Chris makes - website shout out!

One of my good friends, Chris, has a website/Blog with his builds and he also has a shop.

Link: https://chrismakes.uk/

He is a fellow droid builder, but he went to the next level of building and has created his own, wearable C-3PO suit!

His love for tinkering has then led him to make and sell 3PO eye lighting kits. So check out his website/Blog and shop for more!

For Chris’ website/Blog, click on the link here.

Solo droids at Scarborough Sci-Fi

Fellow droid builder and longtime friend, Glynn T, attended an event with these two familiar looking droids that were seen in Solo a Star Wars story.

Glynn took along his replicas of R5-232 & R5-PHT to Scarborough Sci-Fi weekend.

Also attending were Darren P , Chris ‘3-P0’ W and a few others.

Event Report: MegaCON @ NEC Birmingham

 Last Tuesday afternoon....... it started.... 😂😂😂😂😂 ..............the group chat!

With it being central (here in England) really helps as builders from all over are able to make, (mostly) the short'ish journey to attend. I say that, but Doug traveled down from Scotland….5hrs each way!!!

With this in mind:

• R5's been getting the once over, and also a few upgrades.
• Smoke system, reactivated.
• New TCD version 2.....

Friday I get a call from Mike saying he won’t be able to attend, so giving me the heads up. So it's a reload my car [Tetris] ready for the early start tomorrow morning.

Saturday morning 26th:

5am up and out the door, eventually, at about 5:30am. Drive up was 1 1/2 hr, cold, clear, bright sunny morning.

Arrived in good time 7:10am. Next was driving around the whole complex to come back to the starting point, to unload 😂.

The others had arrived the evening before and stayed at local hotel, so they were mostly set up, and able to help me unload.

Doors opened at 8:30am for the early birds entrance patrons. And there were a LOT of them. Behind our area was Joker Squad, with Endor backdrop, and then the 501st with the Tantive lV display.

Was great catching up with not just the R2 Builders, but also other club members who we’ve not seen in years (since COVID).

There were plenty of laughs….

Chris just can’t help getting in the pictures 😂.

The event was very busy, and with other rooms containing the kidtropolis arena, Tokfest for those ‘down with the kids’ 😂 and the open spaces, it still seemed busy.

The new card dispenser worked well and was a big hit ☺️👍🏽 And so was the smoke system for the bad motivator…..I just need to get the pop-up working.

Costumes from the public were great.

I had to ask this awesome Grogu for a picture with R2.

And how about this Luke…..

The 501st lead their parade accompanied by the other groups.

See video of this and the rest of the day over on my YouTube channel or click on it below.

Video.

Here are more of the day’s photos:

Waiting for the group photo with the 501st and other groups.

After everyone was back inside, the droids continued to roam the floor, accompanied by Stormtroopers and a Princess.

Pictures….

Time for a change, from R5 into……

R4-D4. First time with his new 3D printed Booster covers.

View from behind the table.

Doug’s 3D printed blue R2 dome, with my R5 dome 

Well D had been on his feet all day.

The droids all together.

The Princess with the Death Star plans.

Not a bad looking trio, with no red to spoil the view lol 😂

These two…… lol, how he managed to become three when there’s only two allowed 😂

Saturdays end of the show show, Droid lineup.

And then us lined up.

Saturday finished up at 6pm, there were still people milling around. The builders then gave me a hand with loading my stuff back into my car.

As Darren was the most senior ranking club member, he didn’t do a bad job of organising us lol 10/10.

