R2-AL

Sauron the Scrubber

2012-02-05T12:02:00.000-08:00

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!)

Just a little extra

2011-12-07T08:30:00.001-08:00

I'm posting this pic because it's on my business card and I needed to post it online somewhere to send it as a PM to someone. I know, I'm not making much since today. Technology, ya gotta love it!!

In the meantime, I'm cutting some metal plates for his center foot casters so he can roll again. The wooden block I made cracked in half during Hauntings at the Hangar. His schedule this holiday season:
Friday 9th - Star Wars Bluray screening
Saturday 10th - Golden Christmas Parade (if he fits in the cart and if it's not snowing)
Saturday 10th - Open Cockpit Wings Over the Rockies (after parade or if it's snowing)
Friday 16th - can't remember but there definitely is something going on
Saturday 17th - Foothills Fashion Mall Toys-for-Tots in Ft. Collins
If you haven't met AL this is a great opportunity to see him in his Santa hat!

Jaka has a departmental luncheon, a company christmas party, and hosting the Christmas Eve Apres-ski party up in Breckenridge ski resort. I'll be in Breckenridge Dec 23-26, AL and the cats are staying home and having their own little party!

A Victoran Project

2011-11-11T14:00:00.001-08:00

I'm starting another project today that has nothing to do with AL or robots or even Star Wars for that matter. It kinda started last year when I was researching polanaise skirts for ren fair costumes. I found this pattern at Patterns of Time.

I decided not to get the pattern at the time because it looked to 1880's prairie-ish to me. And I was right! Just now ordered it 'cause that's kinda where my project is heading now. I also just ordered this pattern:

I'll be combining both patterns to get the look I want. I love the lapels and fringe on this one, but will not use the bell sleeves. In case your wondering, this is the steampunk outfit I did last April for Starfest:

It's a 1905 motoring coat with grandpa's pocket watches all over it. I made it in honor of the Time Machine that was suppose to come but didn't. I wore it anyway and got lots of compliments. I'm currently looking for a nice feminine safari hat to go with it. This year I decided to make something Victorian, even though I'm more of an Edwardian gal myself (love the costumes on Titanic!). I got the bug from my friend Melanie who had an awesome Victorian Society table at MileHi Con. And it's all starting with this:

I made this for my mom about ten years ago out of black velvet and the skirt portion of the short dress my mother's bridesmaid wore. It's a copper taffeta with embroidered roses (the wedding was copper and olive green while my dad wore his formal navy attire, married in the chapel on the San Diego Naval base). Yesterday I bought 6 yards of matching crinkled embroidered copper taffeta. See
if this was meant to be!

I'm in the process of taking off the brown ribbon and sequins. Three rows of seam ripping in two hours! Jeez, I might be finished by Christmas at this rate! I just don't think sequins goes well, however I'm leaving the gold loopy embroidery on (I like it!). I also bought 3 yards of matching black velvet. This will give you a good idea on what it will look like (use the pattern pics above for reference and your imagination):

I think Smokey is really looking forward to this project. She couldn't wait to try out the new fabric. Taffeta just feels soooooo good (and it's shiny!).

So there you have it. My new Victorian project (I'm not even going to call it Steampunk, no goggles or watches involved). Black velvet and copper taffeta. Now to find some matching copper fringe for the shoulders.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka (a Victorian jawa?)

Denver Roller Dolls troop

2011-10-19T21:31:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been awhile since I've posted. Well, I've been kinda busy lately, so I do have some excuses. Anyway, AL stayed home for this official Rebel Legion troop since he didn't want to get rolled over by the Denver Roller Dolls, a non-for profit roller derby team in Brighton, CO. You can check them out at www.denverrollerdolls.org or at their very active facebook page at www.facebook.com/denverrollerdolls. The Mountain Base, Mountain Garrison, and Rocky Mountain Fan Force turned out in full force (about 25 of us) to help the Roller Dolls with their annual Halloween night. There were four teams competing, and they were all dressed up as zombies! I noticed one girl had zombie blood all over her shirt, and I had to say "rough game, huh?". She laughed so hard!

So, here's a couple of pics of the event:

The Roller Dolls in all their bloody goodness!

Buckets On! (can you see me? the jawa)

Buckets Off!

I was not at this event, but I'm so proud of my garrison for the professionalism they showed on and off stage during the Weird Al concerts (there were two of them, and months of planning for both).

On a side note (but no pics), I got Sauron the Scrubby repainted with the black stripes in place, all the greeblies put back on, and am almost finished with the top part. I finally figured out what the antenna is made out of. I think it's the back part of an oven knob. I'm going to try that this weekend (if I can find one). Got lots to finish this weekend, so no events for me. Well, except that Friday night party with some of my pirate friends...

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka (busy on the scrubber droid)

I Remember

2011-09-11T16:33:00.000-07:00

I wish I had my camera on my way home tonight. A sight that truly surprised me. One of the overpasses that links the light rail to the other side of I-25 was completely covered in American flags, with about a dozen people on it waving more flags with one hand and waving to the cars below with the other. There was a banner that said "We Remember". Simple, no other words needed.

Earlier this morning as I was doing paperwork at my desk, I watched reruns of the memorial service on the internet. Some of it was very moving, but nothing to make me cry. Until they showed the actual ABC coverage of that horrible day. I was working at Target, watching it all unfold in the breakroom (I was suppose to be taking out the breakroom garbage) on Sept 11th. As I watched the rerun of the second plane coming in, my mind wandered back to that day, and the horrible image that has haunted me for the past ten years came full blown. And I cried hard for a solid ten minutes, unable to do my work briefly this morning.

The image that has stuck in my mind is watching in horror all those people jumping from the windows. I've often wondered if they were already dead and were blown out of those windows, or if they made the decision to jump. Much like the biblical Masada. I've wondered if I could make such a choice. Do I jump from 90+ stories to a certain quick death? Do I try to climb down the inferno? Do I hunch up in a ball waiting for the inevitable flames, passing out from the smoke and heat? What would you do?

I can't even fathom making those kind of choices. But history shows us that many peoples have had to make similar choices. Today, as I watch reruns of the service, admiring the memorial park with it's great pools and etched names, gawking at the wonderful building soaring high above the new trees, reflecting on the old tree that survived and what it stands for (many more people survived than died), I can't help but think how lucky we are in this country. We might have some problems with government, economy, joblessness, etc., but we are still standing strong! And those dozen people on that overpass just proved it to me.

I'm still proud to be an American. "I Remember"

AL is Rolling!!! and other fun stuff

2011-09-09T08:19:00.000-07:00

Well, after nine hours of driving to Omaha on Friday, eating tons of burgers and kraut dogs on Saturday, and having Moose take over AL for a couple hours, here's what you get (better video coming soon, I hope):

Oh, yeah, I also have a scrubber droid to finish now.

Other great photos of the Labor Day picnic at Moose and Jen's place:

Hanging at the food tent (way too much food)

The usual crowd shot (30 people showed up)

BBQ Crew (Moose on right, Ben on left, forgot middle guy's name)

Furry Group was there making tiger heads

Kinda looks like Snap! (Furry head maker extroidenaire)

Moose working on AL (he can't help himself)

A couple shots of AL's panel board (pretty neat)

OK, this one is sideways, but gives you a good idea

All in all, it was a great day with great food and friends.
Until next time,
Jawa Jaka (and pal AL rolling!)

AL's Events 2012

2011-07-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

I've added the list of AL's events in 2012 to the left sidebar. Already he has three events: Galaxyfest in February down in Colorado Springs (a fundraiser for the Colorado Literacy Foundation), his usual Starfest third weekend of April, and the humongous roadtrip to Orlando for CVI. I'll be making hotel reservations Sept 1st for CVI.

Events remaining for this year are kinda slim. He was suppose to go to Hauntings at the Hangar, a safe fun Halloween event for kids at Wings Over the Rockies. But since it's going to be on Sunday, I don't know if I can go. Maybe I can work 8-noon (half-day with 4 hours vacation) and get there about 12:30ish. I'll have to see. AL really loved being there last year passing out spider rings to the kiddies.

In September, if he's rolling pretty good, I'll have him do a little of the walk for JDRF, and in December there will probably be a Toys-For-Tots event AL will go to, but that's about it for events left in 2011. It's been a busy year with Starfest, Contagion Con, ESB screening at Loveland, etc. already, and he's got a bit of battle damage that needs repairing. That's what late summers are for, I guess. So, at this time AL is in the "upstairs" lab (the guest room) waiting for me to get to work on him. I finally got the right size belts for the foot drives, now to get everything back on.

On a personal note, my social calendar is a lot more full than AL's!!! Every Saturday (started in mid-June) from now until late August there is a BBQ, 501st event sans AL, or some local event I want to go to (like the "Cities of Splendor Italian Renaissance" at the Denver Art Museum). I'll be on vacation the first two weeks of September, staying home to work on backyard. I'll also be attending BrethrenCon, a two-day pirate emmersion weekend. I'm making the Tortuga Rum cakes. Yep, I'm a busy gal, but loving my summer so far....

Umbrella Corp Soldier at Contagion Con in Omaha (guess who!). I have to thank Moose for making this. I had sooooo much fun in the Zombie Crawl that morning. If anyone has vids or pics of the crawl, I sure would love to see them.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka (your social butterfly... uh jawa)

ESB Screening at Loveland

2011-06-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

So, I've decided to go backwards in time on these blogs. It seems my long term memory is getting shorter (sucks getting older!). And I have to search for photos of older events.

The first event up on this blog: ESB screening at the Rialto Theater in Loveland. This was a fundraiser for the downtown Loveland Bridge project, where a pedestrian bridge will join the Rialto with other businesses. It quite the downtown rivatlization undertaking, but very worth while. For more info on this project: http://www.rialtotheaterguild.org/

And the link to the Fan Force (http://www.theforce.net/) write up with a few pics (including AL): http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/Loveland_CO_TESB_Screening_Report_138960.asp

My favorite pic so far (hopefully many more will come including the "family portrait" of Vader and family):

The person who taped the skit of rebels vs snowtroopers that the Mountain Garrison did on stage before the movie is being edited as I type this. Hopefully I can post a link to it here. It was awesome. Ice Cream Maker dude came out in the end. It was AWESOME! Looks like both sides took a hit with bodies lying on the floor. IT WAS AWESOME!!!! Everyone laughed and cheered. AWESOME!!!!

I forgot how magnificent the movies are on the big screen. Not the best theater in the world but the picture quality was great, sound was a bit loud but not overwhelming (just a personal preference of not so loud sound, sucks getting old!), seats were clean and comfortable, view from the balcony was fun, everyone cheering and booing at just the right times in the movie. Yep, we LOVE our SW movies, and ESB is still the best of them all!!! Priceless moment: when Leia says "I love you" and all the guys in the theater said in deep whispers (in unison, mind you) "I KNOW". Beautiful to hear.

Next year the Rialto staff is planning to show ROTJ to continue the fundraising effort. AL and I will be there!

On a side note: AL's dome wasn't spinning on channel 3 like it did in Omaha, so Azman changed it to channel 1 temporarily. It worked for five minutes until the receiver battery went dead. I charged up all batteries except that one. Stupid me, and lesson learned: charge ALL batteries and definitely get spares.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka
(still LOVE the original trilogy, and even more now that I'm seeing them on the big screen again)

2011-06-17T08:02:00.001-07:00

I haven't blogged in awhile, and I promise over the next month I'll get everything caught up (Starfest, Robocon, Droidcon, Contagion Con, getting AL's dome to rotate, etc). However, I'm going to blog today about something that is painful for me to watch: the Great Missouri Flood.

Every year I take a road trip to Omaha to visit my friends and attend a con or two. Sometimes I'll go twice. Last week I attended the very first ever Contagion:Outbreak con, with AL in tow,at the fairly new and awesome Qwest Center, Omaha's new premier convention center . The R2-Central had a very strong showing and was one of the hits of the con. The Qwest Center overlooks the Missouri, so Denny took me to the glass wall to see the river. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! A fairly large metal sculpture was half-way under water, the boat docks were sinking, islands of trees half submerged, and the scariest was how fast the river was flowing. And that was just Saturday morning! By Sunday afternoon the water was within feet of the top of the levee on the Iowa side (Corps of Engineers had been sandbagging all weekend to keep it from collapsing).

Usually after a con we gather for a final feast at some restaurant. This was no different, so off to the Buffalo Wing Stop for burgers and wings. Our spirits were a little better, until Brad showed us a video on his iphone of billions of gallons of water rushing down the river in a heavy torrent. The flood gates were opened wide on a damn in S. Dakota, and the water was coming fast! By the next morning it arrived in Omaha and the towns south.

The big national news was the levee break in Hamsburg (?), Iowa, just south of Bellevue where Moose, Jen, and Brad live. My heart sank while watching the video of the levee breaking on the news. I knew then the BIG flood was upon the farming towns and communities along the Missouri.

This morning I checked my facebook, and I would like to repost a link of one man's arial photography of the damage done by the flood:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104592539075472798431/TheGreatMissouriRiverFloodOf2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCLLaoO7rm_qp1AE#

This is just one pic on another friend's facebook:

The skyscrapers in the background are downtown Omaha. The campground and river park in Bellevue, just a block from Moose is totally underwater. On Monday when Moose and I took our walk to the river, the water was up to the top of the bathroom door signs, roofline barely above water. Many farms are gone, I-29 is practically closed, most bridges are closed, sandbagging everywhere, railroad tracks being pulled up just to save the ties, people losing homes or wondering if they'll have a home after all this.

The Missouri is suppose to peak by today, Friday. Then hopefully the very long dry out. Unfortunately, with it still snowing in the mountains, and the snowmelt just getting started, I'm afraid more flooding is on the way. I'm still crying, and I pray for my friends and their families, and all the good people of Iowa and Nebraska along the river.

Until next time, may God and his angels keep watch over the people of the Missouri river,
Jawa Jaka

p.s. Larry Geiger, who took the arial photos, is allowing free use of these photos provided you donate to the Red Cross Flood Relief fund. I think that is generous and fair.

Dome Drive Kit Installed!

2011-02-19T18:45:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time, but I actually got something done on AL!! I installed his dome drive wheel. Now I just gotta hook up the speed controller, battery, and R/C. I'm determined that his dome WILL rotate by the St. Patty's Parade (after all, he's in it!).

An overall inside shot (not much but a reference for those with JAG 5 frames)

I also bought AL a gift for Starfest. You'll have to wait until after Starfest for pics to understand what this is all about (in other words, be patient!)

And on a personal note: I've been very busy the past month cleaning the inside of my RV. WHAT A MESS!! I lent it to a friend and his girlfriend who trashed it completely!!! I won't go into details, but he owes me LOTS of money for professional cleaners, cleaning supplies, new pillow cases, and any damages to the RV itself (like a missing tail light cover, wonder if the tail light works!). Lesson learned: DO NOT EVER lend any vehicles to someone who is filthy (and on drugs, I found out later!!). So, now that I'm not gagging and vomitting every time I get in the RV, I can get back to important things, like AL.

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka (a very unhappy jawa with a very trashed up sandcrawler :(

2011 Planned Events

2011-01-06T07:50:00.000-08:00

I've posted on the left side bar the planned 2011 Events for me and AL. It's going to be another busy year, including two new events I'm totally excited about.

1. The first event is the St. Patty's Parade. The RMFF has offered AL a seat in their float. If there's no room, then plan B is to pull him on the garden cart (heavy wheels and flip-down sides) fully decorated in green and plaid finery ("We've gone to PLAID!!"). My goal is to get his dome rotating and lit up by then. I won't worry about the drive system until April.

2. Starfest is Apri 15-17l, and I invite anyone who wants a complete scifi experience to join me, AL, and a bunch of other droids/robots. This year marks the first time RoboCon and the R2 BC joining together in one fantastic Robot Room. Check it out at RoboCon 2011.

3. May finds us in Indianapolis for the first ever DroidCon. A couple of us are planning an RV trip for this one, with a possibility of heading over to Niagara Falls afterwards (only 9 hours from Indy). 50 droid builders have signed up already. Even though this is a pseudo-private function of the R2BC, anyone who is interested in building a droid can come. There will be panels, displays, and lots of photo ops. This isn't really open to the public, but if you or someone you know wants to learn how to build one of these things, sign up! And don't forget to sign up at Astromech.net, official website of the R2BC.

4. In June another first! Contagion Outbreak in Omaha! This has been advertised for about a year! I was one of the first to sign up and will be getting a snazzy t-shirt. Jewel Staite of Firefly and Atlantis will be the main guest. Not bad for a first-time con! R2 Central will be well represented with lots of droids there. I'm sewing my "steampunk" outfit like crazy (I'll post progress later), getting AL ready (he'll be "steampunked", too), gathering up my Stargate stuff, and maybe a pirate or two outfits. This is gonna be good!!! Definitely will have to make the SW cookies for this one...

