(07-03-2015) Fist booster cover is painted

After hours and hours of prep work - sanding with 100 until flat, then 220 and finally 400 to get a nice brushed metal appearance.  The paint isn't perfect, but I think it looks really good.  Now to do it all again for the other leg.

(07-02-2015) Prepping the booster covers

In the picture above you can see the booster covers in the center of R2's legs.  The one furthest away has about an hour of prep work done to it with some fine grit sand paper and some fine steel wool.  Even the one that looks clean and shiny still has lots of work that needs to be done before it's ready for paint.

Usually when you paint something you can "hide" problems with high-build primer, or a filler of some kind, but with these I plan to use a candy (clear) paint to allow the reflection of the metal to give depth to the paint - so the sanding and prepping of these booster covers is going to take quite a while.

(07-01-2015) Legs finished

Now both legs are painted.  The second leg didn't turn out quite as good as the first, but any problem areas will be covered up by other stuff and no one will ever notice.

I ordered a 10 ton press so that I can press in the bushings for the ankles, but it will be really handy in the shop for other things as well

I'm not sure what I'll do next - since I'm waiting on the press to arrive to continue working on the ankles and feet, I may try prepping and painting the booster covers next.

(06-29-2015) One leg done, one to go...

I finally was able to mask and powder coat one leg.  Above is a picture of it just before the cooking began.  The cooking was fairly uneventful, but the pine tar coming out of the boards and the smoke did have me worried.

And the final product looks like this...

And then I couldn't stand not seeing it all assembled with the parts that are ready to go

One more to go, then it's on to ankle and foot assembly and paint.

(06-24-2015) Power coating rack for the legs

Here is my solution for baking the legs for powder coating in my small oven.  It's just a small rack, made of pine boards, to suspend the leg while cooking.  It's hard to see in the picture, but the leg is elevated by about 4 inches at the base and around 3 inches at the top.

The temperature that most woods start to catch fire is 451 degrees Fahrenheit, and I only need to bake these legs at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes - so  I *think* it will work, but I am a bit worried about them creating smoke and causing problems with the cure of the paint.

(06-22-2015) Assembly and test fitting continue

Last night I mounted the dome bearing and test fit the dome to make sure everything was clearing and turning smoothly.  So far it seems good, but I want to disassemble and check everything again before saying it's finished.

Also, I fully disassembled the legs and cleaned one of them in preparation for powder paint in the near future.  I still haven't figured out how to paint both sides and put it in my oven without damaging the paint - once I figure that out I will paint them.

(06-20-2015) Painting and assembly begins

Last week the foot drives for R2 arrived and assembly of those began.  This was the last big piece that kept R2 from being totally assembled and on his feet.  This weekend I started working to paint any parts that I believe are ready to go and I'm trying to push to get him fully assembled and working.

Yesterday (06-20-2015), the dome plate was powder coated with flat black.  This is a plate that goes inside R2-D2's dome for mounting accessories (periscope, life form scanner, etc)

And today (06-21-2015), the horseshoes were powder coated and assembled with their greeblies.  I think they turned out fairly well - a bit of the orange peel that you usually get with powder paints, but otherwise very good.  The masking was the hard part, but it's very rewarding to see it starting to come together.

Legs, ankles and feet are scheduled to be next - if I have enough powder to paint them all.  I'm worried about getting the legs into the oven and baked without damaging the paint, so I will need to think this through before I proceed.