Entry #9 (05/06/25) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "Don't let perfect get in the way of good" That's phrase (and its variations) has been a mantra of mine for a long time, and that definitely applied here. I spent the past week post-processing the dome to smoothen it out before painting it. It was quite the laborious task. I've been doing this at a local maker space, and I've been spending a whole lot of time there. I've been there every day until late for the past week getting this thing ready.   First thing I did was do some plastic welding. I had some PETG strips that I printed out that were wedge-shaped and would fit nicely into the seams. I only did the topmost areas though, as I didn't want to fill seams in other areas that I may be putting the dome ring and mounting points. The topmost area is probably gonna be under the most stress anyways, so it made sense to do that. Afterwards I went through the repetitive process of filling, priming, sanding, repeat. I started with applying wood filler across the seams, and then sanding that down. I also modeled and printed out some dome lights using translucent PETG. Afterwards, I went ahead and put Bondo spot and glazing putty across the entire dome by mixing it with acetone and painting it on the surface. It's a technique I learned about last year, and it works really well. I then went ahead and started sanding the dome down before applying filler primer. At that point, layer lines were almost gone. I printed the dome pieces at a very low layer height, 0.08mm, so it was really easy eliminating them. The seams however proved to be a bit challenging, but I was able to get to a good spot with it to where they were barely visible at all. This was of course after multiple iterations of sanding, filling, priming, sanding, filling, priming, etc. etc. etc. After that, I went ahead and got a glossy black spray paint and went over the dome with it. The domes of classic Who daleks seem to be very shiny and plasticky, so I wanted to have that same look. I'm pretty happy with the results. The one downside to the glossy paint is that it does show a lot of the imperfections of the dome; areas that aren't super smooth, or other areas I could have sanded down better. However, I was hitting a point to where I was really getting diminishing returns, and felt like I'd be spending days on this, and I didn't wanna focus so heavily on really minor details. Old Who daleks are also made with varying levels of quality, with imperfections being noticeable to keen eyes, so if anything, it just means it's more screen-accurate!   Overall, I'm happy with where I'm at. Next will be working on the mounting system with the dome ring so that I can attach the eye stalk and then work on the neck portion.

I recently purchased a 16 inch (406.4mm) Lazy Susan bearing that I plan to mount my dome onto. I'm curious to know how you all mount yours though. I imagine you would want to bolt it onto the dome ring and neck bin, but mine only has holes in the lower ring. I'm probably gonna just drill holes out, especially since the feet are already in holes that go in halfway, so some of the work is already done. I figured I'd hear what you all have done first though and see what other methods there are for approaching this. Thanks!

Straps removed.  everything solid, light sanding of joints. Will need some miner filling at edges. I have an event this weekend so will post at later date with an update once I’ve done some filling. So far so good 😀

Started printing off the first few pieces, once I have something to show for it I'll post an update. Wish me all the luck of the 3D Printing Gods.... Oliver(Timeprowler)