Repainted Booster Cover Top Piece

Well, I tried touching up the blue paint on the messed-up top piece of the booster cover, but I only made things worse. So, time for the acetone bath. (I hope this is the last time I need to do this.)



If you ever wanted to see the Krider painting process in reverse, today is your lucky day.



Quite a few paper towels later, I had cleaned the part down to the white primer. I applied a little more primer before painting.



Purple.



Blue.



And a couple of light clear coats.



No runs, no drips, no errors.

Painted Booster Cover Slot Fillers, Worked on Removing Drip from Booster Cover Head Piece

Today I continued work on the booster cover paint job, starting with the slot fillers for the booster cover head pieces. I'm painting these aluminum colored for droid #2, as the reference pictures indicate they should be painted.



That was easy. Only the front face (the small dimension) is seen, although I did paint all visible surfaces.



Now, on to the less fun job for the day. A large drip of clear coat ended up running down the top of one of the booster cover head pieces. I decided to attempt to buff it out with rubbing compound.




After quite a while, I mostly got it out, but it's still slightly visible from certain angles and in a certain light.



Worse, it looks like I rubbed off not only some of the clear coat, but also a tiny spot of the blue paint that covers the purple layer.



I will probably try reapplying another coat or two of clear coat and see how it looks. I'll warn you now that there's a chance I will repaint this head piece. We'll see...

Lego R2 II

The Lego store at Downtown Disney is building another 8-foot tall R2, so Mike and I drove down there to check it out.



First, we met up with Dave Annetta and Rik Morgan for dinner.



Then, we visited the R2-in-progress. Half way done, just where he should be for this weekend's build. A finished scale model sits on top.



Later, the Miyamoto family joined us, with Zoe and mommy Nikki dancing to the live music.



Unlike the last time they built the big Lego R2 here, I won't be able to make it back for the finish tomorrow. Oh well.

Painted Booster Covers

At long last, today I began painting the booster covers.

The parts are all primed with white primer. So up first, Rustoleum Metallic Purple.



I generally painted the sides first and then the top.





Next up, Duplicolor Anodized Blue.




Followed by two coats of Rustoleum Crystal Clear Enamel.




Of course, the colors look darker when the parts are out of the sunlight.




Once this dries, I need to paint the vertical grooves at the bottom of the main body pieces aluminum-colored. I'll apply foil tape to the small horizontal grooves. I will probably do this with a fine-bristled brush, rather than mask it and spray paint, as I tried to do on droid #1. I also need to paint the rectangular inserts for the slots on the head pieces, I'll probably do that tomorrow.

Booster Cover Touch-Up

While I wait for an opportunity to paint the booster covers, I can't help but look for imperfections. I found a really small one, on the lower-right corner of one of the head pieces. It's not that I can't live with this, it's that I want the paint job to turn out right, and things like this sometimes mess it up.



So I decided to rebuild the whole thing from scratch.

Just kidding. You know I used Evercoat.



And you know I sanded it smooth after the Evercoat dried.



And you know I hit it with primer to see that it turned out okay.



See? This entry was unnecessary, you already knew all that.

I can't wait to get these guys painted. Hopefully before the weekend is up.

Maker Faire 2011 - Day 2

Today was the second and final day of Maker Faire.

As always, setup before the crowd arrives.




Before the show opened, Michael McMaster and I took a look around the entrance area to see what was up.



I'm in Make: magazine. Literally!



The famous Tesla coil and Faraday cage, from a closer vantage point. Michael McMaster really wanted to volunteer to be in that thing, but it didn't work out.



10:00am rolled around, and it was showtime! This time, I'll inundate you with pictures.









Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs spoke on stage, and got into the Faraday cage.




Adam Savage from MythBusters also took a turn in the cage. Unfortunately, we didn't have our second MythBuster visit the booth in two straight days.



Michael McMaster, Chris James and I managed to get outside for a few minutes of peace and quiet at lunchtime, and it was no less crowded outside.




Around 3:00pm it was time for us to start heading out, as we had a near 8-hour drive ahead of us. Of course, R2 can't get to the car without being stopped for pictures.



And off we headed, for the 400+ mile journey home.



If you're going to be stuck in traffic, this is probably a good truck to be stuck behind.



Thanks so much to Chris James for organizing the Maker Faire appearance, and all the Bay Area R2 Builders for your kindness and hospitality!