Tackle It Tuesday: Lucas Films Should Hire Me

I mentioned yesterday about my secret project and how I completely made it up off of the top of my head. Normally what I envision and what I attempt never come out how I envision it and I'm usually disappointed. This time I'm pretty darn proud of myself. My only wish is that it actually had some kind of function other than a center piece.

Here's a basic tutorial in case there's someone out there who desperately needs to make a R2D2 for a Star Wars birthday party or just because their bored and are a Star Wars Junkie.

The basic materials needed are:
A large sand bucket with the handle taken off.
A large blown up balloon
2 empty drink pouch boxes.
Paper Mache glue I used the cooked recipe but I think it would have been just as fine to not cook it.
Shredded newspaper and Shredded printer paper
Acrylic Paint and White Spray Paint
A juice lid or any kind of small lid.

Step 1

Blow up the balloon big enough to stick into the bucket with the rounded top part sticking up.
Prepare the Paper Mache glue and shred the newspaper in strips.
I had not paper mache'd since 2nd grade and yet it all came back to me. It is a dive in and get your hands dirty kind of project, I had fun but maybe I'm weird that way. I did a good 2 layers of newspaper. Let it dry or not if your in a hurry.

The nerf gun is not a intricate part of this project; though it could be useful to shoo away nosy onlookers.

Step 2:
Spray paint the over sugared juice boxes. I had to spray it several times and the packaging still showed through a little bit. I really wasn't overly concerned about it to much.

Step 3:

Paper Mache the next layer with the white printer paper. This was the best hint I got when reading about paper mache; it really makes painting a lot smoother and if white is the main area, than painting it white is not necessary. Let it dry over night.

Next wrap 2 full printer sheets around the bucket. I figure this would also make it easier than spray painting the bucket. You could easily do that to I'm sure, but I'm what you call a nincompoop when it comes to painting. If you've read the blog long enough than you know the paint debacle of 09. Let's just say it's best that I paint as little as possible.

At this point, I asked the birthday boy what he thought of R2 and he exclaimed "It looks like the death star!"

Step 4:
Paint the markings on both bucket and balloon. I used one of the boys R2 minature toys as a guide. This was actually easier than I thought.

Step 5 :
Glue on the infamous round light part. I used wood glue, but hot glue is probably best. I was just lazy and didn't want to break it out.

I admit. I had to actually go out and buy R2 and Leia, I needed Leia for the party anyway and it was meant to be since they were packaged together. To bad I had to settle for slave scantily clad Leia.

Step 4 or 6 (depending on your ADD tendencies)

Paint the legs.



Place the bucket/head section between the two legs. Your bucket should have little handle hook thingys that stick out. This sits perfectly balanced on the legs. You could hot glue or tape them to stay if you want. The leg placement is also up to you. I made the flaps of the box face in ward instead of outward as it looked less spaced out between the bucket and the boxes. Though I would have liked the flaps to face forward as it kind of looks like his feet. This really is up to you and your control issues. I has control issues.




Not to shabby if I do say so myself. The first thing the birthday boy said after declaring his love for it was, " Where's CP30?" I'm good but I'm not that good.


Stop by 5MinutesforMom for more tackles.