Well, I finally got the third HP installed and I have to say, I like the way this is turning out.  I am waiting on the PSI diffusers to arrive and come payday, I'll pick up the front and back logic surrounds.

My next step was sanding the pie plates for painting.  I started out with 600 grit wet/dry sand paper to remove the spin lines from where the dome was created, working my way up to 1500 grit.  A couple of hours later, the plates were ready.  I hit them with a couple of coats of self etching primer and wet sanded (2  times) then painted them withe the SBP/CMB combo and clear coat.  You can't really tell how good this paint turned out.  I have to get daylight photos...

Being the eternal nerd, I HAD to lay the pieces in and tape the eye on to get a quick shot.  Again, I NEED to get daylight photos.

Also, my R2 phone cover got here today, complete with HP earphone jack cover.  Yes, I have R2 on the brain.

It will be a couple of days before I have any more updates.  Besides waiting on parts, the remaining work on the dome will consist of sanding and deburring the slag from the laser cuts.  Once that is done, painting the remaining dome pieces and sanding the dome to a nice shine.

More progress.  After initially trying to use the existing holes in the mounting bracket provided with the HPs, I found out (as have many others) that the holes are too close to the bracket itself to be used.  So, taking a page from another builder, I decided to make my own mounting system.  I found these aluminum mounting strips at Lowes.

Obviously, I don't need the whole strip, so I cut the tips off between the second and third holes to use as my mounting brackets (you'll see in a minute).  I then traced the outline of the original bracket around the hole cut in the inner dome to see where the lip was.  Once that was done, I marked the hole in the strip and drilled (I really should take more step by step pictures.  And please ignore the 100 mph tape residue).  Is it pretty?  Not so much.  Does it work?  Yes.

View from the outside.  I still need to countersink the bottom 2 holes just a tad, plus, all the screws will be hidden by the outer dome and pie plates".

And, I just couldn't resist getting my first drop of paint on a part.  I went ahead and finished the radar eye.  I know the original blue on R2 is Dykem marking dye and not really a paint at all, but I really didn't care for it.  So, again, using tried and true methods, I used Sonic Blue Pearl misted with Cobalt Metallic Blue topped with Krylon Crystal Clear coat.  I'll take pictures outside so you can see how good this really looks.

More to come!

Well, I got the second HP in, only one more to go.  To boot, my radar eye arrived.

The dome!

For the build, the only aluminum parts will be in the dome.  IMHO, this is the attention grabber and you can paint resin parts aluminum colored, but at the end of the day, you just can't replicate the look of metal.

I started off by picking up the aluminum 300 dome and aluminum holoprojectors (HPs).  The first pic is the dome itself.

In this pic, you can see where the panels have been laser cut and require little work to get out and the aluminum HPs.

Here, I have cut out all the pie panels.

And last, the first HP installed.  You can see where I have drilled so I can start HP #2.  However, I'm at a standstill until I get a couple of parts in.

Intro

Well, after MANY years of wanting to build my own R2-D2, it seems it is finally happening.  Being a lifelong Star Wars fan (I first saw it when I was 7), I have always wanted an astromech of my own.  This is my first attempt at blogging, but I really can't think of a better way to document it.  So let's get started.