Building Your Astro-Mech Head

This is the first and most important piece of advice I can give you when you go to build the head. The head is not a perfect half dome. The only way to get the "right" shape is to have someone custom make it using the Lucas blueprints. Those can be found a lot of times on e-bay. They were released shortly after Star Wars came out in 1977. There is also a printable image of the exact same thing for free on our Reference Page CLICK HERE

for an instant link, Be forewarned if you plan on doing this yourself.... it will require at least a 32" by 32" square piece of styrene to vacuum form the head.

Or, you can buy an all aluminum dome that is already the proper shape from a supplier I have found. For more information, check out our parts section.

I know that the lines are hard to see, but to be accurate, the lines must be scribed in. My dome is made out of fiberglass, so I drilled a hole perfectly center of the top of the head and screwed a metal ruler into the hole which I bent to fit the curve of the body. Keep in mind, the horizontal lines on the body all have a certain curve to them, very much like the lines of latitude on a globe. When I found where I wanted the line to go, I drilled a hole in the ruler and put my scribing tool ( in my case a Dremel) in the hole and moved it back and for until I got the desired line.

The vertical lines were much easier. Just take a ruler and go straight up and down...no curves...whew.

I have been able to make arrangements with a prop maker to provide all of the detail parts neccisary for completing the dome, as well as a source for a metal dome. Check out the parts page for more information.