Scratch Made Coin Retuns

With my budget being rather small, but desperate to get my droid finished, I followed the advice of a couple R2 Builders and made my own out of left-over styrene. It took some patience, but it paid off, and I'm quite happy with them. In fact, I don't think aluminum coin returns would have fit in my droid. The styrene versions seem quite at home among the styrene skins I made.

I thought I had taken more pictures of them, but I don't seem to have more than this. Here are my coin returns prior to priming and painting:

Dome Process

I spent the majority of the time spent on my dome(s) just sanding. And sanding, and sanding, and sanding...which doesn't photograph very well. However, when the more "fun" stuff began, then I started taking pictures. Here's some pictures of my dome process:

Here are the inner and outer domes before cutting any holes in the inner dome.

My husband helped me score the circles with a circle cutting tool on his drill. Then we Dremmeled "tabs" that I could later remove and file & sand smooth.

Holes in the inner dome, ready to have the tabs removed.

Inner and outer domes (front view) with holes all cut and polished.

Inner and Outer domes (back view).


Both domes permanently together, main eye permanently attached.

Attaching the first "pie panel".

Several detail parts have been glued (using Liquid Nails) in and clamped for drying.

Parts drying.

Parts drying, inside view. (You can also see my "Uncle" Don autograph.) :)

Sterling Heights Library

August 23rd, 2008 was the Star Wars day for the Sterling Heights, Michigan public library. We made the 2½ hour drive there with R2 (and our kids) to participate.

This picture is sort of random, but I love it because it shows how my son was being so protective of R2. Once, a boy (older than my son) came up to see R2 and started punching R2. My son, said "NO! NO! NO! Not your R2!" My husband said, "It's okay, Benjamin." But I whispered, "No it really wasn't okay." I think the boy's mom heard Benjamin and told her son to stop. It was cute to see how protective Benjamin was of R2!

Star Wars: Clone Wars Premiere

For the premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie at midnight on the 15th of August, 2008 a small group of Rebel Legion and 501st members gathered at the request of the Celebration Cinema North Thursday night to entertain movie goers. R2 came along for his third event. I had to get a ride to the event with my brother since my husband worked until 10:00 (getting home around 10:30) and we were to arrive at 7:00. My brother intended to drive his family's minivan to work and then swing by my place to pick me, and R2, up. However, he forgot to drive the van, and instead drove his Dodge Neon. It was quite interested trying to delicately CRAM R2 into the backseat of the Neon! But, he fit (barely!) and we made it to my brother's house okay. Once we got to my brother's house, we transferred R2 to the van! When my husband got out of work, he joined us at the theater.

A.J.'s Star Wars Day

My R2's second "official" event was for A.J.'s Family Fun Center's Star Wars day on August 2nd, 2008. He was part of the photo booth area, helping to raise money for the Make A Wish foundation.

Here he is at the photo area.

Hangin' out.

Me and Artoo.

R2 with one of his biggest fans, my daughter.


And of course, he picks up new fans where ever he goes:

(This trooper added his own caption!)

Building Journal

My R2 Building and Events Journal
(after collecting parts for 5 years & some preliminary building, the REAL stuff began)

• 8-23-08, Saturday. Took R2 (still in same unfinished condition, poor little guy!) to his fourth event. Sterling Heights Public Library in Sterling Heights, Michigan was having a Star Wars day there. R2 again took his post in the photo area, this time helping to raise money for the Friends of the Library.
• 8-14-08, Thursday. Took R2 (still the same, unfinished, condition) to his third event, the Star Wars: Clone Wars movie premiere at Celebration Cinema North in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Found out he will fit in the back seat of a Neon, though not advisable!)
  
• 8-2-08, Saturday. Took R2 (still in same unfinished condition) to his second event at A.J.s Family Fun Center's Star Wars day. He helped out at the photo booth again, and again helped raise money for Make A Wish.
  
