AL at Denver Comic Con

Instead of posting the usual plethora of pics, I'm just going to post these three videos.  They were taken by various attendees of the very first Denver Comic Con.  20,000+  congoers showed up at the convention center last weekend to see their favorite comic book artists, celebrities, movie cars, costumes, and of course, droids.  Now, I've gotta tell you I never buy any art work at these scifi conventions, but the quality was so good I had to buy a couple pieces of artwork, including a comic art piece with the Peanuts gang in a SW setting (imagine Snoopy as Vader!).  And it's companion piece, the gang in LOTR (Snoopy as Gandalf!). You get the idea.  I'll try to find pics of them.

And the videos for your viewing pleasure:



Enjoy!!  And make plans now to come to Denver Comic Con 2013.  I hear Stan Lee will be our guest of honor.!

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka (in the middle of scifi con season)

So, I've decided to work on a lightsaber, something sithish that matches AL (bronze and grey).  This website was posted on the astromech forums, www.thecustomsabershop.com, and I decided to give the saber build tool a try.  Here's what I came up with.  Of course, they want you to buy all the parts, but it's not a bad deal.  Probably will cost me about $75 to $100 for a custom saber.  I'll definitely paint it myself, however the powder coating option looks good to me!

And another update:  I've almost completed the victorian paletot (jacket), the black velvet one. 

Just need to add inner sleeves.

Some of the trim.

Three of these beauties that I found on ebay will be on the points of the back flaps.

And these awesome victorian buttons I found at JoAn Fabrics!

And now for some AL updates:
I'm hooking up two 12v batteries in parallel to give his foot motors some more boost.  I'm also fixing/redoing the foot locks.  A couple local friends gave me some scrap aluminum to fix the center vent skins (I might do that today, along with the foot locks).  I've also started some soldering, but it's really messy, might have to hire someone to solder in his lights for me.  In the meantime, he's been on the news!  Take a look at Dan Daru's morning show on Fox:

http://kdvr.com/2012/04/20/dans-day-at-starfest/

AL's in all three, but the one where he rolls towards the camera was not posted.  Oh well, maybe next year. 

AL's planned events:
Jun 15-17, 2012          Denver Comic Con
Aug 17-Sep2, 2012     SW Celebration 6 (CVI)
Oct 28, 2012               Hauntings at the Hangar
Nov 2-4, 2012             Nebraskon
Feb 8-10, 2013            Galaxyfest
April 19-21, 2013       Starfest
And any other holiday, local 501st events, etc that he's invited.  The above list uses up my 20 days  of vacation, so any other events will have to be on a Friday or Saturday locally.

And speaking of a local event:  June 30th (a Saturday) at my place will be a droid/armor build day.  If you are reading this and want to come, email me for details and directions. 

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka (envisioning me controlling my droid in a victorian outfit!  LOL)

Two Events, One Weekend Part 3

Our entry's title was "Universe of Imagination", and this group made it truly universal.  Colorado is honored to have one of the more unusual and mobile groups in the nation:  the Colorado Movie Car Club!  This group certainly gets around, going to events throughout the country.  They draw a crowd everywhere they go.  As their name group says, these are the guys (and gals) that hunt down cars and transform them into movie car replicas.  Think General Lee, KITT, Ecto mobile from Ghostbusters, Umbrella Corp car, the emergency vehicles from Emergency!, even a Scooby Doo van.  Unfortunately the Love Bug couldn't make it, but the Starsky and Hutch car and the Jurrasic Jeep were there!  Here's a few pics of their gorgeous cars, and look them up on FB (they have a short video of the pre-parade).

They had about a dozen cars there, and all were big hits with the crowd.  Personally I've been hunting down a '69 Barricuda hatchback (the car I learned to drive) and converting it to a Mad Max type of vehicle, or a yellow Cuda to make Nash Bridges' car.  Either way, someday I will get a Cuda and make it into something so I can join this group.  Or as a member of the Umbrella Corp, maybe I can just hang with that gorgeous black Umbrella SUV!! (hmmm, I might have to make another Umbrella car). 

After the parade everyone was so tired that we just hopped onto the float or into the truck so Jen could drive us back to the lightrail station.  Took an hour just to get out of the parking lot at the end of the parade (vehicles in parade only!).  And once out of the parking lot, everyone was directed to get on the freeway, whether you wanted on or not!  Imagine a long line of trucks and cars pulling trailers trying to get on the freeway and get off just as quickly.  I thought the whole traffic situation was total bull!!!  Another long trek on the trains, and finally I was home by 4:00pm.  Usually we hit the Tilted Kilt (the TK) after the parade then go home, but no one went out afterwards.  After eight hours in costume, riding trains, walking to staging areas, standing around for three hours, an hour and a half to get through the parade itself, getting back to the station, riding trains back home, I tore off my costume and crashed on the couch for an hour before working on AL again.  Can you say "exhaustion"????  Not sure if I can do this again next year...

