For our final Tinker, Hack, Invent Saturday of 2013 (can you believe it?!) our friends from the 501st Great Lakes Garrison will be patrolling Henry Ford Museum. But don’t worry! The good guys from the Rebel Legion will be there, too! Learn more about the group and what they’ll be bringing to the museum.
What will you be doing during this week’s Tinker, Hack, Invent, Saturday?
We’ll be displaying the Droids, costumes and props that we’ve made. We’ll have costumers walking around the museum throughout the day. You can expect to see Darth Vader, Stormtroopers, Jedi knights, R2-D2, Tusken Raiders, Jawa’s and a Droid Factory full of droid parts similiar to what you might find in a Sandcrawler. Also blasters, Light Sabers and much much more. All built by hand by members of the 501st Legion, Rebel legion and R2 Builders club.
What are some of the favorite DIY activities among your fellow Star Wars enthusiasts?
We meet periodically as a group and have “Armor Parties”. An Armor party is just a bunch of us getting together and putting our resources together to build a costume or prop. We have members with various backgrounds. Some are good at vacuum forming, sculpting, making resin parts etc. while others are good at electronics, and machining. Some of us are just good at assembly and ideas.
What other projects are you working on these days?
There’s always something in the works. We currently don’t have protocol droid (C3PO) in the area, so I’ve started on this. It’s an expensive project if done right so it will be a while before he’s completed. You might see some of his parts lying around in the Jawa junk yard this year. And there’s always a secret project or two in the works 
What’s one making tool you can’t live without?
Dremel tool. I’ve used it on every costume and droid that I’ve built.
What did you enjoy most about Maker Faire Detroit this year?
The guests. We spend most of the day answering questions and taking photos. There’s something about the attendees of Maker Faire that isn’t like any other event we do. Maker Faire attendees are really interested how things are put together, how we did it, and this is our chance to pull R2’s dome off and show them what’s inside.
