Chippenham Sc-Fi Day 2016 - Event Report

R5 was loaded up into the car and my Son was attending with me again, in his Han Solo costume. Also, Karen was a volunteer helper for the actual event.

The drive from Bristol to Chippenham is not a long one & we arrived earlier than I had planned, due to there being no traffic.

The short distance from car park to the Hall, R5 attracted a few stares and 'oooh look, R2' lol :D. Inside people were set up & setting up still, I missed Paul Felski with his awesome B9 Robot from the Original 'Lost In Space' tv show, along with other film classic Robots.
Lost the photo of Paul with his B9 robot...but there are pics on the Chippenham FB page.

The event is spread out over a wide'ish area, to include not just indoor, but outdoor too. There was Jedi training in the Emery Gate shopping centre, with Andrew Lawden, and fellow Astromech builder Mark Enright with his Batmobile Steamer, along with other prop cars.

Chippenham Sci-Fi website link

The event opened at 10am and was busy straight away. The Milton Keynes Garrison, Southern Troopers were just a two of the groups attending. Marvel characters as well as Predators & Dalek's roamed the halls.

R5 had lots of fun with kids big and small lol. And entertained all day, even with his 'bad motivator' (more on this in another Blog post).

R5 with some fan's of his lol

what are the chance's of R5 meeting BB8...?

R5 entertaining two new friends (just in front of him)

Late afternoon, Pam & Clem had a walk around and posed graciously for pictures with guests and Cosplay'rs alike.

Pam Rose & R5

A Wookie, Han JJ Solo, R5D4 & Clem So

Pam Rose & Clem So with the MK Garrison

Imperial Officer - Pinup style
Karen told me she wanted another outfit that was a bit informal for events, yet hopefully instantly recognisable.

She had seen a 50's 'pin-up' style outfit that she was able to create without it costing the earth. So after buying the recognisable Imperial belt & buckle, teamed up with a grey pencil length skirt, black body & the hardest item to find.....a short length, plain, grey cardigan she was happy with the look. Black stockings & black heels.

She also found the insignia badge, that she sowed onto the cardigan.

3D printed Imperial insignia

Her outfit for the day drew quite a few admires & lots of positive comments.

She wasn't to happy with one pic I took, but was defo smiling when Andrew Lawden commented on her outfit and happily posed for a pic with her lol.

We had to leave early, due to pre-arranged family commitments. But we had a great time & got to meet up with friends. Roll on next year.

Chippenham Sci-Fi 2016

Only two weeks to go!!

Check out their page for all that's going on.

Chippenham Sci-Fi home page

R5 will be attending & hopefully a few other members

of the R2 Builders group will be there as well.

This will be mine & R5's third year attending this event

since it started three years ago.

Click here for the Ticket's link

Famous guests who have apperared in

Dr Who, Red Dwarf as well as Star Wars

So that's September 17th, all details are on their website, link above.

Follow them on Twitter and then tweet your pics from the event :)

Event - Chippenham Sci-Fi Day 2015 - report

As with all my recent events R5 was loaded up the night before into the back of the car.

Chippenham is only about a 40 min drive away, but I had to fill up with petrol & pick up a friend who was helping out at the event as well. The weather was wet on arriving, but I had my 'car cover' to protect R5 lol.
[yes, car cover lol, it doesn't fit the larger cars, but knew it would come in handy]

The town council had made ALL pay parking free for the day, this helped with parking for everyone, nice touch!

Neeld Hall, has had an over haul since last year, more space has been opened up, with was great for the crowds to move around.
The stage was dominated by an Alien Queen prop as well as other Alien film props. In front was Terminator items.

• Mark was there with his Podpad studios props, Astromech's, steampunk Dalek & lots more.
• Joker Squad, Charity Sci-Fi, Southern Troopers & The Milton Keynes Garrison were just some of the groups there in a full range of costumes.

There were lots of stall's, collections for charities & of course Guests.

Paul F brought along his almost completed R2-D2 dome, with pop-up periscope that he has been working on. Great work in what he's done!

The Doors opened at 10am.

Here's some of the pictures from the start of the day lol,

was to busy with R5 to take pics when it was packed lol

 R5 having 5mins break

 A Princess and the droid [ok, so it's not R2 lol]

 Podpad Studio's - selection of props

Another great, fun packed day for all who attended.....oh and the Sun did come out eventually.

Event - Chippenham Sci-Fi Day - 2015

Only 9 days till R5 will be attending another event.

This time it's.......

click pic to take to their website.

This is the second year of of this event.

Check out there website for up-to-date info.

Like them on FaceBook.

Also follow them on Twitter @chippenhamscifi.

Chippenham Sci-Fi Day - Oct 24th 2015

Looking forward to attending this event again, for its second year.

Follow updates on Twitter @Chippenhamscifi & @jamesR5D4
Check out their Facebook page, links can be found on Twitter account.

Chippenham Sci-Fi Convention 2015

Am planning on taking R5 again this year.

This was us last year....

My R5-D4 makes the grade!!

When I started building R5-D4, it was for the 'challenge' of attempting to build him.

When he was standing, head-less, at his first event, it was a very 'nervous' moment. As he was next to some quality, working, droids!

