Started Painting Ankle Details, Center Ankle Cylinders, Drilled Battery Box Harnesses

Today I had some time to do some aluminum-colored painting. I had debated on whether to go with the very reflective Valspar Brilliant Metal paint, or stick with what I used on droid #1, the Krylon Chrome Aluminum. In the end, I decided to go with the less reflective Krylon, because the aluminum parts on my droid are not very shiny, and I'd rather have the parts that are painted to look like aluminum match the real thing.

I am painting the aluminum-colored areas first, and then I'll paint the blue areas later, since it's easier to fix the the aluminum areas if blue should accidentally leak onto the areas that should be aluminum-colored. Thus, I first masked the areas on the ankle details that will get painted blue later.



A couple of coats of the Krylon Chrome Aluminum sufficiently covers the parts.



Next, I masked the area that will be painted blue on the ankle cylinders for the center ankle, and prepared to paint.



Again, two coats does the job. By this time, the shadows had set in.



I wrapped up the day by drilling the holes in the battery box harnesses that will accommodate a 1/8" pin. The blueprints call for a 5/32" (0.15625") hole, but as with droid #1, I went about 0.03" smaller and drilled a 1/8" (0.125") hole, since I already have some 1/8" rod handy.

For the main body pieces of the battery box harnesses, I used one of the small top pieces to help support the part during drilling, taking care not to drill the small top piece in the process.



I then drilled the small top pieces.



All the holes are done. I still need to cut short segments of rod.