R2-D2 Prop Construction: Legs

R2-D2 legs construction

This page is about constructing the legs for R2-D2. You can the rest of the assembly process in themain project index.

The majority of the legs were built from scratch out of wood, and then plastic coated with strips of plastic, or vacuum formedover. The only exception to this was the feet which I bought on eBay.

The fiberglass feet shells that I bought:

The legs themselves were routed out of MDF and Plywood. Here’s the router template I made and some general construction pictures:

I layered up MDF and Plywood to make the legs the correct thickness. They are heavy and very strong:

I made vacuum formed parts for the shoulder hubs, the moulds were wood and bottle tops:

I vacuum formed over the shoulder shims to plastic coat them:

I also vacuum formed over the ‘booster covers’ to plastic coat them:

More plastic coated MDF parts:

The feet have had MDF inserts made with castor wheels on the bottom:

The ‘battery boxes’ are made from MDF end pieces with plastic wrapped around them, and flexible tap connecters for the hoses:

The rods on the outside of the leg is made from another vacuum form:

And the bars at the bottom are made from PVC pipe with plastic ends which were vacuum formed: