Dome Panel Bending, Primer and Painting at Mike's

Today I dropped by Mike Senna's house for a little help with the droid #2 outer dome panels, and to do some priming and painting. Michael McMaster also came by to join Mike in some WALL•E work.

Among Mike's supernatural powers is the ability to bend outer dome panels to rest perfectly on the inner dome. Several of my dome panels had lost their shape since I originally cut them out, way back in September, 2007. (Has it really been that long?)

Mike was able to bend those panels back into their original shape, and now they rest on the inner dome just right. This means I can start final assembly of the dome.



After the dome panels had been healed, I moved on to priming the ankle cylinders for the outer ankles.



Three coats later, and these cylinders are ready for a light sanding, masking, and aluminum colored paint, later to be followed by the blue formula.



Meanwhile, Mike and Michael took turns at the table saw, cutting various parts for their WALL•E builds.




Next, I masked the area of the battery box harnesses that will be painted blue.



Then I applied two coats of the the Krylon Chrome Aluminum to the main harness pieces. A rare picture of me painting, thanks to Kyle McMaster.




Next up for painting, the small top and bottom harness pieces, also two coats.



My only worry with these is that the stream of spray paint will blow them off the painting board, but fortunately they stayed put.



When I got home, I unmasked the main harness pieces.



Later, once the paint has thoroughly dried, I'll mask the aluminum-colored areas and paint the top area blue.