Flashback March 2009: Cutting the Dome

     The first and foremost item of the entire build was R2-D2's dome, which puts all things into perspective as far as its size in proportion to his cylindrical body. In other words, I never realized how big Artoo was until I actually held the dome in my own hands! But then, I realized that it had to be big enough encase actor, Kenny Baker. In addition, having the dome early in the build also provided an "inspirational fuel" to finish this project.
    
     Since the accuracy of its shape will either make or break what is considered a replica and what is just a "wannabe" R2-D2, I turned to two notable builders/ part suppliers of the of the R2-D2 Builders Group, Daren Murrer and Cole Horton. They are most noted for supplying the latest and greatest aluminum screen-accurate replica called the "300 Dome." But because the 300 Dome was not offered at the time when I first joined in March of 2009, I had to opt for another great dome that they also offered, called the "C&D Dome."  The C&D Dome was a styrene version of their 300 Dome.

     The C&D dome is a 3 piece set which includes an inner dome, outer dome, and a dome ring (not pictured below). The purpose of the inner dome basically serves to hold the outer panels in place and at the same time, gives structural support to the outer dome.

     As you can see, these are plain blank white domes which will require alot of cutting and painting. Also notice that the shape of the dome is not a perfect hemisphere but more of an ovoid shape, much like the real prop. I have seen many astromechs utilizing a hemispherical dome, perhaps made from a lamp shade, BBQ grill or even a squirrel guard, which was probably the only options available in the past. Unfortunately, to many, it gave its overall appearance an odd look. The the upside is that the general public may not take  notice to the hemispherical dome, unless they are true Star Wars movie buffs, or until it is placed side by side with another astromech with a more accurately shaped dome.

     The only major drawback is that this dome is not aluminum. According to special visual effects person for Empire, Brian Johnson, he mentioned in an interview that in one instance, R2-D2's dome was "built in a compositic epoxy resin fiberglass moldage structure, rather than aluminum..." As we have seen in the movie, because of  the right amount of lighting, you can never tell the difference between what is metal and what is not on-film, but I'm certain that a scrutinizing Star Wars buff would easily point out its non-metallic properties if it was to be seen in person. From a builder's standpoint, the dome can be painted an "aluminum" color, but as far as I have seen, there is no paint in the world that will ever simulate the elegance of real aluminum. I eventually will have my hands on an aluminum dome, but for the mean time, this will have to do. Don't get me wrong, I believe that a non-metallic dome painted in efforts to simulate aluminum is perfectly acceptable, but if your budget allows it, I feel an aluminum one is a better option if you really want to be screen-accurate.

     Fortunately, Daren and Cole were nice enough to post printable cutting templates in PDF format, which allowed me to roughly mark the locations, spacing and height of each panel and orifice.

     After each panel was lightly marked using the templates, I attached a flexible straightedge to the top dead center of the dome using a drywall screw. This allowed served me two purposes:

1. To redraw all the vertical lines each panel, using the straight edge of the ruler.

2. To redraw all the horizontal lines of each panel, by using the top dead center as a pivot point and allowing the pencil lead to ride along a fixed point on the straight edge.

Here's a short video to make things more clear.

     Here's how it looked after all the panels were drawn on. The "dome ring," mentioned earlier is indicated by the green arrow. Throughout the entire time, the dome was taped to the dome ring to keep it in place while I was cutting. Without it taped to the ring, the dome would be extremely flimsy. An internal support ring will be used in the future to help maintain its shape, and to secure it to the body. This will be discussed later on.

     Since there were no cutting templates nor official club specs for the top panels, with the help of a little high school geometry and studying a few reference movie pictures, I was able to estimate the size and spacing.

     Using the traditional score and snap method for cutting styrene sheets on this dome isn't easy as it seems. Because of its convexity and it's 0.125" thickness, most of the cutting was done using a miniature saw. Made by X-ACTO, I bought this little saw for a few dollars, and it worked out great. Notice that I taped the outer dome to the ring to maintain its original shape because the more panels that were cut out, the more it started to lose its rigidity.

 

     As for the holes of the dome, I utilized an adjustable circle cutter, that I bought from Harbor Freight,  that can be attached to a drill:

     Loose panels that needed holes were taped down to make drilling easier.

 

     Cleaning up the top dome panel was a cinch. A screw was inserted through the center and then the panel was rotated against a disc sander.

     All the cut panels were hand sanded and carefully gapped to 1/8" with the outer dome. In the pic below, here's a tricky combination of three panels which will house the rear logic display later on. Sanding the panels to make the 1/8" gaps parallel with the outer dome edges was a challenge. I'm happy with the results. 

     After a few weeks working on and off, despite being a long and tedious part of the build, it turned out to be a very rewarding experience.

...and here's the cut outer dome with masking tape labels over the panels,  placed over the inner dome. I also placed a mock holoprojector on top just for kicks.