Painting Dome Inserts

I started painting the dome accessories. I'm using Krylon Fusion Satin White(2420) spray paint (for plastic). I'm putting a thin coat on the logic surrounds so they will accept the aluminum paint later. The radar eye will be completely white and the solid holoprojectors will have a white cowling and an aluminum colored top. I covered the bolts with tape so I wouldn't have a problem later trying to put nuts on them.

Filling Dome Holes

I filled the dome holes/imperfections with gel super glue. Once it dries, I will sand it smooth and try to smooth out some high areas left by the DAP Plastic Wood.

Lens Fitting For Radar Eye

I couldn't sleep this morning. I stayed up late last night watching several games I really didn't care about and was still up by 5 AM today. I think it's because I'm excited about the Huskers playing tomorrow. The game should be an easy win, but Husker football is Husker football.

Since I was up I decided to do a little work on R2's radar eye. I got the lens for the eye back in May, but didn't alter the radar eye to make it fit. After my work smoothing and leveling the eye to get a tight fit against the dome I am only left with preparing the eye for the lens and painting it.

I will need to use a Dremel to grind away part of the rear edge of the radar eye center hole so the radar eye and lens sits flush against the dome. I determined what a level distance would be from the front edge of the radar eye and made marks. This took a little work because the eye is not a consistent size all the way around the center hole. Once the marks were in place I added tape to serve as a guide while I'm using the Dremel. Once the tape was in place, I cut the tape hanging out the front side of the radar eye hole so it would hold in place and not bend while grinding.

I used the lens to draw lines on the back of the radar eye so I know how much to grind away.

Painting Stopped

I added a couple more coats to the dome and decided that I needed to fix a fix dome imperfections. I need to fill in some small holes created when adding the holoprojector mounting screws and sand a couple of DAP Plastic Wood areas that are too high. So the painting was stopped and I will start again once the problem areas are fixed.