Painting the HPs.

First, let me say that I think I have finally addressed my lighting issues. There was a loose pin on the arduino that eventually fell off, once I soldered a new pin on, plugged it in, everything worked EXCEPT the front PSI, which I have an idea (actually, it's my friend Don's idea). So, now that that's taken care of, let's talk about painting HPs. At first, they were going to remain all silver. I liked the look, I was thrilled. However, I then noticed thanks to Edwardo that in "A New Hope" that R2's Holoprojectors are almost always painted in some fashion or another. Since I decided to leave my rear panel unpainted (a la ANH) I figured I should keep with the trend and paint my HPs. So, I decided on a color scheme that was going to suit my best interests. I made each one different. Here is a photo of how I placed tape around the HPs so that I would only get paint on the cowl portion. It's also important to note that there is NO PRIMER PLACED ON THE COWLS. The reason for this, is because when the paint chips (remember, I plan to weather him), you'll see shiny aluminum underneath.

Now, for this step. I took a one of those scotch sponges, one with the yellow/green coloring. Using the green end, I lightly rubbed it around the cowls to simulate some weathering. I did it very lightly. After the light weathering was done, I went back and placed some clear coat over it. This should keep the paint fairly durable, but also will allow me to weather more if I need too.

Finally, here is a finished shot with them all installed. For the top, I went with a blue cone and a silver cowl.

The front one, I decided to do a blue cowl and a black cone.

And the rear HP had a silver cowl and a black cone.

That's all for now, we should have the Radar eye in the next two weeks, and the dome will be done!