May 4th Event
Very exciting start to the month with the beloved International Star Wars Day. I headed down to my favorite place in the world,
Echo 3, the Star Wars inspired coffee shop I always rant on about.
I organized and planned the day to help get some people through the door of a local business that is important to me and it went down a storm!
Everybody loved R2 and the day in general with plenty of questions being asked. It was kind of amusing to see all the dads and husbands really
interested in R2, asking about how it's made, the R2 Builders Club, can they make one etc and the thing I found most funny was quite a lot of the
time as soon as the other half came in they suddenly made themselves scarce! One thing that really stuck with me though was the experience of a small
girl who fell in love with R2 quite clearly...
She had obviously seen R2-D2 in the movies before as when she walked through the door I was doing repairs (pretty standard) and she instantly came over to
talk to him (yeah, him...not Me...him...) She was asking all sorts of questions such as, and I quote..." Why are you tickling his insides" and "Do you know
what you're doing?" Don't know and hopefully were my honest answers... Since R2 doesn't move or even spin his head and at this point, so he wouldn't have
seemed very real I'd have thought. She kept asking questions about him, some related to the build as if she knew he wasn't real but then others about where
Luke and C-3PO were. The day passes on, and she has stuck to R2's side better than Dichloromethane to Styrene and PLA (any of you builders giggle at that
then you're awesome) but it was finally time for her to leave with her family as I learned that they had traveled to Darlington from Cumbria just for the
event which was fantastic.
Upon leaving, the little girl gave R2 a hug and asked a question she had asked during the day about why he was so quiet, I finally gave her the answer that R2
was extremely shy as he's never been here before but perhaps next time he will be a bit more out of his shell. I told her that you can hear R2 if you listen
carefully and if R2 really likes you so she gave him a hug and the parent inside thought how sweet it was, the builder inside was screaming to watch the styrene, don't knock the grebels etc. During her very long hug with R2 her head was luckily right where the speakers were placed, so I managed to lean over and discretely hit his controller causing him to reconnect and make some sounds. The look on her face was enough to remind me why we do what we do as builders.
Safe to say she was giggling with joy all the way home. A couple of times I stood behind R2 and again slightly moved his dome with my hand whilst nobody was looking, adding to the magic of course.
The reason he was so shy was because I hadn't actually got him an actual amp. He only had a preamp, so I went and ordered one and it turned up and now I cannot
get him to shut up. I do think I blew a speaker though... but you want watch it here.
but you want watch it here.
Click Here to see the rest of the images and videos from May 4th.
T3 Builders Group
After Scarborough and the May 4th Event, I don't have any events planned now until R2UK in August. I decided to do some more work on my next droid, T3-M4.
I created a group, the T3 Builders Group which as you probably already know is focused on building the T3-M4 Utility Droid from the Knights Of The Old
Republic 1 & 2 games. Very difficult as there are no plans, so we kind of have to just go with what we can spot and work out but getting there. We are getting
some 3D files sent up soon which I'm trying to create a T3 site for the host all the plans mostly as a backup encase Facebook ever goes down or anything
but simply because I can and I want to...
I've started to build the main frame for T3 although I've had to change the measurements and angles to suit as they weren't working in the slightest!
3D Re-Prints
Since I've got some time now I am reprinting some of the early parts for R2 such as his holoprojectors, vents and various grebles. Mostly because I was in
a rush to get him done I was still testing the printer so the prints are patchy and pretty bad. I've since had my printer over a year now and think I
have got a pretty good profile, so I'm reprinting the parts starting with the holoprojectors. Very happy so far with how they're coming out and really
taking my time to sand them down and fill them and then off to paint them. I will however be sanding his dome and re-painting it.
I'm pretty happy so far with how the reprints are coming however I do need to crack on with finishing him off in the sense of getting him moving,
printing the battery boxes etc.