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U9-C4 Astromech R5 Unit Droid - D-Squad Star Wars The Clone Wars So, the first droid's done. U9, despite the name, is an R5 unit, although I've had to make a few tiny alterations to the base kit to bring it closer to the screen version. For those who haven't seen The Clone Wars animation, U9 was part of D-Squad, a group of four astromechs, including R2-D2, who were sent on an undercover mission to steal an encryption unit in a season 5 story arc. The laser cutter arm was a scratch built addition as it's the most prominent aspect of U9 in the show. The top of the dome was also altered as U9s is slightly different to the movie R5 units. The full wip's here Next, it's on to R2 himself Enjoy the shots One for scale And one with his mates Thanks for looking Andy

R2 & R5 So, R2 & R5 finally found their way from the land of the rising sun to my front door this morning and I've had a chance to have a rummage through the box and fondle the plastic. I had been a bit put off by some of the online photos of the parts but in person they seem pretty good, maybe not as pin sharp in the details as the Chicken Walker but that could be down to the garishly coloured plastic which makes it harder to see the details. I probably won't be starting these two just yet as I want to get the SS-23 finished and that build seems to be stretching out in front of me like a never ending road so, for now I'll just post the sprue shots so anyone who's not got theirs yet can see what awaits Sprue A Sprue B1 Sprue B2 Sprue C1 Sprue C2 And the two bases As has been pointed out in other posts, R2's dome is split in half and the top is a separate piece as well meaning there'll be some seams to sand. It looks like some of the inset panels can be installed post head-joining which will make life easier but others need to go in first so some care will be needed when sanding the dome The various body panels look well moulded and can probable be painted before installation then masked off for painting the main body The body itself looks nicely crisp. Both droids share the same body moulding There's only a single clear part included for the main eye on R2 R2's secondary eye (the red one under the main eye) is moulded solid which is a shame. It could be drilled out and an LED installed but since neither the body or dome are hollow mouldings, running the wires will be difficult The metallic gold bit of sprue A is for the hoses on the feet. Seems a bit of a waste of metallic plastic since the hoses are generally grey or black on the droids The two narrow flaps on the chest are moulded as a single piece so displaying them open isn't possible without a lot of work And for anyone wondering about size the body is about 2" so the finished height will probably be just over 3" There is the usual choice between decals or stickers and there's some nice touches on the sheets including the milled aluminium squares that go round the bottom of R5's head and the little cluster light panels on R2's dome. You also get the red pinstripe for R5 which will save a lot of masking I'll probably be tackling R5 first as it seems like the easier build. At this stage though, I'm not 100% sure if I'll be doing them as R2 & R5. There are so many astromechs in the EU now, many with more colourful paint jobs, so I may pick a different subject but we'll see Andy