My R2 doing a photo shoot

This summer I was asked if I could have my R2 involved in a photo shoot. It was a fun outing and here are a few pictures from that. The model is the lovely Carolina Lundgren. and photographer is Micke Hellström

Weathering R2

This year marks the 10 year since I started building my very first R2. I have always keep him looking like he just rolled off the factory line, white and very clean. As I mentioned in an earlier post I just gave him a whole new paint job/makeover. After doing the Finland event I felt it was time to give him the “real”, been there and back look. The term is called weathering. I’ve put it off for the longest time because it felt wrong in some way. But now I’ve changed my mine. He now looks as if he’s telling a story. I stuck with episode 4 look “A New Hope”. He’s been across Tatooine with the sand, dirt, mud and oil look that follows. Weathering is a very hard thing to master but because I’ve weathered my Wall-e and BB-8 in the past I felt I was up for this challenge. Here’s the result!

Visiting the Toy and Art Museum in Helsinki, Finland

It was an intensive weekend but so exciting! First the trip to get there took 18 hour on a ferry (Viking Line) which was fine. Then directly to the event. It never ceases to amaze me the affect R2 has on so many people. I was “just” the driver but they treated R2 like royalty. I should also add that my R2 is the first and only R2 to ever visit Finland as well as the first and only one to sail the Baltic Sea. The Museum curators are already in talks about my next visit.

Upgrades for my R2

My R2 has been thru a lot of events over the years. And as with anything over time it gets damaged in all kinds of ways. Parts break off, cracked, dented and so forth. So earlier this month I gave him a complete new paint job. R2 and I were invited to attend a Toy and art Museum weekend in Finland and as they went thru the effort of arranging all the logistics I felt a slight facelift was in order. I even printed out some newer details for R2 that are lighter and better detailed. The average person won’t see a difference but at a closer look it’s perfect.