July 28, 2017

UK R2 Buidlers Club - New Logo for 2017

The UK R2 Builders Club has been running for 6 years now
and it was time to upgrade the logo.

So I've now added and updated my Blog picture to include it.

New Club logo, added top right
If your interested in building your own R2 or any of the other Astromech's, have a flick back over my R5 build history,
see the column on the right (if viewing via a PC),
for short cuts to specific parts of my R5 build.
Or you can click on the links below to take you
to the world wide club forum & the UK R2 Builders page,
where you can join up and follow thousands of other builders
in re-creating their own Astromech Droid.

R2 Builders Club @ www.astromech.net

UK R2 Builders Club @ www.astromech.info

Both groups also have FaceBook public & builder pages.

July 25, 2017

Star Wars 'T-Shirt' Holiday Special (2017)

Instagram

Well, with only a week left before the family holiday to Mickey Land, Florida.
I thought I'd post up a quick update.
I've ironed my mini collection of Star Wars T-shirts to wear once out there lol.

I'm also planning on taking some of my trading cards with me

(with plastic sleeves).
So find me on Instagram and if your in the parks same time as me, look out for the T-shirt of the Day post. And grab a card & a selfie lol.

Looking forward to wearing my Bristol/Star Wars top from uchiclothing

You-Tube link to their two, Star Wars inspired, T-shirt's. 
This one is my No1 top, out of all the t-shirts I'll be taking, lol,
tho I do have a VERY special 'green' one too ;)

July 21, 2017

Disney D23 Expo 2017 - R5D4 pin badge!!

Whilst searching up on eBay,
I found that these's!

A droid set of pin badges!

These pics are gleaned from internet searching...
(credit where possible has been given)

This group pic, posted by Jeremy Konrad.

These others are off eBay, no links, just search them up.


My fist thoughts were....fantastic!!
And then sadness at probably not being able to own one, well, not anytime soon lol

Then I noticed that this R5 has the 'round skirt' design, nothing new as this style of image appears on most of the trading cards, as I've mentioned in previous posts.

Then I noticed that this one tho had been given the 'film version', centre leg!
He has an 'outer leg' as his centre leg, therefore only having the ONE ankle cylinder!!
Check the first group pic to compare with R2.

Top marks to the person who didn't just copy an R2D2 body
and change his body panels to red lol

Well, I'm off to watch eBay for more Droids lol.

July 20, 2017

Throw back Thursday - 1

Just posted this up on Instagram, so thought I'd share.

Throw back to my first event attended with R5's.
He was still a work in progress and didn't even have a dome lol.

Dome was brought along and borrowed for R5 by my new fried Ian,
with his R4-1J droid.
The end R6 droid was Mark's from PodPadStudios.


Above grab from 'james_r5d4' account

Shout out to Jedi News!

July 19, 2017

R0-D4 dome upgrade 2017 - 1.4 - LED panel

I installed a second diffuser panel (plastic cut out of a large Milk bottle) to help reduce the LED's hot-spots. After testing the LED's in the last post R0-D4 dome upgrade 2017 - 1.3, I still wasn't sure if I liked the amount of flashing. It looked a bit too much.

So I removed all the 3mm ones and wired up just the five tri-colour LED's. I then hot glued them around the outside of the screen to help distribute their light. Having them face on was no good as these are clear type ones.


This seams to give a more subtle, subdued light display.

And here they are viewed from the inside.


click pic link below to a short You Tube clip showing them flashing.


July 17, 2017

Smugglers Bounty......R5-D4!!!

Being an R5 fan.....obviously, lol, it always bug's me that the little guy
get's over looked by toy people, clothing etc.
And one (and only one I'll be buying) that I wanted
was an R5-D4 Funko Pop figure.

Then a few weeks ago I saw on twitter a feed about Episode 1 C3-P0..... but that wasn't important to be lol, the back of the box was what people had spied.....could it be????



YES it was.....R5-D4.

Well here's the link to the Smugglers Bounty You Tube video
click pic to You Tube link

I don't subscribe to these sort's of things, my lose I guess,
but at least I now know that R5-D4 is out there....somewhere lol.

R5's transport sledge 'upgrade work' pt 7

Had time at the weekend to finish off cutting out more wood from the sledge.

Time and thought has to go into where to and where not to cut!
As you need to think about any potential weak points. Hence the rounded hole edges etc.


Once all were cut out and edges taken off with a file and then sanding.
The frame top section was re-attached.


The frame is now no effort to lift, I don't have to tense up my body/arm to lift it by itself.

Next was to apply the first touch-up coat of paint to the cut areas & to give the whole frame a fresh coat.

R0-D4 dome upgrade 2017 - 1.3

After working on the sledge, I needed to give my bench a tidy up. I was going to re-install R5's smoke system, more on that in the other post. The other box of bits was the new set of flashing LED's I had planned on using for R0's dome light PSi style panel.
Two types of LED's, blinking ones & tri-coloured LED's (x4 off)
This piece of cardboard was a test card to display the LED's to get an idea of the random layout required. And to see how they looked through the frosted piece of plastic, that can be seen at the bottom of the picture. There is already a frosted piece fitted in the dome, but this second piece helps to diffuse the light more.

