I was uploading some old photos to my new SW new website and I came across a bunch I’d forgotten I’d taken.

Back in 2004 I was lucky enough to visit Rancho Obi-Wan, and toward the back of Steve’s collection was this beauty

I don’t know much about it, so if you do please let me know.

Click through to see more photos.

I also have some video that I’ll try and upload later.

Tonight I quickly but together my periscope kit with some tape to check if I had enough clearance in the new dome panel holes.I’d left approximately 3/16″ around the border and the periscope was a tad tight at the top where it flares out as it lowered into the hole. So I’ll need to tweak the dome some more, but will hold off for now until I finish assembling the periscope fully.

Finally got the pie panels in the inner dome cut out, and I’m now all set to fit the hinges when they arrive.

Cutting them out wasn’t so bad and took about 20 minutes each. I thought cutting the curves would be difficult but it wasn’t.

I first marked out the pie panels using the outer dome and then stepped in an additional 3/16″ making a border. I cut a slot with a dremel on the verticals and then cut down with a hacksaw blade. I could have used a dremel, but I think the saw gave me a straighter/cleaner line. I then carefully followed the top and bottom curve with a dremel. I finished up the edges with a hand file.

As always more photos in the gallery.

I got a lot done this weekend. All the major/required holes are now drilled out and test fitting of all the bits that poke through.

Took my time on the last hole, the back PSI, as there wasn’t any room for error. I used the same hole cutter method as before but went extra slow and double checked all my measurements.

I also installed all the holoprojectors with some screws that go through the inner dome.

I still need to JB weld the screws in and I’m not sure if I’m happy with the result. I’m worried that the screws may eventually give out or pull through the dome.

I got to work on some of the electronics and made up some quick housing for the PSI circuits. Nothing fancy just some 1 1/4″ PVC pipe couplers and end stops/plugs. I cut down/sanded the plug make it easier to remove, and added a slot to feed the wires in. I also stuffed the tube with some bubble wrap to help diffuse the light. Eventually I’ll change the wire and hotglue the circuit board into the cap/plug.

I was anxious to do a full test fit of all the dome parts installed, so here’s a quick photo of th rear logic and a holoprojector installed

Here’s a test video of the rear logic and psi in action (ignore the wrong color on the PSI 🙂 )

Now I need to cut out the final outer dome panels and start thinking about painting.

I guess I also need to decide if I’m going to cut the remaining pie panels to make them open.

I’ve made a bit of progress on the dome the last few days. Cut out all but one of the essential holes, and if my drill hadn’t died tonight I’d have gotten them all done.

So now all three holoprojectors fit as well as the front and rear logic and one of the PSI holes.

I also started constructing tubes to house the PSI logic, cut some milk cute acrylic for the lenses, and started thinking about screw placement on the dome to secure things down.

With a bit of luck I’ll have everything fitted tomorrow and will then consider if I want to cut any extra panels out for more fancy things in the future.

This afternoon I also did a 4 hour road trip looking for various spray paints to do some color testing. I’m hoping in the next day or so I’ll get a chance to create some paint samples and post my results.

After a lot of thinking and consulting with Victor and Calvin I decide I’m pretty much done with the dome sanding/fitting. There’s some minor gaps but I can tweak them later and some may work themselves out for various reasons and decisions later.

I think I’ve been procrastinating and using the gaps as an excuse not to starting cutting some holes, so tonight was the night.

I started off with an easy one – the front holoprojector. It went a lot quicker and easier than I’d thought and the result was excellent if I do say so myself.

Basic Steps

• Overlay outer dome and mark circle.
• Find center of circle using some quick math.
• Decide on diameter of hole to cut and first mark with a compass then set the drill hole cutting tool the same.
• Double check slightly larger marked hole with outer dome again.
• Center punch hole.
• Drill pilot hole.
• Drill hole the same size as drill cutting tool bit.
• Start cutting.
• At some point I broke thru on some spots so stopped.
• Dremeled pie wedges using a reinforced cut-off wheel and snapped off the pieces when done.
• File off burrs, hold breath and test fit.

That’s it, and to be honest it was pretty easy really. I’d decide to make the hole exactly the same diameter as the outer hole. If I screwed up I figured I could always sand/file it bigger, but making it too big might be a problem. The holoprojector fit perfectly and a quick test fit of the dome looked really good.

Check out this video of my wobbling/bobbing drill bit.

I was about to drill another when the battery died on my cordless drill, so I’ll have to wait till tomorrow now.

Took a break today from sanding. I did some more test fitting, but I’m really trying to build up the courage to drill some holes in the dome.

Decide instead to review movie footage and reference pictures on what dome color scheme and panel layout I wanted to use. I’ve seen a lot of fan made R2’s which can vary widely both in quality and paint schemes, and there’s a lot of pictures of them out there – but not many of a real R2. The best collection is in the Gallery section on Astromech.net, but for some strange reason the photographers seem to miss his left side. I wish someone had a full set of 360 degree high-res photos . I guess it’s a good job we have the DVDs for reference.

One of my favorite sets of photos of a fan made dome is from Mike Marosy. He’s gone for a very clean look, and has a nice set of 360 degree photos of his dome.

The real R2’s finish is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and as many people know there’s quite a variety in paint schemes due to different domes used from movie to movie, or even scene to scene. Parts fall off during filming too e.g. toward the beginning of ANH it looks like he’s missing a back left panel when on the Death Star and Tatooine, and in other movies panels can go from blue to unpainted or flip color on the rear PSI frame/center. Another variation is the holoprojector housing being painted or not. The list goes on.

I’ve been making replica props long enough to know that there is no way I can be movie accurate because of all the variations. So, right now I think I’m going to go mostly ANH/ESB without painting the holoprojectors. I’m going to make it so they’re easily removed anyway so I can always paint them later.

Today I also tried to mark out some of the holes and build up the courage to cut them, but during the taking the domes parts countless times I then decided I should do some more sanding/polishing to reduce gaps before I do that.

By that time it was too late into the night and I didn’t want to keep the neighbors awake, so opted to wait till tomorrow.