Dome Ring Strips

After a building hiatus, I finally made some time to put the styrene dome ring strips on the bottom of the dome. I was going to put one layer of strips on, but decided to add a second layer to bring them flush with the thickness of the dome.

Weather permitting, I hope to prime it this weekend. Then early next week I can paint it chrome.

Also, I got the masking frisket this week from Dick Blick. My test was successful to see if it would not pull the paint off. It worked beautifully, much better than blue painters tape. With any luck I can start masking out the blue areas next weekend.

Chrome Dome

After lightly sanding the primer, I gave the dome the first coat of Rustoleum Chrome Shiny Metallic paint. I am very impressed with the results. I am going to lightly sand it tomorrow and then give it another light coating.

I have noticed some stippling on some of the resin parts where maybe there was still some releasing agent on them, despite a thorough washing and cleaning with alcohol. I will sand those spots and touch them up again.

Priming the Dome

I put the first coat of primer on the dome this afternoon. Perfect painting and drying weather outside! Tomorrow I hope to fine sand it and give it another light coat.

If I get to the hardware store tomorrow, I'll get the silver paint. A silver dome by Sunday night would be fantastic!

Dome Progress

Well, I got all of the holes cut for the miscellaneous inserts. I also sanded the dome lightly in preparation for painting. Over the weekend I got a start on gluing in all of the dome pieces, and I was able to finish it up last night.

Hopefully tonight I can mount the last HP, glue the dome to the base and prime everything. If I am extremely lucky, I may even be able to paint the dome silver this weekend.

Cutting the Dome Holes

Well, the planets were all in alignment today and I got several hours (!) of time to work on R2. After futzing around looking for suitable hole templates, I finally decided to bite the bullet and use the Dremel tool with the circle cutting attachment to cut the holoprojector holes.

I did a test cut on a scrap of Sintra to make sure the hole would be the right size. I then drilled a pilot hole in the center, fired up the Dremel, said a prayer, and then plunged in.

As it turned out, my anxiety was for naught. The Dremel tool made a perfect hole with very few plastic schnibbles to clean off the edge. I used a standard 1" hole cutting bit with my cordless drill for the PSI holes. Nice and smooth!

I got the rear logic display and one of the front logic displays cut out but by then I had to attend to the boys, who were in each other's business again. Big surprise.

Adventurous plan for this week: one more front logic to cut out. Sand the hole edges and prep the dome for painting. Glue in the HPs and logic displays. Glue the dome to the base ring. Prime.

Dome Markings

I made a 360° measurement strip to go around the dome circumference to aid in determining where the dome details go. Astromech.net had some great references for showing where all of the dome panels should be placed, all defined by degrees around the dome.

I measured 3/8" up from the bottom of the plastic dome for a baseline and built up from there. I was able to get a majority of the panels drawn on the dome and tomorrow I hope to get the holes marked for the holoprojector eyes, logic surrounds and status lights.

Dome Support

I fabricated some dome support ribs from 1/8" Sintra with a 4-1/2" piece of PVC pipe for the hub.

I plan on putting some curved cross-support pieces in, as well as some pieces on the dome base to aid in alignment.

Once I have all the holo eyes, logic displays and the radar eye in place, I want to reinforce the empty areas with Big Stuff Large Gap expandable foam. The can says that it sticks to anything!