Con-X KC

This past weekend, September 14th-16th, I attended my first convention as a "guest" rather than just a normal con-goer. The convention was very tiring, and my R2 was a huge success, even though he wasn't finished. This con however, was very small....smaller than anyone was thinking. It was a Con that was held over 3 days, however it really only needed to be held on Saturday. Friday and Sunday were unbearably slow! It did give me a chance to meet the local 501 guys and learn more about them and how to join their organization! We all went to dinner Saturday night, and it was a fantastic time! This coming Saturday, I will be photographing the 501st at the Lego Store, in Overland Park, KS, so if you're reading this, and in the area, come on out!!! Lastly, here are a few photos of our booth from the convention. The man sitting at the table is a fellow droid builder named George, and the completed droid belongs to a 501 member named Gary!

And here is the only photo of me that I could find!!

"Eye" of the droid.

Risin' up, back on the street. Did my time, and took my chances. Went the distance. Now i'm back on my feet. Just a droid, and his will to survive. So many times it happens too fast (WWSD!). You trade your passion for glory. Don't lose your grip on Leia's dreams of the past. You must battle, to survive! It's the, eye of the droid. It's the thrill of the hunt. Risin' up to the challenge of our rival. And the last known survivor... Vader. So yes, I am excited. The dome is "El Fin" as it were, or done. Well, not completely, but it will receive NO work for a long period of time. In fact, I will not even attempt to hinge it until the rest of the droid is complete. For starters, here's a look at my new David Shaw Radar Eye.

The most important steps is making sure you mask the eye properly in the correct places. For me, I also masked the edges of the eye.

Finally, got some paint on there and let it dry.

And now...the big finale. Here is the dome, in all it's glory. I am MORE than happy with how it turned out, however, I do feel like I mounted the eye just a little high! So without further ado, here you go! Enjoy!!

Here is a close up shot of the side details. I am rather happy with how they turned out.

Now for some skin work. With some luck, my skins will be attached by Thursday! Cheers!

Lights video!

FINALLY!! The lights are fixed!!

Those who know me, know I have been having an issue with my front PSI not working. After spending a LONG time talking with a good friend, he suddenly had a thought that maybe my aluminum PSI housing was causing a short on the front PSI. So, today, I finally removed the front PSI......removed it from the holder....plugged it in, and BOOM. Son of a gun worked! Every single light on that damn dome illuminated with all it's glory as I was declared victorious!!! Here are some photos to show the monumental occasion.

ULTIMATE Dome Topper.

I have labeled this dome topper, ULTIMATE, simply because it cost me $2.19 after tax. Basically, my dome topper consists of the "golden ring" from the 300mm dome, two washers, a wing nut and a small carriage bolt.

The first step, was to spray the carriage bolt with self etching primer.....as seen here!

Next on the list was to secure the "golden ring" to the dome. To do this, I used GE Silicon II.

Here you can see the ring secured to the dome. It's perfectly center....how do I know? I eyeballed it.

After securing my ring, I went outside to spray some blue paint on my topper.

After letting it dry, and applying a liberal amount of clear coat, it was time to install and tighten with the wing nut.

and yes, I think it's pretty "ultimate".

New dome bumps.

For my dome bumps, I simply used carriage bolts. I found some at Home Depot that had no writing on them. I simply primered and painted them, and they were good to go. I am all about doing things simple and this is as easy as it gets. Here are where they're going to go!

To make things easy, I 'roughly' marked the center of each circle, and took a 1/2" drill bit and used it to drill through my 'center'

After a few short minutes, I had dome bumps installed!

It is important to note however, that these carriage bolts have a "square" piece under the head of the bolt. Therefore, to get the nuts tight on the opposite side, you need a washer that goes OVER the square, this way you can get the nut tight. Here is a photo of the inside of the dome.

Painting the HPs.

First, let me say that I think I have finally addressed my lighting issues. There was a loose pin on the arduino that eventually fell off, once I soldered a new pin on, plugged it in, everything worked EXCEPT the front PSI, which I have an idea (actually, it's my friend Don's idea). So, now that that's taken care of, let's talk about painting HPs. At first, they were going to remain all silver. I liked the look, I was thrilled. However, I then noticed thanks to Edwardo that in "A New Hope" that R2's Holoprojectors are almost always painted in some fashion or another. Since I decided to leave my rear panel unpainted (a la ANH) I figured I should keep with the trend and paint my HPs. So, I decided on a color scheme that was going to suit my best interests. I made each one different. Here is a photo of how I placed tape around the HPs so that I would only get paint on the cowl portion. It's also important to note that there is NO PRIMER PLACED ON THE COWLS. The reason for this, is because when the paint chips (remember, I plan to weather him), you'll see shiny aluminum underneath.

Now, for this step. I took a one of those scotch sponges, one with the yellow/green coloring. Using the green end, I lightly rubbed it around the cowls to simulate some weathering. I did it very lightly. After the light weathering was done, I went back and placed some clear coat over it. This should keep the paint fairly durable, but also will allow me to weather more if I need too.

Finally, here is a finished shot with them all installed. For the top, I went with a blue cone and a silver cowl.

The front one, I decided to do a blue cowl and a black cone.

And the rear HP had a silver cowl and a black cone.

That's all for now, we should have the Radar eye in the next two weeks, and the dome will be done!