Winter in SoCal?! Not quite...

Thanks to the unusually high temperatures, I've been able to get a lot of painting done!

Yes, even for Southern California this time of year, the weather has been pretty hot lately. Though I do love the cold, cozying up with a blanket and a move, I can't help but be happy. This weather provides the perfect conditions for painting parts!

And what better timing to have my Holoprojectors arrive! Yep, one of the final parts for the Dome assembly has finally arrived and is ready to work.

I was able to find an independent vendor on the Astromech Builder's forum who specializes is making custom resin parts for R2 builders. Long story short, I was able to get a set of resin Holoprojectors for much cheaper than an aluminum set.

First thing's first; I had to fit them up. Make sure they look as awesome as I have been picturing in my mind.

Yep! Looks good to me.

Outer and Inner Dome fit up with one of the Holoprojectors.

Okay, now that I got that itch out, it was time to actually do some work. Fortunately, all that needs to be done for the Holoprojectors is paint. Once I get the mount and control hardware, I'll have to hook that up, but that'll be at a later time when I am ready to final assemble the Domes.

Using the same process as for the Radar Eye Lens Mount, I prepped up the three Holoprojector sets and started painting. This was also a great opportunity to try out the metallic paint that I had purchased and was planning to use as the main color for the droid.

After a few coats, we are looking great! Both colors came out really nice, and are exactly what I had imagined when I first came up with the concept of my droid. I feel the colors compliment each other very well, especially the satin finish of the red with the metallic gloss of the base color.

Looking good!

Once I have the Dome ready for final assembly, I'll install these with all the control hardware and hook them up to the same Arduino board which controls all the dome lighting effects.

I'm working on a custom Arduino sketch which will control all three Holoprojectors to move randomly on their own, creating a realistic AI droid feel. More on that to come later.

Well, since I was already in the painting mood, I decided to go ahead and put the primer coat of paint on to the Outer Dome.

The Dome was relatively clean, so all it took was some work with steel wool, and I was ready to paint. Applying primer now allows me some extra time to get ready for the final color coats in the future.

After one coat of primer.

This one took a few more coats than the smaller paint I've been painting; about 5 or 6. But after just a few minutes, I had a smooth, complete finish. Now all I have to do for final paint is a light sanding, and I'm ready to go.

R2-N7 - Hoth Variant, anyone?? I kind of like the white!

Next up will most likely be final painting of the outer dome (as I wait for more money so I can get those Holoporjector mounts and control hardware :p ). This should be interesting.... but fun!