R4-D4 Dome work progress 3.1 - RED

Last week, I stripped down the dome of it's fitted components & started to spray up the dome, white.

Still have the lower ring to sort out etc. Plus colour scheme, which is actually my biggest issue lol.

Weekend, I lightly sanded the dome and then Monday in work, I gave it a second coat of white.

I drew up some colour ideas, but wasn't happy with them. Then I settled on a design that follows a standard'ish style. So, I started the masking off...

One thing I had forgotten was there are grooved panels above the Radar Eye's location. With everything going on, I'd completely forgotten to add these.....

So a quick operational procedure later and......

Two new grooves were in, PVA washed and edges sanded, ready for the morning.
I was working on the grooving and the masking off of the dome for about 3hrs! It was gone 1am when I finished up and went to bed.

Tuesday 12th.
This morning I set up in the works spray booth and got to spraying up the dome.
They only sell the metallic red in small tins.....good job I bought two!

Started spraying up.

Dome and lid sprayed, just waiting for it to dry,

I also sprayed up the two electronics panels in silver. I got them wet with spray which has helped with the blending of the 3D printed ridges.

Once dried these will get dirtied up with black etc.

So lunchtime I peeled off all the masking. Two spots I'd missed with covering, and one slight mist bleed. But am not to bothered at the moment as I can re-do this bit later.

 Radar Eye fitted back on.

'Electronics panel' fitted back on. View also of the lid.

I left one panel be red & included some random split pin strips, for R5 reference :)

Next up is silver groove details.

Metal for the neck ring arrived today from 'Metals4U', here in the UK. You can order strips cut to length, width & thickness etc.