Another quick update... spent the morning fixing the radar eye to the dome. I spent ages looking at pictures on the web, in books - but the eye seems to be in different positions depending on which picture you look at... So, I ended up making the top edge of the eye horizontal, which leaves the lower edge slightly diagonal - with the bottom left corner aligned to where the top front logic corner will sit...

I want the radar eye to be fixed to the dome, but I also want to be able to remove it easily if it needs repainting or replacing at any stage so it needs to be bolted in place. I found some M4 allen head bolts in the Dalek build spare pile that'd do the job, and then marked up where the eye will fit to the dome.

Once marked up I drilled out holes making sure they would align with the thicker sections of the eye and drilled some 4mm holes in the dome. Then I taped the eye in place and drilled some marker holes in the back of the eye, enlarging these to form 8mm recesses for the bolt heads.

After test fitting one hole didn't align properly, so I ignored this one and glued the three that do align into the 8mm recesses using Unibond metal repair glue, then sited it on the dome so the bolts aligned with the holes while the glue dries. After 5 minutes the bolts are stuck fast and it bolts to the dome nice and tight.

A spare Dalek hemi will be cut down to make the lens, but I'm pleased - he's starting to look like Artoo now.

I ordered a 17.5" lazy susan from www.rockler.com a few weeks back and it arrived this week. It has six mounting holes on the inner ring which allowed me to fix some 4mm bolts through that the plastic neck ring drops onto, and in turn an 18" MDF disc that will be fixed to the inner dome later. There were also eight rubber stops in the outer ring that had to be removed and then used as pilots to drill holes through the ring so that it can be bolted to the frame - I kept the clear wrap on to stop any of the metal filings from the drill getting into the bearings which seems to have worked and it all turns smoothly. I have a motor that I never used in the NSD which I'll now have to figure out how to mount with a wheel to turn the dome by remote.

The outer dome is all sanded and ready to be painted, but the inner dome still needed to have the holes cut out for the holo-projectors, PSIs and logics. Using the Dremel, I roughly cut out the holes with a cutting disc, and then sanded each back into the circle /oblong that the holo-projectors etc need to fit through. All bar one of the holes will be hidden by the dome panels, and the rear PSI, which will not be covered by a panel is pretty much a perfect circle.

The inner dome won't be painted, but left in the raw plastic state for painting once the outer dome has been sprayed silver. The edges that will be visible beneath the dome panels will be touched up by hand once its glued together, and the PSI panel at the rear will be masked and sprayed blue at the same time as the dome ring and panels are sprayed.

The holo-projectors & logic surrounds in the pictures are from Don Jarr's eBay shop and really nice quality, and the final picture shows the resin radar eye that arrived last week from www.resinparts.com which I need to tape in place and bolt from behind.

OK, I got the dome out of its box again...

A slightly tedious job has been completed, after removing the dome panel yesterday, I set to the task of sanding down all the burs where the panels had been attached, and three nail files later, the dome and the panels are all sanded smooth and ready for paint. I've also marked out the inner dome for the holes that the front & rear logics will sit in, the three holo-projectors, and the PSIs - although I'll not cut these until the parts arrive just to make sure the holes are the correct size.

My 'Laser Cut Styrene Dome' arrived this morning, or at least I was notified it was being held at customs with a £25 ransom note, so a 40 mile drive later and I unpacked the box. These are sold by a guy who posts at www.astromech.net and it really is very nice - a few of the panels had detached during shipping but apart from that its all good.

Making Artoo is great for part hunting, there are guys all over the world selling bit and bobs, and one sells polyurethane resin front and rear logic housings for a few quid each, and 'coz all these guys talk to each other, they fit the dome, good eh? I have a few more resin bits on route from the US, namely the radar eye & holo-projectors (a whole new set of lingo to learn!) so for now the dome and bits will stay in their box...