November 29, 2013

R5-D4's head 4.4 - Pie Panels marked out

Got my protractor and rule out and used it to help mark out the positions of the other pie panels.
Then with pencil and rule, I marked them out.


Next is to groove out the panels.

November 25, 2013

Event report on the Sci-Fi Fest: (23rd Nov 2013) @ FLEET AIR ARM museum

My usual transport (my car) had been commandeered for the day so had to use the sub-standard cargo bay transport [don't tell the wife I called her car small :D]. Nearly two hours trying to fit R5 into the cargo bay of it! Eventually I had to resort to removing ALL his feet, not a big deal, only three bolts in total, as no electric motors to disconnect......yet. Then strap him in good and tight.
R5-D4


Just over an hours drive from Bristol & Yeovilton on a very cold, but Sunny morning.

Arrived and then began the R5 rebuild. Here I also meet up with fellow builder Giles & Artoojayzero. And my then unceremonious dragging him over not very smooth car park tarmac. Did a two trip journey, second was for R5's dome.

The event was organised by The Charity Sci-Fi Group.

Once inside we meet up with Mark and his 'collection' of droids! Below are links to his pages!
Podpadstudios these include a few people my recognise, and also introducing his latest creation....... Steam Punk Droid!

We set up and were off. As R5 was safley on display, I helped out with assisting Giles with his droid. Mark & Giles got loads of attention from the kids as well as parents lol. R5 also had his fair share of comments and questions and also the QR codes for our respective sites came in handy. The MK Garrison & The Southern Troopers group were also in attendance and were awesome! loads of photos taken :)

Before you knew it the day was done and it was packing up time. This was my first official event with R5....and his dome....but again, had a gerat time and managed to remember some names to put with faces. Well heres some of the photos taken.

R5-D4 Astromech Droid
R5 also has a Facebook page for those who would like to follow him on there,
click on this link to take you there James R5-D4

Artoojayzero
Giles & Artoo-jay-zero
R5-D4 Astromech DroidPodpadstudiosPodpadstudios

Jango Fett, Boba Fett & R2-D2Paul Blake aka Greedo

R5-D4, Steam Punk Droid, R2-D2

Artoo-jay-zero, R2-D2R5-D4 Astromech Droid

PodpadstudiosPodpadstudios

R5-D4Artoo-jay-zero

R5-D4's Head 4.3 - Pie panel marking's & Motivator position

Using the centre of the dome, the dowel is just still visible, I drew on where the inner and outer diameters are. Gauged against the original pie panel opening. I knew that the centre eye and motivator pie hole were in-line from before I built up the cone, see pic of dome marked out when flat. I then drew on at 90 degree angles, centre lines for these. Next was the other pie holes @ 45 degrees from centre line.

R5-D4 Dome
The plan is to mark and groove the panel 'lids', so watch this space..... Lol.

Motivator position:
I plan on moving the motivator further out, so it sits more central in the opening.
R5-D4 Bad Motivator

November 22, 2013

R5's Dome lights & 'smouldering' Motivator

Last night I fitted the motivator, bolted it into place and then hot glued into a suitable position, its battery holder and switch. Bolted into place the Antenna. Then a test of all the lights.
I will be looking at re-wireing all these to run off the 9.6 volt battery pack installed. This will require someone to do some thinking for me regarding voltages etc lol. Will be easier and simplier. Fingers crossed for how long they all work for on Saturday! :D

November 21, 2013

R5-D4's Head 4.2 - Cone prep work & RED paint!

Yesterday morning I used a rather large plastic bag (used for rubbish bins] to place R5's Dome into. I then sealed off round the edge with masking tape. Next I applied some watered down PVA glue to all the exposed sanded wood that had paint removed from sanding the joining edge of the cone to the Dome sides.
Lunchtime, I took R5's Dome into the spray booth (work). And primered up the cone and inside the pie hole.
R5D4 pic of masked off dome for pin stripes
Then that evening, I got on with masking off the dome ready for spraying the red pin stripes around the two recessed side boxes, as R5 has in the film, the rear dome rod recessed box, doesnt have pin stripping. And also the lower of the two circumferance pin stripes to. The upper one will be applied after the dome's cone, has been sprayed up white. So, 1hr later, I'd marked off the edges with red pin stripes and then masking tape holding the plastic sheet.

