Four Becomes Five and Five Four - RV #4 Complete

My forth robot vermin will become my fifth as my fifth bcomes number four. I had been working on these two simultaneously. When the former became too tedious I would switch over to number five.

This robot vermin stands about as tall as a US half dollar or approximently 34mm. The unit represents a intrusion detection sensor. It would, using a small hydrogen fuel cell, fly to it required location. Once there, it would land, the fins would be blown off by the means of a small charge, and using the built in cutting edges the unit would start to drill itself into the ground. Once at the required depth it would connect to the perimeter network and start to do its job in intrusion detection.

What is on your Workbench - Spare Parts

Spare Robot Parts - Arms, and Propulsion Units

Although I am putting finishing touches on my RV's five and six, I have started to ponder what my next project(s) will be? With the spare robot parts I am planning on building a robot or two. In addition, I have laid out the sides for a hover car. I don't know which project will get priority, but any rate, I do have, at least, two projects for next month.

Greebles & Structural Bits

Recently I have been organizing my scratch building materials. Getting down to my small materials I have picked these out either to be used in upcoming projects or to store them with similar materials.

This mix is made up mostly plastic bits, however there are a materials of other types as well. There are two disks I created to top plastic tubing, micro rod, some kit parts, a piece or two of kit sprue, parts from a pen assemble, and some random plastic bits I picked-up from somewhere. Some of these bits may be used just as they are or they may be reduced and only used in part.

Roofing Materials 2

Having a wide variety of materials on hand is important to me. If I have the materials on hand I can get started on a project straight away. Anticipating future projects is always been a game of chance for me, so I have taken in many types of materials over the years and have just started to make use of these diverse materials. Inventorying and knowing what I have on hand now dictates what I will be building in the future.

These plastic roof panels are leftovers from some kitbash project and resemble galvanized corrugated roofing. I have enough for a small out building and or a small lean-to structure. This roofing would look well on any type of structure, but I was thing of a small old grimy brick structure way back in some industrial scene.

I have featured this material before. Scalloped roofing I believe will look great on a board and batten structure. I have enough of this material for a few small shacks and sheds.

The Tragedy of Droids in Star Wars

Materials for RV#4 - RV4 in Process - Changes To...

Changes to... in Process...

I have decided to switch to 1 by 4's instead of the 2 by 4's I had been using. I didn't care for the way looked upon the cylinder core. I am also had a little difficulty with the placement of the strips with the tweezers that I have and have made some alterarions to my pair so that they may hold the very fine bits of strips.

A last minute thought: I wish I add alternated between the 1 by 4 and 2 by 4's. It would have created a nice effect.

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Materials for...

I am pulling materials together for the robot vermin number four. What you see here is the unit under construction. I used a floss role for the body, wrapped a very this strip of styrene around the bottem, and I startd to add styrene strips to the top half. Below are a strip of 1mm round rod and a strip of HO guage 2 by 4 material. The piece of to the right is something I picked-up in my travels. Not pictered here are the are rivets I fachioned from a piece of 1mm round rod. They will be added to the white band at the bottum of the unit. I haven't decided on how this unit will be propelled yet.

Close to Critical

Coverart by Dean Ellis

"Who is Fagin?

Fagin is a robot, an alltogether new kind of teacher, whose nine-foot pupils, each weighing posssible a ton, were busy leaning how to cope with peculiarities of their native planet Temelra.

Temelra's tempeture averaged 370', eight hundred atmospheres of pressure, "air" consisting of water heavily laced with oxygen and oxide of sulphur, and a constantly shifting crust.

Fagin was a good teacher, but he was not built to cope with the life and death problem of two young creatures, one human and one extra-terrestrial, who managed to catapult themselves into this enormously difficult environment."

Close to Critical, Hal Clement, 1970.

Close to Critical was first published in 1958 in Astounding Science Fiction Magazine.

RV#3 (a drone) has been Completed

This minature robot vermin is propelled by a electromagnetic process. We assume, like the others, that this unit was designed by an AI to provide security and defense capabilities. It was fashioned from a piece of PVC pipe, polystyrene sheet, micro-tubing and strips, material from bread clips, a small piece from a pen pocket clip used for a sensor, a couple random bits from the junk box (two greyish greeblies on the front and back and the rectangular bit on the top of the drone, the propulsion unit was created using a cap from some sort of tube, and lastly I used two greeblies from my model train accessories collection, those typicaly used to detail diesel engines; also on the top of the unit.

Side view

Back View

Standing in front of a US half-dollar

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Number 4 is in the works. See number RV1 and 2 here:

• RV#2
• RV#1

Building Materials & Storage

I was excepting a larger selection of the solids, however the collection is made up up of about 75% of the round and sqaure tubes. I will have to search for more solids, mostly in the large (at least 5/16") round variety.

I have seperated the round and square tube from the solids and have updated my obtention method for these materials. This will bring these materials close at hand and easy to get at. I am still waiting to obtain another large and rigid tube. This is not the organizers final resting spot.

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Added image and text on 3.13.24 @ 12:40 PM.

RV #3, an Update

RV #3 is coming along. As is normal for me, I have gotten side-tracked and am putting together materials for my next project and I am brainstorming a CV#4.

RV Makeup

The inspiration for these robot vermin came from Head Bunny's 28mm robot vermin collection. Building these miniature robots allows me to use those small plastic bits I have collected.

RV1 Drone

Polystyrene round and square tubing, added micro rod. I used a kit part and a piece of a sprue on the top of the unit. I also used other bits of sprue for sensors. For the fins I used material from bread ties.

RV2 Security bot

Polystyrene square tubing, styrene sheet and micro rod. The sensor on the top of the unit was created with a small bit of styrene that I carved into shape and then I added bits of micro-rod. The appendages were created from bits from a sprue. Lastly, I added a few greeblies that I either had on hand or I created purposely for this unit.

Neither of the RV units are larger than a US dime, nor built to any specific scale. Are you kidding? I haven't seen any scale drawing for these micro robot vermin.

The 5 Classes of Droids Explained

The video, although informative is rather humorous as well.

Another Star Wars Droid

Star Wars II

The Star Wars series feature an almost endless array of android types.

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• 20 of the Star Wars Galaxy's Greatest Droids
• starwars.fandom.droids

Greebles?

Every spent plastic item may have some use, perhaps not the whole, but perhaps there might be some usable bits that can be extracted.

I have no idea where these bits might come in handy. I will throw them into the bin and await an opportunity to make use of them.

1950's Retro-Rocket Scratchbuild

Although there are no instructions, Green Stuff World's 1950's rocket build provides plenty of images of the construction process for this scratch built retro spaceship.

RV#3 is Under Construction

My third robot vermin is under construction. The reason I haven't completed this unit is that I have become side-tracked on more than a few occasions while experimenting with differnt techniques and processes for creating bits of greeblies for my robots.