West Michigan Whitecaps' Star Wars Night

I've been working feverishly to get my R2 "done" enough looking to take him to a Rebel Legion/501st event for the first time. R2's first event was a charity event for the Make a Wish foundation held at the West Michigan Whitecaps Baseball team's Star Wars Night tonight, June 28, 2008.

It was so fun seeing all the kids' reactions when they saw R2. One little boy, sitting on his father's shoulders nearly fell off when he saw R2 he was that excited! He kept shouting "IT'S R2-D2! IT'S R2-D2!!!".

I didn't get many pictures, since it's hard to "troop" and snap pictures at the same time, but here's one of my favorites:

Mieal Deneb (Rachel Orange) and Jacen Deneb (Jason Orange)
R2-D2

I'll post more on my progress to this point later, but for now I need to flop on the couch! It was a fun but exhausting day!

Motor City Comic Con 2008

Motor City Comic Con was May 16, 17, and 18, 2008. My R2-D2 went to MCCC with me May 17th, 2008 to be part of the R2-D2 Builders Club display. Here's how he looked:


The utility arm box was still not perfected, which is why his arms are kind of sticking out funny. To see the rest of my images visit: My Flikr Photostream

Many thanks to Mark Swartz who put everything together for the Builders booth. See you next year!

Grand Rapids RPF Prop Party

On May 31st, my brother hosted a prop party. My R2-D2 went along as did some of my costumes. I didn't get too many pictures, but here they are:

"Once you know worm, that's what you'll yearn!"

"NEVER read from the book of the dead!"

"Must be a probe of some kind."

"R2, you should know better than to trust a strange computer!"

"What do you mean, naked?"


An underweight glob of grease?

Progress!

At long last, the weather has warmed up and I can go outside and sand, cut, etc. and work on my R2 again!

Here's what I've gotten done so far, some with the help of my husband. :)

You can't really tell, but this is the utility arm box that my husband & I created. We made our own frame (before there were plans for such) and have had to alter and change it several times to fit detail parts in the skins. So, it's mostly a "trial and error" sort of system, but we finally got it right!`

Here's the box we devised for my R2's center vents. It will also house the sound system. I have two speakers (one is a box from Radio Shack that has a volume control) so I mounted those behind each vent. I have since painted the parts of the box that will show through the vents flat black . I still need to file the inserts for the vents so that they fit inside the surrounds better. Once I get that done, I'll attach them permanently to the surrounds and then attach them to the box and the box to R2's frame.

One step at a time, he's getting there!