5. I'm hoping in July to make it to Osfest. This will be kinda iffy for now, since I'm planning another RV trip to Provo, Utah over the July 4th weekend with the Mountain Garrison. I've been invited to march in the parade that Monday in my officer outfit. Sorry, no droids for this one since it's a long route and no floats (unless we make our own droid float). I've been thinking about converting my RV to the SpaceBalls one with AL on top and drive down the parade. Don't think that will happen, but it's fun to dream!!

6. Might drive down to Albuquerque for Bubonicon end of August. Again, this is iffy. It's a very small literary con that really doesn't like SW (or StarTrek, StarGate, etc). I don't even know if I'll have any vacation time left for this one! Besides, Albuquerque Comic Con in January is much better. Just couldn't get the time off this year for it. Maybe next year.

7. Saturday before Halloween AL and I will be back at the Hauntings at the Hangar, held at the Wings Over the Rockies. If you're in town (anytime, not just Halloween) come by to see the X-wing, the B-52 bomber, and lots of other aviation history and planes. It's a must-see for visitors to the Denver area. Although Halloween is really fun there! And safe for the kids!

AL will be at other local events, like Toys-for-Tots, possible bell ringing, the new-improved CamCon, Kidspree, definitely JDRF walk again (he'll actually walk a little down the sidewalk for this one, planning to get support t-shirts made, hoping to get lots of donations). Of course, all of these events depend on my work schedule and timing. AL and I just can't be in two places at the same time!!!

Hope to see you all at an event! AL LOVES to meet his fans!!
Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Imperial Officer Photos

2010-11-21T18:50:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday our wonderful garrison photog, Bill, had an "open-house" photo shoot for costume submissions. Here are the ones for my Imperial Officer. I had to remake the hat to fit better, and worked on the front panel to make it kinda flatter (kinda hard on a busty lady like me). I guarantee it's way 200% better than what I had at CV (didn't even wear it then). It's so much fun to improve costumes to make them better! I should be approved as soon as our photog lightens up the photos a bit.

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka (er, Captain Jaka!)

EDIT: APPROVED FOR 501ST DUTY ON NOV. 24TH!!!

Hauntings at the Hangar

2010-11-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

AL and I were previledged to join over 500 kids (and families) for Halloween at Wings Over the Rockies. Two other R2-D2's made it as well, along with Jim's E-WEB uber gun. Everyone played with that! AL stood on his rolling platform holding a bucket of spiders. He even had a couple giant spiders and other creepy crawlies tied to him as his Halloween costume. Kids LOVED that! And everyone, even the big "kids" got to pull a spider ring out of the bucket. I think AL had fun passing out spider rings! We'll be back next year for sure...

Notice, AL has the front PSI light in! Yippeee!

My good friend Meg chumming up to AL.

The MG 501st booth, complete with spider webs. AL was holding the spiders!

Cal's Family Guy Artoo. He's now rolling...

Kathy as the Family Guy Lois. As the jawa, I carried a large jar of Grey Poupon.

AL, Family Guy Artoo, and Jackson's Artoo. Earlier he had a ghost sheet over him. It was soooo cute seeing that Artoo roll around as a ghost collecting candy.

Me, Cal, and Jackson, our teenage wonder.

Jim Shima doing a little saber practice with.... a jawa??? I like how the jawa's blade matched his eyes.

The RMFF table with the famous 3/4 X-wing behind. Harrison Ford finally signed it while he was in town.

The Death Star Pumpkin. Yep, I pulled an all-nighter for this one. I was still seeing dots the next day. LOL

The "gun" is a plastic doohickey from a watering can with a large silver button at the center, all painted a flat black spray paint. Silver duct tape for the panel lines, tiny dots painted on for the windows. (this project was whatever I could find in the garage, plus $2.50 for the pumpkin).

I tried to recreate the trench run using the freebie cardboard minis from CIV. I knew there would be a good use for them some day! Unfortunately, two tie fighters blew up (broke). The Rebel Legion was pleased....

Halloween is sooooo much fun, definitely one of my favorite holidays. Since I had the day off, I went home to pass out leftover candy to the neighborhood kids. I had the pumpkin on the front porch. What happened during the night amazed my neighbors! Everytime a kid came up to the door they would shout for their parents to come up and see the pumpkin. Everyone left some candy for the PUMPKIN!!! I now have a small bagful of candy I took to work on Monday. I really don't know how I'll top this next year.... IDEAS?

p.s. I'm thinking about turning the Death Star into a massive Tantive IV pumpkin bread. I'll try it this weekend.

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

Falling in Love (with Colors)

2010-09-26T15:01:00.000-07:00

This "falls" under the category of other. Yesterday a friend suggested I go up to Boreas Pass Road in Breckinridge for some awesome photo ops of fall colors. So, I went, and he was right! This is the best of over 250 pictures taken. Enjoy! And get out there!!!

This was the pic selected from hundreds to air on the CW local news station (http://www.2onthedeuce.com/) and the ABC local news station (http://www.thedenverchannel.com/).

To have it air on one station is cause for celebration, but two?!!! I did see the CW news one air it this morning, and the meteoroligist (fancy word for weather man) said he liked it because of the "early snow on Quandry Peak in the background contrasting with the bright leaves" (or something like that). He even sent me a personal email this afternoon thanking me for a great shot!

And here are some more pics:

This one is my favorite and will probably enter it into some free photo contest (if I can find one!). I love the layered look!

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

Enjoy fall while it lasts (another week)

JDRF Walk for Diabetes

2010-09-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

So, a few of us from Denver made the drive down to the Springs last Saturday for the JDRF Walk for Diabetes. Our garrison CO even had some patches for those who never done it before. He and a couple others actually did part of the walk, while I stayed behind with AL to cheer on the crowd. These pictures were taken by Debra Bower, the wife of one of the PPS (Pikes Peak Squad) members, and is on her facebook photo album.

I made AL a sash with his very own collection of patches just for the event.

GO, TEAM, GO!!!

Going for a walk! Even though they didn't make it all the way, I'm so proud of our guys attempting it in full gear!

The Finish Line! What a way to finish! Everyone got high-fives from a trooper!

Buckets on....

Buckets off.

So, check out Debra's facebook page and check out her photo album for the rest of the pics. She did a fantastic job as our event official photog. Thank you, Deb!!

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

CV Day 4: Means to a Greater End

2010-09-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

On this last day of CV I spent about an hour and a half as Jawa Jaka getting photo op time. So, most of these are the jawa. Of course, a few more from the droid room as well, and a fare-thee-well salute to all who made the R2 Droid room at CV a spectacular sight to behold.

Around the droid room:

Fun with Jaka:

The Jawa Jaka Collector's Edition Action Pack (slightly used, missing parts):

And the Special Limited Edition Boba Fett Double Pack:

Great things come in small packages:

A Fond Farewell, and a toast to all those who came.

Artoo packin' up and movin' out (or heading to another great scifi con!)

Final thoughts: I can't understand the lady who posted on the astromech forums how terrible our setup/takedown, planning, events, etc was. Having gone to numerous events/cons this was the absolute best con I've ever attended!! The droid room, and the con itself, couldn't have been smoother. CV was leaps and bounds better than CIV due to Reed Productions and their attention to detail. The R2 room couldn't have been better due to all the builders and Wayne's guidance. I met a lot of people, friends that I only knew by their online board names. Now they are really part of my family. I coudn't have found a better group of people to be with, and I'm proud to call myself a member of the R2 Builders Club.

See you all at CVI!!! Can't wait....

Jawa Jaka

CV Day 3

2010-08-29T15:53:00.000-07:00

Pics from Day 3. I spent most of Saturday morning at the R2-KT booth. She was out and about, nowhere to be seen (maybe recuperating from the 501st bash?). Yes, I promised the bash first, but I already had this list of pics to post, so here goes nothing! What made this day so fantastic was my brother Len coming up from Miami just to see the droids. He was overwhelmed and amazed, as so many were, taking dozens of pics on his Droid phone, not just of droids but of everything he could (including every TK helmet in the project) . Fitting, don't you think?

Setup for the official droid photo shoot. Rachel found some really cute Artoo blue and silver Mickey ears for her droid, too cute for words!

Since I was in the droid room all of Saturday afternoon, AL got pics with just about every shady character that came through the doors.

Wampa at my door! And Vader, too! Thanks to Lawrence for being our Hoth Luke!

Who knew the Wampa was Steve Samsweet? LOL (not really) He got a thrill pulling the door symbol off, though.

And a couple of Slave Leia's cooling off...

Other pics around the droid room and con:

The Mauls, one of my favorite photos! It's all about being in the right place at the right time...

At the end of a long day, the only good pic I got of the R2 BC dinner at the Ale House. It was so wonderful having my brother join us:

More pics coming soon.

Jawa Jaka

CV Day 2: Friday the 13th

2010-08-26T07:12:00.001-07:00

It's strange to me that I'm celebrating the biggest Star Wars event ever on the day my sister was born, August Friday the 13th. Every year she got to celebrate her birthday in grand style, usually while we were on vacation, and when Friday the 13th rolled around it was extra special. My birthday is in January, so I usually got a small trinket and a slice of yellow birthday cake with chocolate frosting (my dad's favorite, not mine!) during football half-time. Not much in the way of birthdays. So, with her out of my life, it kinda felt I was enjoying my birthday for the first time, albight seven months later. I did take some time in the afternoon to enjoy the show some more, but the highlight was at 8:00am on the Friday the 13th when George came to visit (see first CV post). Who says that Friday the 13th is bad luck? It was the best day of my life!

This is the world's smallest fully remote-controlled R2. More pics of it coming soon.

The 501st Bash is next.

Jawa Jaka

2010-08-25T18:33:00.000-07:00

I tried something new. These pics were uploaded as small pics to save some uploading time (did it work? not really, still took me an hour to upload this group). Just click on any image for a larger view (that's true of any image anywhere on my blog, apparently).

I also tried to create a flickr album, but was only allowed to upload 29 pics before I ran out of my "monthly allotted" space. That's the problem with online photo albums, they only allow a few pics. My flickr is no good to me, my Webshots is totally full with only 300 pics, and I'm afraid to try Photobucket. All of them want you to buy, Buy, BUY for unlimited space, something I totally can't afford right now (AL and Orlando, FL has all my money).

Anyway, in no order whatsoever, here is the rest (and hopefully final) of Day 1. I don't have much for Day 2 or 3, so there shouldn't be as many posts of that. Besides, I posted the absolute best from Day 2 in my first CV post: George Lucas himself!! I could've gone home after that and be absolutely content (but glad I stayed for the rest of the con, and Disney, and Universal).

Boy, that's alot from Day 1. On to Day 2.
Until next time,
Jawa Jaka (still going through pics)

CV Day1: part 3

2010-08-25T17:47:00.000-07:00

As I continue with Day 1, I'm reminded of how much there is to see at these cons! I took the first day off (didn't volunteer for anything) just so I could see some of the show. I only got to see a very small portion, but boy-oh-boy, I must've seen the best of the best. The Belgian sets, Slave Leias with Jabba, Leias/Amidalas/Padmes photo shoot, Patch Traders event Thursday night, 501st room with it's awesome Palpatine's Throne, hall costumes (the Mandelorians were out in force that day), and more droids. In random order here is just a sampling (the rest are in the next post).

Onto the next post with more pics:
Jawa Jaka

CV Day 1: part 2. Ralph McQuarrie Collection

2010-08-24T09:04:00.000-07:00

Continuing with Day 1 I'm posting the Ralph McQuarrie Collection. George Lucas may have been the genius with the story, but Ralph made it come alive. He's the reason I went to art school! So, in honor of my inspiration and favorite artist, here is my tribute to RM:

Yesterday I posted the closeup of this painting of the cantina.

A very early pen drawing of my favorite character, Artoo.

The Christmas card that never was (I really like it!).

Of the several iterations of the ESB logo, this was my favorite.

Even the table crew of the RM exhibit liked how my arm reflected off of the glass. Let's just say I'm playing with the Falcon...

This was a deleted scene/concept of Vader's palace on a fiery planet. Maybe the inspiration for Mustafar??

I think the droid room got the rebel troop transport down pat based on this closeup of a drawing of Yavin.

The now famous concept drawing of C-3PO and R2-D2.

This explains the drawing above:

C-3PO concept head. I've always felt he was the son of the robot in Metropolis. Guess this proves his lineage. (love the mohawk)

RM also did artwork for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Here is a page from the "library" book Indy is researching from. The bottom says nothing, just a graphic artist's trick of making it look like old print. Here you can see RM's mastery of the human form. Someday I'll master his techniques as well.

Hope you enjoyed this little tribute. Tomorrow I'll post the last of Day 1 photos.

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

CV Day 1: A Few of my Favorite Pics

2010-08-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

I can't put into words the experience of CV, so I'll show you some pictures instead. Most of them are of the droids. I'll try to throw in some others as well, like this monster of a tie fighter from Belgium:

All told there are a little over a thousand pics I have to go through, so please be patient as I find time to post as many of the great ones that I can. You may use these pics, but please give me credit as the photographer (and no selling them without my permission, please). AL and I had so much fun with the droid builders we're already planning and saving for CVI!!

It took me less than an half an hour on the first day to find the Echobase Ice Bar sponsored by G4. I know quite a few people who never found it, and I wasn't telling.... Very nice cool place (literally) to relax for a little while.

I took a bunch of pictures of the Ralph McQuarrie exhibit. I'll post a bunch more next time. This was one of my favorites, part of a larger painting he did of the cantina scene.

Until next time (with lots more pics),

Jawa Jaka

This says it all!

2010-08-23T17:23:00.000-07:00

I have so much to blog about I just don't know where to start! I'm still going through about a thousand pictures, and I've been writing down everything that happened so I don't forget. First, I apologize to my fans for not blogging during the convention. I think I got about 4 hours sleep per night. One advantage of being an exhibitor is getting into the doors early and seeing everything for free, which means getting up very early after nights of partying. The best advantage of being an exhibitor in the droid room is meeting great folks, like George Lucas himself! Along with Ben Burtt, Seth Green, and Anthony Daniels! Yep, no long lines to see these guys, they just came to see the droids.

George was so impressed with the droids he mentioned them in some length to John Stewart during his interview. It made us all in the room blush and cry for joy! While he was in the room, he came by AL and said "That's NICE!". All I could say in a very squeaky voice was Thank You! Then I became speechless, trying not to scream out at the top of my lungs "HE LIKES AL, HE REALLY LIKES AL!!" It made my whole vacation
right there, the best moment of my life!

http://starwars.com/ has a cool scroller tool for any messages you want to make. I made this one in honor of that great moment:

http://www.starwars.com/games/playnow/crawl_creator/index.jsp?cs=mrf3x766j6

Until next time (with more pics)
Jawa Jaka

Setup Day

2010-08-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

Today started way too early. Was at the loading docks at 9:00am to help unload the trailer and truck. Everyone who made the road trip in my SUV said they loved the ride, no problems. Just a lot of gas. We had to wait until the fork lift people bring in the Hoth set crates, but we got them all in. Started the Hoth set setup shortly after 11:00am, worked until about 6:00pm with an hour lunch break at McDonalds. The Mountain States group rocked, working all day non-stop, while other groups and individuals stood around or setting up their droid and leaving. We did get a lot of help from Russ Hoffman and a couple others. Everyone wanted to work on the set. The other Hoth set at the other end of the narrow room was put up in a couple hours and looked very flimsy, but we'll see how it holds up.

Other sets: Degobah (a photo backdrop with Dad's navy box painted silver and Guy Vardaman's "muddy" droid), the Rebel transport (a six person working transport straight from the movies built by Cole Horton and Darren Murrer), an area of plexiglass command center (computers as scene in Hoth), two Hoth sets (Cal's and the flimsy one), and a couple more wall-sized photo banners.

After setting up everything, we (Mountain States R2) headed towards the Ale House for the Mt. Garrison dinner. It was very lively, very Floridian, very noisy, very slow service, but very good food (even if the waitress took away my dinner while I was chatting with a friend). She suggested the seafood quesadillas as a replacement. I thought she was going to comp it, but she didn't, so a big chunk of my food budget went towards dinner. Only good thing was I have quesadillas for lunch tomorrow...

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka
(hanging out in the room after a long laborious day, AL does look great though!)

2010-08-10T18:42:00.001-07:00

Well, if I'm going to start blogging about CV, now's the time to do it! It's now 10:00pm est, and I'm finally settled into my hotel room. I'm at the Extended Stay hotel right next to the convention center. Has a queen bed, a rollaway bed for Azman, a fluffy chair and ottoman, a couple desks, a nice big bathroom, and a kitchenette. Not bad for $60 a night.