R5D4, Red Astromech, DomeR5D4, Red Astromech, Dome

For all of two minutes in the spray booth in work lol.
R5D4, Red Astromech, Dome


Am quite pleased with how these have turned out. Using the pin stripe tape reduced the amount of paint bleed. I didn't think to use it on the inside edges of the two recessed areas and the masking tape has allowed the paint to bleed a bit. I'll try to clean this up, but once a bit of dirt is applied it will just add to the old/used look of R5 :-)

November 19, 2013

WOW...... 215 visit's in a day!

When updating R5's Blog, I like to see check out the states, see what visitors have been reading. I had a shock this morning when I saw that my Blog had 215 visits yesterday!?!?!?

My R5-D4 Astromech Droid

This is a screen grab.

Would like to think that my Blog helps others in some small way, if only for them to improve [a lot lol] on how I've done things in my R5 build :-)

If you are one of these visitors, new or old and you'd like to comment or even email me,
please feel free :) . Thanks for visiting MTFBWY ;-)

Bad Motivator - upgrade work in progress 2.2

I found a red cap that I'll use instead of the diffuser, for the red LED.
R5D4 Bad Motivator

The Back Plate I thought was too long, so I then trimmed it down and cut angles onto the edges, as per my sketches I made from watching ANH film, pausing it and zooming in on it,  this plate needs to be fixed and bonded into place.
R5D4 Bad MotivatorR5D4 Bad Motivator

R5D4 Bad MotivatorR5D4 Bad Motivator

Spent a lunchtime soldering up some new wire for the LED, switch & battery holder.


I got to test my handywork…… Nothing! What the……. :(
Thankfully or not, it wasn't my workmanship, but the N Size battery holder contact?? The spring cripped contact wasn't making a circuit, though you could see that it was!?!?!

So late last night, I re-wired this end by soldering the wire directly onto the spring end.
And now my Motivator is Bad, lol.
R5D4 Bad MotivatorR5D4 Bad Motivator
Left picture was with the camera flash, the right picture without camera flash lol.

Once I've prepped the dome cone for primer and if time, white and red pie panels…….no, I'm getting ahead of myself, not enough time before the weekend's display event…… 

So for now, I'll just fit the Motivator into his Pie Hole :).

Don Jarr's R2D2 resin parts available on Ebay, see link below.

November 18, 2013

R5-D4's Head 4.1 - Cone almost complete.

Did a load more sanding of the filler on the cone. Then applied more wood filler to the remaing gaps.

I then looked at fitting internal panels to the Motivator Pie Hole. To give the 'lip' impression. I started of by cutting out a base to cover the aluminium Motivator bracket and the opening. Next i marked up some 3mm thick hardboard and cut side panels to shape. Then came the tricky part, the curved outer piece. I roughly cut a length of hardboard, the same thickness as sides. I then scored the back and carefully bent a curve.
R5D4, R5-D4, r5d4, r5-d4, bad motivator, pie hole

After, trimming and shaping edges, i glued the side pieces only inside the pie hole. For now the base panel and sides are not going to be glued together, incase the base and bracket need to be modified in the future. I then filled in any gaps with wood filler.
R5D4, R5-D4, r5d4, r5-d4, bad motivator, pie hole
R5's Motivator Pie Hole Base
The base plate and bracket both got a new small hole for the LED wires to be fed through into the dome.


....................this leads onto the next post on the Motivator.

November 15, 2013

"@ukr2builders" - Twitter Account



The UKR2Builders decided that it could be useful to be on Twitter.
This way we can Tweet any relevant news out to the masses easily.
It should also be used for the public to tweet stuff about us at the event
or directly mention (@) us so we can catch it too! 

To mention us in a tweet just do the following in your message "@ukr2builders" and we'll get it! So go on follow us and press the button below!

Follow: @UKR2Builders

R5D4.......Assemble!