Part 4 is the second event of the weekend, the Rialto Theater screening of ROTJ!!  Longer day but much more fun!!  Look for that blog within a day or two...

Until next time,
an overly exhausted jawa, dreaming of the Cuda of her youth.  I've got the day off to goof off.
Jawa Jaka

Two Events, One Weekend Part 2

And now the parade!! Meg and I were the banner carriers. We followed the Spring Bear Pow Wow native american dancers. Half way through I had a headache from all the drum beating, but was amazed at how the kids were able to dance the entire two mile route!! I was told to look serious, but couldn't help laughing the whole way. You could hear the roar from the crowd as we approached, many of them running up to us for photo ops! I'll just give you a few of Bill's pics to look at:



Our float, a handbuilt skiff with Luke and the Bounty Hunters Guild.

Our special guest on the right is Kevin Anderson, author of the later Dune series and a few SW books.  His wife, SW author Rebecca Moesta was also on the float.  We were very honored to have them as our guests of honor.  They are such good friends of all our local groups.

Our garrison attitude has been and will always be a "Can Do" one.  Our newest member, Todd, proved that right, as he marched through the entire route in his wheelchair.  Goes to show SW is for everyone, young and old, handicapped or not.  I'm proud to serve in a garrison that accepts all who have the love for SW!

Rumor has it that Bill took over 300 pics of our entry during the parade.  Obviously I can't fit them all here, but I hope this gives you an idea of what fun we had.  And on to Part 3, a very special group that joined us! 

and still more...

Jawa Jaka



Two Events, One Weekend Part 1

Actually I was suppose to do three events this weekend including one Monday night, but by the time Monday rolled around I just could not do another event.  Way too tired with a splitting pressure headache!  I spent all day Friday putting in AL's foot wedges (blogging on that later with pics), packing up stuff, and checking the lightrail schedule.  Saturday was the big event, St. Patty's Day Parade!  Sunday was a special screening of the Return of the Jedi at the Rialto Theater in Loveland, CO.  Monday night was a book signing at the Tattered Cover with my good friend and SW author Christie Golden.  Sorry to say I missed the Monday night event.

Denver has the second largest St. Pat's Parade in the country, and this year was the 50th anniversary of the parade.  With all the construction going on downtown, twice as many revelers in the downtown area, twice as many floats in the parade, and no parking downtown, the logistics this year was horrendous!  My day started at 6:00am to feed the cats and put on my Imperial Officer uniform.  I had to make sure everything I needed could fit in one pocket (including my inhaler).  Drove to the Nine Mile station, jumped on the H-line, and headed for the Broadway station where everyone in the MG was meeting.  The RTD security officer took one look at me and asked if I had any weapons!  I had to explain to him what my costume was so he could calm down a very fussy mother and her little boy (she thought I was a terrorist).  Got to Broadway OK, met with the gang, everyone suited up, then we had a mob scene as we took a group photo on the ramp.

On the lightrail platform



On the Train

We got off at 27th and Welton, then trooped in full gear a half mile through a neighborhood just to get to the staging area for the parade.  I think it gives a new meaning of neighborhood watch!!

Since there were so many entries this year in the parade we sat around, taking the occasional group photo, for three hours in the hot sun before we stepped off down the route.  Here's some pre-parade photos:

501st Mountain Garrison

Bill, our photographer (all of these pics are his)

Some of our goofiness

The KTB (Kilted Trooper Brigade)

Ghostbusters Group (who ya gonna call?)

The Kilted Ghostbuster/SW mashup (more silliness)

The RMFF (Rocky Mountain Fan Force)

All the groups in our entry in one place!

I'm running out of room on this blog, so the next one is the parade itself.

Don't go away,

Jawa Jaka





Umbrella Corp at Galaxyfest 2012

So, this past weekend I was at Galaxyfest, a brand new scifi con in Colorado Springs.  It was a blast, and if they do it again next year AL and I will be back for sure!  AL had his own table in the back of the dealers room for security reasons (OK, he shared it with Sauron).  The table next to me was RL/RMFF!  What fun we had, all of us in the back of the bus!  (reference to Riddick)  The 501st was out front with one officer at that table, another officer wandering the halls, and me in my officer in the dealers room.  Yep, we Imperial officers had all bases covered and secured!  LOL 

Another hobby of mine (can anyone have too many hobbies?) is anything Resident Evil.  You must know that I'm not a gamer by any means, but I do love to look at game scenes and the movies are fabulous if you're into bloodie zombies and groups of people running for their lives (which I am into those things).  This past summer I went to the Army surplus store and plopped a couple hundred bucks for everything I need for an Umbrella Corp soldier.  Of course, I spent a couple months researching this uniform and decided to go with the game one, complete with gas mask and all!  At Galaxyfest I decided to wear it Saturday afternoon and ran into a Racoon City "cop".  We both made our way to the FantaScenes photography booth and had this pic done for us.  My friend Don Searle, the photog, even had it "comicized" for us (like my made-up word for the day?). 