I spent all day in airports and airplanes. 3 hours in Milwaukee was pretty boring, even the scenery was under heavy fog, so no point in getting out and exploring. Both flights (Denver to Milwaukee, and Mil to Orlando) were extremely full. They checked in my carry-on bag since there was no room in the overhead (didn't charge me, though). Took Mears Shuttle Service from the airport to the hotel. Highly recommend, had a coupon for CV attendees ($25 roundtrip), and saved me two hours on the local bus.

Took a short walk and found the gas station/sundries store, Subway, sports bar, an italian restaurant, nail salon, and dry cleaners all in the same parking lot. So, bought some milk, cereal, a six-pack of diet coke, and of course, a Subway footlong to last me a couple days. Stomach is now full and I'm getting really sleepy. Going to bed really soon...
Until next time,
Jawa Jaka
(getting up early in the morning to help set up the droid room)

Chapter 4, Part 15

2010-07-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

The night wore on. That seemed to happen alot to Jaka and AL. Both were tired and eager to leave. And as the sun rose, neither of them heard any marching footsteps or thumping AT-AT's. Both tenderly and quietly stuck their heads out of the caves to see if all was clear. Both left the caves to continue their journeys. Jaka turned down the canyon, AL turned up. Both stared at each other for a minute. Jaka started to laugh at the irony of it all. Both had waited out the night in adjoining caves just a few steps from each other. His laugh subsided when a terrible gurgling sound rushed out of AL's cave along with the worm creature it belonged to. AL knew what it was (he spent the night with it) and rushed towards Jaka, and in the rush to hide from the creature he managed to shove Jaka back into Jaka's cave. Jaka understood what AL was feeling. It's OK, son. The creature won't get us. Neither will those troopers or Vader. AL's circuits stood on end with the mention of Vader and shuddered. He let out a small screech of terror, for he knew Vader all too well. Jaka calmed him down, hugging and petting his dome. It's OK, I've got the speeder here. We'll have to travel light. AL showed him his stuff, burlap bag and all. It wasn't exactly traveling light, but AL was simply not going to depart with any of his stuff.

Jaka quickly loaded the speeder, got AL into it somehow, and off they went back to Mos Espa. It took them two days (mostly at night) of dodging in and out of canyons, hiding from the Imperials, before they got to the edge of the desert. Problem was Mos Espa was overun with troopers. The AT-AT's had taken position at the mouth of the canyons, eager to destroy anything that came out. Fortunately for our two intrepid travelers, they didn't have enough to post at every canyon. So, once again Jaka and AL waited through the night before making their getaway.

Battery Boxes, Finally!

2010-07-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

So, here are pics of the battery boxes and hoses as promised a few days ago. I just have to cut out large holes on the inside for the foot motors. I'm going to wait on that because I may buy a different beefier motor (AL's got lots of weight and needs something along the lines of a V-8 engine LOL). The wheels are going back in but he won't be rolling unless I can get some 5" hubs with belt gear made quickly and cheaply by a machinest (got 5" pneumatic tires with no hubs). The wheel situation has been a pain; once I get something that works then I can install the remote, motors, and batteries.

Knurled hose fittings. Beveled end goes in front, square end screws into back inside box.

Showing the outer beveled end with hoses attached. Hoses go through beveled end, front plate, and into foot shell where it is screwed into place from the inside.

Both battery boxes painted with hoses attached same way. Battery harnesses (front details) also painted same color as boxes. Harnesses are super-glued into place.

Closeup of one box and details

Closeup of harnesses.

Side view showing half moons on foot.

Other side showing paint job. Same bronze color as radar eye (influenced by Jabba's palace doors).

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

Soldering Fool!

2010-07-08T09:33:00.001-07:00

Today I'm posting two blogs just to catch up a bit. My brother, Len, has been showing a few people my blog (thanks, Len!), and it would be nice to show a little of my progress. I won't blog too much until September since I'm getting ready for Osfest July 23-25 in Omaha, and then the BIGGIE, Star Wars Celebration V August 12-15 in Orlando.

http://www.starwarscelebration.com

(taking a two week vacation for that one, including Disney and St. Augustine with some friends).

The first blog of the day is to show my progress in soldering techniques. As the title says, I'm a soldering fool! Either that means I'm soldering like crazy, or making really crazy solder! Either way I'm certainly not good at it at all just yet, but with lots of practice who knows...

This is a practice kit with sirens, blinking lights, and a nice speaker I may use in my droid if this works.

Off to my next blog,

Jawa Jaka

Battery boxes and hoses

2010-07-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

Now that summer is here I really haven't had time to work on AL. However, I did get the battery boxes painted and installed, the knurled hose fittings on, and the braided hoses cut and inserted in the fittings. Azman helped me with that one, those hoses are a really tight fit into the fittings, took us all day to do just one foot! Then it took me a couple more mornings to finish the other. I also got the radar eye a little straighter, been working on straightening the dome ring (bottom ring) since my crazy ex-roomie sat on it, and trying to figure out how to make the center front vent panel since I lost mine. Found the rest of the panels except a very small front one, will be working on my back skins this weekend.

Azman has been very patient with me in teaching soldering techniques. I'm doing pretty good, but now the solder keeps forming little silver balls and not sticking to the board. It's pretty frustrating, but I'll keep plugging away. I've got two more items to solder into my practice kit, a controlled-volume speaker with blinking lights and siren sounds. If all goes well, I'm going to try and figure out how to use the speaker in my droid using the flash player.

It was decided amongst us locals for me to give up on the Degobah box. No one has touched base with me on the Degobah set. I might make a much smaller box just for me, though, maybe use my dad's ol' navy trunk, paint it up or something. Now I get creative! Just 4 more weeks before we leave for CV!

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

2010-06-23T19:31:00.001-07:00

A couple months ago Baskin Robbins held a fundraiser for local firefighters all over the country. Kids (young and old) came out for one night to enjoy ice cream and fire trucks. At our local BR, they also enjoyed a few troopers and scruffy lookin' aliens. This was my first "official" troop as a 501st member, and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Giving autographs to wide-eyed giggly kids with ice cream stuck to their faces was kinda difficult, what with the mask an' all, but so well worth it!
Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Chapter 4, Part 14

2010-05-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

As the sun went down, Jaka did what all good jawas do. He headed for the nearest cave to wait out the night. Unfortunately, the nearest cave was too small for him and his landspeeder. He couldn't leave the speeder in plain sight - the Imperials would figure out what was going on since it belonged to that lovey-dovey Hutt, and boy could she talk! If the stormtroopers got hold of this speeder, not only would Jaka be thrown into the nearest detention center, but could possibly be forced into the most depressing marriage in the entire history of the galaxy! He shuddered at the thought. Further into the canyon he went to find a bigger cave, something deep to hide the speeder in. Nothing caught his attention right away, so on he went as fast as he could without disturbing the peace.

After an hour he stopped to get his bearings. That's when he heard marching steps coming up the canyon towards him. I won't find the perfect cave, so this one will have to do. I'm out of time.... And so he went into what seemed like a very tiny hole. Barely able to push the speeder into the cave, he shoved it in as far as he dared, then wrapped his hood over his face, curling up into a ball very quietly. It was so silent except the very loud footsteps of the troopers marching by. The thumping of the AT-AT's were now at the mouth of the canyon where Jaka entered. Troopers and AT-AT's both heading his way. I wonder if they found AL yet.

A grueling two hours later Jaka got his answer. Several troopers were giving a report to an officer, saying they hadn't found the droid yet.

Well, you better! We've got orders to bring him to Vader immediately!
Vader? What does he want with this droid?
Who knows, but if Vader wants it, we'll give it to him!
Yes Sir!

And the troopers marched down the canyon. Good, they haven't found him yet. But I better get him soon or we're both cooked! Jaka knew he wasn't going anywhere soon, so he gathered up his robe and made like a rock. Don't panic, keep calm. Jaka didn't sleep much, nor did he rest.

And now a Rebel Legion Member, too!!!

2010-05-16T15:34:00.001-07:00

Well, Jaka gets around! So, not only is he part of the 501st, but now an official member of the Rebel Legion (Mountain Base). Another logo I've gotta put on the sidebar here! LOL This is what you'll find on the RL Member's List:

Active Legion Member Mountain Base
Character Name: Jawa Jaka
Costume Type: Creatures and DroidsFormal/Canon
Species: don't know (alive)
Occupation: Purveyor of Junk
Home Planet: Tatooine
Character/Costume Description
Jawa Jaka is a blacksheep loner amongst the Jawas of Tatooine. He found an Imperial R2 unit in the deep sandy canyons, cleaned it up, repainted it a grey and bronze color, and made it into a rebel hero. Jaka and R2-AL go on many adventures, helping the Rebels as much as they can.... Or do they? What is AL really up to? And does Jaka really care? Lots of fun reading of this growing story on http://r2-al.blogspot.com. You can find the rest of the pics of Jawa Jaka's costume, and of course R2-AL. Please go to this blog for costume and droid pictures.

They make me look GOOD!!!!

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

I'M IN! DZ 5905

2010-05-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

I am now DZ 5905 (that's a 501st designation for those that don't know). After a year of improving and trooping I finally got approved. So, I'm now one of Vader's "spies". I'm also applying on the Rebel Legion for dual membership (a jawa double agent? hmmm... ya never know). I think the significance of the 5905 is as follows:
5 droids to sell, 9 potential buyers, 0 sales, still got 5 droids to sell. heehee

Yesterday I did my first official troop at a new con in northern Colorado: CamCon. It looked like it was promoted as an anime con with anime films and artwork, but it ended up more of a comic con with anime films. We set up the Hoth set for photo ops but no one really showed up. Gil Gerard and Erin Grey (Buck Rodgers, the two have traveled together for years) were the main guests. Not many panels (I think they skipped the 501st panel altogether), no other guests, nothing for the kids to do (thank god for Azman's scrubber droid, kids played with that all day), only one other fan club (some kinda Medieval fair group), a few comic book artists, and a couple authors. Not much there, very poorly run (by a business man who had no idea how to run a scifi con), but has potential. Senator Palpatine will be watching the future of this very carefully...

This is the only official pic authorized to take, one photo on one camera. It was announced rather loudly by the organizer that any other cameras going off were going to be charged $40. Another slipup that alerted me to his ignorance in scifi cons (the other was him wearing a business suit, and answering the question "what is the target audience" with the reply "13 and up". Scifi has no age limit, we just wanted to know what this con was about).
Erin and Gil with the Mountain Garrison

Unil next time,
Jawa Jaka (er... DZ 5905)

An Improved Jawa

2010-04-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

While I'm still waiting for Starfest to post pics so I can post some of the Mountain States R2 club, I thought I'd post the pics of my new and improved jawa for submission into the 501st. Bill Blackburn, the official photographer of the Mountain Garrison, held an open house in his basement studio for official pic time. He's quite the photographer, and I learned alot about studio photography, including lighting and backdrops. His studio is simple but effective, as you can see.

There's always room for Jawa Love!

You can see some other photos from the shoot at http://www.mg501.com/. There are really fantastic shots of the Jedi and Bill's Hoth rebel trooper. 501st is just a great group to do costuming with.

Until next time (with a Starfest report, I hope),

Jawa Jaka

Robotic Championships and R2 Central's Bday Party

2010-04-04T19:07:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty busy lately, so this post is about two weeks overdue. It was an honor to attend the VEX Robotics Championships of the Americas in Omaha with the R2 Central group. Lots of kids asking lots of questions about building an R2, and lots of parents asking how much! LOL After driving the RV for the first time myself in a 12-hour blizzard that pretty much was ontop of me the whole time, I finally arrived at Moose and Jen's place. The campground was flooded (I thought it was a lake), so I had to park the beast in front of their house and slept on their couch with their two wonderful dogs who kept me warm every night. I just want to thank them for their kind hospitality.

Since the event was held in the evening, Moose and I did some caster work on AL during the day. Moose was so excited that his new garage workshop was being broken in by AL, he jumped at the opportunity to work on him.

During the event we all took turns manning the table, while others drove their droids amongst the crowd. Hopefully, AL will be rolling soon (got all the parts, just don't know how to put it all together yet, but studying!).

AL stood at the table looking pretty. Alot of people took a peak inside to check out the frame. I do want to adjust the radar eye a bit before Starfest, kinda looks a bit crooked.

Dawmer's droid with the Nebraska Cornhusker's tatoo on the dome (can't see it in this pic), and Brad's R2D2. These two droids pretty much hung out together, creating mayhem everywhere they went! (at least alot of smiles!)

The R2 Central gang: me and AL, Brad and Artoo, Jason and his frame (this will be a red with white Cornhusker droid), Dawmer and the white with red Cornhusker droid, and Moose with his T3. Poor Patches, he had a couple broken legs and was in bedrest under doctor's orders.

The next day we had a really nice birthday party for the R2 Central. I can't believe it's been two years! Jason made this wonderful cake, his first attempt. And it was GOOD!

The lady builder's of the R2 Central: Jen, Syrena, and myself.

And the rest of the gang (I'm in the green t-shirt).

I really enjoyed this event and might plan to go again next year. Next is Starfest in two weeks, then back to Omaha for Osfest in late July, then the all-important, all-money consuming CV! AL's getting a lot of traveling done this year.

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

pics by Moose and Jason, since I left my camera in the RV!

Dome work

2010-02-28T14:50:00.001-08:00

I got a lot done on the dome yesterday at Cal's place in Loveland. He has a really large studio space that the local builders can work in. He also let's us work on costumes and other props. So, what exactly did I get done? After an almost near disaster with the hole saw cutter (don't ask), Cal took me to Ace for another drill bit. A circle cutter bit, to be precise. Much better than the beefy teeth on a hole saw. I wish I had known about this cool little tool sooner, it would have saved me some grief! One thing I've learned: alum builders become tool collectors and experts pretty quick.

Anyway, got both PSI holes cut out along with the third top HP hole. I also cut out the logic display squares after learning the proper use of my dremel. After the motor started smoking, Cal cooled it off and showed me about the RPM's (something I never knew before). Now, I'm just another dremel queen! LOL I was able to cut stuff out of my dome really fast and a lot more accurate. I did a lot of sanding around the rear logic to make the logic surround fit. I still am off a couple hairs, but I'll be able to get that and the fronts done this week. Hopefully I'll also get the stand-alone 9-volt battery PSI lights in this week, too. Haven't done too much soldering practice but will get back to that soon.

I also bought a few different casters for my center foot to try out (I'll return the rest once I know which one I'll keep). Since I can't find 5" rims with gears for my 5" pneumatic tires, I've decided to put the 6" ones back on for now. Later I want to try cutting of the gears and welding them onto the 5" rims that came with the tires (gotta find a really good welder). I've also decided to get some 3" casters or ominiballs for the front of the feet for stabilization and steering. I have two weeks to put my foot drives and remote together for the robotics event in Omaha. Otherwise, AL will just sit and look pretty as usual (OK, better than usual since he'll have his dome mostly complete with the third HP, logic surrounds, and PSI's in place).

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Chapter 4, Part 13

2010-02-03T17:35:00.000-08:00

Chapter 4: Podracer Jaka

Part 13:
AL heard the thumping of the lumbering big machines. He recognized the sound but couldn't quite put his finger on it, yet he knew it wasn't good. So, he hid once again in the pile of junk. The realization that he belonged to that smelly jawa now was even stronger than before. He had no ties to these aweful new machines and wanted desperately to get away, far far away. With the thumping in the distance AL had time to collect as much as he would need to survive. The doll for one, since it was his only companion for the moment. Oil, spare fuses, battery packs (lots of them), a few spare motor belts, rope, welding iron, a couple of scrap metal sheets, and a burlap sack (just in case). During his time alone with the doll he managed to fashion himself a new foot. His old foot had been jolted and broken during the crash. You would think I would be in some sort of pain, but I'm not. Just need to replace this broken foot. OK, now that I've made a new one, how do I get it on? Oh, I see, it goes onto the leg this way. I think I can find a pin or wire or.... Oh, here's something, a bolt! It's on now, but will I be able to roll on it? Will the batteries last? Oops, gotta put in the batteries.

After a couple days of fussing and figiting, AL finally got his foot on. The hard part was getting up. He had rigged a couple wooden poles to push and pull himself around the tent. Now he used them to upright and steady himself. He didn't know how long it took to get up, but he noticed the sun going down. This was a dangerous time to go wandering after Jaka on a new foot, but with the thumping getting louder he had a sense of urgency to find another place to hide. He had dodged a bullet with the first set of storm troopers, but knew he wouldn't be so lucky this time around. Collecting his things and leaving an encrypted note for Jaka, he left the tent, down the canyon, and hid in a cave for the night, ever so silent. Of course, the thing with the gurgly noise at the back of the cave wasn't so quiet. AL knew something was in the cave with him, and cleverly put the sack on (just in case).