• 6-28-08, Saturday. Took R2 (such as he is) to his first real event -with the Rebel Legion and 501st at the West Michigan Whitecaps baseball game, Star Wars night. We raised money for the Make A Wish foundation.
• 6-27-08, Friday. Finished putting outer skin on. Attached coin returns. Played around with door so it would stick better.
• 6-26-08, Thursday. Started attaching inner skin, but ran out of double stick tape. Got door cut out of skin & edges of door frame sawed off to fit opening in skin.
• 6-25-08, Wednesday. Jason & I notched frame for side vents, cut top off left side vent (to fit), and attached inner skin with screws & glued side vents in place.
• 6-23-08, Monday. Cut pill bottles for PSI light surrounds. Painted utility arm blocks black (to match rest of box). Glued pill bottles to dome behind milky plexi lenses. Double sided taped rest of movable HP to dome (I didn't want to epoxy it in case I needed to open it back up later). Glued large data port to frame.
• 6-22-08, Sunday. Jason & I worked on attaching power couplings and octagon ports. I spray painted the coin returns. Jason added blocks to the utility arm box to keep the arms from sinking back into the box too far. Started making grooves for the side vents. Glued PSI lenses (milky plexi) to dome.
• 6-20-08, Friday. Jason & I drilled holes in the logic surrounds & I mounted the lenses & fiber optics behind the front logics. Temp. taped back logic lens & lights. Temp. taped front logic lights.
• 6-19-08, Thursday. Put Velcro in dome to attach light kit. Made coin returns (X3) out of styrene and got them primed.
• 6-18-08, Wednesday. Can't do anything to wait for the Liquid Nails to dry.
  
• 6-17-08, Tuesday. Attached dome panels to dome. Scraped paint off detail parts before attaching; then attached HPs, logic surrounds, and dome bumps to dome.
• 6-16-08, Monday. Filed & sanded holes for main eye lens. Cleaned outer dome (inside) and inner dome (outside) and placed them together. Painted silver details on main eye & brown paint (for weathering and to hide the inside) on inside edges of main eye. Screwed main eye to dome(s).
• 6-15-08, Sunday. I removed all the tabs from the holes in the inner dome and filed & sanded the edges of holes smooth. Jason & I drilled holes for main eye through both domes, then cut holes for main eye lens in both domes. I re-cut opening for dome bumps & filed front logic holes to fit.
• 6-14-08, Saturday. Jason & I cut the rest of the holes in the inner dome and re-cut the ones we cut on Sunday.
• 6-13-08, Friday. Attached center vent box and coin slots. Sort of attached power couplings. Trimmed skin to fit power coupling. "Attached" sound (though it need soldering to work properly, tape doesn't do it).
• 6-12-08, Thursday. Filed top center vent inserts again to fit in surround. J.B. Welded remaining inserts.
  
• 6-11-08, Wednesday. Filed center vent inserts. J.B. Welded some of the inserts.
• 6-9-08, Monday. Painted utility arm box & center vent box black.
• 6-8-08, Monday. Jason & I put together the center vent box and started cutting holes in inner dome.
• 6-7-08, Saturday. Jason helped me "perfect" the utility arm box. I marked holes to be cut on inner dome.
• 5-31-08, Saturday. Took R2 (such as he is) to a prop party hosted by my brother.
  
• 5-30-08, Friday. Worked on utility arm box with Jason.
• Month of May: Sanded inner dome, sanded inner dome, sanded inner dome, sanded inner dome...!
• 5-17-08, Saturday. Took R2 (such as he is) to the Motor City Comic Con to be part of the R2-D2 Builders' table there.
  
