Fabricating the Buttons

The trigger button

The trigger button

One of the last things to do is to fabricate some buttons for the control pad. The Rodd.com kit comes with a small piece of styrene along with a template to make the buttons. However, I bought this particular kit from a reseller, and the styrene and template were missing. I purchased some 0.125″ thick styrene plastic (as noted on the list of materials in the kit’s instruction manual). I then measured the three hole sizes, and then cut three pieces of styrene to 0.01″ larger than the measured hole. This gave me some extra material to work with for sanding and rounding the corners. I then used 250 grit paper to sand down the buttons until they fit properly. I used a circular sanding motion keeping the button on its side. I’d make a few passes, and then give the button a test fit. Be sure to take your time with this step and not over-do it. It’s easier to sand off more material than it is to try to add it back on. Once I got it so the buttons fit within the dimensions, I then rounded the edges to match the recesses in the control panel. Once I got each button to fit, I labeled them on the back and marked the top left corner. This ensures the button will be installed in the hole for which it was fitted.

Painting for the buttons was the same process as the rest of the kit. I first sanded the button faces down with 400, 600, and finally 800 grip paper, although they probably didn’t need it since the styrene face is pretty smooth. I then gave each piece three coats of Krylon’s Gray Primer. After which, I sanded each piece again with 1000 grit paper to smooth out the primer. I decided to use the Krylon Dull Aluminum paint I had for the trigger button, since the instructions call for a silver or aluminum color paint. Now I just need to find some beige for the other two buttons…