Deep thoughts came as AL tried to rest. I promise to go back to the tent as soon as our uninvited guests leave. I promise to do what Jaka tells me to do because I trust him. I promise not to scream when that cave creature tries to swallow me! Don't panic, keep calm, I'll be with Jaka soon... AL didn't rest much, nor did he sleep.

2010-01-08T15:09:00.000-08:00

So, looking around the net, I came across this pic of me, Jaka, at the 2009 Denver St. Patty's parade. The guy I'm talking to was the only Tusken Raider represented. At least there were two of us Jawas! LOL

The hood has been much improved since this pic was taken. I'm really looking like a Jawa now...

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

2010-01-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

Well, after a few months a couple members of the SG14 team posted a couple pictures of Halloween at Wings Over the Rockies Air Musium. We had a few hundred kids dressed up, grabbing candy from various fan tables. Since I didn't know if I could bring AL, he stayed home to guard the kitties from evil little monsters. So, I went in my SG14 uniform, and my 25 year old V uniform that still kinda fit! That's me in the orangy/red V uniform:

And yes, the 501st were represented. Vader's stare-down didn't effect our members, though!

It seems I have a cable missing from my vidcam. As soon as I figure out how to download and edit my video I'll post it with this as an edit. Might have to get my friend to help me out...

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

feverishly finishing my Imperial Officer costume and, as always, AL...

CV! HERE I COME!

2009-12-09T19:54:00.000-08:00

CV: Orlando, Fl Aug 12-15. It's going to be a hot one, for sure!!

I gave my friend Drew the $100 deposit for the condo already (four condos across the street from the convention center, 20 spots, already filling up fast). Rest is due first week of June (total $150 for the WHOLE WEEK! not per night! heeeheee). I have a little time after the holidays to get my con tickets ($120). Already posted onto several forums that I'm now in the "delivery" business for CV. Taking the RV, towing the 5X8 trailer, transporting alot of props/costumes/weapons/tools/etc. Oh, AL too. And any other droid that wants to keep him company on the long four-day road trip.

This Saturday I have the FIRST Lego Colorado Championships to go to, so I've been doing some final painting. AL is still static, but he looks good. Hopefully some of these kids can give me a clue on how to hook up my remote (another heeeheee). Back to working on AL.... hopefully on Friday I can get his battery hoses, battery boxes, and the third back-dome HP on. Still no camera, so just my great typing skills to keep everyone informed.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Chapter 3, part 12

2009-12-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

Part 12:
Glug klunked faster back in and told Peety that it was OK to put everything back again. Oh great, will I ever get some sleep, Glug? Peety reluctantly put everything back based on his blurry photos. Glug even found and fixed a couple picture frames and had some of the photos hung nicely on the wall. Peety was a little miffed about this, but soon took a little pride in his photo works. It was starting to look like home. Home. Neither of them ever had a home before. And soon Jaka would join them in their new home.

Glug found and fixed some curtains (a pretty shimmery silvery blue fabric with tiny gold Noobian crests all over it), laid out a piece of old stained red carpet at the entrance, and pieced together a couple of chairs with some old boards and more nails. While Glug was nesting in his new house, Peety was busy organizing all the tools. Most of them he had used before during the podraces, but somehow he knew Jaka wasn't a podracer. What was Jaka up to anyway? Why did he need us droids? We're not here just to look after this crumbly shop. So, what's his plan?

Jaka did have a plan, and that was not to tell too much of his plan. If he did the Imperial troops would be ontop of him in no time, probably killing him. His first priority was to rescue AL. It was his droid now, not the Empire's. He pushed the landspeeder as fast as it would go, pretending to be a podracer, hoping he wouldn't crash. Jaka was a very cautious jawa, always planning ahead. Yet even he couldn't foresee the AT-AT's landing, and now making their way toward the crash site. Jaka knew it was only a matter of time before the Empire would get their droid back, and that would be very bad for all.

SW Concert: A Real Treat

2009-11-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

I just can't seem to keep up with this blog, darnit! LOL
Anyway, AL is still in pieces in the back of my car. He's going back to his room this Friday if it doesn't snow again. I did get his room and most of the garage cleaned out. Still can't park my car in the garage, too much stuff!

With my very busy schedule in October, I managed to find the time and money to go to the SW in Concert. My friend Drew scored big with a private box seat that held 20 enthusiastic fans. The only problem was a very large speaker hanging from the rafters blocking the upper right corner of the screen, not bad but annoying. The laser light show, displays, Anthony Daniels' great since of humor as the narrator, and the themes surrounding each played piece made up for that one little problem. I would definitely see it again. I now have to search ebay for that awesome R2-D2 bag, a very accurate image of him made completely out of instruments. My friend Kathy bought a very cute t-shirt of Leia holding a flute like her pistol. The program guide was awesome with full color page layouts with a great centerfold. I just wasn't going to pay the horrendous price for them, but ebay might have something (at least the tote bag).

What made the concert so much fun was the R2 Central group joining us. Brad, Syrena, Moose, and Jen made the long drive out west to see it with us. After the concert the five of us went to Casa Bonita, a mexican restaurant with cliff divers, caves, waterfalls, and a really cool haunted house. Jen couldn't believe her eyes! The Mariachi band played a cool happy birthday song for Brad, Syrena and I got stuffed on sopapillas, and Moose, well, he just was in awe of the whole experience, like a little kid in a candy store. Afterwards they took me home and I got to show them the house, the overcrowded garage, and AL's room. I think that was Jen's favorite room ("wow, ooooh, aahh, cool, etc...").

The whole experience was just lovely. I wish I can go back to Omaha next week for Nebraskon, but gotta save money for CV! And if they plan CV right, we'll be hitting DragonCon either the weekend before or after CV. Two major cons on the same trip!! Can AL handle it?

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

This is an awesome picture of the light show, originally posted on the Mountain Garrison galleries. I'm sorry to say, I don't know who took it...
Go to www.mg501.com to see more great pictures.

2009-09-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a while. Went to Bubonicon the last weekend of August, but still no camera. There was some mass confusion on where AL was suppose to go. For a few hours on Friday he ended up in the main hallway where con-goers could take pics. Since the hotel is right next to the airport, quite a few airline pilots came in through the side door where AL was standing. One pilot lamented to his co-pilot "I should replace you with him!" as he was pointing to AL. Everyone had fun with him until the "con people" (those in charge) asked me politely to remove him. I requested to keep him there in the hallway until the 501st shows up. They finally showed up about 7:00pm, hauling AL on a hotel cart at about 8:00pm to the 501st room, which was locked most of the time (great security, but lousy if you want to show off your droid).

Bubonicon was very much like Mile Hi con, a literary convention with lots of local writers and comic book artists. The theme was "zombie", and it seemed if you weren't in a zombie or steampunk or steampunked zombie costume, you weren't getting into the costume contest. Steampunk was all the rage with these guys. The Trekkies and SW fans basically stayed to themselves in their suites.

Things didn't pick up for me until the Droid Hunt Saturday afternoon. I had heard about it, but never seen one in action. I stayed with AL in the 501st con suite where the hunt was taking place and kinda helped as much as possible. Quite a few people in the hunt stopped to ask about AL and the R2BC. One 501st member asked a bunch of questions and took lots of pics. I found out he was one of those that approves costumes, so I asked him a bunch of questions. I wish I could remember his name, nice guy. Seems my jawa outfit is almost ready according to him (based on a couple lousy pictures). I also got a very strong idea from my friend Lionel to do an Imperial Officer uniform. It's not an easy costume, but one I can do. One female showed a lot of interest in building her own R2, but is leaning towards an R5. She took my card and the only R2BC brochure I had left (gotta print out some more of those), very serious about it. Some others showed interest but didn't want to spend any money. If I have just one new R2BC recruit then I did my job at a con. Seems I might have done it quite well at this con, and I didn't even have a table or was displayed at the actually con!

Met so many of the ALB 501st, all of them very nice and very excited to have AL as part of their droid hunt. I was glad to help out. If I go again it's because of them, not the con. I go to cons to hang out with those that are true scifi fans, not zombied vampirical literary types. But alas, with C5 coming up fast (next year, they say), I probably won't be able to afford it again next year. We'll see.....

Parts installed the week of Bubonicon:
shoulder horseshoes
shoulder details
foot details
step-drilled out larger holes for braided hoses (learned how to use step-drill bit, yipeee!)
drilled in holes and screwed on radar eye (so I didn't have to hot-glue it on anymore)
David Shaw's new power couplers
Wayne Orr's side vents

Ordered the second half of JEDI controller, and a "learn to solder" kit. Already got a soldering iron, now it's time to practice.

I think the booster covers were on and radar eye screwed on for Osfest, but I did realign the eye and redrilled/rescrewed on the eye. So, you see I have been working on AL, little by little. Still unpacking his room, though. Boy, dad and grandpa had lots of tools....

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Osfest 2009

2009-07-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

I had one of the greatest times of my life this past weekend. About a dozen droids, including a T3 from Kansas City, MO were present. Patches looked great, and PD is coming along nicely (see pics on http://www.r2-cm.com/). Not one, but TWO K.I.T.T. cars were there, fully functional and talking to each other. Brad Edmonds (http://r2k2000.blogspot.com/), builder of the K.I.T.T. from seasons 1 and 2 from the original series, let me sit in his car. I could feel the power (well, almost).

Both panels on Sunday were fantastic. The first was just lining up our droids on the stage and talking about our droids, answering questions, letting the audience pick our brains, etc. Later in the day, on LC's request, I gave a 45 min presentation on R2-KT. It was in the boardroom and seemed to be quite crowded. I was pretty satisfied with the power point presentation, but would like to tweek it for future talks.

Usually I don't go to any panels except the ones I'm involved with. This year was not the case. Since it was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing (has it been that long?) I decided to go to as many panels on the topic of space exploration as I could. Two of them was presented by a lovely woman named Bridgette who is heavily involved with the Cassini project. That's the probe studying Saturn and it's moons. Yep, they found another moon, one that looked like a lemon with a lengthwise seam. That picture woke me up!!! So, I got myself lots of Saturn moon trading cards and bookmarks, and learned lots about Saturn, my favorite planet. What girl wouldn't want a ring like that?! A third panel was on heavy model rocketry by the local model rocket builders. Long time ago, in high school, I too was in a local model rocket club. I sure miss it. Of course, I didn't launch anything like a 1/3 scale Delta rocket like these guys. These rockets were massive!!

I missed out on the Star Wars plot lines panel, mainly because I was too busy getting ready for the costume contest. Ahhh, the costume contest! Disco Padme! We even found the Disco Star Wars music to go with it! And I danced on stage! Moose later said he would never look at me in the same light again.... I sometimes crack myself up.

One of the best part of this trip was the two friends I was traveling with. Drew taught me and his wife, Krys, how to drive the RV. A lot different driving a 35 foot beast. At one point Krys decided to "talk" to the beast, and came up with a name for it, one that it liked apparently. It's now Lady Blaze (it's also a female RV apparently, and likes to blaze a trail). I like it, too. We arrived behind the hotel late Thursday evening, got Lady Blaze all set up, and went to bed early. The next morning Drew and I had all of AL's tools and parts on the table under the awning trying to put his wheels on. Friday afternoon the R2 Central group found us outside the RV door working in what has to be the most unique traveling astromech lab. I love my RV!!

For a wrap-up party we all went to Brad's house for a pool party and BBQ. I went with Moose to help unload the droids at his house, while Drew drove the RV to Brad's. After some good food, pool antics, and just great fun, Lady Blaze got back on the road home, stopping at a rest stop somewhere to get some rest before reaching home Monday evening. All three of us were wiped out, a sign of a really great con.

Unfortunately, the pivot on the mirror of my camera sensor is broken and will cost a great deal to repair, not to mention the time to get the part. As a result I didn't have my camera. You can see pics at http://www.r2-cm.com/ and http://r2k2000.blogspot.com/. I believe there are a few at http://www.r2-nu.com/ as well. Our group photog, Denny, should have a lot up soon if not already. I'll edit this post as soon as I remember his website. In the meantime, here is one I stole from one of the mentioned sites. We now have three lady builders in the R2 Central with a fourth really wanting to start soon. Now I just got to find the time to drive out to Omaha again for one of their build days, maybe one of Brad's electronic workshop.

Jen (Moose's girlfriend), me and AL, and Serena (Brad's wife)

AL's next event: October 24th and 25th, Star Wars Fan Days, Plano, TX. Gotta meet Don Bies.
Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Edit: OK, I found Denny's blog with a few pics: http://falcon-one-photo.blogspot.com/. It's now in AL's Friends list.

Center Vents

2009-07-06T16:50:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: Camera needs professional cleaning, so NO teasing about hair/dust/etc on my photos.

I've been lagging in the blogging world as I continue to make my big move. Everything's in the house, just need lots of time to unpack. Meanwhile, I worked on my center vents. I took 80 grit sand paper to get the watermark dullness out of the Waterset vents. Then I used a medium course sand paper with my dremel to sand it down even further. A little polish paste with fine 180 grit on my dremel made them shiny! The louves had to be sanded down a bit to make them fit in the surround (more discussion on this on the astromech.net boards since I'm not the only one with a fitting problem). After getting everything fitted together, I used aluminum foil tape (found in the duct tape section) to tape everything together. You have to really look hard to see the tape, and I don't think anyone will look that closely, except other R2 builders, and they probably don't care....

Left, not sanded. Right, sanded. BIG difference.

Side view of how they go on the droid. You can really see the difference.

Bottom vent fitted and taped together. Not bad using foil tape...

Next week I'll be in Omaha for Osfest. I'm trying to make the big push to get AL walking/rolling. This weekend I'll definitely put in the R/C and hopefully I can get the Big Lots wheels to fit into the motor mounts. Wish me luck!

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

FCBD 2009

2009-05-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

I think this sign says it all! It was a previlage to hang out with Cal and the rest of the 501st up at Time Warps Comics in Boulder, CO. Once again, AL was a HUGE success as he was the only astromech there. Cal did bring his mouse droid (we dubbed him Rover) to keep AL company. Even though it was pouring rain all day, we had so much fun, even doing a bit of socializing out of costume at the ice cream shop around the corner (just to celebrate a little).

Lots of comic books. AL and I snatched five.

Since Time Warp is kinda off street, some of the 501st went to the street to wave people to the shop. Lots of honking....

The store manager helped AL keep dry (for a few minutes anyway).

Standing guard....

After considerable time under the eaves to keep dry, taking numerous pictures with adoring fans, he finally got his free comic book, a Star Wars one of course!

He held onto that comic for dear life! He was so proud of it....

He shared it with his new friend, Rover.

"AL wants to know if you got your free comic book, honey."

"What do we do with this little thing?" "Ah, just shoot him" Poor Rover!

Everyone had a good time, even the manager.

I actually put on a helmet for the first time. Tight fit, but looks good. AL was still holding onto that darn comic book, even at the end of the day.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Chapter 3 part 11

2009-04-26T18:23:00.000-07:00

Manny grabbed the green foam bag, Jellica straightened her dress, and the two of them disappeared quickly back up the alley in the opposite direction of the troopers. Glug may have been a slow thinker, but his eye could see and record everything. Dumb I am, but not blind! He saw the two lovers run out of sight with a bag full of green foam that Jaka had planted in the street. Glug klunked his way to Peety reporting that the green foam bag was gone. Peety was elated at the news. Good that should keep them away for a couple days, at least until Jaka gets back. Here, Glug, put this shelf back up.

The two spent the rest of the day and night nailing the shelf boards back up on the wall, arranging the tools on the shelves, and generally tidying up the place. Glug was particularly good at taking out the remainder of the garbage. Peety had a special talent of taking pictures of every little detail and refering to those pictures. Some odd thing in his processor allowed to him to photograph. Sometimes though he would put all his energy into taking the perfect picture he would fall on himself. Blurry pics would not do, so he would pick himself up again and start over, only to fall again, sometimes. Yet, when in a hurry blurry pics can sometimes reveal the whole picture. In this instance, Peety had a lot of blurry pics to work off of. Thus he was able to put the shop in the exact order it was before the troopers came.... sort of.

Satisfied with their work, Peety suggested that the two of them shut down for the evening. Glug didn't want to because it was actually morning. Peety argued that since they had been working all this time with no sleep it was technically evening. Glug argued that since the sun was up..... well, the arguments went on for awhile until Peety told Glug to shut up.

But it's my turn to argue.
Shut up Glug.
But I want to argue, this is fun.
For the last time keep absolutely silent Glug, I hear something.
Yeah, me arguing.

Then Glug heard it, too. He fell silent as a snowflake, whatever that was. A clanging banging noise, like someone hitting the sides of the buildings with a very large metal stick. Only it seemed to be in the distance. The two didn't know what to do, but their orders were not to let anyone see the stuff in the shop. Jaka was persistant that if something bad should happen the two must run and hide, leaving the shop in disarray. Thank the force Peety knew what disarray meant. So, after a long night of putting everything back in order, he started tossing everything about again. Glug klunked his way out the back door for the garbage he just threw out. His good eye, however, saw that the banging was a couple of AT-AT's making their way across the desert, searching for that droid, no doubt.

