Kai i339

My fellow SCUL pilot and friend Couscous had the notion of having a Skunkadelic figurehead for his ship NSC Glittergasm, and he had a very clear idea of what he wanted:

I like the accent of color in Mo, but also the variety of colors in Shelley. I’d love to work with you to pick out parts and figure out how to mount this on Glittergasm if possible – I have a few ideas – while also having it be able to stand on it’s own so it can live in my space station during the off season. As for a pose, I like the idea of an arm outstretched forwards because I think that works well for a figurehead. Perhaps the other arm held closer to the body as if holding something? It would also be neat if the hands could have a small hole through them such that I could later create small items for the bot to hold such as a wand or a book. Depending on what part(s) we choose for the eyes, i may also be interested in an insertion point from the back of the eyes such that I could wire in some small lights while the bot was acting as a figurehead.

We got together at my studio space and picked out the parts together. Since Couscous was handy with tools we both got to do some minor alterations of metal before welding. The thick copper body we chose turned out to be much more of a heat sink than expected – and would glow for a good while after welding. This does not typically happen with TIG welds, at least with steel. TIG brazing with silicon bronze to weld copper to steel is tricky, particularly in this small scale.

We worked together on ways that this Astrobot could grip an object. Couscous’ ship blows bubbles – so I was excited to show him the  metal bubble-wand I had been saving – we needed to chop the middle out so it was proportionate to the robot. I also had a beautiful, small hook clamp which would work nicely to grip the wand. All the pieces came together, so to speak.

At the time of this posting, Kai has successfully been mounted on Glittergasm and has fully functional glowing blue optical units already installed.