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'R0 dome build - 4.2 - 'neck painting'

Oh..... I forgot to include the work i did for the neck ring.....

I used detail pin striping to create my design for R0's neck details. I used this technique on R5 for his top stripes.
It's good because it's tacky enough to stick but not enough to pull paint off, lol. Also it stops the dreaded 'paint bleed'!

Next was to cover the rest of the dome, with A3 sheets of paper. Masking tape was applied to it and then onto the pin stripe edge.

And then it was spray time.

Removing paper and pin stripes.......paper/pin stripes rubbish.

And the finished detail...

'R0' dome build - 4.1 - 'final spray painting'

Another busy weekend but managed to finish everything off ready for Monday.

I cut out and applied silver tape to lid's 'groove'.

Next I masked off dome......

And cut out for the squares........

I missed (in the ref pics & also on Sigge's plan's) that the recess box are colour matched, so cut these out and masked them off too. 
I decided not to spray the two rear panels blue. Decided to go with the R5 'only red' style (which then matches R5's body).

Couldn't wait till Monday to spray, so back to basics and sprayed up the dome lid at home, outside. No wind which was a plus too.

pre-spraying......

removal of masking tape.

No paint bleed (hardly lol)

And once all the masking was removed.....

Think this was more paper saturated with paint rather than bleeding under the tape.

Later once dried, I trimmed down a paint brush suitable for painting the square grooves and upper two rear panel grooves. I sprayed silver into a small container and applied it with the brush. Whilst this was drying, I cut out more silver tape for the main lower edge groove as I wanted this to match the top lid groove.

Silver neck groove tape

Silver painted grooves

The silver paint is silver, which match's R5's grooves, but the tape is more 'chrome' than silver.

This morning I brought the lid & dome back into work, as wanted to get the clear coat on.

Clear coat on.

Next is:- the light panel & weathering the dome.

'R0' dome build - 4.0 'white gloss spraying of Dome'

This afternoon's work was spraying up the dome with gloss white paint :)

Utilising works spray booth again, I sprayed up the dome and lid.

The lid is now finished so this can be clear coated and then the silver strip can be applied.
The dome still has a bit more work to be done, red & blue spraying and also silver detailing.

This is what I'm planning for the Dome to match up with R5's body.

'R0' dome build - 3.9 'Radar Eye - silver detail'

Was in two minds about how best to apply the 'silver' detailing to the radar eye. I found that my small paint brushes had seen better days......so painting was out the window lol. So I got out my silver tape that I had used on R5's lower neck ring. I measured and cut it to width.

I applied the two side grooves first then applied the full length groove.

I decided not to spray the radar eye, as only have gloss clear and I want matt clear.

Test fitting on the dome.

Next is white spray paint.....

'R0' dome build - 3.8 'Radar Eye - matt black'

Lunchtime came and so did more spraying lol.

One matt black radar eye.

I'll clear coat it tonight.

'R0' dome build - 3.7 'Primer spraying of Dome'

Dome lid - shaping the angle
Once the fibre glass had hardened, I used my block plane to remove any high spots etc. I want the surface to be below the angle so that the top coat of filler requires less sanding and shaping. Then I applied filler to the holes and uneven places and once dried, sanded it smooth.

Update:
This morning I took the dome, lid & radar eye into work to spray them up in primer, using my works spray booth/extractor fan unit with rotary table.

Next was the lid.....

I sprayed the underside edge first before turning over to spray the top

The primer shows up area's I've missed and need to touch up. Mainly around the square's where I've smoothed the edges to blend as a radius, and then forgot to PVA seal. Not the end of the world. Also the dome lid, still needs some filler.

Lastly was the radar eye.....

And a group shot lol......

Once dried and area's that need sorting are finished, some lite sanding and then I'll apply some more primer.

'R0' dome build - 3.6 'Skin'

Small update:

I made a start on cleaning up the lower edge filler. Now it has a flat angled face, I can apply filler to the inside under-face channel area.

 Lowe edge filler work, cleaned up and edge made 'sharp'.

Also finished and applied the last square panel.

Rear was grooved again to help the material to flex and bend to the shape of the dome.

'R0' dome build - 3.5 'Radar Eye - side gaps'

There was a slight gap around the outer edges of the radar eye as it doesn't still sit flush to the dome skin. So as I'd seen this done before, I used masking tape to protect the wood dome skin & located the fixing holes.

Next I mixed up some filler (not fibre glass) and liberally applied it to the edges of the radar eye. I then screwed it into place, so that the excess filler would ooze out.

Before the filler dried fully, I scraped away the excess (no picture of this), to make life easier later. Once dried I removed the radar eye and cleaned up the edges.

'R0' dome build - 3.4 'Skin - recessed box no.3'

Did some smooth sanding on the dome skin etc. Now silky smooth, ready for painting.

But first I still need to work on the last rear recessed box.

So I cut out the recessed pieces and started to glue them in place.

This time I cut the recessed pieces as two parts, not four. This was a LOT easier to glue in place.

There's a packing piece of wood to spread the load of the clamps, and this also helped the skin to shape more curved at the opening. I didn't take a pic of the other side, but it looks the same lol.