Nominee – Steven Sloan

What would you improve within the droid building community?

Having been a member of the droid building community since 2018. Overall, I feel that the community works very well, being a welcoming and helpful group, with a good mix of Con and social events.

One area I would like to see developed is to try and bring in more diverse group members, especially younger members. The group has a very good working relationship with many Con organisers, but I would be interested to see if we can develop links with educational establishments.

From discussions with visitors at Cons I know that there are a lot of younger people who show interest in building droids, and they have the knowledge of technologies such as 3D printing. I would like to think that with a final little push in an educational setting (college/university) they may take that final step into starting a build.

What could you bring to the committee that may be of a benefit to the droid building
community?

I have worked in the electrical and electronic manufacturing industry for the last 30 years, and for the last 17 years have been a Project Engineer/Manager. My primary work responsibilities are scheduling and purchasing for Oil & Gas drilling control systems. I would hope that these scheduling and purchasing skills would be useful to the community.

I have previously held the position of Treasurer for the School Parent Council at my sons’ school.

Although not reliant on being a committee member, as one of the Scottish builders I would like to become more involved in the organisation of events in the Northern part of the UK. Also, as there is only one MOT tester currently based in Scotland (Doug Inman) I would like to put myself forward for approval as an additional MOT inspector.

Please include a builder profile of yourself, as though we don’t know anything about your
droid building journey over the years.

My name is Steven Sloan, and I’ve enjoyed making things from an early age, starting with Airfix aircraft and then moving on to spaceships as my love of science fiction grew. As I got older, and was financially independent, my scope of hobbies increased including 3D printing, building and flying IC engined model aircraft, and restoring a 1976 MG Midget.

In 2008 Professor Adrian Bowyer, of the University of Bath, visited my workplace with a group of students who had built REPRAP 3D printers. Since this introduction I have built six or seven 3D printers from scratch, but with the improvement in commercially available printers I have moved away from tinkering with 3D printers as a hobby in, and of itself. I’d now rather print things than build or fix printers.

Regarding my love of Star Wars, I remember going to watch it in 1977 with my dad at Weston-Super-Mare cinema a few days after my 8th birthday. As an avid reader of Science Fiction novels Dad encouraged my love of Sci-Fi, taking me to films and recommending books, but Star Wars was something I always came back to.

As a maker and hobbyist, I would have adored to have built an R2-D2 sooner but always thought that it was just not achievable without a huge budget and a full machine shop. This was obviously before I found the R2 Builders group online.

In 2018 I joined the MrBaddeley Printed Droid Facebook group and finally found a “useful” outlet for my 3D printer capabilities.

My first droid build was an R2-D2 using multiple build methods (Senna style body and legs, styrene skins, and 3D printed dome and greeblies). I completed my R2-D2 in January 2020 (just in time for the Covid lockdown) and during lockdown I built an animated Chopper droid, which was ready for the start of the Con season in 2021.

Since 2021 I have regularly attended Cons and Droidbuilder events, introducing my son Euan to the fun of driving droids at cons.

I now have R2-D2 (which I can convert to R5-D4), Chopper, B2-EMO (on his 3rd iteration) various small builds, and have a BB droid which is about 90% complete.

I don’t see my Droid building journey ending any time in the future as I am constantly thinking about the next build and looking forward to seeing my friends in the community.