The R2-D2 build has begun.

R2-TD has been fun and gets a lot of looks at events but few things gets attention more than R2-D2.  There use to be 2 R2-D2's is town, but one moved away so to fill the void at events I've decided to start building another one.  Shortly before Star Wars Celebration CVI,  The group at Midwest Robots decided to do a frame run of R2's.  Clay offered up the use of his CNC machine so I jumped at the chance to be included.  The CNC made precise cuts and was much easier to work with than when I did Td's frame by hand.  After we finished cutting and started assembling, We found in the first few there was an error in some measurements. Turnes out the plans we off in a few spots and some adjustments needed to be made. Being off just a tad in a few spots would require a little sanding  and a few simple tweaks.  Last week gathered all the parts to dry fit my frame. Last night we finished making the final adjustments and cuts.  Next week I will start gluing it all together.  Here are some photos from the build so far.

Clay trims the main frame support.

 The CNC machine continues to cut in the background. 

 Things are fitting together well

 We mark the pieces so we can find the exact center to have have a well balanced droid.

 Everything is lining up and centered nicely.

Next week we should be able to start gluing. 

The making of Jabba's Door - A prop piece on display at Star Wars Celebration VI

Warning: Photo heavy post

With Star Wars Celebration VI just around the corner, I wanted to share the build of a prop piece I helped make for the event. Several months ago, Midwest Robots was contacted to help build a back ground photo piece for the R2 Builders Club room at CVI.  I jumped at the opportunity to help build Jabba's palace front door.  Here are some photos of the build.

Clay programmed the CNC machine to make precise cuts in some insulation foam.

We place the cut pieces together to begin to visualize the whole piece and to make sure everything aligns.

We stand up the pieces to make check the height.

 After we are satisfied with all the cuts, we begin to glue the piece together.

 I didnt have a camera on the painting days, but here you can see the main door all painted.

Rob begins work on some of the weathering of the side pillars. 

 After the pillars are done.  We stand everything up again to make sure everything aligns. 

 Clay found the perfect sandstone paint in a mis-matched clearance bin! 

 We add some texture to the paint to give it a sandy look.

 Clay  airbrushes some of the 'damage'. and 'Blaster marks'

The nearly complete door. 

 We added our mark to the finished product.

He Moves!

R2-TD moves again! Last Saturday, the guys and gals at Midwest Robots spent much of the day going through Touchdowns wiring to find why literally everything quit working.  What we found was the main motor controller had 3 breaks in a wire and it caused the entire system to shut down.  All wires were pulled, inspected and than re-directed and organized to prevent any further problems.We also replaced the dome motor controller which had quit working months ago, added a spring to give the dome wheel more tension and made it so everything works on 1 battery instead of 2.  It literally was a complete over haul on the system.  At the end of the day, we made a new wiring diagram so we can make it easier to trouble shoot if anther problem does creep up.

The before photos








Here are the after photos

Flashback Friday - CATCH UP TIME from the last few events

Seems I have been a bit lazy with my blog posts lately. April 26th was the last one and that was when I reported on Huey Lewis and the News of the concert.... (See what I did there... LOL! I crack myself up). I also haven't done a Flashback Friday in forever. This is not as far back as I normally go but still fitting.

Its been a busy few weeks. So busy, I haven't blogged. Meant to a few times but just didnt happen. Lets see... we had Star Wars night with Omaha Royals err Storm Chasers, Free Comic Book Day, The Avengers, and a tiny little bit of R2 work.


May the 4th Be with You - Star Wars Day with the Omaha Storm Chasers. I brushed off the RFT costume and headed out to the Ball Park. After all, How often do you get to go on the field before a baseball game and help Darth Vader throw out the first pitch? I wasn't missing it this year. The troop was fun and relaxed. We got there, threw out the first pitch and than posed for pictures. Pretty relaxed night and always lots of fun. Unfortunately, R2-TD didnt make the trip. He's still down and out getting his system over haul, but more of that in a bit.

Most of the Group who made it out

The Force is strong with this one

Vader always draws the biggest crowd

Luke and Vader play a friendly game of Catch

Free Comic Book Day. I hit 2 of the shops in town and joined in the fun. First I swung by Legend Comics and Coffee to grab my free comic books, check out the sale and to see how the fund raiser for Make-A-Wish Nebraska is going. The store raffled off a issue of Amazing Fantasy 15 which was the very first issue to have Spider Man in it. They also had a dunk tank set up where the you could dunk one of the owners of the store as well as various other happens around the store.

The store was buzzing with excitement of the day

People loading up on the Free Comics

Looks like Dave is about to get wet!

The Lucky winner of the Grand prize for the Nebraska Make a Wish Raffle

I meet up with Beau and Hannah at Legends than we headed out for Lunch after we snagged our free comics.

Lunch with Beau and Hannah

After Lunch it was time to check out Krypton. Adam Baldwin came to town and it was my chance to meet him. I also hung around at the 501st / Rebel legion table for a bit. It was fun to hang out and chat with a few folks I hadn't seen in about a year.

By far the largest crowd I have seen come out to Free Comic Book Day.  The line on the Right is for Free Comics, The line of the left is to Meet Adam Baldwin.

Thumbs up from Adam Baldwin

Finally meeting another of my Big Damn Heroes!  

Local artist Christina Musgrave works on a sketch 

I got to sneak in THE AVENGERS movie. Without giving anything thing away, I'll say it was AWESOME! I've seen it 3 times in 2 weeks. I felt it had everythign a movie needed. It had the right amount of story to action with a bit of comedy to keep things fresh. Can't wait to see what more they do with the story.

Last little thing in there was a build day / armor party with the local 501st. I'm not currently working on any costumes so I worked a little bit on R2. First we trouble shot the Think Geek T-short sound system. Still working on getting that going again. Than I started making R2's feet.

Im trying something different here. Normally a lot of the guys use styrene but it seems to break easy since thats a high impact area when you run into something. Keeping that in mind, I looked for something a little cheaper and less damaging. I decided to give foam board a try. This was a first attempt, Now I know I can get it fairly close to looking the way it should, I can start with a more accurate and detailed foot. More to come on that as I get it done.

Flash Back Friday - June 21st 2009: Day 4 of building R2-TD

Wow... what a day! Moose, Brad, Jason N. and I started around noon at Moose's cutting strips of wood so we could begin cutting four frames out.

After a few hours, we had all the wood cut. We double checked all the measurements one last time against the plans and was ready to head to Brad's to begin notching the frames.

Once at Brad's we paused for lunch than the fun began. Moose and I cut out templates for the notches while Jason and Brad worked on thier skirts for the frames.

We ended up working on all the pieces about eight hours today and still don't have all of them done. Heres myself admiring all we got done.

After we finished up for the day, we ended up taking a swim to unwind!

Anyways, the day was super productive and with any luck we'll have some of the frames glued and together this next week.

OH YEAH!! I almost forgot. I got to meet KITT and B9 today also!

KITT even over saw some of our work to make sure everything was going smooth. We may of missed a step with out him there! :)

Next build night is Tuesday so I'll have more for sure than!