Step 8: Painting the Tubes As a finishing color, we opted for Ace Hardware's "Rust Primer," a nice "Mars-Red" color that seemed to match quite nicely. The view on the left shows the model from the side. This particular side sports the "sky light" which is visible from its effect, namely the bright circular spot within the dark cave portion. Even the uneven sides where I trimmed the foam, looks like hardened red lava once painted with the primer. A side-by-side comparison with red basalt lava chunks from Central Oregon reveiled an amazing match. The view of the painted top reveils a nice crater field and other artifacts of the epoxy process. Frankly, I was worried about how this would look. But the red primer indeed covers ups a multitude of sins! The various imperfections look quite nice indeed! The small spatter cone hornito is visible as a smallish black dot on the bottom just right of the center. The next task will involve some finishing touches: Stray rocks, a pile of rubble under the skylight, and of course, a Martian Lava Tube Colony! The Caves of Mars Project is funded by a NIAC Phase II Grant from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts. Copyright © 2002-04 - Complex Systems Research; Inc.