Event Report: #SWDB23 @ Bristol M-Shed - Sunday 2nd July 2023

#SWDB23

(South West Droid Builders 2023)

Saturday 1st July, up early to load the car with everything droid related lol. Arrived at Mike's for 10:30am, we were joined by Chris ‘C-3P0’ Williams, who had come down for the weekend.

We got to work stringing up banners, arranging tables and the displays, signs up, preparing the changing room for the MK Garrison, electrical, TV/video (same one as last year, as I hadn’t done a newer version). As well as chatting with people passing asking about the droids and the event lol.

With everything sorted, we called it a day about 5pm. Sunday was going to be another early morning start and a long day!

#SWDB23

Sunday 2nd July:

Early start, day 2.

Arrived at 7am,

We had a bit more space inside this year, which helped to not make things TO crowded, allowing people to see more without bumping into others etc. But from 10am till 4pm, the amount of visitors inside was a busy constant! Later in the afternoon, when the Sun came out and more passers-by were enticed in by the fantastic MK Garrison, with Chewy, Vader, Stormtroopers and more. Having two of our youngest members rolling their mini droids outside, was cool to watch.

Check out the day's event on my YouTube Channel here.

• Special thanks to Helen, Sara, Clare, for assisting/car park/raffle/ organising/generally being awesome!
• A round of applause for the awesome MK Garrison!
• (it's not easy wearing some of those outfits in warm weather!) Checkout their website here

Thanks to [stall's] The Jedi Archives, Retro Bristol, CerebralToys.

Thanks to the Dalek guys.

Thanks to Podpad Studios for bringing down K7 of 9.

A BIG thanks to Chris for allowing us the use and making space for us in the cargo shed!

I think I've covered everyone, sorry if not, I can correct this later though.

A BIG MASSIVE THANKYOU

TO EVERYONE WHO VISITED ON THE DAY!

FEEDBACK WAS; 'THEY WERE HAVING A GREAT TIME!'

Online donations to Make a Wish (not including mine on the Friday) to Si Nash at 5pm Sunday evening..........

Totalled £216.00 (not inc Gift Aid).

Oliver would be counting out the 'cash' donations and would update us once complete, but from what the collectors were telling us, they were overwhelmed by the generosity of donations!

We had the droids lined up for easier viewing, some were out rolling around amongst the public. Our visiting Dalek & K7 of 9 were first in line lol.

Some were static, like this awesome BB-8.

To the left of the main display tables, we had my WED-15 droid & GOUD-4 messenger droid, next to that was Nik's pit droid and Mike's R2-DeWalt 😆.

Behind the table we had Nik's awesome K-2SO static droid! (see next picture).

On the table we had my R4 dome, Marina's DO droid & Rex [3D printed WIP], Jamie's TPU 3D printed tracks, Emma's L0-LA (toy) droid, Oliver's interactive Rex as well as Nik's L0-LA [3D printed] droid & on the end was Mike's pit droid.

Behind the table we had the TV screen, still playing the older video of past events (an updated on is on the way lol).

On the table (and dotted around) we had QR codes for the

Make a Wish, Justgiving page.

As well as trading cards, stickers, leaflets for the club and flyers for Stars of Time's August event.

10am Opening!

From the start the event was busy, with loads of people flooding in [no pun intended, with us being on the harbourside lol]. Some of the droids started to come alive and entertained the kids and adults alike lol.

The MK Garrison were mostly outside catching passers by as well as entertaining people coming in.

R2's usually steal the show, but the other droids did grab peoples interests.

Droids have to have MOT's which covers them for insurance. I, being the South West region's inspector, get to check and renew  and issue, Droid MOT's. I carried out three plus an initial inspection for this orange 'prequal' R2 unit, built by Lee T.

Had to get this selfie with Lee and him turning on his droid, for testing.

The table top display droids kept people entertained, especially Oliver's interactive R-3X. The stalls were doing well with lots of items up for grabs.

Later in the day, the Sun eventually made an appearance, which drew the crowds.

With donated items, Mark & Clare, sorted out the raffle/lucky dip, with some great items for people to win. Thanks to those who donated them and also to everyone who had a go.

The day flew by, probably due to the constant amount of people, so you didn't notice this getting 'quiet'. Plus, the chatting with people, answering questions, photos etc 😀, even signing a few autographs 😀

I do want to say a special thanks to family and friends who came down to support us..... 💖

With my Brother down, I'd said that I wanted a picture of us with Lee as Google's facial recognition, couldn't distinguish between me & Lee 😀 so it was going to have problems with us all together!

Emma for supplying cakes....

........yes, they were THAT good, we were fighting over them 😀😀😀

Lee had joked earlier when chatting about the 'toolboxes' that we should have a group photo of the builders stood behind them, lol, like below picture.

We weren't able to do it, but this was the next best thing..... which explains why mine wasn't where I'd left it.

Before I knew it, it was final group photos time, droids, droids & builders and droids with the MK Garrison.

The public took photos as well, before we had to start to pack everything up.

The event finished at 4pm, with people still milling around as droids were being loaded up into their transports.

I managed to be the Tetris King again,

loading everything into the back of my car 😀

Thanks again to:

• everyone who came down on the day to support us! #Bristol 😎
• everyone who brought along their droid(s)!
• everyone who helped out (with anything)!
• everyone who donated to the Make a Wish charity! (see previous link above)

Mike is already look to next years event..... so for updates, follow me here on my Blog, on Twitter, FB & YouTube, click the likes and subscribe as these help the algorithms and help spread the news via suggested links etc.

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.