• 5-4-08, Sunday. Sanded inner & outer domes.
• 5-3-08, Saturday. Jason helped me with the utility arm box and coin slot block, made the large data port opening larger, and misc. figuring.
• 4-22-08, Tuesday. Sanded inner dome.
• 4-21-08, Monday. Sanded inner dome.
• 4-14-08, Monday. Sanded inner dome.
• 4-4-08, Friday. Weathered main eye. Scraped excess blue paint from main eye. Glued lens to main eye.
• 4-3-08, Thursday. Cut tubing to 12" and inserted into foot cables.
• ?-?-08. Purchased faux metal shelf liner for leg to body hubs.
• ?-?-08. Purchased tubing to insert into foot cables to prevent crushing.
• 8-4-07, Saturday. Took R2 (such as he is) to the Midwest Builders' Gathering at Tom Jozwiak's house. Received foot cables from Tom.
• 8-2-07, Thursday. Tried to tape ankle bracelets to ankle (didn't work). Ran "dummy wire" through shoulder & body down leg & out ankle, into battery box. Put legs back on body. Attached ankles to feet (permanently). Jason helped me cut key holes in shoulder horse shoe hubs & screwed to shoulder. Put screws in horse shoes and "hung" on hubs -in place.
• 7-31-07, Tuesday. Painted leg (shoulder) to body hubs again so they would be shinier.
• 7-30-07, Monday. Scraped paint off harnesses (more) & boxes, glued harnesses to battery boxes, glued knurled fittings to bat. boxes, screwed bat. boxes to feet, scraped paint off center foot & ankle cylinders, glued center ankle cylinders to center foot/ankle, weathered-painted leg where leg would should through booster covers, glued booster covers to legs.
• 7-29-07, Sunday. Scraped paint off battery box harnesses so pieces would glue. Glued bottom pieces on harnesses. Glued ankle cylinder holders, cylinders, & wedges in place on ankles. Jason helped me drill holes for battery/motor wire in ankles & battery boxes and drill holes for knurled hose fittings.
• 7-28-07, Saturday. Continued to scrape paint so cylinders, cylinder holders, & wedges would glue to ankles. Scraped paint so ankle details would glue. Adjusted wedges so they sit flush against ankles and cylinders. Painted alu/silver details on booster covers and notches where under shoulder details go. Glued ankle details (& clamped).
• 7-27-07, Friday. Glued leg struts together, cut leg strut shaft to proper length, glued leg strut into booster cover, cut & sanded so ankle cylinders would fit ankles, scraped so shoulder hubs would fit in their holes again.
• 7-21-07, Saturday. Jason & I worked on box for utility arms, & backings for details parts in frame. (Cut pieces out of wood.)
• 7-7-07, Saturday. Finished clear coating feet, legs, etc. Repainted fixed HPs, ankle cylinders, leg struts, ankle details, & shoulder hyrdros silver/alu.
• 7-6-07, Friday. Painted feet, legs, ankles, battery boxes, skirt, horseshoes (used 4 more cans!) and started clear coating.
• 7-4-07, Wednesday. Painted feet, legs, ankles, batt. boxes , skirt, horseshoes (used 4 cans, 2 were used previously) and it STILL wasn't enough!
• 6-20-07, Wednesday. Sanded inner dome.
• 6-19-07, Tuesday. Sanded inner dome.
• 6-18-07, Monday. Sanded front logics & fit them to alum panel for dome. Other misc. figuring.
• 6-16-07, Saturday. Painted black parts on HPs (x2). Sanded inner dome.
• 5-26-07, Saturday. Took R2 (such as he is) to "Alternate C4" at Darryl Sorensen's house in Beloit, WI.
• 5-25-07, Friday. Jason & I worked on attaching dome, center foot, & legs.
• 5-24-07, Thursday. Painted "alu" parts. Repainted utility arms, large data port, & main eye.
• 5-23-07, Wednesday. Started painting legs & feet, ran out of paint.
• 5-22-07, Tuesday. Painted all blue parts.
• 5-21-07, Monday. Sanded dome panels & power coupling greeblies. Washed panels & greeblies and wiped with rubbing alcohol. Washed/wiped with alcohol: dome ring, octagon ports, power couplings, coin slots, battery box harnesses, and ankle details. Looked at pictures and watched ANH for research into paint details.
• 5-20-07, Sunday. Sanded more on inner and outer domes and dome panels.
• 5-19-07, Saturday. Sanded inner & outer domes. Sanded dome panels. Sanded shoulder horse shoes.
• 5-18-07, Friday. Sanded some parts. Sanded & filed parts that were J.B. Welded. Primed a bunch of parts. Jason helped me put the half moons on the outer & inner feet. I put the other details on the outer feet.
• 5-17-07, Thursday. J.B. Welded holes in resin parts.
• 5-16-07, Wednesday. Sanded & cut sprues off resin parts, washed resin parts with alcohol and soap & water. Dried and re-wrapped/relabeled everything. Got gas pipe & flanges and more paint.
• 5-15-07, Tuesday. Sanded & cut sprues off resin parts.
• 5-14-07, Monday. Sanded resin parts.
• 5-12-07, Saturday. Cut sprues off resin, sanded resin.
• 5-11-07, Friday. Finished filing panels. Started cutting resin.
• 5-10-07, Thursday. Filed dome & panels.
• 5-9-07, Wednesday. Cut panels off dome. Filed dome & panels.
• 5-8-07, Tuesday. Watched ANH and looked at pictures for research and inspiration.
• 5-7-07, Monday. Got resin parts in the mail from Keith Henry.

Fan Art?

On June 29th, my oldest sister Amy and her family (visiting from Arizona) came to a birthday party for my daughter. While at our house, my nephew David took a picture of my [incomplete] R2. He later took that image and enhanced it using Photoshop. This is what he sent me today:


I think he did a really cool job.