Top Side

• The Kit Bashing and Painting.
• The Stiffening Plate Inside
• The Slots for the Communication Tower Ariels



Kit Bashing the Top

Following George Lucas policy of showing how things work, the tech and mechanics, the pipe work, grease and dirt kit bashing was designed to show data and power communicating around the top.

PC CPU heat sinks where used as flat components, with heat sink parts and what look like control Panels. I used Plastazote split rods to simulate cables.

Holes were then drilled through for riveting. This was especially important as the lid lacked structure and flexed by a substantial amount. This rendered superglue ponds useless. As soon as the lid flexed under a superglued component the bond would break.

This mean it was far more important to apply the foam plate insert tactic to make a bond that could flex.

In addition to this all parts were riveted.

Problem Solving 1 - Stiffening the Lid and Roughing the Surface

As mentioned, the lid was flexible and this become known when I found the spray paint was flaking and pealing off in significant amounts. This would not be a problem if the lid was metallic but all that was exposes was black plastic not rust patches.

This was in a particular problem with concave sections such as indents for wheels and in the hexagon patterns as well as the groves. The first thing I did was to use a wire brush drill attachment to clean off the loose paint and to roughen the surface for better paint bonding.

My solution was to rivet a board under the lid surface to stiffen it. MDF was found to be stuffer at the 5-6mm thickness, so this was used. with the interial painted black

My mitre saw and multitool was used to cut the board and I used a milling drill bit to curve the internal corners to prevent structural weak points.

Problem Solving 2 - Communication Tower Slots

Interior Padding & Support Ramp



The ideal would be for a trunk that was long enough to put the tower prop in whole and fold flat.

The main problem is the communication towers which double the length of the prop.

The next Idea was removable communication towers.

This was impossible with the original design of the prop as the towers were made from components glued together in layers but was no better than a tower of Lego with no structure, just one brick on top of another and just fell apart. This was so weak they would fall apart when the prop was simply opened.

My upgraded towers where totally reconstructed with a 12mm steel thread shaft running the length of the towers which was screwed into the end of the prop wings through the Dyson mothers into the box ends.

However, it takes a lot time to screw these into place. It also harmed my hands and was hard to grip till I added cross rod handles.

The time it takes to screw these into place makes this not the best solution.

A better idea was to add holes and slots for the ends of the towers which only protruded a small amount when the prop was placed at a angle of around 30 degrees.

To minimise the shear and torque stress on the communication towers and the tower port I made ramps for the prop to rest on as well as a Plastazote foam base and internal sides back and ends.

Part of this was to cover and protect the prop from the rivet ends inside the prop.

The foam panels also covered these up for aesthetics to make the interior look more professional.

However, to be able to access the walls for further riveting and also electrics these were velcroid into place so easy to remove.

I placed to holes for the tower ends in the lid which was easier to move to fit the prop.

The ramps were held with Velcro so could be manoeuvred for the best angle.

I used a milling drill bit to make the corners of the slots them used my multitool to cut the shape.

As this left a rough and sharp finish likely to damage the prop, I covered the hole edge with foam piping.

I used a draft excluder to make fur lining to the slots. This further softened the hole lining. It also added a slidable lining that was less likely to catch the kit bashed cylinder components on the end of the communication towers and rip them off as they could not be riveted in place as the tower ends were solid metal and could not be drilled.