So that was the end of my day, but for the others, they had Sunday day 2.

~~~~~

Sunday 27th:

Due to reduced droid numbers, the group opted for no display table & so the freedom to be fully roaming of the event floor.

Here’s the group with the event sign.

And here’s the seamlessly edited version including previous days droids 😂😂😂

A great time was had by all of us. We had all taken lateral flow tests prior to attending, some unfortunately had tested positive and had had to cancel attending. You guys were missed, but your sacrifice will not be forgotten.

Attending these events is a really positive experience, plenty of room, smooth floors, some of it had ‘carpet’, and lots of event guests to entertain lol.

Sometimes though you just need that one photo position that is asking for trouble 😂😂😂….. case in point, I had knelt down to get a picture, and was then harassed by a droid 😂😂😂

😂😂 no person was harmed in the taking of this picture 😂😂😂.

Utility arm servo linkage bracket design - more work UPDATE

Without a 3D printer, I'm a bit stuck..... but as the circle of help goes around, I was offered printing from a fellow builder Chris. He sent me two brackets for me to test out, thanks mate.

The principle looks and fits well, but still needs some more fine tuning. So back onto the CAD and started measuring up and creating a new bracket. You might ask 'why not just use the dimensions from the plans?' .....because the Utility arms I made myself and although to the plans, are not 100% spot on. Hence having to work all this out on the go.

So here's the next version. I altered the radius angle from the contact point it has to better fit the inner curved face of the arm. Below are the 3 versions, the red version is the new revised one, green matches the ones supplied by Chris & the blue, the original version.

Here is the side view of the above brackets.

As you can see in the first picture, the red curved section, protrudes out further than the green. After being able to measure the difference, I was able to reposition it (hopefully) to be a better fit to the inner curved surface. It also doesn't have the angle joining it to the circular base section, seen in green. This got in the way of the arm angle so needed to be removed.

I have already been designing up other versions.
So more updates soon.

MCM Birmingham - November 24th (Saturday) 2018

Saturday morning I was awake before my alarm went off at 5:30am lol.

Car was already loaded and once Paul arrived in his van with his wife & R2, we headed up in convoy to the NEC Birmingham (UK). No snow this time. On arriving and navigating the unloading/pass/procedure, we joined others who had also arrived prior to us, to set up the droids on our display area.

This was one of our biggest attended events with 15 droids, plus 2 work in progress ones and two extra domes on display (one being R4).

This time round the event was held in different halls, we were in hall 19 of three (17 & 18).

We had so many droids, some had to roll over to a clear area and have their pictures taken.

Here's a link to my You Tube account
with a short video montarge.

And some of the day's pictures.

No parade was able to take place on the Saturday, but a full line up with the UK Garrison & friends was arranged for photograph purposes.

This picture was taken by fellow club member George.

The event was busy, tho not so crowded that you couldn't move.....

Here's a droids-eye-view of a mini procession we did around a section of stands and back to ours. This drew quiet a crowed, surprising to hear people say that they hadn't seen us (the stand) as they were taking photos.

The first time at an MCM event that R5 actually found

and had time not once but three times

to have his picture taken with the MCM Logo sign lol.

Later R5 with Chis' s R2-D2 (work in progress)

& some Ewoks from the UK Garrison 501st.

Come the end of the first day, we grouped all the droids together for a group photo of them.

Most of the day was spent chatting to the public about the droids, building them and the club. Before I knew it it was 5 o'clock. The group photos were set up to be taken and then it was almost 6pm. Time to pack away, for those who were heading home, lke myself, loading up and back on the road back home.

Another great time with the group members, some I've not seen in a few years now. Others this was their first time at an event. The other builders had a second day to look forward too.... and they had another great time. Checkout the UK R2D2 Builders Club on Facebook.

• My next event is this coming Sunday, this one is a first for me and Paul (with his R2D2), more next week on how this one went.
• Next club event is December the 15th, this is our Christmas builders meet up.

UK R2 Builders - The Last Jedi @ Odeon IMAX 2017 - Event Report

Location: IMAX Odeon cinema, Milton Keynes
Groups:   UK R2D2 Builders Club & Joker Squad

An early start Saturday morning (R5 was already loaded up the night before). It was a crisp clear morning, stars were still out, no traffic on the motorway, tunes on the radio.... 😊

**This Event Report contains NO SPOILERS!!**

Arrived just after 9am (2 hour drive up), I met the others who were already unloaded & did the same. Then it was time for our viewing of The Last Jedi, in the IMAX screen. WOW!! I thought the film looked good when I saw it Thursday night with the kids, but the IMAX's depth of field, made the space scene's even more amazing!

Once out of the screening, we set up the droids to join the Joker Squad members who were trooping already. Just had time to say hi to fellow club member Stuart Bone, who was only able to attend for a few hours with his R2, but was good to see him out and about.

The rest of the day was then rolling around and having fun & photo's being taken.

 R5 & Matt's R2-D2

Just some of the Joker Squad group

Here more pictures, that were taken by fellow R2 Builder: Chris Williams.

The faces and the reactions speak for how great a time everyone had.

And here's a pics of some of us lol

Matt, Chris, Emma, Mike & Me.

Not in the pic's are Lee T & Adam S.

We all stopped for a sit down meal in TGI's, which was just next door, then back into the cinema for a last hour or so of fun, selfies, group pics and entertaining the visiting film go'ers.

We eventually finished up, loaded up and once Emma had cut the cake for Colin's birthday, we said our goodbyes and headed off home. Mine being the furthest, but as always, well worth it!

Checkout more pics of the event on Instagram using #astromech, #ukr2d2buildersclub #miltonkeynes as examples.

The combined efforts of the clubs,

we raised a grand total of £500!

For our chosen charity