HAPPY EASTER!

2009-04-10T12:46:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine sent me an email advisory titled "Beware of Theft Identity on Easter". I am posting that warning here:

The kitten is a spitting image of our beloved Tribble (RIP little friend).

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYBODY!

Jawa Jaka

Under the Category "Other"

2009-04-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

AL is finally in his new room, even though it's not quite finished yet. He's now standing on nice foam padding, feeling oh so luxurious under his feet! Since I'm still concentrating all my effort on the house and not on poor AL, I'm filling up my blog with some very interesting tidbits. Like this one:

A pair of deer peers through a drive-in liquor store window Friday, March 27, 2009 in Medicine Bow, Wyo. (AP Photo/Laramie Boomerang, Alison Simpson)

Must be a good place! Anyone want to meet me there? LOL

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

I'M ON TV!!

2009-03-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

This is totally unrelated to AL or SW or anything scifi. It started when JDon (my roomate) came home and said he had something important to tell me, after he changes. So, while waiting for him to change, I dashed downstairs to check the news weather only to see a short story on free burgers and fries at TrailDust restaurant. I ran back upstairs to tell him. He laughed and said that was the important thing he had to tell me!! We both decided to go.

We got there at 10:30am with another friend. The three of us sat around at the beginning of the line with not too many people behind us, maybe 20 all together. At 10:45am the line was at the end of the building. By the time the doors opened at 11:00am the line was all the way around the building! We were lucky to get in as there was a wait for seats at 11:15am. 600 burgers were served within the first half hour.

Greg Nieto of channel 2 news sat beside us interviewing an older gentleman. He and JDon struck up a good conversation after the interview while Greg and his cameraman ate thier burgers. A short time later a very pregnant reporter from channel 9 came up to me, asked my name, and said that in a minute she was going to interview me! Here's a link to the interview...

http://www.9news.com/video/default.aspx?maven_playerId=fullpageplayer&maven_referralPlaylistId=dc3d7ce19e95532068a3c43d2f47206ae2407790&maven_referralObject=1064842025

I'm also embedding it on the left hand side. Now you know what I look like, a MESS! No time to make myself beautiful! Gosh my voice is weird, to me anyway....

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

St Patrick's Day Parade 2009

2009-03-16T14:38:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday I had the previlege of marching with the 501st Mountain Garrison, the Rocky Mountain Fan Force, and the X-Wing sponsored by Wings Over the Rockies. I bet you can't guess - OK, maybe you can. I was the tall Jawa. A little Jawa marched along side me and even practiced her "utinis" for the crowd. I can't tell you how much deep-down inner pride and joy I felt when the crowds (about 100,000 lining a couple miles) cheered for our very large group. When you see children's faces light up as you "high-five" them while marching down Main Street, well, my smile was just as big under all that black mask I wore. This is what all the Star Wars groups are about. Putting smiles on faces of children of all ages. My tears of joy are swelling up as I type this.

Since I was marching, I couldn't really take photos. These few here are my favorites from the http://www.mg501.com/ and the www.rmff.net websites photo galleries. I didn't record the parade on my VCR because I really didn't know which channel or time it was on. After the parade I kinda hit the bars for some green beer and fish/chips. Got home late wishing I hadn't drank so much, but glad I did. I needed an excuse to party....

Lends a new meaning to crowd control (my favorite pic so far).

Lord Vader lording over our parade float. Many pics of him on the news websites.

Of course, Artoo is the real hero of the parade. Sitting pretty atop the X-Wing.

The newly formed "KILT" patrol. They were in the back with me pumping up the crowd and making sure we kept pace with the rest of the parade (i.e. not getting run over by the X-Wing which was right behind us).

The RMFF group shot. Best pic of my jawa so far. Had to turn off the eyes to save battery life after this pic.

My little Jawa apprentice. Boy, could she yell "UTINI". She was great at working the crowds.

The GROUP shot. 501st MG, RMFF, WOTR X-Wing, and a couple of stragglers, like me.

This is what it was all about, and why I continue to do events with the SW fan clubs. I LOVE to see the kids smile. (and yes, he's wearing a black kilt).

Thanks to all our photographers. You can see more at www.mg501.com and www.rmff.net. And you can see me again next year.

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

B9Greg makes a promotional Video!

2009-03-15T16:37:00.001-07:00

My friend Greg Logue of th B9'ers put together this video to promote Starfest. I think it's too good to pass up, so check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b4fZ2EC_qw or see it on the Starfest website. Great job, Greg!!!

On another note, I have a previous scheduled event the same weekend as Starfest (an RV rally already paid for). This will be my first year in the last six I'll miss it (I've been to the last five). But the R2-KT Make-A-Wish Scifi Auction will go on as planned, along with the debut of my goofy commercial "Jawa Jaka's Junkyard", during the Order of the Grey panel. So, in the best Arnold voice, "I'll be back!" Next year, definitely.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Chapter 3 part 10

2009-03-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

Jaka was sure Manny would follow, so he put his plan to work. He instructed the hired prostitute (he and Jellica were friends by now) to pay a visit at a certain time to Manny's opulent apartment with the message that she saw something wierd in the shop's alley. She couldn't tell Manny exactly what it was she saw, but it was wierd. Manny's suspicions came forward, and he grabbed Jellica's arm as he ran out the door.

Show me where you saw it. Try to remember what you saw. Was it the jawa?
Let go of me, or I won't tell you anything, you beast. (as she struggled)
You're going to tell me if I have to beat out of you! Was it the jawa?!
Oh, baby, please. I'll take you to where I saw it. Then we can be good again. OK?

He let go of her, she held his hand and led him to the end of the shop alley. They stood looking down the dirt street for a minute or two before he started yelling at her again.

Look, I'm trying to remember! Oh, there. That's what I saw! And she pointed towards a funny looking garbage bag full of green foam stuff.
That's it? That's what you saw? Garbage?
Isn't that insulation used by Imperial ships?
Well, I guess we can grab it for Jojo to look at. She'll know.

Several stormtroopers marched down the alley. They were behind Manny, and Jellica had to act fast. Grabbing his hands, Jellica led him down a dark side alley, just far enough to where they were hidden from view, yet she could still see down the shop alley. She kissed him while the troopers made their way through the alley. He never noticed the troopers. It was all part of Jaka's plan. Keep him occupied near the shop while Jaka retreated back into the desert. And Jellica was doing a good job of it.

What's wrong with this pic?

2009-02-25T14:58:00.000-08:00

One more pic and story about Fanboys. I was up until 3:00am Friday morning trying to put AL together. The arms were the last thing to go on before putting the skins over it. I usually put at least one arm out so the skins will hold in place. Friday night while setting him up I noticed I couldn't do this. See if you can figure out why (I knew immediately and did the "could've had a V-8" slap on the forehead!). I promise to correct it all later, as soon as I get another coat of paint on the arms.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Fanboys Pictures

2009-02-24T13:55:00.001-08:00

Here are the pics from Fanboys Denver Premier. My friend Azman couldn't make it due to a nasty flubug, so AL graciously stepped in. I hope you're feeling better, Azman!

First and foremost, I'd like to thank the management of the AMC Westminster theater that put up with our antics. They, too, had a lot of fun.

Members of the 501st Mountain Garrison, MileHi Squad. I'm absolutely going to make the snowtrooper outfit, get some white ski boots, and tear down Peak 10 on skis in my outfit!! These two snowtroopers actually got their picture taken in the blizzard occuring at the same time outside the theater...

Not much crowds (snow scared them away?) but those few there had to say hi to AL.

OK, AL is also an armrest apparently. LOL Holding up our local rebel pilot.

At least the Jedi gently rested her hand on AL. I think they were telepathically communicating through the hand ("talk to the hand") (OK, you can say boo now.)

This is what Fanboys was all about. The sweatshirt says it all!

Drinking through a straw through the facemask under a helmet...

Even AL got into the "nerdy" act. Can someone please make him a bucket that'll fit him? LOL

All in all, we all had a great time.

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

Fanboys Opening

2009-02-23T15:02:00.000-08:00

After asking a bunch of people if they knew about Fanboys opening in Denver, I finally called the 501 local sqad leader on Wed. He didn't know for sure at that time, but was working on a special gathering on Fri night at one of the AMC theaters in the area. So, just to be safe, I worked on AL somewhat Wed night and all of Thur night (getting about 4 hours sleep) putting his utility arms back on and some other smaller parts, like pocket vents and side panels. I also taped all the skin panels back on. The legs got the booster covers and details attached, middle foot details screwed on, and some other odds and ends that I can't remember off hand.

And while I was in the middle of this building blizzard, still no call or commitment on the event. Until Friday morning! Azman had become ill and couldn't make it, so it was up to me and AL for all the photo ops. Boy, were there a lot of cell phones out taking his pic. Everyone had fun with him, and the best part, everyone respected him by not touching or touching very gently. One kid said he was delicate because he was special. "Pet him gently, he's not feeling well" was another kid remark. It's kinda nice having the kids monitor and protecting AL for a change.

I counted nine 501st members in costume, and me and AL. Not bad for a very, very short notice event. I suppose more people would have made it except it was snowing and nobody really knew where it was! All in all, it was a great event with lots of fun. The two snowtroopers even went outside in the snow to take pics. Imagine, snowtroopers in the snow! They should submit it to Bantha Tracks! We had so much fun, and everyone was soooo grateful to have AL there, I think I'll keep in contact with this group.

As for the film, well, what can I say. It's a moronic tale of young virgin men on a road trip. Need I say more!? Let's face it, it did deserve it's D-/one star rating. However, every Star Wars fan should see this at least once. It's all about the van, man! And if you do see it (which you should anyway) count how many SW/Star Trek celebs are in this film! I'm sure I missed a couple (darn, now I've gotta see it again!).

I'll post pics as soon as I upload them. Bottom line, we all had great fun! (and go see the movie!)
Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

2009-02-05T19:20:00.000-08:00

Well, once again not much done on AL. I did, however, end up at Home Depot for some carriage bolts for the dome bumps. I've got a lot of sanding to do on the top of them since there are three letters stamped on the top. It doesn't look like these bolts are rounded enough on the top but I'm determined to make it work somehow.

The booster covers and pocket vents came in this week. I also paid Wayne for the side vents. Sometime this month (we hope) JAG (I think) will be offering the aluminum horseshoes. I've got to save money for that. At this point I'm spending only on parts I need, not want (like the COM-8 frame, a truly magnificent anodized beauty!). I might splurge later for the rear door, but I'm going to try to figure out how to make one myself. Seems simple, a couple curved runners, some thin pipe, and a couple hinges. Of course, being a jawa, I always turn simple into a major undertaking!! LOL We'll see....
Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

New blog for my house project!

2009-02-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

I've got a new blog for my new (old) house project at http://houseofjaka.blogspot.com. I've also added this into my "Visit these" link list. It's mostly about how I'm transforming an old house into my own personal haven. You'll find pictures of the house there (as soon as I post them) and my house projects updates. And yes, as promised, AL will have his very own bedroom - er, astromech lab....

Also, if anyone is following this blog, there is now a new feature called "Followers". I've added it to my side bar as "Who's Looking?" so that if you want to be a "follower" you can just click the link and you're automatically added. I don't know how I'll be using this feature, but I've got one follower already!

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka
And don't forget to visit my other blog.

2009-01-18T18:08:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile and nothing done on AL since October, except buying a few parts like booster covers, slip rings, side plates, side vents (and that's what I can remember). I did get the motors in the feet, but having trouble with the wheels. Got some 4" swivel wheels from Harbor Freight, can't wait to try 'em out.

My biggest "AL" purchase: his own astromech lab. Yep, I bought a HOUSE!!! After 3 years of forclosure and working super hard on my credit rating, I was able to purchase another forclosed house with a VA loan through Wells Fargo. It has a very large living room, big kitchen, four bedrooms, 2 baths (OK, one bath and one shower), nice breakfast area, oversized 2 car garage, and did I mention the astromech lab? It's in the basement as an unfinished bedroom, right next to the finished bedroom (and the one shower). Speaking of basement, aformentioned guest room and bath, laundry room, and a HUGE open area with a fireplace. The fireplace area will be my den/living area and the other space will be my home theatre (to watch all those SW movies) and built in bar with sink (if the plumbers can put a water line in). And new carpets and paint to make it my own.

Lots of backyard for the cats and AL to play in, too. I'm planning to make a lot of winding sidewalks in the yard to test AL, along with the outdoor patio. I hate mowing lawns, so I'm trying to design it with minimal yard work. Definitely a tough shed for more storage (lawn mower, I guess), a BBQ queen's grill and work space, and maybe a small hot tub (later, after I've fixed everything, like a new water heater and some plumbing leaks that aren't that bad).

Let the house repairs, uh, updates begin....
Until next time,
Jawa Jaka
(Maybe a new "house" blog? I definitely see one in the near future. Gotta win that Better Homes and Gardens remodeling/decorating contest!)

Chapter 3 part 9

2009-01-05T18:26:00.000-08:00

Several stormtroopers marched down the alley, knocking down doors, inspecting all contents of the dilapitated neighborhood. They came to the shop, tearing it apart inch by inch. Just some old boards and nails, an old hammer, and lots of very large bags full of garbage. TK1492 was dismayed at having to go through all that garbage just to find clues of a lost Imperial droid, but orders were orders. Find that droid, it might have some important information about the rebels. His partner, TK1812, was just as grossed out.

Nothing here, let's move on.
We've only gone through three bags. Shouldn't we go through the rest?
You want to go through them all, go ahead. I tell you, it's just garbage.
Orders. Gotta search everything.
I don't think the orders meant all 200 bags of garbage. Besides, you're starting to really stink.
Yeah, so are you. OK, next shack then.
As I said, let's move on.

And they left, meeting the other four troopers in the middle of the street, contemplating their next move. After some discussion and map reading, all six marched back up the street and disappeared. Glug and Peety removed their bags and stood in the middle of the shack dripping with garbage. A few minutes went by to make sure no other troopers were in the area, then Glug made his rounds spying on Manny, who was still spying on the shop. This time Manny had a friend with him, the long-legged woman who kept him totally preocuppied to where he didn't even notice the troopers. Or Glug for that matter.

Glug went back inside to find Peety taking out all the tools from the remaining 200 garbage bags. It was Peety's idea to hide everything, including themselves, in all that garbage. Glug didn't approve of the plan, but being that he had no ideas of his own, went along with it. Sometimes though Glug could come up with something brilliant to say, like, I'm glad we don't have noses like those troopers!

AL's on YOUTUBE!!!

2008-12-08T17:07:00.001-08:00

Someone who graciously commented on one of my posts sent me a link to a Youtube video of Mountain Con, starring the two B9's with Greg Logue and Charlie Garcia, and introducing the one and only - AL!!! He's at the 3:19 minute mark very briefly, but it's his big debut. Better things to come this next year....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X8SzgdLWxo

In the meantime if all goes well I'll be moving at the end of this month. If the offer is accepted, I bought me a doozy of a Christmas present. My own house (not a townhouse or condo, no HOA's, quiet nice safe little neighborhood, easy access to the freeway to get to work). Over 2600 sq ft of great living space including family room, den, living room, formal dining, two full baths, and five bedrooms. Also, nice backyard with large patio for entertaining/grilling, BIG two car garage, and a large storage shed for astromech lab. So, if I get it, if any builders want to make the trip to Denver I'll have plenty of space. Wish me luck!!

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka
(Due to house hunting, house buying, moving, and a very nasty cold virus that put me in bed all weekend while missing all the great Christmas parties, AL's progress has been put on hold until next year. That's in three weeks if anyone's looking at a calendar! LOL)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!
HAVE A GREAT NEW YEAR!

Update 01/26/09:
And here's another Youtube vid link of AL and friends in his early stages at Osfest (no skins yet, but at least he was standing!). Courtesy of my friend DarthMoose...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkecwSf3-Rk

Mile Hi Con 2008

2008-12-02T10:53:00.001-08:00

I was invited to the Mile Hi Con in Denver to speak about AL. I did a powerpoint presentation on the "Five Elements of Droid Building", something I've been working on for about a year. The organizers gave AL his own table which was a BIG hit with the kids. The attendance at the con was very, very low, and if it wasn't for AL people wouldn't have showed up late afternoon. I heard from several attendees that AL was the reason for coming. Unfortunately, I was there on Saturday only, taking AL down at 6:00pm. I felt that the whole convention was a bit unorganized, the fan table lady was totally unaware of AL (even after corresponding with email several times), and I even got chewed out for bringing him by some of the organizers. I don't think I'll go back to this one - it's definitely off my list!

