January 31, 2017

Jessika 'Testor' Pava - Flight suit 2.1

2017 and after Xmas/New Year am feeling positive about things.

With a free afternoon on Sunday, I got out my daughters flight suit and accessories and got to working on it again. I started by remeasuring her in the suit, yep, still fits lol. I then measured marked and cut off the excess sleeve & leg material. These bits I can reuse as pockets etc on the suit.
jessika pava flight suit
I left enough for hemming the edges and also the arms will need elasticated cuff material. There's also plenty of space and length to last her a few years growth lol.

I then led it all out for a mock-up picture.
jessika pava flight suit

There were a few bit's I'd misplaced for the straps, but for now, this is work so far.

January 23, 2017

Centre Leg - securing bracket upgrade

The centre leg securing bracket needed upgrading.

Original pieces were two aluminium angles that clamped either side of the leg tongue, but there was still a bit of play, so the centre leg would wobble slightly.

I drew up the centre leg to see how best to re-do this.
R5D4 astromech droid

So decided on a strip of steel angle, marked up a suitable length & cut it. Next was to position holes.

I'd already ordered some M8 cap heads & T-nuts to secure everything. It was just a matter of drilling holes, opening up the original ones on the centre leg tongue & then bolting it all back together.

Five free mins at the weekend (ok, more like an hour lol) and i got down to fitting the bracket. Drilled two holes into the wood base and installed two t-nuts from below. These were recessed slightly.
r5-d4 centre leg
recessed t-nuts

r5-d4 centre leg
Centre leg back on

r5-d4 astromech
Inside view of centre leg tongue bolted

Then it was flipping R5 upright again to install his centre leg and fit the new angle bracket.


Result = no more wobble!

January 12, 2017

UK R2D2 Builders Christmas Event 2016

29.Dec.2016
I hadn't been able to attend this Christmas Event in previous years, but this year would be the first of many to come! Lol, two things more important than Christmas, were Rogue One & this builders day :D

My two youngest came along and enjoyed the day, and like myself, meeting new fellow builders & the 'Usual Suspects' builders too lol. We arrived about 2PM, driving up with fellow Bristol builder, Paul Felski, who followed.

The event also doubles as an inspection of the droids, for safety at events. Control and stability of these is very important!

There was food layed on and a Death Star, two flavoured cake, thanks Emma!

The last time there were this many astromech's in one place, I'd say, would of been Celebration.
My daughter, was NOT operating R2's dome lol, but a toy BB-8



R2-BHD

Sail Barge R2

Just some of the droids.
Then we had the group photo....
UK R2 Builders Club

Another great day, that flew by. Looking forward to attending events in 2017

Jessika 'Testor' Pava - helmet - 2.0

Helmet gets the chop!
25.11.2016
x-wing helmet

I really wasn't happy with the size. I know, I know this should of been sorted at the start, but I had hope things would work out.....

So after some thought, I marked out some cut lines and then used a saw blade and my Dremel cutter, to cut off the cheek/ear sections.

As my daughter was tucked up in bed asleep, I had to wait till the next evening to measure her head and test fit the separate pieces on her. I just hope this plan works and can salvage what I've made so far!

So the next evening, I dug out some foam and with some help from her brother, we managed to better fit the helmet cheek sections to the size of her head. I then measured the remaining gaps, height & width's to be able to cut & eventually, fibre-glass all the parts back together like a jigsaw.

Well, here's the start...

Measurements at the ready.

Additional cut lines for the dome section.

And then test fitting of the sides and the new cut down front dome section.
 Front view

Rear view
Feeling a lot more positive about how this 'rebuild' is going. This is ALL guess work regarding cut lines etc, tho so far so good lol.

2017 - New Year

Happy New Year

Bit late, but have been busy over the Christmas/New Year period with the family.
Didn't have any free time to work on any of my projects, but have a few posts that needed posting, due up next.

Lots of event's to hopefully look forward to this year, if not with R5, then with the rest of the UK R2 Builders Club, so will post event's as and when.