Desert Scum 7/7/21 Desert Scum 7/7/21

Droid Chipped/Weathered Paint Effect Using Salt

There are several tutorials around the net and You Tube that cover all sorts of weathering techniques. I implemented use of salt to provide a chipped paint look as outlined below. This process is really easy and fun and should take under an hour for small pieces.

Salt Chipped Paint Effect

R5 Baby Droid

Build Info:

R5 Baby Droid model by Mr. Baddeley Printed Droid
FDM finishing process 2 part clear and filler primer
Base Coat Color: Gloss black, topped with Alclad Chrome, topped with 2 layers Alclad Aqua Gloss, topped off with 3 layers of 2 part clear gloss.
Top Color Coat: Montana Gold Mt. Fuji

Base Color

Apply base/bottom color that will show through when top-coat is weathered/chipped off.

For this droid I wanted it to look like it was built out of metal, painted over, and due to wear and tear some paint has chipped off to reveal his metal base coat underneath in some places. To ensure the actual chrome/metal paint didn’t chip off during the weathering process, I did a couple layers of clear coat on top to protect it.

When adding salt to the water in the next steps be aware that the salt will stick to the surface VERY WELL. It will take some heavy brushing in most areas to get the salt off.

So depending on the durability of your base color/paint, there is potential for that layer to chip off as well when you brush off the salt which would expose whatever is under the base color (primer or even bare plastic). If you don’t want that to happen I would recommend sealing your base color with a sealer or clear coat as I did.

Apply Salt

Apply water and then salt to allow it to stick. Apply on in areas where you desire the base color to show through for chipping effect. Allow to dry and shake off stray or excess salt (if desired).

I used a paint brush to apply splashes of water in select areas of the droid and sprinkled Epsom on top of the water droplets. As the water dries the salt will stick incredibly well. Since I clear coated the chrome/metal paint, the water/salt was a little tricky to apply since the surface was really slick and the water and salt slid around. Once the salt is wet it is easy to distribute piles to desired areas and wait for it to dry. Allow the salt to dry out, use a blow dryer on low setting to expedite it if you wish. Shake off the excess salt and make sure it is still stuck in desired areas before top coating. If you are unsure where to put the salt, lookup pictures of rusty metal, chipped paint etc. to get an idea of where to place it.

Apply Top Coat

After the salt is dried, apply your top coat of paint over the salt.

Apply multiple coats of paint depending on how deep a chipping effect you want to achieve.

Brush Off Salt

After the top coat is thoroughly dried, brush off all of the salt to reveal the base coat/chipped effect.

Make sure the top coat is thoroughly dried. You can again use a blow dryer on low to to carefully expedite the drying process. You want to make sure the paint is dry around the patches of salt. I Gave my 3 layers of paint about 15 minutes at 80 F to dry. Once dry, take a stiff brush to brush off the salt patches. Some salt may stick harder than others and you may need to use your finger nail etc. to pick off the excess in some areas. Once the salt is off you should be able to use a damp cloth to wipe off remaining salty residue (depending on your paint) or not if you like it a little grungy looking.

Desert Scum 12/5/19 Desert Scum 12/5/19

RD-QD R9 Series Astromech Complete

RD-QD

Build complete December 5, 2019 just before Empire Con LA !

www.desertscum.org/rd-qd

Desert Scum 5/25/19 Desert Scum 5/25/19

STAR WARS DAY 2019 [T41]

STAR WARS DAY 2019 at Victoria Garden

AKA STAR WARS READS

#rcstarwarsreads2019

Free Public Event

RANCHO CUCAMONGA PAUL A. BIANE LIBRARY

SATURDAY MAY 25, 2019 12-5PM

Going to be a big event the Droid Builders and sister clubs Rebel Legion, 501st Legion, Mandalorian Mercs, Saber Guild and Road Squadron! Check out their website and social media information over on the BUILD IT webpage.

Additional Event Media:

Star Wars Day Blog by Anakin and His Angel
Victoria Gardens & Paul Biane Library on Facebook

Star Wars Day 2019 aka Star Wars Reads Paul A. Biane Library/ Victoria Gardens Rancho Cucamonga, CA USA May 25, 2019 Parade: 00:00 - 01:52 Video of some of the fun at Star Wars Day 2019 provided by Desert Scum footage, which represent a very small portion of the day!