AL at his own table.

Shot of AL. Notice skirt is on and head is straight due to the dome ring installed.

AL taking time out to shake hands with friends. (Krys of SG14)

AL's Halloween costume - child wrangler! All the kids wanted pics with AL.

The Gundam came by to say hi.

I think these were two of the authors (or could be just AL fans who got the word he was there).

And of course, gaming well into the night. This was the Podracing game. Interesting but fun!

AL got caught on camera standing on one leg. He must have been pooped after all those photo ops!

AL had fun, but overall I was not that impressed with Mile Hi Con. Next year I'm planning to go to Plano, TX for Star Wars Fan Days instead. I'm sure quite a few R2 builders will be there.
Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Chapter 3 part 8

2008-12-01T17:29:00.000-08:00

THE SHOPKEEPERS

Manny made arrangements for all kinds of odd tools that Jaka asked for. Everytime he asked Jaka why such-and-such tool was needed, Jaka simply reminded him of the deal: no questions asked. This made Manny a wee bit suspicious, but then again, everything in Mos Espa these days was suspicious. What infuriated him most was Jaka's way of wiggling into Jojo's inner circle, winning favors from her. A jawa is suppose to be subserviant to the Hutts, not the other way around, right? Why does Jojo like him better than me? Haven't I been loyal to her, being her best servant? Yes, I'm her servant, but also her closeset companion, so why this jawa? What's he up to? For two days Manny watched - spied - on the jawa and his shop. The best he could figure was that Jaka was trying to repair a bad motivator on one of Jojo's droids. But that's not why Jaka needed all those tools for, and certainly not why he came here in the first place.

Jaka was totally aware of Manny's spying. This wasn't the first time he had been followed. Heck, most of the other jawas had spied on him at one time or another, just trying to figure out what was wrong with him. So, he went about his business setting up shop with two other droids, a big green ugly old unit called an R1-G4 (there were only about a dozen of these made before the slicker R2 units were developed) and a pit droid that had a bad habit of falling over itself. Jaka named these two Glug and Peety, with Glug pretending to have a "bad motivator". Jaka sometimes wondered if that was Glug's real problem, though, since he seemed to be a little slow in his movements and speech. Glug was found at the end of the alley behind the shop taking out garbage with apparently no one claiming him. Peety was part of the garbage Glug was taking out. He was the "gift" from Jojo that Manny kept talking about, without her knowing it. All it took was some fancy paperwork by a neighboring counterfitter, a young boy delivering the counterfit paperwork to Manny, and a gorgeous long-legged woman convincing Manny that it was all legit. All of the conspirators were paid for with Jaka's limited supply of Correllian wine.

On the fifth day Jaka had everything in order, including instructions to Glug and Peety. He had procurred a landspeeder from Jojo during his last banquet with her. He even presented her with a fancy necklace (a very big one at that) he had found in Glug's garbage (washed and repaired, of course). She almost fell over with extreme delight. No one, not even Manny had given her such a wonderful treasure. It seemed the way to Jojo's heart was some sparkly bling to make her feel beautiful. Jaka's job here was done. He had charmed his way into Jojo's life, now it was time to go.

Go, you have to go now?
Temporarily. I have a tent full of junk to pack up.
When will you be back?
A couple days. I promise. Do you want me to come over when I get back?
Yes, oh yes, my love. Please do.

Oh brother. Maybe I went overboard on this Prince Charming thing. Now she loves me. Well, that's fine, it'll keep her suspicions at bay. Now, what to do about Manny? He'll follow me for certain. Jaka's plan was all laid out in his mind. He hopped in the landspeeder and sped down the main city exit and off into the wide expanse of sand. AL was his first priority.

2008-10-29T10:25:00.000-07:00

Well, it's time for a building update. I received the skirt from the guys at totallywired just in time for Mile Hi Con. The con was on Saturday, so I spent Friday installing the skirt. I also installed the Rockler bearing and dome base (next blog). Here's how I installed the skirt.

I purchased from Ace (can you guess) four 3" all screws (no heads) and four screw connectors - 1/4" x 20, about an inch long. I suggest getting something a little longer if you can find it.

Screw connectors to one end of all screws.

Screw the other end of the screws where battery box connectors were (you'll have to take off battery box connectors temporarily if using JAG frame) from underneath and secure with nut.

The skirt had four screws welded on. Just line up the skirt screws with the four screws you just installed and screw on the connectors onto the skirt screws, keeping at least half of the connectors onto the frame screws. (hope that makes sense)

Make sure ALTA kitty is happy with the alignment.

Voila! One amazing skirt installed! And it fits!

I'll show the Rockler Bearing install next time. If you have the Darren 300mm dome (or even if you don't), Cole Horton has a 300 dome tutorial that includes how to install the bearing and base. Links to his tutorial and blog are on my left menu.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Chapter 2, part 7

2008-10-13T16:12:00.000-07:00

Jaka spent a couple days getting to Mos Espa, mostly hitching rides on the sandcrawlers to the dismay of the other jawas. It was urgent business, he told them. "And since you're going that way just drop me off". The other jawas were humiliated by this black sheep, but they took him anyway. No jawa has "urgent" business unless he/she means it, and they knew Jaka meant it. Jaka had been to Mos Espa quite a few times and knew his way around the streets and it's inhabitants. He had made dealings, trades you might say, with some of the natives. The Hutts in particular. So, when Jaka arrived at the doorstep of one Maningas Hortas no one paid attention. Manny, as he was called, was one of the female Hutt's favorite undercover agents. He also owned several (in the Hutt system read that as LOTS) machine and repair shops throughout the city. Jaka's mission was to get permission to bring AL to one of the shops for repairs without any suspecting eyes, and no questions asked. After all, AL still showed signs of being an Imperial droid with very special capabilities.

Manny, with his dark spiky hair, in his long purple coat, and the mannerisms of a well-tuned lordship, was more than welcoming. He lavished Jaka with a banquet table stuffed with every edible thing in the outer rim. He provided a warm bath in an ornate blue-tiled sunken tub for Jaka (have you ever seen a jawa take a bath?). He even had a Hutt tailor make Jaka new robes of the finest dust-busting cloth. For two days Jaka was wined and dined, spit and polished, messaged and pampered. This was all well for a Hutt agent, but jawas weren't used to such treatment. Jaka tried to fit in, but enough was enough! He had "urgent" business, and for a jawa that took top priority. Besides, he had a feeling that AL might be in danger and had to get back right away. So, over a royal feast at the head Hutt's fortress, with dancing girls all around, and droids of all shapes and sizes seeing to his every need, Jaka bluntly popped the question to his elaborate and fat hostess, Jojo the Hutt.

"I will trade services for one of your repair shops for me and my friend, no questions asked! I need it in three days".... Silence filled the banquet hall. Jojo didn't know what to say. A jawa making demands? Of me? How belittling! Yet, her villinous heart suggested that this jawa meant business. And a Hutt always makes room for business.

What do you need it for?
No questions, remember?
You know my friend, Manny?
Yes.
Manny, make it happen.

And the deal was done.
The deal was he could have a shop to live and work in, in exchange for janitorial duties in some of the other shops in the immediate area. That was fine by Jaka. Nine hours a day he would sweep, dust, and straighten up the shops. The rest of the time was his, no questions asked. The next day, Manny showed Jaka some of the finest shops in town. But Jaka was determined to have a tiny inconspicuous shop that not even the Imperial forces would enter. Manny gave him the smallest shop in the crummiest part of town, just what Jaka asked for. All jawas know that those who live in slums don't care what happens in the neighborhood. The inhabitants are too busy just trying to survive. No prying eyes and no questions asked!

Borg as promised!

2008-09-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

Since the last post size was getting over the limit (darn Blogger limits!) I am posting the big bad boy here. Ok, the last pic in the last post is a real cliffhanger, but I'm throwing this next pic on here because of the incredible way it was made. The person who dressed up as the Doctor also dressed up as the Green Lanter, Captain Kirk, and this guy!

His Borg was made entirely of broken/thrown out/cheap toys. A real I SPY game for the kids! His left boot is a real testiment to everything Borgness: part ski boot, part leather boot, part shin guard, and whatever else parts he could find. The green laser eye was a laser pointer, and the left eye green round laser thingy was something he picked up at an aquarium! Goes to show, it takes a wild imagination, a keen eye, and a true vision to come up with something like this on a bare minimum budget. If there was a Best Dressed Borg Award he'd win hands down (or up)! Alas, the Halo Spartan won the costume contest. Little ol' me got nothin' but loud applause and laughs. That's what I like about costuming...

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

Spartans, B9's, and Borgs! OH MY!!

2008-09-28T19:40:00.000-07:00

The Mountain Con staff with both B9's, and AL in the middle.

Mountain Con was a blast! Literally! The fan tables had every fan group imaginable and a geophysicist talking about the Apollo missions at his booth. As usual, I spent way too much in the Dealers room, racking up a lovely peacock fan for my lady pirate outfit, a mini Harry Potter broomstick which I won for answering trivia questions, and of course, the ubiquitious SW minis (a booster box of Alliance and Empire). Just can't resist those!!

R2-AL had his very own table right at the entrance. He was the first thing you saw. Well, maybe second. As you entered the lobby of the gorgous Davis County Convention Center, the very first thing you saw was the gigantanormous life-size Stargate! The only thing standing between AL and the Gate were the B9's. Charlie Garcia and Greg Logue brought there B9's, and the three of us had a great time! Greg's "Robot" (just Robot) was the picture in the local Sunday paper. He autographed my copy, hehe.

Here's some pics for ya:
The gigantenormous Stargate.

Greg, Charlie, and the B9's heading through the gate into unknown worlds.

Close-up of the Gate. It says Mountain Con at the top.

Yep, that's AL greeting everyone at the door. Had the R2 BC website up on the laptop for everyone to play with. The Dancing Hasbro Interactive R2-D2's were also a big hit - kids loved 'em!

Speaking of kids, here's a couple of cuties trying to figure out what the heck he is.

R2-AL in all his best con glory with open arms to the public. Lookin' good!

Here's a hot lookin' B9 saying hi to all the con-goers. AL and Robot actually got along. I think they're friends now.

AL gets a helping hand from the Doctor. Vital signs are normal...

Robot, however.... Yep, that's my "Robot Building for Dummies". Even the Doctor needs a good reference once in awhile!

Maybe Robot's problems are really caused by the Jawa. hehe Greg did his best to protect both B9's.

In the meantime, look who's protecting AL!

The entire Empire completely trusts him! Little do they know he's a Rebel spy.

The Spartan is here! Guess he's looking for something to blow up, but the SG1 officer is protecting the Gate.

Hey, what's with this!? They both want to blow up AL?

And now the Empire is in on this? Who told everyone about my spy business? Yikes! Will I survive for the next con?

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

Chapter 2, part 6

2008-09-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

Part 6:
AL still had a hard time walking (he couldn't) so he made up some tunes to play in his head. This was new, he never sang before. It was kinda fun! He still couldn't remember b.c. (before crash), and soon he didn't care anymore. He had a nice shady home full of stuff to play with, an abundant supply of oil to keep him going, his eye could see much more now that Jaka fixed it (somewhat). Yeah, he was a little bored but was able to amuse himself with all the junk Jaka left behind. He found a great port panel that he used to excercise his CPU arm. I can still aim my arm into the port and twist! He found a raider doll that he practised sewing with after finding a needle and some old thread. Hand-eye coordination is still good! He found a piece of an old life form scanner.... Something jogged his memory. He had something similar in his dome, but couldn't make it work. Oh well, time to try out this old whatisit. He had so much fun playing with all the old junk while Jaka was gone, that he decided to make something for his new best friend (Dad?). Let me see, if I take a few of these cables and this port panel, maybe this voice chip (can I make that work again? sure I can!), put it all in this doll with new jawa robes I made for it.... I know, I'll make Dad (why am I calling him Dad?) a talking moving jawa doll. He'll like that, I know he will. Please hurry home, Dad....

It was while making the talking doll that AL noticed a flash of light landing in an area that Jaka had described to him as the valley near where he was found. Dad promised to take me there sometime, can't wait. But what's that in our valley? AL wished he could walk so he could greet the newcomers. He was eager to have visitors. But something deep inside told him to hide. These strangers were not welcome. AL pulled all the tent sides down, pulled himself with a couple long sticks to the junk pile and hid. Two prestine white uniformed men with black blasters came into the tent. In a voice very familiar he heard one of them say "No one here. Wherever he went he took the droid with him." Then the two stormtroopers marched out and disappeared.

AL's mixed feelings were overwhelming. Who were those guys? But I know what they are, I think. They're Imperial something-or-other. I've been around them before.... served them before.... The memories trickled in while the realization that the two armed men were looking for him was even scarier. He didn't want to leave his good life, didn't want his feelings to disappear. OH MY! THAT'S WHY I'M CONFUSED! I HAVE A NEW PERSONALITY CHIP!!! Please hurry, Dad! I'm scared!

Clone Wars Opening, Health Issues, etc.

2008-09-02T10:10:00.001-07:00

It's been a hell of time health-wise for the past week. I ended up with pink-eye that spread to the lymph nodes that produced my first asthma attack that put me in the emergency room. I'm still very weak and shaky from the medication, but I'm on the mend, actually going back to work today. Needless to say, I haven't worked on AL sinced the Clone Wars opening. However, AL did make his big debut at the opening along with the rest of us Order of the Grey. Here are a few pics:

R2-AL had his own display area, courtesy of the theatre.

AL has many uses, such as holding up Yoda. They're great friends now...

Vader hanging out with, well, Lil' Vader.

Clone Troopers came to the show.

Vader and Obi-Wan can't quite make up their minds about AL. Is he good or evil?

Table Base One being watched carefully by volunteers.

Leiah helping the crowd with the Trivial Pursuit. One team made it to Level 10. I made it to the first question.

These and other pics will be posted soon to the new Order of the Grey website.

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

2008-08-03T13:43:00.001-07:00

Chapter 2: NO QUESTIONS ASKED!
Part 5:
Days and weeks went by. Jaka had managed to scrape most of Exate's paint off while trying to clean him. Poor creature! He tries so hard, but doesn't he know that a droid's paint job is a symbol of pride? I feel so naked....

However, there wasn't much else Exate could do. A new paint job might be what he needed to remember. Although he had this feeling that this jawa (as Jaka kept explaining) never held a paint can ever in his life. On the other hand, he saw this jawa go from a grumpy cursing creature to something that was nurturing and kind. Exate never felt those feelings before. Come to think of it, he never felt any feelings before. Imperial droids have personality chips that trigger feelings removed to make them clone-like. Yet, Exate started having some... well, kind of.... sort of... feelings? For the odd jawa creature? Exate never knew love before. Neither did Jaka.

Jaka noticed how much aluminum was used in building the droid and decided to call him R2-AL. At first Exate was highly confused, but soon learned that his new name (at least according to Jaka) was AL. Somehow he liked the name. From now on I'm AL!! Cool! Why does this jawa like (love?) me so much? Why do I like (love?) him so much? What am I feeling? Why can't I remember anything before the crash?

One day, Jaka bid farewell to the droid named AL. He was heading off to Mos Espa to get some help. This was Jaka's first droid, and he wanted to do it right. AL was a little nervous about being alone in the desert, especially with raiders about. He was a fast learner, though, knowing to pull the tent sides down when a band of sandpeople came around so they wouldn't see him (Jaka taught him this trick). With extra oil and a power plug, AL would be fine for a few days. (Five at the most, I promise. I'll be back very soon, my lovely child.) So, off Jaka went, down the canyon, across the desert, and into the hot-bed of villiany and scum, Mos Espa...

Futaba, Finally!

2008-07-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

After lots of research and much debate, I finally purchased a Futaba 10 channel R/C with auto frequency lock (or at least that's what my guy at Colpar called it). It searches for frequencies not being used in the area and locks on it. No crystals needed, no asking everyone else with a droid/robot in the area "what frequency are you on?". I bought the helicopter version as it had a smoother non-ratcheted throttle control. As a pilot I have never liked the so-called ratcheted throttles. Most throttle controls have a locking mechanism anyway that is checked before take off. Personally, I have much better control with smoother throttles (and I just like 'em, so there!).

Bill, my guy at Colpar (and the nicest most knowledgable salesman you'll ever meet), also sold me one inexpensive $10 servo with plastic gear and one $30 servo with metal gear, just so I can try them both out. Sometime this week I'll get the holes drilled in the Rockler, finish putting together the dome, and try out the servos. Bill gave me a list of things I need to write down so I can get the speed controller. He didn't want me to buy one yet without knowing some stuff, like weight of dome, how fast I want it to spin, etc.