I'll post some more pics this weekend.  A few friends already posted pics of AL all over the internet.  I've got some work to do on him before March 18th, his next event at the Rialto Theater in Loveland, CO for the E3 screening.  Then it's Starfest time third weekend of April at the DTC Marriott. I've already joined the local Umbrella Corp group.  Hmmm, need to get AL a gas mask?

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka (avoiding zombies at all cost)

Sauron the Scrubber

Last September I visited a friend in Omaha and picked up a scrubber droid from him that he started way back when.  With the EP1 3D premiere happening this weekend, I've been really busy trying to get Sauron finished (he has one event on Friday Feb 10th and two on Saturday Feb 11th).  I'm also busy working on a Naboo Officer uniform to go with him.  Here are some progress pics:

The hardest part was the radar.  Here you see an old cookie press I picked up at a garage sale some years ago for a buck.  Took me several months to figure out what I can use this for after cannibalizing it.

This was taken apart before I took the pic, so just imagine this.  At the bottom of the plunger is a disk that pushes out the cookie dough (I tried to take a pic of what it kinda looked like before I took the disk off).

Now you can see the results.  I drilled a bigger hole in the middle, put a plug through it (bolted on back), and it really looks like the scrubber radar!  And to think an old cookie press was sitting in a drawer with no use for years!!!

Next came what we call "deer warnings" that came with old cars.  Mine is just a cut-up wooden dowel painted metallic silver and super-glued onto the "risers" that came with the scrubber.

I've been working on this little box for a couple weeks now (also came with scrubber).  It's nothing more than a small plastic tackle/craft box with a piece of a circuit board cut to shape, painted yellow, and super-glued on the left. Some black wooden slat pieces glued at the top of the circuit board.  I have the doodads for the right side, just got to glue them in place.  Shouldn't take more than an hour to finish.

Sauron's one eye, thus the name.  I was tempted to paint it red inside, but it's all glued together now.  If you're lucky enough to end up at a hospital like I was, you'll end up with a very extra large car cup. Silver ring is the lid to that cup, tab cut off, painted metallic silver, screwed onto body with flathead screw through straw hole.  Cut out some old circuit boards to fit (or one large round one if you like), screw those into place using any holes in the boards themselves (I even super-glued it on first then screwed it in).  Top it all off with half a plastic christmas ornament glued onto the inner rim of the lid.  Simple and free (if you don't count the hospital bill! LOL).

Speaking of circuit boards, found this old DIM memory board.  Screwed that on the side for good measure.  Just wanted something that looked neat on the side.

This takes some imagination.  This is a heavy black plastic flower pot I found at Goodwill last week.  It had a very large rim on it that I cut off.  The top of the scrubber has an added funny half-circle shape that has a cutout on the front end and tubes sticking out the back end.  It's done in two to three parts, with a Korky toilet scrubber holder cut to shape in the front and whatever you can find for the back.  The Korky part fits over the top end of this pot beautifully, and the tubes will be attached on the bottom (very hard plastic, so it should hold wonderfully).  I've already bolted on the Korky part and painted the whole think yellow.  The entire length is 11.25".  Officially it's suppose to be 11".  1/4" longer for a found object that cost me $3, not bad!!!! 

In this pic you'll notice that I repainted the whole thing a brighter yellow, cleaned up the black stripes, and started attaching things to it.  Since this pic I've added the silver tape to the corners, handmade a mounting attachment for the radar out of scrap aluminum (sturdy but kinda springy), and finished up the top portion (gotta bolt it on).

And you won't believe the drive system!!!  If I ever decide to make a true robotic drive system at least I'll have an awesome Hummer to play with!!!  LOL

Yep, Sauron has his very own mounting rack ontop of the truck.  Nothing but the best for my Sauron!  He drives in style!  How come my droids get cool toys to drive and I'm stuck with an old Subaru?? 

That's all for now.  I'll get final pics up as soon as I can.  If anyone wants to see him in person, I'll be at AMC Westminster Promenade Feb 10th 6:00pm, AMC Highlands Ranch Feb 11th 11:00am, and Harkins Theater Feb 11th 6:00pm.  Now to get the Naboo Officer finished.  Sorry, no time to document that build.

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka (wishing I had a Hummer!)