Link to last attempts at dome lights.

Version 1

Version 2

I took some short videos, so will post this up once I've edited it together.

July 14, 2017

R5's transport sledge 'upgrade work' pt6

This was something I had had planned since building the sledge to get its weight down. It was a strain to lift it by itself when I first made it, thinking it had to be to support R5's weight.


So I marked out areas that could have material removed, not near corners or stress points, used a large wood bit for radius and drilled and jigsaw'd out some material.


I've not done anything to the top area......yet.....as it was getting late. But am looking at the 'double' layed section that extends to support the top of R5.

It is now a lot less effort to lift it, just by itself. More to come......

FLASHBACK - A year ago today Star Wars Celebration 2016

A year ago today I had arrived at the Excel Centre in London and was unloading R5 along with the other guys and girls of the R2 Builders club. Once what we could help with was done, myself Ian & Matt, newly acquainted, went off for a pre-opening walk to check out the event.

Whilst exploring we were amazed to see THE Steve Sansweet!

I waited till he had finished chatting to others and asked if I could have my picture taken with him. It was early, but he graciously agreed.
Myself & Mr Steve Sansweet

I was star struck lol, and didn't even think to give him one of my freshly printed Trading Cards.

July 11, 2017

'R5-D4 - Events page 2017'

I didn't think I would have many events to attend this year,
but I do have two more penciled in.

These have been added to my new

R5-D4 - Events page 2017

page tab at the top of my Blog page.

~~~~~~

Click on the logo's below to take you to these sites for news and more info.

Feel the Force Day - Peterborough
September 2017


~~~~~~

Leamington Spa Wars
December 2017

Both events will be attended by the UK R2D2 Builders Club

R5's transport sledge 'upgrade work' pt5

The small caster wheels on the skid where not up to the job and became a pain whilst loading into rear of car. But they needed to be small to keep the sledge at a height to fit in the rear of the car, so I'm not mad at them :D.

I looked at collapsible sack truck's but reports I've read recon that unless your droid is light, then they can't handle the weight. And I'm not up for spending loads of money on a solid fixed one. Plus the fact of then having to load for transport to events with already limited space, were also negative points.

I read on www.astromech.net that one builder had done a similar thing to my way of thinking. But instead of lifting brackets, he's used large threaded hand wheels. But how R5 is, foot heavy, I didn't want to be struggling holding the overhang of the sledge up with one hand, whilst trying to unscrew the locking hand wheels.

So my idea was to build a removable set of wheels, but sack truck style.
I cut up a piece of 18mm thick Plywood, attached two old, large, rubber'ish wheels and made up two brackets that hook underneath the transport sledge. The brackets were something I had keep from something that would of needed fixing brackets lol. Always good to keep stuff. One of the brackets I bent and is a little bit snug fitting on the bent edge, but it goes on and stays put, so not the end of the world.

The wheel brackets have T-nuts on the rear face, countersunk. I only had hex bolts the right length, two of which needed to be cut to a more suitable length.

Tried it out last night and it didn't break :D
 Wheels fitted, next was to mark out the bracket position.


 Countersunk T-nuts, as this is the face that will be up against the sledge.

And here it is test fitted, before I then gave it a mini test run, lol.

The metal brackets are very strong, and should last.
But if they don't I can fabricate some new ones.

Next up is to fit some sliding strips to the rear of the sledge.
Less resistance, point contact etc.

July 06, 2017

R5-D4 Trading cards collection 2017 **UPDATE Pt2**

Few posts back I said about the cards I had seen to add to my
R5-D4 trading card collection.

Found two more (affordable ones) and now I have them.

First one was this one on the right...

This card version is the 'blue' one, there is another version of this one but it is the 'red' version. These though are selling for a LOT more than I'll be paying for at the moment. But it's on my list.

My second card was again, another 'multi-colour' version. It's a 'Masterwork' R5-D4.
I wasn't expecting the card to be as thick as it was, it's 2mm thick! This version is the silver/black one, there is also a blue/black one too. The colour's relate to the inner picture boarder.

Whilst searching aroumd I found a fun box to store my R5 trading cards in. It's from the Rogue One series and I got this empty one off eBay for about £4 inc P&P.
Rogue One trading card case
May need to add some padding inside on the ends of the case.....
These cases usually come with cards and are on eBay for about £10.

R5-D4 Trading cards 2017 **UPDATE**

Big thanks to Lee Towersey for these, I received my new 'Blue' carded R5D4 trading cards (a few weeks back) and like the previous 'Red' carded set, they look fantastic!!

Check out Lee's page.

Front
 Rear of card

So if your out at an event here in the UK, don't forget to ask if I have one to give away.

Future Project

Bought these two A4 size sheets of vinyl for colour sample matching....
'Dark red' (left) overlay-ed with 'red'
Doesn't show up to different in the pic, but it is noticeable.
The 'dark red' the preferred choice.