Celebration Europe 2023 - Jabba's Gate Door Build - Part 1

It's been a week since the start of Celebration Europe 2023.

For those interested, I had been keeping a Blog of the build process, this will be in four [4] parts.

Started back in July, 2nd 2022

The planning behind the scenes started back at the beginning of June 2022, after it was announced that London would be the venue  for next year (2023).

With it being the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi (1983/2023), set ideas were being thought out. There’s a lot of options for a backdrop setting, but one that would also lend itself to the new Star Wars era, (The Mandalorian/Book of Boba Fett), was Jabba the Hutts iconic front gate entrance.

• So chatting with Mike Berry and the fellow SW builders, a plan started coming together.
• We would need a ‘gate droid’ lol, thankfully, plans were sourced for TT-8L/Y7 gatekeeper droid.
• Build material choice.
• Transportable/storable.

So using AutoCAD Inventor (work), I made a start on drawing up a reasonable to-scale corner section of the gate door, with a partial corner of the wall edge.

Version 1:

Above picture is the first draft. The idea was to have it in sections for storage/transportation/ease of assembly.

Assembly idea was to be able to clip the pieces together, so no power tools would be required when at an event.

Version 2: has more details, and is slightly longer and taller.

The illusion is to give depth, without the actual thickness. My initial plan was to use 18mm thick wood for the lower section of the door, with a frame and structural support behind for the upper, thinner material of the build.

At July’s 2022 Bristol event, Oliver & Giles attended and myself, Nik & Mike all had a good chat about set sizes, materials etc. I then had a rethink about materials (weight), for transportation/storage.

July 11th 2022

Designing and making plans for how best to build & assemble are now being finalised, so that material costs can be calculated.

Created an exploded view showing each panel, battening required, support etc.

Then after a chat with Mike who suggested getting the holes cnc machined out, I started to transfer the plans onto the size board we were going to use, to best utilities material and save waste.

July 20th 2022

After working on the 'Wall' section and how best to construct this, the 'Door' needed some re-working on it as well. AutoCAD is good but it's not the easiest to work with when your trying to 'build' as you go lol. Especially when your building multiple panels in one single component, when really you should be doing it in multiple drawings and then combining them into one assembly drawing.

Transfer plans onto boards:

After I had re-redone the dimensions etc it was time to transfer onto the boards. This then allows pieces to be positioned to utilise material and save wastage.

Mike was going to speak to his contact about cutting (CNC) the sheet’s & getting a price. I said that we could do the circles etc ourselves if cost was an issue.

The wall section would have wood structure and then supports for the foam panels to be carved into ‘stone’.

Due to availability, holidays etc, we wouldn’t be able to start production till September…..

…..our start date got pushed back a little further…..December.

December

Friday 2nd: The 3D printing of TT-8L/Y7 gatekeeper droid, has begun. The files used were almost complete, but I believe they were for a static model, so I had to modify some of the features to be able to make it articulated. I also combined some of the models to save time and gluing. The upper eye lid was the first to be printed, over night. See below:

Monday 5th: the lower eye lid parts were set to print overnight.

I found the beads that go inside the eye lens part itself. The lens was a little harder to source at a reasonable cost, looked at a lot of different options, no rush at the time so will report on this later.

UPDATE: December 14th: found a reasonably priced dome, ordered 👍🏽

The rest of the overnight printing consisted of the inner iris pieces, front and back as well as the new inner panel for the LED’s.

I drilled and added location pins to secure the iris in place, in above photo.

And here, test fitting all together.

Side view with eyelids open.

Side view with eyelids closed 

Front view with eyelids closed

Front view with eyelids open

Iris assembly

Monday 12th:
Ordered crystal beads, about 450, from a wholesaler online, Bead Park, hopefully this will be enough lol.

Found a dome at a reasonable price (£12) with free postage 😎👍🏽.

Saturday 24th:

Beads package arrived. Had to do a test to see if the bag would be enough lol.

Yes, I think that will do nicely 😎👍🏽

January 2023

The clear dome arrived on the 7th so I marked it up and started cutting it up.

It had to be cut down three times to be able to fit inside the iris printed part. And I didn’t want to mess it up.

I then HAD to test fit it all together.

I then fitted a piece of PVC tubing to check.

The whole thing has some weight to it and it’s not even half built yet!!

Not been able to print anymore parts as am waiting on delivery of more filament.

January 20th

Mike made a start on cutting circles in the wood. I went down to his work on the Saturday to give him a hand. It was cold inside and out lol, as we were working outside, but we got the ‘door’ panels cut.

Mike’s next job is sorting the recessed parts of the door’s circles.