An ILM R2 Story

[greenmachines]

Wow! sorry for the late reply Jason.

Our spun domes came with coarse spin marks form the forming process; so to get mine to a similar finish as the real ones had, I sanded it with a palm sander as well as by hand. I think I started with 150 or 220 grit, then brought it to 360 grit paper. Once I reached that point, I hand sanded it with red scotchbrite pads. That gave it the the smooth-but-not-polished look that the real domes had.

Now I'm only basing my dome's look on the condition of the original domes as they existed when they were all renovated in the ILM modelshop for the prequel films. I couldn't say how close they may or may not have been to their original finish back in the 70's for New Hope. There have been decades of who-knows-what had been done to them. I tried to match mine to the dented New Hope dome that I had to hammer back in to shape in 1999. To smooth out the hammer and dolly marks from my repair, I used the same method as I mentioned above to match the repaired area to the surrounding dome. I think all-in-all it blended in pretty well with all the other dings and scuffs on Artoo's noggin.

Did this repair to the original dome (movie dome) require any painting. I'm curious if the sanding and weathering was done over a new matching paint patched area using your two part process. Sorry if I missed anything in detail through the thread.

 

[Duncanator]

Did this repair to the original dome (movie dome) require any painting. I'm curious if the sanding and weathering was done over a new matching paint patched area using your two part process. Sorry if I missed anything in detail through the thread.

Nope, no paint required. It was an aluminum dome, so it was all hammer and dolly work to fix the dent, and then sanding and scotchbrite pads to try to match the repaired metal's surface quality to the unrepaired areas of the dome.

 

[Duncanator]

Did this repair to the original dome (movie dome) require any painting. I'm curious if the sanding and weathering was done over a new matching paint patched area using your two part process. Sorry if I missed anything in detail through the thread.

I just re-read your question, and I think I'd missed your point.
The dent was in an area that didn't have any blue panels so there was no paint touch-up needed.

The damage was a horizontal dent about 5-6 inches long, caused by the droid falling over and hitting the dome on a curb - Ouch!
The area affected was near to and above the long blue panel that the long data display is in. This was around the time all the droids were being prepped for use in Episode 1, and I think this was just prior to all of them getting repainted with the new 2-step blue paint process.

 

[greenmachines]

I just re-read your question, and I think I'd missed your point.
The dent was in an area that didn't have any blue panels so there was no paint touch-up needed.

The damage was a horizontal dent about 5-6 inches long, caused by the droid falling over and hitting the dome on a curb - Ouch!
The area affected was near to and above the long blue panel that the long data display is in. This was around the time all the droids were being prepped for use in Episode 1, and I think this was just prior to all of them getting repainted with the new 2-step blue paint process.

Yes, you are correct. I was curious if this was polishing roughness using those methods, including over an area of paint (I should have mentioned new OR old) or if you were weathering and aging a new smooth surface. To get an idea of what these tools were doing to the surface textures. Thank you.