Ideas for another dome......?

I need to be making something lol........so I decided that I'll make another dome 😊.

Obviously its gonna be made out of wood, and after searching through the www.astromech.net forum, I came across a very talented individual who's build (tho very 'time' intensive) was a work of craftsmanship, but this gave me some new ideas....

There are two very different designs to R5 that I've not tried, one I wouldn't of considered, before reading the above builders forum posts. The second is half as technical as R5, but with simpler build areas too.

Am using 3D CAD Inventor (in my free time in work) to figure out framework etc.

Here's a teaser pic for now.....

Basic component structure shown, so no real give away lol

Dug around in the garage last night for wood that I have left over. Recently had to move stuff around so the kids could get to their bikes easier, so had to move stuff around again lol.

more to follow..........

Feel The Force Day 5 - Peterborough 2017

Just reminding you all about this event at the end of this month (here in the UK).

Feel the Force Day, is not just Star Wars, but covers film and theater and loads in between.
There will be costume groups from all over the UK, stalls, activities, sensory areas, famous guests as well as 'film' cars etc. Ive been able to attend the last few years and even as someone attending with a prop, I've had a great time, chatting to people, explaining things about R5. People who maybe visually impaired are able to touch items to better get an understanding of the objects being discribed to them etc, without the usually comments associated with some props..... 'sorry, you can't touch'.

Am looking forward to being part of and helping make this event another great day for attending visitors. R5 will be joining a few other UK R2D2 Builders Club members...........

Pictures from past event days.....

Ill also be trying to post pics on James R5D4 Instagram page if free for two minutes lol, but all pics will be posted up later in my event report and on R5's Facebook page.

R0-D4 dome upgrade 2017 - 1.7 - 3D printed Dome Rods **UPGRADE**

Test fitted the first new dome rod the other day. Due to the internal angles of the wood when it was glued together, these are not perpendicular, so I had to file the ends slightly for it to fit. I know I'll have to do the same with the others.

Next was to drill location holes to hold the new rods in place from behind. The previous rods were slotted into a bottom hole and secured with a screw at the top.
Then its sanding etc before spraying up.

R0-D4 dome upgrade 2017 - 1.6 - 3D printed Dome Rods **UPGRADE**

So this was my first attempt (white piece),

alongside my original incorrect silver painted ones.

Needed refining and re-sizing as didn't take depth of my recess panels into account.

These are a work in progress still......

Trading Cards Box - UPDATE - compartment 1.3

After filing, primer spray & then matt black spray, the insert looked like this....

Once it was all dried I then sprayed some red into a cup so I could hand paint the text to finish off.

I hot glued a strip of foam into the bottom of the box, under where the cards will sit. I found this helped to make taking them out as when you push down on them, they tip slightly due to the foam compressing.

And here's the insert fitted (press fit in only) into the box.

I tried the insert with a stack of my cards and it all fits and looks great!

And as someone commented on my Instagram account.....yes, R5 does fit :D

Trading Cards Box - UPDATE - compartment 1.2

So here is the glued together parts.
Test fitted the bottom section inside the box.

Here's the top:

And then glued together, fitted inside the box:

Next up is to paint, filler, sand, more paint......you get the idea lol.

Trading Cards Box - UPDATE - compartment 1.1

In my last post, I said I wanted to look at padding out the box as I didn't want the cards rattling around inside and getting damaged.

The Rogue One Trading Card box

As you can see in the picture above, the cards aren't a tight fit!

I didn't like the idea of padding as it can be untidy once cut. So as we still have the 3D printer in the office, I got to measure up and designed an infill compartment for it.

But before I printed it off in full, I just printed the top section first.

This way I could check the fit. The corner angles weren't bang on, but then I decided that the recessed look was better.
(Originally the top section was going to be flush with the top of the opened box.)

I then had to reduce the inside piece to fit the new height.

Doing this in two sections was also a good idea as it meant I didn't have to dig out the support in the recessed text section. And super gluing the two pieces together was made easy by the fact the pieces were held in place by the insides of the box.

Force Friday 2 - Evening Event......September 1st 2017

So last night was the midnight opening of stores all over the UK showcasing the new toys etc for the new Star Wars film to be released 'The Last Jedi'.

The UK R2D2 Builders Club had been invited by John Lewis/Disney to attend the opening of their store in London's Oxford Street.

I eventually arrived at the store around 10:30pm, after being stuck in traffic due to an earlier accident that blocked the M4 for almost an hour!

Lee helped my unload R5 and we headed up to the fifth floor to set up with the others.

The other guys were already having photo opps with press etc which gave me time to set up R5 lol.

Sam, with his R2-Q5, had attended an earlier event of Po-Zu shoes new release (click for their Twitter news feed link). He had then joined us at the John Lewis store. Bumped in my friend Matt, from Jedi News UK, (click for their Twitter news feed link) who where reporting on this and the earlier Po-Zu event. The guys were then heading over to the Disney Store for MORE Star Wars toy releases.

The lovely Samantha Alleyne was also there

and it was time for a 'best selfie' pose pic 😉 lol

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There was a live band playing Star Wars songs, of course, along with a cantina Bar,

and not forgetting 'Joker Squad' in both Imperial, rebel & patrons of Star Wars.

There's some video's appearing online. These two so far I've found. Check-em out.

And this one from BT's Entertainment news online channel.

There were a lot of people already milling about, staff mostly but a few 'non' staff. The doors opened at midnight to the Star Wars theme tune being played loudly for the entering guests, who then made their way up the escalators to the top floor.

To be greeted by our droids and the band.

There was plenty to look at and the new R2 & BB unit Sphero toys got a lot of attention.

Along with the drone flying, Darth Vaders TIE fighter & the X-Wing.

There was plenty of Lego toys to get excited about too.

I looked at these two as well as the Walker, Star Destroyer & Slave 1.

As well as the Xmas advent calendar and other smaller sets.

These build a droid sets were rolling around the floor, lol,

had to be careful not to run them over!

There was also Star Wars themed TV sets on display.....

R5 got sucked into watching lol

The evening started to quieten down around 1am,

where people were apparently going over

to the Disney store to see what new stuff it had.

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Here's some group shots of the Droids

We finished up at 2am, and had our customary group photo.

This one is just of the Droids together.

Was a good night and as always great company with the builders catching up.

Then is was loading up and heading home.

I was home, unloaded and in bed by 5am lol