Friday, March 24, 2006

Marked Dome for Eye Drilling

Using double-sided tape, I temporarily taped the eye to the dome where I want it to sit forever, and traced its outline. Then I marked the four spots that I will drill into the dome to support the eye.

After drilling these holes, I will tape the eye back on, and mark the four spots on the back of the resin eye that match the holes, and then drill four small parallel holes in the back of the resin eye. These holes need to be parallel to each other (rather than radial) so that the ends of the screws that will go through the dome won't all be pointing inward toward the center of the dome such that they won't be able to match the locations of the holes. Screws heads will be chopped off and the remaining screws will be glued into the back of the eye.

Not sure how soon all of this will happen, but hopefully not long from now. Lots more blue painting to take care of in the meantime.


2 comments:

Calvin Thomas said...

How did you judge where the eye was to be mounted?
Nobody seems to know, And leaves it up to chance.
Do you have the measurements for the position of yours?
Calvin

Victor Franco said...

Calvin,

Like everyone else to date I guess, I totally eyeballed it. I'm not sure the eye is perfectly where I want it, but it's pretty close. The lower right seems to be a millimeter or three lower than I'd like, but I guess that gives it character. :)

I spent the previous night going over the Ep. IV DVD to see where the eye appeared to be on R2, as that's my gold standard. I literally had the dome on my lap and moved the eye around as I freeze-framed various scenes on the DVD. I also was lucky enough to see in person the Kenny Baker R2 at the LA FIDM appearance, and I have some reference pictures from that. However, the Kenny R2 on display has undergone a few restorations, so it doesn't have the exact Ep. IV look anymore.

I can tell you that on my dome, the center of the eye is just about aligned with the rib between two of the pie panels that is centered-front in the dome, so that gives you the x-axis. The bottom of the eye leaves about the same amount of aluminum above the front PSI as there is between the front PSI and blue panel just to its left, if that makes any sense.

I'm actually painting the eye now as I type (primer drying), so I can't take a measurement at the moment. Let me know if you'd like one, and I'll be happy to do so.

-Victor