Here are a selection of photos from the heady world of Panda Monium. (Please note most of the photos were taken on an instant camera and then scanned on a rubbish Windows 98 scanner so not quite Insta ready!!)

Best laid plans of Mice and Pandas…

Scaly Panda Shells

This is the first scale model we produced of the Panda. It showed up some design problems and was worth the couple of hours spent on it.

Chairs very much, Mr Panda

The chassis is the first main development we are working on. It may not look much here, but you didn’t see it when we started!! By the time it is finished it should give us all the strength we need, so that we can concentrate on offensive weapons rather than watching our backs…

Make it So-ho..

I don’t know about you, but I do like to see a man working…No, really, Chris isn’t crying here!! This is the long process of heating and bending of much of the frame. We found the heating was much more effective if you removed the surrounding paint first, so here we see the use of a file being demonstrated by my lovely assistant 🙂

Hippo-potto-panda!

My first photographic appearence on this website!! 

What we have here is a partially complete chassis. I was trying to check that the dimensions were within those that we set for the Panda on the plans above. In practise, it’s not really very convenient to stick ridgedly to that plan, but it is good to have a plan to work from. At this point it still doesn’t look too much like the shape in the plans but….

Mona-Panda

Finally, the shape starts to appear. This is Panda chassis with two wheels in place (but not fixed). The base is not shown here and the middle uprights have yet to be welded into position. There should be no problems with weight or size, based on this little beast!!

You were always on my grind…

This was supposed to be a breath-taking action shot of Chris grinding, with sparks flying all over the workshop (and me!). Instead, we have a picture of Chris and Panda and about 3 sparks if you look really, really closely…who’s idea was it to have a white board behind him?

Surf’s up!

Another fine action shot. This time we have Chris demonstrating the supreme strength of the Panda by surfing on it. I had already attempted this and as it survived me, it was a fair bet that Chris was safe enough. 

After this we did both stand on it and jump up and down for a bit – I think the welds are strong enough. Sadly, as I don’t have a video capture, I can’t include Linda’s wonderful video of me surfing on the chassis! *cough*

You’ve been framed, Mr Panda

The chassis is finally completed. As you can see, we now have all four side impact bars in place (yes, the Panda has SIPS) and a cross-bar in the middle of the body. This picture also shows it bolted to the base. The rear connectors are hinged so that we can raise the chassis for maintenance. The Panda is starting to develop some weight now, so that is good as well.

We only ever think about work…

Another fine action shot – of me cooking for the barbeque. And no, the sausages were not burnt. Well, not very anyway. Apart from the sacrificial sausage…. I’ll get me coat….!

Wheel meet again…(sorry)

As seems to be obligitory for Robot Wars websites, here is a picture of our wheel bearings. Now, before you start laughing, these are only temporary housings. They have RS steel bearing units inside, but we figured we could do the work faster using wood. The chipboard wasn’t a great idea as it splits quite easily, but it proves a point.

Behind you…

This is a view up the back of the Panda (not very lady like, but then she doesn’t tend to be). You can see the wheels and motors in there and the frame attached. No electronics yet though.

...don’t know where, don’t know when (sorry – again)

This is an above view of the drive tackle in place. Not really much to say about it. The gears are RS as well. They give about 15 : 50 ratio (if I remember right) which reduces the speed to somewhere around 6mph. Puts the power up a fair bit too!

Watching you, watching me!

And this is a very dull picture of me videoing the Panda (and Chris if I remember). Linda was taking the picture. I’m sure the video side of this is even more gripping!

Pandaing to your every whim…

Panda by sunlight in the garage. Only one wheel fitted at this point, but the idea starts to show. At this stage the front spikes are not fitted and the front board is still in place.

Panda’s in the hood!

Panda Monium has a lifting bonnet to allow us access to the workings when we are in a hurry. Of course it will be attached all the way round, but hinged for faster access. This also makes it easy to work on while the top chassis is in situ.

Striping Pandas…

Not too thrilling. This is Panda with no clothes on. I think this must have been taken just after we had finished welding the frame as there is no paint on it yet. Thankfully you can’t see how poor our welding is!!

...it says ‘ere, Pandas eat metal bamboo…

Our one attempt at researching weapons. We used some old encyclopedias to check out militaria through the ages…

Check out the beach bod…

And this is Panda in a slinky little metallic number….! This shows some of the body panels in place. These have been cut from honeycombed polyprop. They fit into the frame as well as being bolted into place.

Better than bamboo…

While Chris and I have been slaving over a hot Panda (!), Chris’s missus, Linda, has been providing her own contribution in the form of sustainance. At some point, when we have more time, I shall include a list of her fine recipes (assuming I can get them out of her sticky fingers!) but for now, cherish the view of some Mars bar crunchy things. These are lovely, but after about 12 you feel sick!!

Lovely ‘leccy.!!

Just in case you thought the strain of robot building had got to me, here at long last is a view of the insides of the Panda. It’s not a great picture (this one was done with the Polaroid camera) but you can see the main drive with the uncovered servos (left back) and speed controllers (right back). For the rehersals, the batteries were mounted in the front, two banks of two 12v to give higher current.

...Strawberry Pandas for ever…

Back to Linda’s cakes (that’s her scoffing!). This time we have one of the scrummyest cakes of all time. This is a Strawberry Sponge made with real strawberries and everything!!! The big bit in the middle was Chris’s!! 

This cake is sooooo good, even Chris ate it – and he doesn’t like strawberries!

And now, the end is near…

Okay, okay….more Panda. This is a very dodgy picture mainly because it was done by floodlight at about midnight, just after the Panda had had her first run prior to rehersals. She got a bit violent in the drive and started to wake the whole neighbourhood up, but it’s Chris’s neighbours, so what the hell do I care:-))