501st parade

Today was the St. Patrick's day parade and brrrr was it cold. It was right at freezing but at least there was no ice to worry about. After armoring up outside in the cold we set of to find the other troopers.

While waiting for the parade to start Miss Omaha wanted to take some pictures with all of us.

Group pic before the parade starts.

Jen and me.

Here are our two banner holders wearing the R2-CM and R3-TL hats a friend made for us last year.

Time to troop! The line has started moving so this is the last photo we have. It was a fun time, after the parade we all went out to eat. :)

Bed frame project revealed!!!!

UPDATE!!!!
Here is a link to the finished project!!!Finished TRON room!!!

Well here it is, the bed frame project relieved. I am building a section of Flynn's hideout from TRON Legacy as well as some of the props in the room and Flynn's white outfit.

Got a lot done today, getting all the pieces cut and ready to weld.

My friend Tim came over to lend a hand and helped keep the pieces lined up while I welded them. Thanks for the help Tim!

Welding a section of the floor together.

Grinding the welds smooth.

Once I got this section all welded up I took it home and put the special plastic I got on top from Bellevue Glass and Mirror. (Dad's store) The protective paper on the plastic did not want to come off.

Once the plastic was in place I did a test lighting to see how it looked. Ya! just like in the movie! It better for how much this plastic costs!
Even with no center support it can hold my weight. HUZZAH!

Here I am on the section of floor with some other props I have been working on. The "BITS" that are on top of the fireplace and Flynn's Identity disk. More info on them later........

Dude shoes

Today i tried my first shoe dyeing, As there will be multiple colors I have to do them in layers. I started with the darkest color first as well as it being the furthest inner color.

First I covered all the areas I did not want the dye on.

Then I dyed  all the exposed areas.

Once the dye was dry enough I took off all the tape. Looks pretty good so far. A Retro shoe sitting on my Retro counter. Old School Baby! Old School!

Once the shoe has had plenty of time to cure I will start on the next color.

Shopping around

No building to report today but I did get some shopping done for a few projects. First off I found a few tools for my Dude costume that I still needed.

I also got some welding rods, cut off wheels, grinding wheels, paint, and a few other odds and ends.
Now to put all this stuff to work!

501st Kidsfest Troop Iowa

 Another fun troop in the bag with our 501st friends.

 Thousands of kids wanted pictures, we had a non stop line for hours!

 While trooping the event we got stopped every couple of feet. :)

 "Hello officer....ummm.....nice day we are having?!"

"But Vader said I did not need to license my gun!"

Skirt work

Today I finished the Bondo work and sanding for the skirt and horseshoes for R3. Then I put a few coast of black on everything. SHINY!

I will let the paint cure for a few days before I put everything together.

I did not get a chance to work on the center leg yet but that should not take more than a day or two to get done next week when the weather is warm again.

Might as well...

While I was Bondoing R3's skirt and horseshoes I kept looking at R3's unfinished center leg and it was bugging the crud out of me. I went ahead and took the center leg apart tonight to be put on the pile of Bondo work to do tomorrow.  The weather is supposed to be warm but rain is also in the forecast. I hope the rain stays away long enough to get a few coats of paint on some parts!

Ya! For warm weather!

Today was the first day I got to work outside this year. YA! So warm in fact that I was able to do some Bondo and paint work. I dug R3's horseshoes out of storage and continued to Bondo the edges of them.

I was able to get one of the horseshoes done before the other so I went ahead and put a few coats of black on it.

The Bondo on the other horseshoe did not get dry in time to sand so I decided to Bondo R3's skirt as well. I set the skirt aside to dry with the other horseshoe over night.

Dude! I got shoes!

Not much of an update but I am happy about it. I finally found the right shoes for my Dude costume. They were hard to find especially in my size as they have not been made sense the 50s! Once they come in I got to take the laces out, then clean and recolor the leather to the right colors as in the movie.

Bed frame project work

I took the few of the bed frames I have so far and started to take them apart and cut them to size.
Look at all the pretty sparks! Make sure to wear safety goggles boys and girls.

 Here is all the usable metal I was able to get out of the bed frames.

A bunch of scrap which is useless in this project. I will put it in my recycling bin.

Just three or four more frames and I can start to put it all together!