Scum Pix:

Some pictures from the event below!

Scum Report:

It was a grand day out Saturday at Victoria Gardens! The Droid Builders were most pleased to attend with extended invite through the Rebel Legion Sunrider Base! We had 3 droids from the lovely Bakersfield Droid Builders (Will, Brian & Jackie) show along with 2 Scum droids and B1-H1 and his lil MSE buddy! We were able to be ready in time for the procession this year ! Event kicks off with the character procession through the gardens and into the library to get everyone excited for the day! Droid Builders brought up the rear and closed the procession in style.

The event was lively and full of activities for the kiddies a live cover band and plenty of photo opportunities with all of the many awesome characters that came out to play. The Rebel Legion & 501st Legion had an awesome Endor backdrop complete with Endor bunker and full size speeder bike ! Was a warm lovely Southern California day and the snow cones hit the spot! The Droid Builders got to meet and take a quick picture with Daniel Logan who played young Boba Fett in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones! among many other things.

A day full of Star Wars smiles !

Hope to see you next year!

Scum Muster:

RD-2D & Krank
- RD-2D mooned the crowd twice with the rock road knocking the back panel off
Monster Inferno MSE & Ardy Jo
- Monster MSE made it all day without re-charge on the 10000 mAh battery !

Clubs

If you are interested in joining any of the super amazing costuming clubs, (501st Legion, Rebel Legion, Mandalorian Mercs, Saber Guild, Droid Builders) head over to the Build It page to find social media and website information to help you out ! The costuming clubs have basic standards to follow for approval . The Droid Builders have guidelines but not official requirements for joining.

From the Hosts:

Join us for a fun-filled afternoon of crafts, games, character procession, Darth Vader storytime, music, and some very special guests!

Character Procession (starts at Kew Ave./North Mainstreet East)

Featured Guests and Performers

Danial Logan

Obi-Shawn

John Cloughery (magician)

Jimmy Purcell (artist)

Robert Zailo (artist)

DJ ROTNerd

Star Force Band

Inland Empire Cantina Band

Events

Bank of America Courtyard Main Stage

Character Procession (starts at Kew Ave./North Mainstreet East)

Opening Ceremony (with Master of Ceremonies Obi-Shawn)

Darth Vader Storytime

Mad Science

Star Wars Costume Showcase (Public participation, sign-ups begin at 1 p.m. in Courtyard)

Closing ceremonies featuring Inland Empire Cantina Band

Chaffey Town Square

DJ ROTNerd

Star Force Band

Victoria Gardens Cultural Center—Celebration Hall

Light Saber Guild Demonstration

Victoria Gardens Cultural Center—Rehearsal Hall

Vader Episode 1: Shards of the Past Fan-Film Panel Discussion

Star Wars Holiday Special Panel Discussion

Lewis Family Playhouse Lobby

California Vintage Star Wars Collectors’ Club

Attractions

Bank of America Courtyard

Rebel Legion

501st Legion

Mandalorian Mercs Costume Club

Saber Guild

Star Wars Day Info Booth

Friends of the Rancho Cucamonga Public Library

North Mainstreet East

Galactic Art Studio: Star Wars Artists Demonstrations by Robert Zailo and Jimmy Purcell

4 Color Fantasies Comics/Collectibles

Star Wars Origami Art with Chris Alexander

Mad Science

Star Wars 20 Podcast

Booma Ball Toss

Rancho Cucamonga Library Foundation

North Mainstreet West

NASA

Creative Brain Learning

Planetary Society

Jedi Archivist presented by Cosplay for Science

Galactic City Crafts: Yoda Ears and Amidala Headbands

Watto’s Droid Shop

Kamino Manufacturing Plant

Rancho Cucamonga Public Library Bookmobile

Paul A. Biane Library — Displays

501st Legion Rebel Legion Prop Display — Storytheater

Star Wars Collectibles Display — Library MainStreet

Desert Scum 9/22/18 Desert Scum 9/22/18

R2LA 15 [T27]

Droid Builder Party

PIX AT BOTTOM OF THE BLOG ENTRY

Hosted by Mr. Senna each year, R2LA is a gathering of droid builders in the Southern California area (mostly) although we have build visitors from out of state as well.

Super fun event collaborating with builders who we haven’t met in person and are basically celebrities in our opinion!

