MOT Inspector - Induction Training [2017]

28th September 2017

Sunday I was host to Ian H & Sam P, my self,

ran by Colin B & joined by Lee T.

The guys travelled down to mine for the afternoons

training session on how to inspect Droids for the UK Club.

UK R2D2 Builders Club,

is the only club that has an 'MOT approval' process,
ensuring that the Droids & their operators,
are safe for events attended.

You may ask, why do you need this??

.....Han Solo: Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy!

Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star or bounce

too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?

Well, it's nothing like dusting crops lol. But the point is, that yes, anyone can build an Astromech, but once you take it out in public (and your a member of the UK Builders Club) and are a representative of it and even more so, of Disney/Lucas films. "We wouldn't want a Droid 'breaking down' or 'bits falling off' or worse still, a run-away-droid as this wouldn't look good to the general public" ....quote.

So the UK Club set up an MOT process a few years ago, similar to what cars here in the UK have, providing the droids & their operators with reassurance that their Droids are to a safe standard, which is required to have for our PLI insurance cover.

2026..... This is still carried out and the list of MOT inspectors has grown over the years.

[sorry, text is now visible]

** South West Droid Builders MOT Day - UPDATE 2 **

 ** MOT Testing Day **

Droid MOT Day, news update 2:

For club members wanting to attend either

North or South events, please check out the

www.droidbuilders.uk

page for the portal link  to register.

The Bristol event is STILL,

Sunday 4th July 2021

This event is open to all R2D2 Builders Club members,

with or without Droids,

though of course the purposes is for MOT'ing them.

15-17 members attending

1 members maybe attending

10+ requested MOT's.

R0-D4 Dome update 2020 (Part 2)

Sprayed up the neck ring with plastic-kote  white paint & left it to dry for a day or so. No pics of this but onto the next colour, Red.

Thankfully I still have the original wood neck ring, so that I could match up the painted stripes.

There are four quarters which have thicker vertical bands. These had a stripe of masking tape and the pin strips to prevent paint bleed.

Next came the top and bottom bands, again using the pin stripe tape width, with an additional single thickness vertical line at each centre of the quarters. As can be seen in above picture.

Then the fun bit, spraying with the red metallic’ish paint.

Looking good. I left this for about 20mins before starting the messy bit, removing the pin stripe tape.

I had made sure to corner crease the edges of the over lapping tape, but this isn’t the best way, cutting the tape is. But I didn’t want to damage the paint and it’s not critical. Weathering will cover up and also chipped paint too.

Once all the tape was off, one final picture before being left to fully dry.

R0-D4 Dome update 2020 (part 1)

 This dome has been sat patiently on a shelf waiting for me to finish its dome ring I upgraded a few years ago. Original the ring was wood, but when having to upgrade the dome to the new rockler style bearing, I had to deconstruct the neck ring to be able to get the old bearing surface out.

Check the link for the beginning of this building process here:

Building R0-D4’s wood dome.

On with the update 2020:

I had glued the 3D printed panels together, but then ‘welded’ them using a soldering iron and extra PLA filament. Melted plastic is a much stronger bond than super glue. Forward to 2020:

I smoothed over the not so perfect joins, before hitting it with filler primer.

The neck ring is detachable so spraying is easy. A few coats of primer before spraying up red & white.

More updates soon.

DBUK 2020 - Charity #CALM - **total so far £7700!**

Just another plug for anyone wanting to donate to this great cause.

So far amount raised is £7700!!

Click on the above image or here for the link

Thank you for your support

Interested in droid building?? Then check out the following links:

Droid Builders UK

UK R2D2 Builders Club [UK devision]

Throwback Thursday: Celebration Europe 2016

What can I say!!

I had attended events before and was really excited to be joining builders from not just the UK, but also from Europe and further still. Some I’d only chatted with online in forums.

But I was not expecting the overwhelming feeling of excitement that hit me a few days before the event had even opened lol.

Arriving, unloading R5 and my gear, walking into the massive Star Wars arena was awesome!!