Other than this big purchase, not much else in droid building. I've been asked to give a panel on my droid during MileHi Con, but only if I can get a spot on Saturday (I work Sundays). If plans go well, I'll be sharing my panel with two others: one guy will speak on vacuum forming and my friend will be showing basic leathermaking. The three of us are calling it Propmaking 101. Ummm, jedi leather belts, simple $10 vacuum form table, and my mega-thousand dollar ultra R2.... this should be very interesting, if plans go well.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Jaka and AL: chapter 1, part 4

2008-07-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

Part 4:
Daybreak, and Jaka woke up startled! He didn't mean to fall asleep. How was our patient doing? Still shut down. Oh well, Jaka didn't want a droid anyway. He got up, gathered his stuff, and decided this whole droid-rescue thing was stupid. It was time to go home. But something kept stirring in his heart. He never had anyone or anything to take care of, no family, no kids, no pets. Well, if this droid doesn't work out then no big loss. After all, there were too many droids for Jaka's taste running around on Tatooine. Then the droid squeaked and wiggled.

Jaka never felt overjoy before, but this new feeling was so overwhelming he cried. You're alive! You're alright! It's going to be OK! OK, Ok, now to get the canvas.... Jaka took his inner tunic off and loveling wrapped it around the droid as if to protect a child. Yeah, a child, that's it, this will be my child. Funny, I don't have any children, but this seems right. This is my child that I'll nurture and teach somehow. I'll be back my lovely child...

Jaka went to the camp. The patrollers were still there, munching on what looked like rotten flesh. He had woken up hungry but seeing this made him less wanting for breakfast. The sounds of bantha footsteps were clear now. Jaka could barely make out the two banthas in line with eacth other. The raider on top of the first bantha raised a long gaffy stick glinting in the extreme sunlight of the desert. The patrollers answered by raising theirs, then gathered their belongings, walked toward the two banthas and hopped on. At last they were gone. Jaka waited patiently for the banthas to go out of sight, then quickly he took the canvas and disappeared into the morning shadows of the ravine.

It was about mid-morning when Jaka finished the stretcher. He gently put the droid on it, tied it down so it wouldn't roll over, put the tunic cover back on it to protect it from the sun, and started for home. It took a few hours of heavy lugging through the extreme heat, but Jaka finally made it back to his tent where he left the rest of the junk. After pushing everything to one side of the tent, he made a little bed for the droid. This was Jaka's first droid and didn't know that droids slept on their feet with a power coupler on. Making the droid as comfortable as possible he began to clean it up with what little precious water he had in the little bottle. The droid was painted all black, a symbol of Imperialism, with beige panels and utility arms. It had been dented and had several broken parts. This droid had obviously been through a bad crash indeed. On the bottom was the small letter-stamp that identified it. R2-X8.

Exate sat quietly while Jaka attempted to clean him up. This poor little creature is sure trying, but I don't think he's been around a droid before, it thought. I need oil, not water. Exate slowly gained his conscience again, trying to remember the crash. Something about his ship blowing up and he fell, fell, fell to the drab sandy planet. But which planet? Not knowing where he was bothered Exate. He didn't know why, but it did. So, since he couldn't remember much, and this creature was trying to help, and there wasn't much else to do, Exate laid back quietly on the lumpy bed and tried to relax. He needed to remember, that was important. And to do that, he needed to heal.

Osfest Fun!

2008-07-20T14:40:00.001-07:00

With lots of droids (and builders) in attendance, I had sooooo much fun at Osfest in Omaha. Kudos to DarthMoose74 (Moose Mendolia, who actually had his droid, Patches, running around and blooping at everyone) for organizing the R2 tables, the panels, and the minis games. He had a lot to do, but kept everything running smooth. Since there was a lot going on I'll just post pics for now. After all, a picture paints a thousand droids - umm words. LOL

Many droids came. AL is in corner with blue ribbon on right leg.

A finished Artoo by Clay. I think someone said it was 9 years old, possibly making it one of the older club-built droids.

One of our tables, with DVD's running on my laptop.

Lots of parts on table, including resin and aluminum.

Both tables loaded to the hilt!

Iron Man, winner of costume contest.

Me and Iron Man. Notice the actual working blue lights.

Denise Crosby doing her best Vanna White with the droids.

And dubbing Artoo as an honarary Jedi Night.

The R2 Central Builders with Denise Crosby.

The R2 Cake, and it was goooood!

I've already paid for next year's Osfest (they had a special discount going on during the con). AL should be rollin' and bleepin' by then. He sure had fun at his first con!

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

Jaka and AL: chapter 1, part 3

2008-07-20T14:37:00.000-07:00

Part 3:
The Tuskan raiders sat quietly on a rock in the middle of the broken camp. It was a nightly ritual for them to patrol the camp area until the hunting party sent for them. This was to guarantee no one followed the hunting party. If someone stumbled on the camp, the patrollers would rush at them creating an illusion of more than two, scaring off anyone who came near. Simple and effective, no one could follow the hunting party's footsteps from the camp. Jaka knew this. So, how does a lonely little jawa get past the raiders? He knew his best chance was to wait it out until the patrollers were summoned. Jaka headed back towards the droid.

Back at the water puddle, the droid stirred slowly, trying to get his bearings. He tried to extract his sattelite dish, but that had been bent out of shape during the crash. The crash, the crash, the crash.... the droid barely remembered it. He would eventually remember everything, but at this time he was preocuppied with trying to find out where he was. He saw a strange little creature in a brown hooded robe with large orangy-gold eyes coming at him. He was too tired to shriek in horror. In fact the droid seemed paralyzed, unable to move or think. He could see, he could sense a strong breeze, he could feel the sand about him. Other than that, he could be dead for all he knew. The little creature bent down and whispered that they would spend the night here for now, at least until the something and something left some... camp? What the heck is the creature trying to say? Odd, I understand his language. I think he's trying to dig me out. What's going on? Am I dead? OK, I'm on a sandy planet with a small brown-robed creature trying to dig me out. I can't move. Should I run a diagnostic test? I'm too tired..... The droid decided it was best to shut down some of his systems to save energy.

Jaka kept whispering that everything was going to be OK. They just had to wait it out a little while longer, and everything was going to alright. Just hang in there. I'll take care of you. We've got to wait for the Tuskan patrollers to leave. I can't carry you by myself, so I have to make a carrier out of the leftover canvas. Don't fade out on me....
Jaka was dismayed to see the droid shut down. Was it dead?

It was going to be a long night.

Jaka and AL: chapter 1, part 2

2008-07-06T16:35:00.000-07:00

Part 2:
Looking into the little puddle of water once more, Jaka determined where the shiny bit was coming from. Using his bright keen eyes and his great since of direction he found a piece of metal sticking out of the sand bog about 5 meters to the left of the puddle. Some of the water had seaped towards the metal , but it had not corroded yet. This was a good sign, meaning this was fairly new and not rusted yet. Was this from the Imperial spy ship? There was only one way to find out. Jaka took out his digging stick and began to shovel the sand away. He finally looked up and noticed how dark the sky was becoming. He had to dig this up fast! Being out here alone in the dark with Tusken Raiders banding into large hunting groups was a frightful thought. Jaka dug feverishly, not really looking at what he was digging up. Then, suddenly he jumped back, realizing what the object was. A big black radar eye stared back at Jaka, then a very dim Logic Display flashed ever so briefly. Jaka threw his digging stick on the ground with disgust. You see, droids were a dime a dozen in the jawa world. Everybody had droids, droids flooded the market, droids were a hassle to repair, droids were senseless machinery that followed everyone like cute little desert rat dogs. Cute! That's how one off-worlder described droids. And Jaka despised cute! This was Tatooine, a very non-cute world, full of violent storms and shady characters. Who needs cute!!!

Jaka picked up the stick and bottle of water, turned his back on the buried droid, and started to head back up the ravine. He got as far as the other side of the puddle when he heard a faint cry from the droid. Something strange stirred in Jaka's heart. Jaka was not one to have sympathy or feelings for anyone or anything. Why should he? No one ever loved or cared for him. His life was spent hardening his heart, being tough in a tough world. He didn't need or want anyone or anything, except his junk. So why did his heart flutter when the droid pleaded faintly for help? Why did Jaka feel compelled to continue digging this droid up and take him home? Why was it getting dark fast?

Jaka had the urge to turn around and run, avoiding the sandpeople. Instead he walked back to the droid and spent the twilight hours, dangerous hours, helping the droid that still had some life left in him. It was going to be challenge carrying a heavy fully equipped droid that couldn't walk. After all these things weighed about 250 pounds. Jaka was a very svelt 120 pounds. He expected to find small bits of metal, not a whole working droid! So, in the dark, cursing himself to death for his stupidity of trying to rescue a droid in the dark, Jaka went to find some sticks and canvas to make a carrier for the droid. Sandpeople always left behind bits of tent canvas when they broke camp. It didn't take long for Jaka to find some. Problem was there were still a couple raiders still standing in the broken camp! UH OH! This is not what Jaka wanted to face! But he knew getting the canvas was the droid's only hope....

More weekend updates

2008-07-06T14:23:00.000-07:00

I won't get as much done on AL as I wanted to this weekend. The 4th of July BBQ Spectacular for my ski club up in Breckenridge was just too darn fun!! I and a couple others smoked ribs, grilled brat dogs, and flamed teriyaki burgers. Forty hungry hikers and bikers in the club (including one who just climbed two forteeners in one day!) ate and drank their way through summer bliss. Even when it began to pour rain. AHHH! The joys of mountain BBQ's in the summer!!

And now, the AL news:

A close up of the paint on the legs.

Doing flag duty. Notice the HP is in. Crooked, but in.

And in case you didn't notice, HE'S STANDING!

Yep, my little buddy stands tall when he holds the flag.

HAPPY BELATED 4TH!

As I said, I won't be able to get some stuff done, like finishing the skins and painting the bronze parts. I had some great difficulty with my new airbrush and wondering if I should just hire someone to paint the parts for me. Also, the dome is just hanging off the edge. I think I'll need help installing the dome rings onto the JAG frame. Can't find six holes on the frame that matches the six holes on the plastic ring! CRAZY! But I'll figure it all out somehow. In the meantime, AL is just about ready to go to Osfest. And, boy oh boy, is he super excited!

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Building Update

2008-07-03T18:04:00.000-07:00

Well, here's what I've done this month.

Got the legs and ankles painted and put together, including nice new shiny shoulder shims. Still no shoulders, though. Got all the parts for the shoulders, just need horseshoes. Same hammered gray as the panels.

Got two of the HP holes cut out. I'll get the third one on top after Osfest. My friend Scott lent me his hole cutter drill bits. The 2.5" cutter was perfect. Just need to go slow and steady, which wasn't too easy to do on thin metal. Lots of sanding later, and I've got two great holes. HP's will get installed this weekend.

Two coats of gray auto prime on the steel feet.

Lots of parts to put together.

And after three days of sanding/grinding down the steel in the ankle channel of the foot, I was finally able to put a foot on an ankle and attach the whole thing to a leg. I'm still grinding down the other foot. Seems the steel feet ankle channel is about 1/16" too narrow, even with the paint sanded off. Ankle and foot are a very very tight fit, so don't know how this will effect 2-3-2 effect later. At least it's on.... Doesn't the foot look great? Priming first sure helped alot.

Another view. The foot was tilted backwards, but when I sat AL up straight and planted the foot on the ground, the foot seemed to automatically tilt forward. The foot sits correctly now. I did put a piece of tape on the front of the other foot to tell me which way to tilt the ankle.

This weekend: finish skins (panels all cutout and painted, just got to put them back on the skins), install HP's, install other leg/foot/ankle, sand/grind/install middle foot, install power couplers/coin returns/coin slots, paint some of the bronze parts (having trouble with airbrush so I might not be able to get to that until after Osfest - bummer), install utility arm rails and arms (takes fifteen minutes), and pack. Well, I've gotta have clothes for Osfest. LOL

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

Backstory 1

2008-06-30T14:26:00.000-07:00

The Adventures of Jawa Jaka and R2-AL
(A love story between a jawa and his droid)

Chapter 1: AT THE PUDDLE OF WATER

Part 1:
Jawa Jaka was on his daily roaming of the canyons on Tatooine, his home world. Jaka enjoyed his lonely walks, picking up stuff here and there left on the ground by wayward space travelers or the abundant farmers scattered throughout the planet. Sometimes he would come across items left behind by those city folks just looking for a good party, junk like lost jewelry or small vats of Correllian wine (a rare find but his most prized possessions since he loved the taste of it). Jaka spent most of his life gathering up the flotsam and jetsom most would consider trash. To him they were treasures, ready to be made into fantastic sculptures or refurbished and sold to other lost city folk (except the wine of course). He collected and stored all this junk in a very large tent he made from a ship's parasail found at a crash site somewhere in the middle of the desert. Lightweight and easy to fold, Jaka could break down his tent and travel anywhere he wanted. That was the appeal to him, freedom to go anywhere and do anything. Who cared if none of the other jawas called him friend or came to visit? Yes, it was a lonely existence, but he was happiest amongst all his junk.

On this cloudy day, without looking up at the sky, Jaka made his way down a small canyon that led into a larger opening. He had been to this valley many times, but today was going to be different. Instead of sitting quietly in the valley he decided to forage for junk along a path he rarely went on. He had heard several days ago about an Imperial spy ship being blown to bits by a rebel cruiser in the skies just above the planet. Jaka figured there might be some junk he could sell from bits and pieces that might have fallen from the battle. Pieces of Imperial ships brought large sums these days since everybody was suspect of everything Imperial. The Battle of Yavin was big news on all outer rim planets, and Tatooine was no exception.

Jaka reached the valley, rested his tired feet, took some drink (who knows what jawas drink to quench their thirst), and took out a small map showing possible crash sites in the area. He picked a route and headed up a small ravine that had a trickling brook burbling just underneath. Jawas are very self-sufficient in the desert and can find small amounts of water under the crust rather quickly. Jaka filled a small bottle with the lovely liquid. This would fetch a great price in the city. He took another bottle out when he noticed something odd reflecting in the water. He turned around and in the sand was something shining, even on a cloudy day. AHA!! KACHING! Jaka knew it had to be something from the battle. It was time to get to work.....

Disco Padme

2008-06-11T18:25:00.001-07:00

My roomate found some pics of me as the Disco Padme. This is an outfit I created for CIV May 2007 based on the "picnic" dress in Episode 2. I updated the dress by making it a 70's tribute costume with mini skirt, disco blouse, and knee-hi boots. The wig had the usual side buns in a gold wire mesh and pastel-colored ribbons down the back, just like in the movie. In the movie Padme wore a tight-fitting renaissance dress, complete with flowing ribbons, and got Darth Vader. My version got me a few beers, a couple dances at the CIV Sat. night party, and lots of looks (and photos). I don't know, but I think my version did much better than hers! I think I'll wear it again next Celebration (just because it's soooo much fun to wear!).

Don't ask me what's that on my knee. I think it was something on my roomie's camera....

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Foot Update

2008-06-01T16:07:00.000-07:00

So, you think I'm talking about AL's foot hehehe. Nope, Jawa Jaka's foot (OK, mine) has another three weeks to heal before the boot cast comes off. Bummer since the Colorado Ren Faire starts in two weeks, and I always go to opening weekend. Nothing like prodding along on hilly countryside in a pirate costume with a boot cast. Sigh, I guess I'll just have to sit at the pirate's pub all day and drink since I can't do much else. Maybe I'll work on a small piece of AL at the pub. Like the center vents, or something like it...

I have about a month to get as much done on AL as possible, including all parts on the dome installed and most painting done. I'll be one of the presenters at the R2 panels at Osfest in Omaha, NE, July 11-13. The R2 Central Builders (the local Nebraska and Iowa group of the R2BC) are too excited that I'll be there with an all aluminum droid. One of the panels is on different materials to use for droid building. The other is on electronics, which I know nothing of but presenting a brief description on the Budget JEDI controller (more on that later). AL won't walk or talk at this con but I'm hoping he'll look good anyway. Maybe I'll put a bowtie on him.

In the meantime, here is a pic from the Yahoo pictures of the week showing a barn in Kansas (also on DenverPost.com, search Colorado tornados for story, May 22nd I believe). It was the same nasty storm that demolished the town of Windsor, CO and did some serious damage in nearby Platteville. It's freaky to look out your window to see a line in the sky, bright blue stillness on one side, dark menacing fast moving monstrous clouds on the other. Yep, that's what we saw here in Aurora for three days. Kinda reminded me of the Dementors from Harry Potter coming to town. SCARY!!!

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

R2 Style Builder

2008-05-19T15:00:00.000-07:00

There is a new toy on astromech.net called the R2 Style Builder. It's basically a painting program to color in your R2 to see how the colors will look. I'm going to try and import it to Photoshop so I can add textures, too. In the meantime, here's the closest I can get with the limited colors on the R2SB. Hammered gray and bronze (sorta).

