Dome & Radar Eye Plans


Dome and Radar Eye Plans

Original Discusison Threads

I created a 3D model and 2D plans of the dome and the radar eye from original drawings, photographic research and existing club parts. The domes used in film droids vary slightly and the whole story on how I derived these are available in this thread here:

Most of the inconsistencies I uncovered during this exercise were corrected in the later dome runs.

CuriousMarc's Dome Plans

CuriousMarc Dome Plans v3.pdf

CuriousMarc's R2-D2 Dome 3D Model

Original Dome Blueprint Drawing #60

The discovery of an original dome plan in 2011, in conjunction with my dome plans, allowed us to compare the differences of the then current 300mm dome with the original plans. Note that the plans were not strictly followed for the actual build, so this was just a hint. The final say comes from the movie pictures and actual props measurements, which also have varying dimenions. But this pointed out the main areas of discrepancies, which were extremely minor. No one but a few people intersted in researching the dome would probably notivce. The club dome has still been further tweaked from these findings, most notably the position of the rear dome buttons, which was one of the "largest" discrepancy, still very minor visually. Finally, new measurements were done by members of the club on the actual R2s in the ILM archives for the Disney sequels, so the club dome (and rest of R2) should be pretty much spot on by now. The R2s in the new movies were made by hired club members according to club plans and parts, so we have pretty much become the standard now.

Original Dome Blueprint #60.pdf

Dome Ellipse Profile

If you are brave enough to make your own dome, you will first need to know the profile, which is not spherical at all. The profile originally came from a (slightly dented) film set projection lamp reflector, in which the first prototype dome was cast, including the dent. The profile of the reflector was an ellipse:

CuriousMarc's Radar Eye Plans

CuriousMarc Radar Eye Plans.pdf

R2-D2 Dome Renderings

FRONT

BACK

LEFT

RIGHT