Hello RoboCop Statue Backers and Fans!
We’ve been getting many inquires lately as to the statue of the statue, and rightly so! So we’ve asked Venus Bronze Works to take you behind the bronze curtain, deep in Old Detroit, to share with you the status as of right now. Check out this report with pictures from Venus, the small but very talented crew of Detroit craftsmen who are deep into the process of assembling the fully poured statue.
It’s been a long but exciting process for us; from Imagination Station deciding to go for it, to your support as RoboBackers, to the amazing guidance and partnership with Omni Consumer Products, to Fred Barton’s expert custom sculpting, to Across The Board Creation’s 3D scanning, digital enlarging, physical fabrication, and finally to Venus Bronze Works for casting and manufacturing in bronze.
As we leave the completion in Venus Bronze Works capable hands, look out for our next update, when we’ll finally be able to share where you can visit the RoboCop Statue while he watches over Delta City!
RoboCop Statue status as of 2-10-2017 from Venus Bronze Works:
With The Sculpture’s assembly from the ground up already in progress, the final major molds of the RoboCop statue were completed and poured in mid October of 2016….
As parts are removed from the molds, they must have all sprue’s and vents cut off. From there all surfaces are ground and rough sanded for inspection before assembly can begin.
As parts are prepared for assembly they are inspected and marked inch by inch for any surface flaws, pits or sand inclusions that will need to be filled before and during the assembly process.
All areas to be joined are prepared by grinding a bevel on the matching edges to accept a “full weld” often done in layers, making the pieces a uniformly solid mass from inside to out.
All joints are then welded (again often in layers) to build up material as needed, as some areas are thicker than others due to the thickness changes of the Sculpture’s details, in some cases the pieces are welded from both the outside and the inside.
Starting hands first, the fingers are attached. Hands and wrists are joined. The rest of the arm parts will wait in pieces for assembly later when they can be attached to the torso, from the shoulder down to the hands. This process is easier than assembling the whole arm now and having to crane it into position.
As the legs assembly begins from foot upwards, assembly of the torso is also underway. This is the most tedious of the assembly as there are upwards of a dozen parts needing to fit together in this 3 dimensional puzzle.
The strategy in assembly is planned with careful choices to make it a safe and efficient process. Legs from foot, to ankle, calf, knee and thigh, then hip, repeat. Comparing to images documented before the model was cut into these pieces, all angles are matched for alignment. Once the legs are assembled up to the hip, materials have to be hand formed to create the joint between hip and pelvis, again measuring and matching to the original images
At the point when the pelvis is ready to be attached, decisions on the stainless mounting armature are being considered.
As this is happening the assembly on the torso continue. Throughout the process, as joints are created and welded, the process of “cleaning up” welds through grinding, sanding and chasing take place. Easier to do this through out the process (when pieces can be moved and rolled) rather than when the Sculpture is a whole.
At this point the Sculpture is well past being 50% complete in its assembly. When the display base type and style has been determined the stainless armature will be installed to match the needed specifications. From there the torso will be able to be placed on the pelvis and with some more custom fit shoulder joint parts the arms will descend and this big guys hands will reach out to their final destination. From there RoboCop will get his head.