R5 with a borrowed R3 clear dome, thanks to Ian [pic]

Then when it was his first moving event, I was stupid 'excited' [note the grin on face in pic below] about him participating with Giles & Ian!

R5's not fully complete yet.....bout 99.5% lol, but representing the R2 Builders club at events, is something I take great pride in. He's still waiting on his sound link up for his bad motivator, but rolling around at events is a really good feeling,

bringing kids big & small the world of Star Wars to life :).

Yesterday, I received my club membership badge in the post.

This means a lot as a builder :).

Nice art work Colin! lol

** Events for 2015 with R5-D4 **

Am really looking forward to attending events this year!

Some, for the first time with R5 being fully movable, feet and dome!!

Some (possibly) with sound and motivator/smoke action lol.

Charity Sci-Fi Day - Saturday May 25th - Corsham

Collectormania 23 - Saturday/Sunday 13th/14th June - Milton Keynes
[only Saturday for R5]

Feel the Force Day - Saturday October 10th - Peterbourgh [TBC]

Chippenham Sci-Fi - Saturday October 24th

All of these events have facebook & web pages, so go check them out.

Look out for R5 and say hi :)

You Tube - R5's first motorised event

Here's a short video taken at Chippenham Sci-Fi day.

R5's first motorised event.

Click on the You Tube pic, to see video 'R5-D4 @ Chippenham Sci-Fi 2014'.

Click on the above pic below, to be taken to Facebook page.

Have a few more short video's taken that I hope to upload soon

Thanks for watching.

R5-D4 on You Tube @ Chippenham Sci-Fi 2014

This video has been floating round on Facebook from Saturdays Chippenham Sci-Fi Day.

It's not my video, have yet to sort these out.

Show's lots of the stuff from the event, including........ R5-D4 lol as well as R2 & R4.

UK R2 Builders & Chippenham Sci-Fi Day 2014 - My Event Report

Had a great time on Saturday with Ian (R4), Giles (R2) & Mark with his Steampunk Droid Issa. Having R5 moving and joining in was soooo much fun, I had a stupid kid grin on my face all day! Hahaha.

Arrived just in time for the event opening and set-up R5. Turned the power on and........nothing! WHAT??? My heart sank! Had the radio transmitter and receiver lost their connection?? Then, R5 lurched forward! Connection worked!?! Perhaps it was because it was in close proximity to the other guys systems?? It did it again later on when I turned off and on the transmitter .

Then R5-D4 was rolling :) joining in with the others &having his picture taken. We joined in with photo opps with the Southern Troopers and their Tantive IV backdrop, as well as roaming round to the Milton Keynes Garrison & their backdrop.

There was plenty to see for visitors with stalls and displays as well as Special Guests!
The Charity Sci-Fi group were also in attencance with Darlek's and other costume characters from Dr Who, Judge Dredd, Ghostbusters to name a few.

With all the roaming around before I knew it, three hours had passed! It was suggested that we take the droids outside as access was good and flat. The route had carpet and a slight incline, R5 coped OK with this, 24v power and him being a heavy build pay's off, phew. Then outside we joined up with ST & MK members to entertain the crowds, some not realiseing that the event was even going on.

At which point they then followed us all back inside when we did, result.

Then it was back inside for more roaming and photo :)

Lots of people asked questions about plans, costs and abilities needed to build an Astromech. I hope the people I spoke to were encouraged to not to daunted with what can seem a big build challenge.

Crowds started to quieten down by about 3pm, tho there were still people coming in who had seen what was going on outside. This gave the droids a bit of space to 'play' lol. Kids were still having pictures taken and interacting with them, which is always great to see.

Have to give respect to one Mum who corrected her child that said 'look theres R2!', to which she replied, 'no thats not R2, thats R5!' Most impressed!

Then it was time to pack up, just after 4pm. Another great event attended with my fellow builder friends. Always good to see them and learn and swap ideas and roll around with the Droids! And a great day for Chippenham Sci-Fi as their first event was a great success!

Chippenham Sci-Fi Day Facebook page

Southern Troopers Facebook page

MK Garrison Facebook page

R5-D4's first motorised event......preview report

Was a great day and enjoyed roaming around an event for the first time with fellow R2 Builders club members Giles R2 & Ian A4 as well as Mark with this Steampunk Astromech.

Photos, videos and event day write up to follow tomorrow, once I have these sorted.

*** Chippenham Sci-Fi 2014 - TODAY ***

....First Transport, is away!

Well.......almost lol. Loaded R5 into transport (car's boot) last night along with everything I hopefully need!
Setting off with my Son, and picking up a friend who is helping out at the event today, on the way.

More details about the event later.

Checkout my facebook page: James' R5-D4 for updates and photos, please like my page & tag R5-D4 and yourselfs in pictures :) thanks.

Follow R5-D4 on Twitter @jamesR5D4

Prep work for R5-D4's next event @ Chippenham 25.10.14

These last few day's I've been checking and re-checking, last minute fixing, charging batteries etc ready for Saturdays event in Chippenham.

Finaly got round to fitting this last strap bracket to fully hold R5 down.

I don't know about R5, but this is his first event that he'll be rolling around at and so am a little apprehensive about him behaving himself lol.