Saturday, March 16, 2024

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.



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.

Friday, March 15, 2024

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.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

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



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

Monday, March 11, 2024

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.


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

Saturday, March 9, 2024

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.

Thursday, March 7, 2024

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.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Sunday, March 3, 2024

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.

Friday, March 1, 2024

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.

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Friday, February 23, 2024

The Start of Another Robot Vermin, #3 ; Materials

Materials for my next robot vermin unit. Most of the materials come from my plastic bits collections. The materials sit on top os a very thin sheet to styrene sheet, this will be used as material for shims.