts were again printed. I needed the cover on the side 4 times in total in metal optic. So I made a mold again and did a cold cast of all the pieces. While working on some parts, I realized that the back part of this section needed a very long time to get sanded down. So I made a little adjustment and printed that part also in Resin instead of PLA. That way I yould make a hollow cast of this part. UNfortunately, I missed taking some pictures, but I have some showing the process in a different section later. The next part, I also needed 4 times again, so I made a two part mold and cast everything. Again polished the cast pieces with some steel whool.
Over time, I got quite some parts on my workbench. Luckily, I could print the arms as one piece on my printer. Minus the details ofc. For the rocket launcher of the right arm, I combined PLA and resin printed parts. The three cannons also have three magazins on the bottom part of the arms. To reduce weight and to fit the desig, they were also cold cast, but hollow. First, I prepared the master. I used Smooth Cast Onyx Fast, cause it only has a 3 minute pot live. Hat gave me enough time to poure it into the mold and rotate it to get the resin on every spot on the inside. After a partial cure, I repeated the procedure to get a little more thickness for the walls.
