Who wouldn't want their own astromech droid? While I have met BB-8 and wish I had the patience to make my own for now I settled on a cute R2 3d print that can hold the Google home mini voice assistant. This wasn't anything too new in my skills but it was a nice and slow project to enhance skills I already have.
The model is 4 pieces, 3 legs and the main body. All fit together pretty snug right off the printer with minimal issues from some small overhangs. Going through the usual post process fixed the majority of the issues and had the unit ready to paint. Having such good success with the latex paint mask I used on my BB-73 base I used that again to paint the 2 main primary colors on R2. Starting with the parts that sit physically deeper in on the model, the blue. Those parts I used an airbrush for (already having the acrylic paint that was close in color) and not worrying about any over spray just went full ham on getting them as blue as I could. After drying I did some light sanding as all the raised surfaces were parts that would be painted white so cleaning up some of the over spray wouldn't hurt. Up next was the tedious and careful task of covering all the blue paint with the latex mask. The mask is marketed as a way to block watercolor paint from absorbing into the canvas so the instructions usually recommend taking the mask off as soon possible to not ruin the fabric. Being a 3d print and me being busy with a few other projects at the same time I let the masking sit dry on the print and paint for a good couple of weeks with no side effects. Once everything is masked up I moved to spray paint for the white as I would give faster more even coats and I would want to do a lot as I've found most white paints struggle to cover up any color under them.
With everything painted and dry it was time to remove the masking. Between toothpicks and some small tweezers the mask peeled right off revealing amazing sharp lines between the colors.
After gluing the legs to the body there were a few final access panel seams on the main body to paint. I used a simple brush to hand paint those I'm before sealing the entire droid with a gloss finish.
Similar to the Animal Crossing Fossils I cut out foam pads to attach to the legs. It still surprises me just how much this improves the quality of the print. R2-Home2 now sits on my nightstand keeping watch over my room while I'm not there.
