Old Events - BWW-MAW troop, 10-30-10

Here's another one that flew by under the radar.

Since Goose and I are regular patrons at our local Buffalo Wild Wings, we were able to arrange a charity troop, where the restaurant donated 10% of their sales all day on a Saturday to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. All we had to do was troop...so troop we did!

This turned out to be a great event, especially since we only advertised at the company I work for, and roadside during the event (standing by the street, waving at the cars driving by) and still managed to raise $550. The manager of the store said it was their best Sat all fall, and Bama wasn't even playing that day!

Anyway, on to the pics, random as usual...
















Lastly for this event, a quick story that you might not even believe...
Several pics above, there's a server in an Auburn jersey. When I brought R2 into the store, she asked me "What's you robot's name".... can ya believe it? I couldn't.

Old Events - Build-a-bear 9-25-10

So it's only just come to my attention that I missed posting a couple of events here.

First, the Build-A-Bear workshop event down in Orange Beach, AL. Event was 9-25-10.

Anyway, LFL had asked the 501st to assist with promoting the event with an appearance. Since I don't really plan to ever wear armor again, with the notable exception of the once annual "active status" trooping, I took R2 instead of an armor bin.

Here's pics:







Since I didn't take the pictures (as usual) there are only a few of R2, but many more of the "gang"...



Riding on the Ferris Wheel...


Searching for Droids...


One of those multiple workstation shots:


The Build-A-Bear Force Choke:


And TB craziness...those trees can be troublesome.

Shinies!

Lookie! Got some shinies in the mail today when I got back in town:





They'll still need a little sandpaper around some of the edges before they get a coat or two of primer, but boy these things are pretty! It's almost a shame I have to paint them.

I don't think I'll be putting them on the A&A feet though. Not unless I get a little more onfo on where the JAG feet holes are, and transfer that info to the A&A.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Repairs Finished

Well, got R2 put back together.

The damaged area is still visible, but it looks more like weathering than having been in a car wreck...



the paint that's missing on the panel came off on the tape that held it in place whilst it was being siliconed back on:



Sure wish I'd have thought about that, but I'll live with it.

For the footshell I went a step further this time, and used the good old "poor man's fiberglass". Or maybe it's actually "Lazy man's fiberglass"...I forget what I called it previously.
Basically it's more CA glue, but this time with the addition of some T-shirt material for strength:



Here's the finished product:



I'm not happy about having had to move the middle screw (right where the damage was) from the inner skin to the outer skin, but the dent in the frame in that exact spot meant the skins would be separated otherwise.

All in all, we're going to score this one as a win!

Damage repaired

Well, repairs are underway at least, if not complete.

Here's how I did it:



Used a piece of the leftover skin panels and a ball peen hammer to "tap" the bent pieces back into shape.


The inner skin after repair:





Note the good old metal brake, from the motor mount creation process. Made a fairly nice anvil. Also the vinyl, to "protect" the paint... and the unused panel from the skins to make sure the curve was right.

Those things are worth their weight as straight edges and forms, so don't throw them away. Ever. Put 'em in a box and hide it. You might need 'em.

As you can see from the "overhead" veiw in the next pic, it's not perfect:



Some reason I started taking fewer pics during this process, so there's not really a pic of the inner skin by itself after repairs, although you can see it in some later pics that aren't about the bent part.

Here's pics of the skins layered together, the way they fit on the frame:





Again, not "factory spec", but pretty darn close. The panel that I pulled out to straighten just kinda stayed there for the pics, it's not glued in place yet. That'll happen once the skins are back in place.

And, I mentioned these buggers in the previous post:



Note the pretty holesaw damage on the top vent...that's from the holes I drilled for the speakers last year. I probably mentioned that at some point or another, but there's proof.

You'll also notice the fun little addition there a panel over...that's right, I remember to glue the magnet in place for the restraining bolt. I probably won't use it much, since it could walk away so easliy, but I can if I want to now...

Back to the vents. Rather than build a frame to go around the vents, I decided to rely on old faithful PolySeamSeal yet again:





PolySeamSeal brand silicone has held the skin panels and the coins returns on admirably, so it's getting a chance to hold the vents in place now.

Lastly, I took the outer skin outside and gave it a little touchup:



Looks brand new in that light doesn't it?

Ok, so that's all for now. Gotta wait at least until tomorrow to let all the silicone cure some before thinking about reassembling R2. And spending some time sitting and staring, making sure there's nothing else I wanna do before putting it all back.
And spending time wishing WoMo's most excellent side vents were easier to deal with when mounting them back again...

Next time :)

Damage Report

So, if you've been following, you know about the RMH thing in the previous post. That's what I'm working on. Title sounds a little "Trekkie" doesn't it?

On a side note, my photobucket is just about full. I've had a second one for a while, but now R2 pics will have to go into it...

Anyway...I think I'll show the damage in detail in this post, then how I fixed it and what it looks like after repairs in the next post. Just to break it up some and keep it from having 50 pics

So, here's what we started with:


Here's R2 up on the stand, coming apart:





Here's some closeups after removing the panel, to show how the skins were separated:





Here's the outer skin pre-repair:



And what it looked like up against a "straight edge"...actually one of the leftover panels from the skins that has the correct curvature to it:



For some reason I only took one pic of the inner skin's damage:



And here's a couple of shots attempting (poorly) to show the damage to the frame:





Oh, and there's this problem too:



The center vents were hot glued in place, and all the traveling R2 has done lately has involved some waiting in the car. Heat in the car's not good for hot glue FYI...

So that's what we're working with...

See the next post for how I fixed it and what it's looking like now.

Post R2LA report

Well, had a good time out at R2LA. Big thanks go out to Mike Senna for letting so many people come over to his house and hang out all day long. Only problem is...I didn't take any pics :(
Highlights included CuriousMarc's 2-3-2 that works, and the chicken races. Good food all weekend, Lamppost pizza, Panda Express, Red Robin...did I just hear a "yum" in the background?

Rather than post links to other people's videos and pictures without permission, I'll post a link to Astromech.net, where they posted links...that's kosher, right?
CLICK HERE...
Check out page 6, towards the bottom.