Vintage R2D2 restoration

Several years ago, a friend of mine gave me a vintage R2D2 rocket that had been assembled, and painted but never flown. It's an original kit from the 70's, not the reissue from the late 90's (which had a plastic body).

The rocket needs some TLC. One of it's legs has fallen off, the shock cord is shot, it's missing the launch lug and the clear fins, but the body wrap is in surprisingly very good condition. It's been kicking around in my spare parts box for years, so I decided it was time to refurbish it.

I want to give it a new paint job, strengthen the joints and maybe upgrade the motor mount to 24mm, as the 18mm is rather anemic for this bird.

The trickiest thing is I don't have the clear fins. I am not sure how I'm going to make them yet, but, what I need are the dimensions of them. Does anyone know them? Or, better yet, is there anyone out there with a set they'd be willing to part with?

I built that model in the 70's and was so proud of it (I was about 12). It went up about 20 feet, pitched over the broke the dome on the side of the road. Two more feet and it would have at least been landing in grass.
The clear fins were the height of the trapezoidal "feet" of R2 and in the center of the inner face of the trapezoid you'll see a small hole that the fin screwed into. Going on decades old memory, I'd say the fins were about 6" long and then had "winglets" of another 1.5 to 2" that bent outwards for want of a better way to put it. I'd say get some thin plexiglas, cut an 8" long rectangle the height of the feet and use that for a fin. Whether or not you form the winglets is optional, IMHO.

I built the 1970s version out of the bag, and what a fun build. I really enjoyed building and flying these old Star Wars kits from Estes, great designs and they are fly pretty well. The R2 D2 was coming head first towards earth, the the chute deployed and all was ok.

Lexan can be obtained at Home Despot or Lowes. You can make a down-n-dirty bender by taking an old laminated shelf (or just a really smooth bit of wood), cutting a 1/16 deep groove in it, laying a length of nichrome wire in there and connecting each end to a 12v (or so) power supply (you'll want to play with the values all the way around until you get something that doesn't burn through the lexan). Place the bend-line over the wire and let it heat, kill the power and put your angle form in place. IIRC, Lexan will 'relax' about 3 degrees (angle, not temperature - again, you'll have to play around until you get the desired effect)

What's this?

A Vintage titled thread that wasn't started by SCIGS30? What's happening here?


Good R2!

Bonniwell said:

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Thanks for the image!

While I'm figuring out the fins, I started to get the rocket prepped to be painted. I was able to get the other lego off pretty easily, and the nose weight/shock cord mount was glued in with wood glue, so it popped out without any problems. Fortunately, while the bottom body detail piece is glued on tight, it hasn't been painted, so I don't need to strip the paint.

I carefully removed the stickers off the dome as best I could. They'll be used for reference to make replacements, either stickers like the original or decals. Haven't decided yet.

Then it was into a bath of ELO for the dome and legs. Now I have clean parts ready to be repainted.

Glad you were able to supply more precise dimensions. OTOH, I'm rather pleased to come so close relying on memory from 40 years ago...

I wish I had one of those, always wanted one. As a budget alternative to this rare find, I found this static cardstock paper display model on Paper-Replika.com and converted it to 18mm power.

I made fins in the same shape as the Centuri Design Contest X-wing model, a la Zooch-style removable flame fins that friction fit into 13mm tubes in the feet. For display, the third foot fits into the engine mount. Have not flown it yet, should be fairly lighter than the plastic model.

GlenP said:

I wish I had one of those, always wanted one. As a budget alternative to this rare find, I found this static cardstock paper display model on Paper-Replika.com and converted it to 18mm power.

I made fins in the same shape as the Centuri Design Contest X-wing model, a la Zooch-style removable flame fins that friction fit into 13mm tubes in the feet. For display, the third foot fits into the engine mount. Have not flown it yet, should be fairly lighter than the plastic model.

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Fun!