I didn’t get as much done this week as I wanted. The holidays tend to do that. But there was progress.
I assembled the 10 spine parts. These each consisted of 5 pieces. There were no locator pins since there needed to be room to run the metal tube through them. They did have an over lapping lip that helped the parts go together. Once the two halves were set, then the three reinforcing ribs were added. Then I just needed to do that 9 more times. I also then assembled the cargo/fuel containers. You have to build 60 containers of 5 different types. The fit was pretty good. Some Tenax and a bit of pressure glued them together with very few seam lines. The parts are all keyed so there is very little chance of putting them together incorrectly, but some organization will speed the process. There are some seams on the back sides that may not be hidden. I may not fill the seams if they can’t be seen. But, they are all done and ready for primer.
I also took the time to glue some sheet styrene pieces into the reactor section to hold the battery holder in place. They should keep the batteries from moving around when the model is moved.
Now that all the parts are primed, it is time to start masking the larger parts and painting the dark panels. I’ve started with the command sphere. I’ve masked off the areas to remain light gray. I’ve started painting on the two darker shades of gray. You can see that on the command sphere half on the right in the photo. When I get all the darker gray areas painted I’ll mask over them and spray on some Vallejo White Gray for the base color. After that will come some detail painting on the spine and reactor sections. One that is complete the whole thing will get a mist coat of White Gray to tone down the dark panels.
That’s it for now.
Luhman-ations 