he dome is one of the most distinctive features of the R2 series. For R2-D3, I obtained a two-layer, laser-cut dome. This is an extremely well-made part and comes highly recommended. The panels on the outer dome come pre-cut.

The inner dome can be handled a few different ways. For me, cutting the dome in half seemed the logical direction to go in. This gave me a perfect fit within the outer dome. Silicone was used to join the two halves together. I highly recommend the stuff.

After much thought, I decided to invest some time in sanding the spin lines out of the dome. This process took a liberal amount of elbow-grease, sweat and a bit of profanity. The end-result is a shiny dome, ready for all manner of fingerprints and smudges from curious onlookers.