Ardy Jo’s Monster Wampa MSE rolled in with the recently finished Echo Base Beer Transport! Wampa MSE was surprisingly capable of toting a 6 pack ! Krankmeister brought his awesome BB-8E & MSE. He powered on the SNES Classic when it started getting a little dark out and played some Mario World, Donkey Kong and Super Star Wars right off BB-8E.

Great to see a couple choppers and so many MSEs this year! We were especially privileged to have Johnny 5, L3-37, K2-SO, C3-PO and Boba Fett ! They made for some great pix!

As usual, we had some MSE fun out in the street. Couple of race offs and the Mousezillas had a race with dudes riding on top of them! Racing quickly turns into crashes (some intentional !). Monster Inferno MSE had some battle damage. Ardy Jo had the bright idea of initiating a Diddy Kong Racing/Mario Kart balloon pop challenge. She secured a balloon to the back of Inferno MSE and zoomed around. The MSE sharks quickly caught on and attempted to pop the balloon. Only last about 30 seconds haha 2nd balloon popped off and bounced around unwilling to pop.

Fun time with crafty smart peeps!

Scum Muster

BB-8E & Krank
Monster Inferno MSE, Wampa MSE & Troop Transport & Ardy Jo

Desert Scum 9/8/18 Desert Scum 9/8/18

Long Beach Comic Con 2018 [T24 & T25]

Scum report from LBCC2018 with the Space Expo

Long Beach Comic Con

September 8 & 9 2018

Droid Builders booth & panel as part of the Columbia Memorial Space Center's Space Expo

Pictures below the summary!

Scum Muster

RD-2D, BB-8E & Krank
Monster Inferno MSE, Wampa MSE & Ardy Jo

Tags:

Hey Johnny , perello23, http://www.astromech.twinlitworlds.com/ , Jackie, Tina, ther2joe , aclane56, miyamotoextreme , Keith & Diana,

Summary

Really look forward to the Long Beach Con & Expos! Get to volunteer as part of the Space Expo with the droid builders group. We get a nice lil group of droids and parts to display at the booth and panel on Sunday. Scum did Sat & Sun this year. Really awesome to spend the night in Long Beach and not have to drive in the morning. The Long Beach Con/Expo is a nice medium size con and not too overwhelming for any new goers but full of lots of stuff. Loved meeting new builders and seeing those we have made builder homies with! Didn't get any MSE Vision videos (forgot the camera mount at home) and didn't get as many photos (especially on Saturday) as we should have.

Kranks favorite cosplay of the weekend was Joe Dirt and Ardy Jo's was Cinderella !

It was BB-8E and Wampa MSEs 1st con and they did great! everyone loved with BB-8E started wiggling and moving. He was rocking out to Johnny 5s jams. Wampa MSE creeped everyone out with his eyeballs and jumping out from around corners haha He also went for a beer break.

Saturday

Arrived with RD-2D, MSE-6, BB-8E, Monster Inferno MSE & Monster Wampa MSE & 2 slicer droids. The plan was to have Krank's MSE-6 tug the BB-8E. Unfortunately, it blew a connector and started smoking after we turned it on ! haha had toss em back in the truck for the weekend. Unfortunately Krank could have fixed it in a couple minutes it turned out. Resorted to tugging BB-8E behind RD-2D or by hand.

Droid booth had a nice corner spot with space to display the droids and move around. We were lucky to have Johnny 5 hang out with us on Saturday! Ardy Jo was able to get her "Hold the Door" doorstop signed by Hodor (Game of Thrones) Kristian Nairn in the morning. Saturday flew by! Did a droid parade at some point in the day, which is really fun to mow through everyone. Monster MSE loves cardboard trashcans. Some kind soul turned in Ardy Jos phone that got left in the pooper.

Sunday

Had to tug the droids around the block from the hotel unfortunately since they moved the LBCC entrance due to the stamp convention. Sunday seemed busier for some reason. We had Godzilla hang out at our booth on Sunday. Super awesome costume by one of our builders Amy! We snuck to the back of the hall to do some astromech racing. Jackie's Bakersfield R2-D2 won over all even though the Monster Wampa MSE spanked them all haha Also did another droid parade around the hall. The panel was at the end of the day and Scum left right after. Panel was represented with a nice variety of builders and went really well even though the room was tiny.