Ready or not, it was time to unmask the coin slots.
I got these installed in droid #2 in preparation for tomorrow's appearance at R2LA VII.
Then, it was over to Mike Senna's house to drop off droid #1 and get ready for the dinner preceding R2LA. We had eight droids already present by the time I left!
Several out-of-towners are already here, including Doug Dixon from Orlando, Florida, as he chats with Vince Sanchez.
Matt McCormick and Chris James made the long drive down from Northern California.
Max Cervantes borrowed Chris James' magnetic dome panel, and once again proved that his PT Cruiser is R2 Blue.
Mike Johnson arrived from Las Vegas, and surprised us with this item. Hmm, what could it be?? Could it have something to do with the scene on the TV?
We headed to Lamppost Pizza for dinner, and had a good time reuniting and pigging out.
Tonight I was racing to get as much done on droid #2 as possible before R2LA weekend kicks off tomorrow night.
The first thing I did was repaint the coin slots. Phew! No spiderwebs on the purple layer (or any others).
After I finished with the blue and clearcoat layers on the coin slots, I glued in the screws that go in the back of the booster cover head pieces.
Next, I used silicone to glue down the inserts that go in the shoulder hubs. I globbed some silicone on the outside of the insert pieces, smeared it around, and set the pieces into the hubs.
I debated about whether to try removing the masking tape on the coin slots tonight or tomorrow. The thinking was, the sooner the tape is removed, the easier it will be to pull off. However, the clearcoat is gummy at this stage. I removed the side tape and one of the top pieces to see how it would go.
Due to the gumminess, there is still some excess paint that will need to be removed with an Xacto knife. I decided to let the paint cure some more before attempting to remove the rest of the tape.
1.4 droids getting ready for R2LA VII!
I'm intentionally leaving droid #2 opened up for the event, so the newbies can see inside and get a good idea of how droid #1 is put together.
Tonight I remasked the coin slots that I had to clean up yesterday.
I have a new theory on what went wrong with yesterday's paint job. I think it might be that when I applied the blue masking tape to the lower areas in between the slots, the adhesive rubbed on the sides of the slots, leaving a residue that led to the spiderwebbing when I applied the purple layer.
This picture is repeated from the Friday, October 2, 2009 blog entry:
It's hard to tell due to the reflections, but the blue tape is only on the very top and very bottom areas of the part. For the very bottom areas, I cut the tape much larger than necessary, and then trimmed it to size. This meant that the excess tape had a tendency to rub against the side walls of the slots.
I decided to not mask the bottom areas this time, to avoid this problem. Unlike the first time I masked this part, this time I decided not to unmask the slot openings themselves. I don't really notice the insides of the slots on droid #1, so I won't miss this with droid #2.
Today I was able to put a little time in on droid #2.
First, I finally got around to gluing down the leg strut holders. These support the lower cylindrical part of the leg struts, and are glued down inside the ankle.
The fit seems pretty good.
Next, I began painting the parts that I prepped yesterday. I started with the Rustoleum Metallic Purple on the large data port and coin slots.
Unfortunately, I got some spiderwebbing on the coin slots (grr!), so I abandoned painting them.
Out came the acetone, to strip the part bare again. There goes all that masking. :(
I wanted to see if I could figure out what goes on when the paint spiderwebs. I removed some of the paint, and it looks like something went wrong with the primer, because the spider web pattern seemed to follow areas where the primer didn't fully cover the metal. That's strange, because visually, I had 100% coverage.
Just before painting, I did lightly sand the primer with 400 grit sand paper and then I wiped it down, but perhaps I either sanded too much or left some dust behind. Oh well.
I finished the cleaning with a toothbrush. That's gonna taste awful later!
Painted parts are happy parts.
I'll let these stink up the garage overnight, and I may or may not try to remask and reprime the coin slots soon.
Tonight R2 joined several Star Wars characters for Star Wars night at Dodger Stadium. As I've mentioned in the past, I'm a big Dodgers fan, previously having held season tickets and previously having attended Dodgers Fantasy Camp, so it was great to be able to combine two passions (Star Wars/R2-D2 and the Dodgers) at the same event.
The characters arrived around 4:30pm, and we were led to the club level, where the very expensive suites and press box are located. Inside the World Series conference room, the costumed characters changed into their outfits.
Meanwhile, I waited in the hallway, where I met Dodger Stadium organist Nancy Bea Hefley, whose music I have enjoyed at the stadium for years.
Once everyone was ready at around 5:20pm, we made our way to the elevator behind home plate, for the long walk leading to Autograph Alley, directly behind the center field wall. I knew R2 would be up for the drive though, the Senna drivetrain was ready for the task and the batteries were freshly charged.
Once at Autograph Alley, I parked R2 and the pictures started and kept on coming.
When we were done with Autograph Alley, our next stop was the "My Town" section of the stadium, which was the Clone Wars section of the ballpark for the evening. I parked R2 near the section's entrance, where even more pictures were taken. Some of the characters were shown on the video board, I'm not sure if R2 ever made it up there or not.
As we were entertaining the crowd upstairs, Cad Bane and four clone troopers threw the first pitch. I tried to get R2 involved, but alas, I was unsuccessful.
After a few innings, we were done with the entertainment portion of our visit, and we were allowed to go back to the club level and stow our gear and watch the game.
While being escorted back to the conference room, some idiot ran up and slapped the dome hard. It was so loud I thought he may have done some damage, but I don't see any evidence at all. Fortunately security was right on top of him, and I think he got booted from the stadium.
When I got back to the room, I ran across Spanish language broadcasters Jaime and Jorge Jarrin. Jaime is in the broadcast wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame and is a local legend in the Spanish speaking community in Southern California. Jorge is a very popular English and Spanish broadcaster in his own right, and I've heard him on the radio for years as well.
We exchanged pleasantries and moved on, but a few minutes later, Jorge came back and asked if I could visit the press box. Um, sure! When I was a young teenager I snuck into the press box a few times after the game just to see what it was like in there. It was nice to be invited this time around. :-)
Here's video of most of the visit.
Next, I parked R2 in the conference room and went back upstairs to take my seat, where I was just in time to see the Dodgers score five runs in the seventh inning to break a scoreless tie, clinch first place in the National League West, and secure the best record in the National League!
Finally, after the game was over and most of the crowd left (after watching quite a bit of post-game celebration on the video board), I headed back to the club level one last time to collect R2 and start heading out.
Comedian Jon Lovitz and friends asked for a picture with R2, so I got one for myself.
Larry King also walked by.
At long last, R2 was back outside where he started, and I got him into the Droidmobile and on the way home. A great game, and a fun time.
Today and this evening I prepared lots of parts for painting. Some of them will be painted sooner than others, but I was on a roll.
First up, the aluminum parts, namely the coin slots and large data port. I lightly sanded these with 220 grit sandpaper, to rough them up a bit to help the primer form a nice bond.
The sanding was followed by a thorough cleaning with acetone. Shiny!
Next, the fun part - masking the coin slots. I decided to go the extra mile with droid #2 and open up the tape to allow paint into the slots, as it is this way on at least some of LucasFilm droids.
Finally, I washed all the resin parts in a soapy bath with an old toothbrush, to clean off any mold release agent and other grime.
Some of these parts still need some filling and sanding, but I wasn't going to go through the washing exercise twice, so I washed them all at the same time.