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

The JAG V5.0 Frame

2008-05-18T13:56:00.001-07:00

Here are some photos of my JAG V5.0 Frame. All aluminum, precut, predrilled, and very stable. Put it together in about three hours with a phillips-head screwdriver. The day before I did put together the utility arm carrier, but had to take it apart again so I can put the arms (same bronze as the eye). Currently the frame doesn't have the arm carrier attached. However, I have included a couple picks of the carrier to show how it looks.

05-15-08
Utility Arm Carrier. Each arm has a pivot pin so they can swing out. Make sure that for each pair of rails (top and bottom of each arm) the pivot holes face each other (tops are facing down, bottoms facing up). It took me awhile to figure this out, but that's how the pivot pins work.

View of arms pivoted out.

Smokey the ALTA performing quality assurance. Yep, that rail is good and tight from the back!

Completed carrier. Too bad I had to take it apart so I can paint the arms.

05-16-08

Getting down to business! The two bottom rings and risers are in, the shoulder plates attached, the speaker plate screwed in.

Speaker plate has very small horizontal risers to allow room for center vents to go in. The four holes on the vertical rails are where the vents attach. I'm planning to align the skins onto the frame first, then put on the vents. It's so nice to have a place to put speakers for AL's "bloopideebloops" (sounds).

Smokey taking a very long cat-nap. Imagine that, an ALTA asleep on the job! Give her a break, though, it was a hard day for her. Chasing birds, fluffing her tail, harrassing the male cat. You know, the usual stuff that wears out a cat-girl.

Back to the frame! Shoulder hubs in, battery box in, top ring on. The green plastic in the back is to mount electronics. I'm considering switching it out for a block of wood. I also need to move the battery box somewhere so there is room for the 2-3-2 center leg (leg comes up through the frame). Gotta plan that carefully or nothing will fit inside. Will work on it when I have the legs and feet done.

Another view of shoulder hubs. The plates, hubs, and bolts are built so that the shoulders can rotate in 2-3-2 mode.

It's beginning to look a lot like R2! (hum to favorite Christmas tune). I had to take the panels and eye off of the dome so I can drill holes in the inner dome for the HP's. With the frame, you can see AL taking shape.

With Smokey out like a light (nothing could wake her up, not even me petting her tail), I put Fritz to the task of checking the work. Quality assurance is important! I don't think he knew what he was doing (take a sniff, walk away, walk back right by AL ignoring it, walk to AL, sniff again, repeat), but he sure liked the smell of it!

There are no instructions for putting these frames together. My best tip for this project is to print out a few pictures of frames already put together. Try to get different angles. There's some really good ones on the astromech.net forum under "Frame".

Next up is legs, ankles, and feet.

Until next time,

JawaJaka

Broken Foot

2008-05-11T16:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it again. I had an accident of great proportions that has greatly limited my social and volunteer life: I broke my foot on my back porch step Saturday morning on my way out for a trail project. I managed to drive my truck full of food and drinks up to the project site north of Boulder CO, where several volunteers unloaded my truck, then a volunteer drove me to the local county hospital. After looking at X-rays, the doctor made an astounding announcment, "Yep, it's busted!". I'm now in a rigid boot cast and crutches for the next 4 to 6 weeks, possibly more. I had the same volunteer drive me back to the project site where I held a short meeting with my cook crew and several others. It was disheartening to hear that I am now pulled off of all the other trail projects I signed up for this summer. It's for the best, but that gives me more time for AL. I promise not to break his foot!

Progress: I have the outer skin panels cut out. I'm practicing with my new airbrush, but I think I need a bigger nozzle for what I want to do. I'm painting the coin slots and utility arms the same brilliant bronze I painted the radar eye. I might also do the octagon ports the same color. I also have to decide which door panels to paint the hammered gray. Need to get the door hinges (probably robart) to start figuring out the doors.

In a previous post I mentioned Colpar Hobbies. They're fast becoming my favorite store (right up there with Attactix, a minis game store where I buy all my Star Wars minis game pieces). Colpar has an RC section in the back of the store I never noticed before. They have a selection of Futaba controllers with various prices, along with a back wall full of servos, motors and other electronics. I talked to the RC expert. He's pretty excited about my R2 project and wants to help with the electronics part. If I get the Budget JEDI system working, he'll help me with the RC/motor/servo aspect of it. One great thing about AL, I keep making friends who want to actually help! AL is certainly better than a puppy dog (well, not quite. I still miss my Lady, what a great loving terrier dog she was!). At least I have my two cats, Fritz and Smokey (my ALTA).

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

The Story of R2-AL

2008-04-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

or How an Imperial Droid Became a Rebel Hero

R2-AL, aka AL, started as R2-X8, an Imperial droid serving on a spy ship stationed in the Outer Rim. He was modified to oversee the ship's onboard computers and make quick repairs. He was also retrofitted with long-range scanners as part of an advance detection radar system. It was also up to Exate to boost the rockets for quick getaways.

During the Battle of Yavin, Exate's ship hid on the opposite side of Tatooine to avoid detection. Unfortunately, a rebel cruiser was also stationed there to protect that side of the planet. The cruiser immediately recognized the spy ship and, before Exate could activate the booster rockets, obliterated it. Exate was the only one to survive, crashing into the sands of Tatooine.

Tatooine is full of scavenging creatures called Jawas. Misunderstood and underated, they collect and repair the junk that falls into their territory. Jawas are family-oriented social creatures that live in Sandcrawlers, giant mobile collection/repair stations with living quarters. Several families can live in a single Sandcrawler. But even Jawas have "black sheep" in their families. Jawa Jaka is a loner who prefers to live in tents and small shelters. Unsocial, unhappy, and unjustifiably lonely, he wonders the sands eeking out a living selling any junk he finds. So, when Jaka happened upon Exate half-buried and barely alive, all Jaka could think of was no one would buy this piece of junk. About to leave Exate buried in the sand, Jaka had a change of heart when he heard a faint cry from Exate.

Taking pity on the little droid, Jaka unburied him and took him to Mos Espa, where he rented a small shop with tools in exchange for janitorial duties for the owner's other shop rentals. Scraping off the black Imperial paint, he noticed that Exate was really make of shiny aluminum. Jaka renamed him R2-AL.

During the two years it took to rebuild AL, Jaka began to transform himself, becoming more social and taking pride in his work. Jaka had never refurbished a droid before, so he got a lot of local help. He became fond of AL, referring to him as "son". Jaka also became somewhat sympathetic to the rebel cause, as did AL. Jaka fitted AL with a chip to give AL a personality, although no one could figure out what exactly that personality was. That is, until Jaka and AL overheard a conversation between two stormtroopers about another Death Star in the works.

While Jaka preferred to stay out of the whole Imperial/Rebel affair, and staying out of politics altogether, AL insisted he had to join the fight. The two came to an agreement; Jaka would stay behind as a rebel spy and AL would go to Hoth to help with the tracking system. It took a lot of convincing the rebel army, but with AL's highly sophisticated computer systems array and tracking devices, knowledge of Imperial systems, and his strong determination, AL was finally allowed to serve at Hoth. It was AL that alerted the rebel army of the arrival of Imperial troops, thus setting off a chain of events that led to the evacuation of Echo Base on Hoth, saving countless of rebel lives.

AL and Jawa Jaka have both been decorated for their bravery during the Battle of Hoth. A new paint job has given AL a hammered-iron and bronze look, giving him the nickname Hammerin' AL. He is still devoted to Jawa Jaka, whom he calls Dad, and to the rebel cause. What started as an impersonal Imperial droid has now become a loyal rebel hero.

The Dome (so far)

2008-04-23T14:14:00.000-07:00

As promised here are some pics of AL's dome. As mentioned before, he's bronze and iron (well, painted that way, at least).

1. Cutting the panels out with the dremel using a cutting wheel. Notice the flex shaft. The rainbow colors are the reflection off of my TV, cool huh? Tip: before cutting out, label all panels and inside the outer dome so you know where to put them back (think match game).

2. The panels all cut out, edges smoothed and sanded with the dremel sanding kit, surfaces roughed up a bit, and ready to paint. Tip: roughing surfaces helps the paint to stick to it without peeling off later.

3. The dome as displayed at Starfest/Robocon 2008 in the Model Room. Since I still need to cut out the inner dome, I used the tacky stuff you hang posters in dorm rooms with to put the panels and eye on. It really holds great! Tip: for temp holding, use the tacky stuff that comes off easily.

4. The top of the dome to get a better look of the Rustoleum Hammered Gray paint job. It really does look like hammered iron! Tip: use a large cardboard box lined with newspapers to spraypaint items in. This prevents paint from spraying all over. Don't forget face and eye protection specifically for paint.

5. The EYE! Four hours with an airbrush with a very small jar of bronze hobby paint. I couldn't be happier. Azman is hooking me up with a bronze-tinted lens. Tip: there's more than one kind of paint. Shop around and READ LABELS FIRST! Tried a spraypaint for plastic only, didn't work on alum.

6. Another view of the eye to show the paint job. Tip: use a small amount of paint thinner in the airbrush to keep paint from clumping in the crevices. Trust me on that one!

Hope you enjoyed your quick tour of AL's partial dome.
Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

Starfest Balcony Contest Winner!

2008-04-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

Whew! Starfest is finally over! I was in so many panels and events that I didn't have time to take my usual 500 pictures (just a few of my dome) or see any of the celebrities or main events. I did, however, participate in one of the coolest contests at Starfest - the balcony contest.

As a member of the Order of the Gray, one of Denver's Star Wars fan clubs, I've been helping with the balcony props along with other members since October. It started at CIV in LA when I and a couple friends saw giant foam board starships being used to promote the cardboard Star Wars Battleships minis game. I told my idea to our group leader of making our own giant foamboard ships for the balcony. Half an hour later another member came up with the exact same idea. Thus a balcony was born!

After many months and hours of labor and an electrician in our group, we came up with this:

Yep, that's a blacklight turning the engines of one of the ships blue.

Of course, these are pics before we put up the day-glo string to show the ships firing at each other. I'll try to post a pic of that as soon as I get one.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

2008-04-10T19:51:00.000-07:00

Quick post: for those that have never seen me, here's a couple great pictures taken of me at Starfest 2007. My eyes were a little weak due to the consumption of Klingon blood wine. I promise to look a little brighter this year...

In the meantime, the R2-KT auction is very near. My to-do list seems long, but there really isn't a whole lot to do. Just the final touches and printing and getting everything ready and.......

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

2008-03-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, here's a couple pictures of what I've done so far:

The wooden frame. After a couple days and Smokey's help, I finally got the frame put together. It's not glued and stands crooked, but I'll try to fix it later.

David Shaw's CPU arm. All the way from Australia and just gorgeous! Notice the R2 BC logo on the round disc, bottom left.

Smokey, my astromech lab tech assistant (ALTA). She's a love sponge....

I'll post a couple more pics as I get them downloaded off my camera. Pics of radar eye and pie panels to follow....

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

R2-KT Auction Poster

2008-03-25T19:27:00.000-07:00

I've been involved for the past year in a project very near to my heart; an auction to benefit Make-A-Wish Colorado. My friends and I have been calling it The R2-KT Make-A-Wish SciFi Auction, to be held during Starfest on Sunday April 20th, 2008 at the Denver Tech Center Marriott. We're hoping to raise at least $1000, maybe more. Well, I've been working alot on it this past weekend, and here is the poster that I developed with Photoshop CS3 (why didn't they have this version when I was in school? it's fantastic!!!) and approved by Make-A-Wish Colorado. I still have a couple more fan club logos to put on, but it's pretty great so far!

Sorry, it's hard to read, but the full size .pdf version is magnificent. I just bought an HP color laser printer to see how these print out. I still have to go to Kinkos for 11x17 size posters. So, what do you think? Jawas can be pretty creative, huh?

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

The Radar Eye

2008-03-23T18:04:00.001-07:00

After three weeks of trying to find the perfect antique brass look for the radar eye, I settled on a really old looking bronze color. Here's how this happened:
I got the idea while looking at a catalogue with door knobs and pulls. Got excited over the old antique brass and ran to Home Depot (I think I live there now since everyone knows me, especially the hot dog vendor who always gives me extra saurkraut). I asked the paint clerk if she had anything that looked antique brass, she only knew of Rustoleum's Metallic Antique Brass. So, I bought a can and Rust.. Textured Outdoor Furniture Brown (it looked and felt sorta rusty, which was a very cool effect). Unfortunately, the brass had so much metallic flakes that it looked glittery-disco (absolutely a no-no on Al). After an hour of scraping off this quick-drying fiasco I tried the rust, which didn't even stick to the aluminum. Apparently it was for PLASTIC furniture.

Lesson one: read the can very carefully before purchasing.

I tried mixing the two and was getting successful on my very tiny scrap aluminum. Even my roommate liked the look of it! So, I sprayed both on the eye at the same time. What I got was splotchiness and a real mess. Anther hour to scrape off.

Lesson two: you can't mix spray paints.

After wasting most of the morning on the brass look, I decided to go back to my original idea of a pewter look. I already had a can of metallic pewter (made by you-know-who), so I sprayed that on. Problem was it looked too close to the original alum color. Yep, you guessed it, more scraping.

Lesson three: even if it's a cool looking color on your small scrap tryout, it might be ugly on a larger scale.

Went back to Home Depot the next morning to return the cans that I couldn't use. The returns clerk was very helpful and even suggested True Value Hardware. I asked him how long it's been since he was there, since that company went out of business two years ago. He claimed there was one still open close to where I work. So, off I go in search of something that didn't exist (and I knew it). Stopped at a gas station to search a phone book, found an Ace Hardware down the freeway, called them up to see what they had, and off I went to visit them. Ace was helpful but absolutely no-go on the brass look (same stuff).

Lesson four: if you know a business is closed don't go chasing it. Let your fingers do the walkin' in the Yellow Pages.

Ace suggested a hobby store, like Michael's. I knew the one close to me shut down a long time ago, so I headed for Hobby Lobby. This is a store that used to have lots of crafty stuff, but now it's more home decarative junk (although I've been able to find beautiful hinged boxes for my creamated cats, all lined up on my mantel). They had some gold metallic paint for model kits, but no antiquing medium to make it look old. After another frustrating morning I had a light bulb go off in the middle of the store. Hmmm, hobby paints, model kits...... That's it! Colpar Hobbies! One of the largest model kit and hobby stores in the Denver area! And there's one close by!

Lesson five: be patient and go with gut feelings. Sometimes the last place you look will have exactly what you want.

Off to Colpar. They had a few brassy looking paints but nothing really what I was looking for. I showed the clerk one of the hammered-iron panels (as I showed everybody throughout this oddessey) and he pulled off the shelf the most magnificent bronze color I've ever seen! Old iron and bronze? Why not! I wanted that old-world look anyway. So, I went home with a small jar and a small paint brush (and verbal instructions from several hobbiests shopping there, all of them in awe of me building an R2 unit). I brushed on a thin coat that night. Next morning it showed a lot of streaks. UGGGH! Loved the look but not the streaks.

Lesson six: always test it out first. But somehow I knew this was going to work anyway. Hope was high!

Went to a friends house who had an airspray gun. I showed him what I did and he patiently gave me a lesson on airguns, circular sanders (gotta get me one of those!), and Naptha.
First we sanded off what I had done already (not again!), but this time it went really quick with a sander instead of soap/water/elbow grease.
Next, we sanded another layer so the paint can stick (hard to stick on smooth surface). The panels weren't smooth, thus the spray paint stuck to it perfectly. The eye is a different story, smoother finish, so you have to rough it up a bit.
Two coats of Naptha, a paint thinner/cleaner, to really clean off the surface of any sanded metal dust.
Then the airspray gun, oh what fun that was! With a large compressor and a tiny nozzle, it made a tiny hobby jar of paint go a long way. And quick, too.

Lesson seven: ask your knowledgable friends for help. He's now thinking of building an R2 himself, too.

The radar eye is perfectly smooth, the paint won't fall off if prepped properly, it's the coolest old-world bronze I've ever seen even though I was stuck on doing it in brass (best choice I've made so far), I had fun working and learning from my friend, and I really got to know what shops carry what. Colpar Hobbies, you're at the top of my supplier list.....

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka

The new and improved blog

2008-03-04T19:25:00.000-08:00

This is a continuation of my original blog at http://360.yahoo.com/lynellephi. Now that I'm actually building Al, I'll have lots more to post. So, please read the first few posts at the original site (I'll try to move them here).

In the meantime, the weather was sooooo nice here in Denver on Sat. that I decided to paint the dome panels (pictures to come soon). They are a hammered iron look using Rustoleum's Hammered Grey spraypaint. It looks really fantastic against the bright shiny aluminum. I also found an excellent pewter paint that I might use on the radar eye and some of the body panels, just to give it a varied look and feel to Al. Hopefully the dome will be finished by Starfest in April. More to follow on the dome progress.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka