My first version of the radar eye was made out of scrap pieces aluminum roof flashing. I simply used heavy duty shears to cut out the pieces and then hot glued them together. Easy right? Nope. There were two major problems with craftsmanship..
First of all, the flashing was a bit too thin and flimsy causing the pieces to warp. I tried to reinforce all the inner walls by gluing another layer of aluminum flashing to them, which helped a little, but I still wasn't too thrilled with the final outcome. The added layer of aluminum improved its overall ridgidity, but still had the capability to bend out of shape.
Secondly, hand cutting it with a pair of shears did not exactly yield the straightest cuts. Even cuts that were slightly crooked left unsightly gaps between two pieces of flashing and/ or between the flashing and the dome. Patching in the gaps with Bondo or some other two-part putty system wasn't feasible because there was no solid foundation for it to adhere to, especially where the walls of the eye meet the dome. Moreover, it wasn't worth the effort to glue strips of aluminum flashing to use as a patches either.
The picture displayed below shows the back of the radar eye, the side that is hidden from view when installed on the dome, that reveals other small problems that I experienced. As you can see, the inner walls had to be reinforced by gluing in another layer of aluminum flashing. It was messy, since getting nice, clean and even seams of hot glue wasn't exactly the easiest task. Also, the aperture where the lens goes, wasn't exactly the perfect circle. -yuck!
My second attempt of the radar eye was created out of 0.040" styrene. Using my favorite heavy duty utility knife (made by Husky), a straight edge and a compass, the cuts were more controlled. The result gave way to much more cleaner pieces than the ones from the aluminum version. Because I wanted a fast setting glue, I also used hot glue to attach the pieces together. I had to be extremely gentle since hot glue could easily warp styrene. In order to prevent warping, after applying the glue using a hot glue gun, I waited until the glue cooled down a little bit before I pressed the pieces together.
Both radar eyes were painted using a modified Krider formula: one coat Rust-Oleum White primer followed by two coats Dupli-Color MetalCast Anodized Blue and then topped with two coats Rust-Oleum Crystal Clear#7701.
The radar eye lens was cut out from the convexed portion of a 2 liter soda bottle. The back of the lens was then painted black and then taped onto the radar eye.
The results looked great, but being that the eyes were hollow, they were very fragile. One wrong bump or thump may instantly destroy it. Filling the voids with foam sealer from a can might have helped but there was still no solid surface to securely mount it to the dome. Another builder suggested pouring in resin filler but I thought it just wasn't cost effective. I finally decided to to order a council approved resin version from one of the group's part suppliers at a later date and use the scratch built versions as a mock up for the mean time.
In the end, the scratch built eyes didn't look as bad as I thought. However, in the picture below, you can clearly make out the warpage on the top surface of the aluminum eye, caused by using the thin pieces roof flashing.
A year later, I obtained this fantastic solid resin version from Azman. It was also painted using modified Krider formula and aluminum tape was used for the details. The soda bottle lens was also used.
Next up: Artoo Stands!