Yeah, it doesn't quite have the save ring to it as 'Avengers Assemble', lol.

Anyhow..... after I'd fitted the first Front Vent. I then started to rebuild R5.

I found that three of the t-nuts that were inside the legs had been pushed out. Luckily not enough to loses them and using washer and nut threaded the studding in and pulled them back into the leg. Must keep an eye on fitting these in future!! So one leg bolted, booster cover, leg strut, horseshoe and hub fitted. Next, the foot. Not the battery box as R5 is sitting on his skirt (centre foot removed) and there's not enough space, due to the stool he's on. Then on with leg No.2, with still un-completed Foot Shell.

I need to get the cone on the Dome finished off this week so I can possible spray him up ???

Front Vents - Fitted 2.2

Fitted top vent and bracket, found id not elongated the holes enough, but got it to fit in place eventually.

I've already marked out the lower vent hole, just need to have time to cut it out. Would REALY like ot get it done before his next event.......which is November 23rd @ the Fleet Air Arm Museum.

November 13, 2013

Front Vents - Fixing Bracket **UPGRADE** 2.1

Last night I wanted to mark and fit the top front Vent onto the brackets I had fitted ages ago, see Front Vents resin set post.

For whatever reason, rushing, it being late, not enough light in my garage..... I didn't notice that one of the two brackets I had fitted wasn't long enough to actually be secured to the Vent. So Plan 'B' is now in effect. This is actually how I thought I could of fitted them, just like the Power Couplers, in the first place lol.

So rummaged though scrap metal box and found some thin sheet metal. Measured, marked & cut a strip off. Then bent to shape and drilled fixing holes for it to be screwed to the inside frame.


The curved area along the bottom was so that only one of the Vents opening's won't be blocked. The one remaining, which can be seen in the picture below, will have it's opening traced onto the bracket, once it's been fitted and then this will be drilled out.

Next thing was to drill elongated holes [width ways, though not visiable] in the bracket and then drill and thread tap holes in the rear of the Vent. Am using M5 metric thread and hex socket head bolts.
R5D4, Vent, R2D2R5D4, R2D2, Vent, support bracket

Bad Motivator - upgrade work in progress 2.1

Here is the first of the re-positioned parts glued together.
R5D4, Bad Motivator
I've used araldite glue to secure
R5D4, Bad Motivator
The wires sticking out resemble the wires that can be seen in images from the film. OK, granted, not red with brown spiral ones lol, these will be changed. 

Also looked at fitting a low power red LED under the mesh.......if there's space to fit it!
R5D4, Bad Motivator
Above pic shows just the LED.............

.....................Pic below shows with a diffuser and wire mesh [temp positioned] in place. The mesh will be pressed further down inside.
R5D4, Bad Motivator
There is just enough space inside the Motivator, once the washer and nut are fitted. Just need to wire up the battery properly and fit a switch...... not another switch! lol

Next piece is to fit the second component onto the Motivator. The 'flat' area seen in the first pic above is where it will be fitted.

November 11, 2013

R5-D4's Head 4.0 - Neck ring silver tape

I wanted to make sure that the silver tape would actually stick to the painted wood. So I cut some up and tried them in place.
R5-D4 Silver Neck Tape
Without camera flash
R5-D4 Silver Neck Tape
With camera flash lol
I've not added any more, as much as I would like to..... :D. As there is still a log of work to be done, filler, sanding, primer spraying up. And then of course a clear coat to seal everything.

November 08, 2013

R5-D4's Head 3.9 - Red pin stripes on Dome.

Bought second tin of P38 body filler and carried on where I left of lol..... So after more filler, sanding, filler and more sanding, the top of R5's head is really starting to take shape.

After fitting the lights last night, it was late, but just wanted to try out the red pin stripe tape I'd bought.

Am so so about how it looks......

For now it will do, but am definatly going to attempt to mask off and spray lines up. The reason for this is two fold.

  1. The colour doesn't match the Red already on the body.
  2. There are gaps between the join lines of the tape.
  3. The lines are raised slightly because they are 'stuck on'.
Hahahahaha, yes, I know I said TWO points, but the third one had to go on the list ;)