this is how the r2 dome was made

the illustration that started it all was made for the robots image challenge on b3ta.com.
a few days later i came across a pressed brass blank that i had picked up somewhere so i thought i might have a go at beating it out into a dome.



a slow process of heating and beating, i used an ordinary ball pein hammer and a wooden stump with a slight depression in it for an anvil.



at this stage i use a file to identify all the high spots, and carefully hammer them out.



the beating out process took quite a while it was a long time before i was happy with the profile, but finally i called it a day, the top by now was paper thin from all the beating and filing.
on to the next stage, marking out the panel lines, and drilling loads of little holes in lines to make bigger holes i then used needle files to neaten up the edges.




then i started adding some detail, the large lens body is a piece of brass light fitting the inlaid pieces are medium and fine wire mesh with copper and silver pipe detail behind them,other materials include brass boot eyelets and lead sheeting.



work then stopped for a while, a combination of work and domestic stuff meant i had to set the project aside.