Ahh R2-D2. The droid that many fans half jokingly consider the true hero of the saga. He’s a big bigger than BB-8, so naturally he’s going to be a more complicated build. I’m curious, however, as to just how much more complicated. There’s only one way to find out.
Painting
Unlike BB-8, I decided that all of R2’s metallic parts needed to be painted. I took a guess and figured that my “Brushed Metal” paint would be the best choice, and I was right. It gave off a good metallic finish that, to my eye, doesn’t look foo far off from the original. I went ahead and painted all his metal parts at the same time (amazingly, I had enough alligator clips for all of them). I’m hoping that this might speed up the build later down the line, since I’ll have fewer pieces to prep.
Head
I don’t have an inventory photo of all the head pieces. I wasn’t sure if I had all of them in the pile at the same time (turns out I didn’t; one of them was lying on the floor back by the work bench). All you need to know is that there are a lot of them.
Assembly wasn’t nearly as bad as I anticipated. There are lots of tiny blue pieces, but it turns out that if you stare at them long enough, you can memorize where each one goes. Then it’s just a matter of popping them all in.
One thing I learned is that you do need to apply quite a lot of pressure in order to get all the blue pieces to be flush with R2’s domed head.
Waterslide Update
I used waterslides for all the decals on the head. Some of them were fine, but others ended up with air bubbles underneath, or they chipped and peeled away. I fixed these ones with touchup paint, at which point I realized that I might have been better off just using paint in the first place. No big deal though - it was still good practice.
Here you can see some these damaged decals (and my attempts to fix them):
Once you’ve lined the inside of the dome with parts, it’s time to go to the top of the head. These parts are simply inserted straight in:
My biggest takeaway from this part of the build is that careful planning was the name of the game. For example, I needed to paint and gloss coat all the metallic pieces, but I needed to gloss coat, apply decals, and then apply matte coat to all the blue ones - all without getting my wires crossed. In the end, I managed to pull it off:
Let’s be clear - mistakes were made. I cut a bit to much into the two halves of his dome, and the matte finish on some of the blue pieces were marred by my own tampering. But as always, the great thing about these Star Wars kits is that they don’t have to be perfect: they just have to look close. Every blemish is simply setting-appropriate weathering.
And with that in mind, I’m once again blown away. That’s R2-D2’s head, exactly as I’ve always seen it. I can’t think of anything it’s missing.
My inner childhood fanboy was already beginning to squeee. And I still had a whole body left to build!
Legs
According to the instruction manual, the legs were the next thing to work on, which I thought odd. If you build the body next then you can snap the head on. But if you build the legs next, you can’t yet put any of the finished pieces together.
In any case, this was hell. In theory it should have been painless, as there isn’t much in the way of painting and detailing to be done. However:
- There are a lot of small parts, and they all needed to be clipped, cleaned, and topcoated.
- Just like with the head, everything is so precisely engineered that adding even a bit of topcoat adds enough extra “thickness” to the parts that they barely fit together. You have to push some of them in with incredible, “I feel like this is going to break” force.
- There are some parts that are not interchangeable, as in “this piece is for the left leg, this mirrored version is for the right, and don’t you dare mix them up”. Because if, like me, you do mix them up, you may find that the part doesn’t fit right.
That metallic piece shouldn’t be sticking out on one side …
This happened to me, and while I was still able to use the broken part, it led to some noticeable cosmetic damage.
I thought that was the end of the pain, but I was wrong. There are two pairs of what are supposed to be copper wires that run along R2’s feet. These are small and extremely fragile. I broke one just while I was cleaning it up. It glued back together, but then I had trouble getting them to plug into the body (once again, a layer of copper paint and gloss coat made them too thick). As a result, the wires on the right leg are … funky:
Other than these mishaps - hell, in spite of these mishaps - the legs do look very good. The amount of part separation, combined with smart layering of parts, work to create an impressive amount of detail and complexity.
But man, this part of the build put me in a bad headspace. I was hoping this Star Wars kit would get me out of my current rut, but at this point I was feeling even more frustrated and demoralized. I wanted to knock out the body as quickly as possible to get this build behind me. But no, I did right. I took my time, and I didn’t rush through assembly. I was certain that this would make for a nice, successful conclusion to the build.
It did not.
Body
The body has a lot of very samey parts that are very boring to panel line, but I powered through as best I could:
I also carefully painted in a bunch of details. This took longer than using decals (on account of the drying time), but I knew it would look better.
When all this was finished, rather than immediately move on to assembly, I went to bed. Assembly would wait another day.
I did everything right, but it didn’t matter. This model was out to make my life miserable.
As you can see in the photo below, R2’s middle leg is hidden inside the body while not in use. It fits in a very precise way - if you don’t do it right, the body won’t snap together.
That’s how I knew I didn’t screw anything up. And yet when the model was finished, I could not get the leg to pop all the way out. You’re supposed to pull off the head and push down on it:
But no, and I mean absolutely no amount of pressure or downward force was enough. I actually broke through the plastic of the leg, and it still wouldn’t move downward. My R2 is stuck in a standing position, and will never be able to roll along on three feet.
After all this BS, I suppose it still looks pretty good, but I’m still not happy:
This may be the worst model kit I’ve ever built. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered another one that is so precisely engineered that even the slightest bit of extra detailing will prevent it from functioning. For goodness’ sake, even R2’s head barely moves. I have to grip it as tightly as possible and twist just to get it to move a few degrees left or right.
Toss in all the tiny, fragile pieces, and all the detailing that is way too small to attempt with tiny decals (but is also kind of annoying to paint), and you’re left with a model that just isn’t worth the effort.
I’m frustrated, and disappointed, but at the same time I’m glad it’s over.
Other Thoughts
R2 comes with a ton of gimmicks. Just about every one of his secret tools comes in the box:
I did not paint or assemble any of them, as I just don’t care anymore.