Project: B1 battle droid arm (part 1)

In the last several years of browsing Star Wars crafting topics on social media, I’ve determined that about 95% of replicas (especially 3D-printed ones) I’ve seen are of weapons, helmets, and armor associated with a tiny range of recognizable-to-the-public Face Characters or nameless Troopers. You will almost never see mundane artifacts replicated in the prop-building community…as one RPF user asked while seeking info on how to replicate a Kloo horn, “Anyone have any ideas or did nobody ever care because it’s not a lightsaber?”

As I was brainstorming my NRAC (New Republic Archeological Corps) persona last year, I began thinking about what kinds of artifacts I could potentially show off at a convention booth, hands-on interpretive historical talk, or similar venue/event. With Naboo’s focus on arts and learning, and the presence of a notable institution of higher education (Theed University—which coincidentally has the same initials as my alma mater), I felt confident in basing my NRAC impression on a Naboo background. I then began thinking what kinds of items would likely be collected or excavated by a Naboo archeological student, or possibly artifacts that could’ve been passed down through the family.
Around the same time, I saw someone online post pictures of a 1:1 3D-printed B1 battle droid:‘Wow!’ I thought, ‘that would be amazing to display!’ Unfortunately, I was also living in a very small apartment at the time, and there was no way I had the space to store an almost-2-meter-tall figure I might use for a handful of events each year (if I was lucky!). Also, in terms of realism, what are the odds that my archeologist persona would have a complete B1 droid?
‘Okay’, I said. ‘How about just, like, an…arm?’

I contacted the printer, sent the requisite funds, and began the waiting game. Within three months he had the main arm printed, minus the shoulder cover and attachment pieces, which I then paid for separately (but which were not included when the rest of the arm pieces finally arrived); I never received them. Attempts to make contact were met with lapses in communication, escalating excuses, tales of woe and misfortune, and other such unprofessionalism.
PSA: In consideration of mine and others’ experiences with him, I absolutely cannot in good faith recommend Jordan Musser/‘Sky Castle Customs’/‘House of 3D Prints’ as a prop maker/3d-printer-for-hire.
Unlike the medpacs Jordan also printed for me, the droid arm was a fun project because it didn’t require any tedious assembly-line sanding to prep the components. However, several issues remained that would need to be addressed before assembly.

Since it was received without the thumb’s second joint and the finger-separating rod, I had to fabricate those (hooray, Bondo-casting from scratch!). In addition, the main issue I noticed was that the pieces were all fairly light for their size. When I cut into the upper arm to remove the ‘piston rod’ (to be replaced with a metal rod), I found that the inside of the arm was mostly empty, honeycombed to save weight while also offering support (Nature knows best, after all!). This simply wouldn’t do—I needed this artifact to be a (relatively) authentically-heavy piece to sell the impression! I went ahead and sliced the upper arm in half lengthwise, then poured several ounces of dense styrene resin into the voids:
While this solved the weight problem, it also inadvertently created another one: the heat released by the resin’s exothermic curing was apparently enough to subtly distort one arm half, causing it to no longer exactly line up with its mate (which was thicker and therefore had more support and thus retained its original dimensions). This difference, while annoying, was easily fixed with a little extra Bondo filler around the edges.   In addition to the upper arm, I also resin-filled the forearm from both ends as well as the hand and the ‘metacarpals’.
Then the top of the upper arm was slightly retooled, an extraneous partial cylinder was added, and the ‘hydraulic piston’ sections were drilled out to accept an actual steel rod.

While it looked way cool to begin, after closer inspection I realized that there were several discrepancies in the model as it came off the printer, which I wanted to fix to make it more accurately reflect the screen-used examples. Now there’s an important lesson for you: don’t just assume something is correct – double-check with legitimate references – screen used is best!
The main thing that needed addressing was the wrist joint. The 3D modeler designed the wrist to be a captive ball-in-socket (left below), when the actual B1’s wrist (center) could only move on one axis (plus the hand which could spin perpendicularly). To achieve this I had to split the ball-capturing wrist piece in two, flip their orientation 180°, and then scratchbuild the pinned wrist joint. Most modern propbuilders would 3d model and print the axle, but I’m oldschool…so it’s PVC, Bondo, and a bit of rivercane.
The hand socket was modeled slightly off-center, so this needed to be moved over 1/8^th inch before I could start work on articulation. Luckily, a large Dremel sanding drum is the same size as the male end of the wrist pin!

Since it still felt unfinished without the shoulder cover and attachment pieces, and it had become increasingly clear that Jordan Musser is a bum, a flake, a thief, and a scumbag, I sought out another printer-for-hire and had my parts in hand in exactly one month. Thanks, Patrick!, and hooray for responsible adults! These parts were likewise resin-filled for weight before sanding, Bondo spot-filling, priming, and painting. Now, the arm with all of its hardware weighs just over three pounds! Meaty!
I will save the final discussion and assembly details for a later update. Until then!

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