Singing the R2 blues ...

Didn't get much building in yesterday but did start the process of painting some of the parts in the R2 blue. I'm getting ready to get going on the dome and wanted to start with the blue painting to gauge if I'm going to have enough paint. So I prepped the radar eye, large data port, dome ring and utility arms.

The radar eye is a piece of shiny aluminum art. But it had to be blue so I prepped it by scruffing it up real good with a fine foam sanding pad. I actually did that with all the parts except for the utility arms which didn't need it.

Then the parts were cleaned with acetone and then shot with a coat of aluminum self etching primer (sherwin williams GBP 988 self etching primer).

After the parts are primed I'm using a blend of paint that BLACK GOLD INC. out of Arlington TX sells. They make the same color combo that was used by the R2 in some of the star wars movies I believe. You first use a custom base coat (it's a purple) SKU# R2D2 which is 2 parts FBC10 1 FBC02 and 1 FBC12. After applying the base coat you then use Kandy Oriental blue spray SKU# K04S. BLACK GOLD INC.'s phone# is 817-633-1135 or 817-640-4653 if you're interested. I bought 2 cans of base and 3 topcoat kandy. Not sure if that's going to be enough but it should be close.

Later in the day I applied the purple base coat to the parts and then several coats of the blue. Looks beautiful too. And then ... I have to admit. Sometimes building these robots is so frustrating. No matter how hard you try, something manages to screw up. And it's usually going to happen to the most critical areas. Today my "SUOTD" involved the radar eye. After it was done and looked spectacular in it's new blue color, I decided to turn it upside down and paint the inside ring a little more but from the bottom angle. Bad idea. The radar eye turned while I was shooting paint and smeared paint on the front. So all I can do is sand it down and redo it. And that's frustrating beyond frustrating. Enough painting for today .... and I really am singing the blues now.

NOTE: I couldn't stop and ended up wet sanding the radar eye area that was bad. Then I applied some base coat and then did the top coat again. And it's looking good again. Now if I can keep my paws off these parts for a few hours they may just turn out fine.