Builders Club swag merch.

But I'll leave you the following links to go through to get the full picture:

Celebration Europe 2016 - part 1

Celebration Europe 2016 - part 2

Celebration Europe 2016 - part 3

Celebration Europe 2016 - part 4

Celebration Europe 2016 - part 5

.......Celebration Europe 2016 - part 6.......lol, no there is no part 6, think 5 was enough.

Just one of my highlights.....being stood two feet away from Andi, who was casually sat on the Star Wars stage....me trying to be casual and giving her a 'hi' smile.....whilst trying not to Fanboy out over her 😍 hahahaha 💗💗💗

Throw Back Thursday - R0-D4 dome build

This week, throw back Thursday is a look at my R0-D4 dome I started to make.
The name is just my play on the R0 domes created by Lee & Oliver for 'The Force Awakens' film.

As with all my work it's built from wood, although a few years later I started an upgrade to change the rotation setup, requiring a new lower neck ring. This was going to be made out of metal, but due to tools, I had to make do with 3D printing it. This part is still uncompleted. He actually had a toy (not official) made of him by Mark T.....Blog link here.

So here's the dome,

semi completed and before the neck ring upgrade work had begun:

Frame work:

Link to Blog history of build can be found here.
Thanks for reading.

Droid Builders UK 2020

Coming again this year is the R2 Builders Clubs, droid event.
Renamed 'Droid Builders UK' as it is not just for R2's but all droid builders alike, as can be seen in the logo image above.

For more info click the link here.

One way to be a part of this if you can't make the event is to grab yourself a patch & pin badge, link to these can be found under Merch in the above page link.

Check out the website for lots more droids, events and news.

Pinewood Studios drive-by visit 2019

Monday we were in the area so decided I’d show the kids where some of his friends work lol.

We didn’t have access to the lot or anything, just drove past and stopped so I could point out where everything was.

Pinewood studios

Flashback to LegoLand 2018

This event came up on my time line the other day

on James R5-D4 Facebook page,

and with so many good memories of it,

I thought I'd re-share my event report of the weekend.

It was my second time attending, but this one was my first for staying over for two of the three weekend days. The weather was amazing, sunny & hot. This was definatly up there with the best events (friends) I've experianced.

click this link below:

LegoLand Windsor Event report 2018

The Sun set's on the filming of Episode IX

The Sun setting over Pinewood Studios.

Thought it was rather apt with the filming

of Episode IX wrapped up, last Friday.

Roll on December.....

R0-D4 - new 3D neck printing 2019 - 1.5

R0-D4 original neck

Been working on finishing off the 3D printed neck for the R0 dome upgrade.

I had super glued the pieces together and some of these had been test fitted and screwed down onto the lower ring. But I still had two more pieces to get printed off. In the meantime, I had to fill in the gaps between the printed pieces, so I used some leftover filament and using my soldering iron, melted it into the gap and smoother over. So eventually, I got round to being abe to print off the last two neck pieces via works printer, lol.

These last two pieces needed some addition trimming to fit.

This is the reverse side, face up. The two ends of the new pieces can be seen with magnets holding the glued sections together. The black marker lines with the X indicate where the upper domes vertical's go, so have to make the tabs trimmed to fit.

Once I've filament welded these last few joins, I can get on with finishing off and then spraying up.

'Droid Builders Talk' from MCM Birmingham 2018

25th November 2018

Here are two video's featuring the Club filmed at Birmingham's NEC.

The first is of the presentation given on budget droid building, hosted by Oliver & Craig.

An interesting talk about build materials, 3D printing, which Craig's droid is made from.

The second is of the builders stand.

Credit and thanks go to Wayne Alan.

MCM Birmingham - November 24th (Saturday) 2018

Saturday morning I was awake before my alarm went off at 5:30am lol.

Car was already loaded and once Paul arrived in his van with his wife & R2, we headed up in convoy to the NEC Birmingham (UK). No snow this time. On arriving and navigating the unloading/pass/procedure, we joined others who had also arrived prior to us, to set up the droids on our display area.

This was one of our biggest attended events with 15 droids, plus 2 work in progress ones and two extra domes on display (one being R4).

This time round the event was held in different halls, we were in hall 19 of three (17 & 18).

We had so many droids, some had to roll over to a clear area and have their pictures taken.

Here's a link to my You Tube account
with a short video montarge.

And some of the day's pictures.

No parade was able to take place on the Saturday, but a full line up with the UK Garrison & friends was arranged for photograph purposes.

This picture was taken by fellow club member George.

The event was busy, tho not so crowded that you couldn't move.....

Here's a droids-eye-view of a mini procession we did around a section of stands and back to ours. This drew quiet a crowed, surprising to hear people say that they hadn't seen us (the stand) as they were taking photos.

The first time at an MCM event that R5 actually found

and had time not once but three times

to have his picture taken with the MCM Logo sign lol.

Later R5 with Chis' s R2-D2 (work in progress)

& some Ewoks from the UK Garrison 501st.

Come the end of the first day, we grouped all the droids together for a group photo of them.

Most of the day was spent chatting to the public about the droids, building them and the club. Before I knew it it was 5 o'clock. The group photos were set up to be taken and then it was almost 6pm. Time to pack away, for those who were heading home, lke myself, loading up and back on the road back home.

Another great time with the group members, some I've not seen in a few years now. Others this was their first time at an event. The other builders had a second day to look forward too.... and they had another great time. Checkout the UK R2D2 Builders Club on Facebook.

• My next event is this coming Sunday, this one is a first for me and Paul (with his R2D2), more next week on how this one went.
• Next club event is December the 15th, this is our Christmas builders meet up.

MCM Birmingham Comic con - March 17th - 18th 2018

So this weekend members of the UK R2-D2 Builders Club,

will be attending.....

MCM Birmingham Comic con - March 17th - 18th 2018

Well be joining up with the UK Garrison 501st, along with The Rebel Legion

on STAND 6100

next to the Comic Village

Some droids will be there for both days, others, like myself only for one of the two days.

I'll be attending with R5-D4 & bringing along my R4 dome on the Sunday.

There is so far about 13 dorid's attanding over the weekend!

Here's some from the last time I attended way back in 2015

Don't forget if you have your picture taken, and post on social, Instagram, to add at least one of these hashtags. And share your experience with others, big thanks

#ukr2d2buildersclub

#astromech

#astromechdroid

#R2D2

#R5D4 ......etc

R0-D4 dome upgrade 2017 - 1.7 - 3D printed Dome Rods **UPGRADE**

Test fitted the first new dome rod the other day. Due to the internal angles of the wood when it was glued together, these are not perpendicular, so I had to file the ends slightly for it to fit. I know I'll have to do the same with the others.

Next was to drill location holes to hold the new rods in place from behind. The previous rods were slotted into a bottom hole and secured with a screw at the top.
Then its sanding etc before spraying up.

R0-D4 dome upgrade 2017 - 1.6 - 3D printed Dome Rods **UPGRADE**

So this was my first attempt (white piece),

alongside my original incorrect silver painted ones.

Needed refining and re-sizing as didn't take depth of my recess panels into account.

These are a work in progress still......

R0-D4 dome upgrade 2017 - 1.5 - 3D printed Dome Rods **UPGRADE**

Since Celebration Europe 2016, I've been meaning to get back to

sorting out my R0-D4's dome rods.

I snapped a pic of Lee's R0 dome he brought along.

And instantly realised how wrong my dome rods were lol.

These are definitely a LOT better than the ones I drew up and had printed lol.

So I measured up my dome slots and got to drawing up on

Auto CAD Inventor (in work) and scaled up a version to fit.

I gauged by eye, so mine will only 'look' the same,

but not actually be 'correct'.

First attempt.

Next up is 3D printing a set up, WIP.....

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.