Strengthening Resin Gun Shields

Never say never, cruichin!

I felt the same way when I tackled updating the ancient Revell USS Enterprise kit to her current day appearance. There were these weirdly shaped sponsons on the side, I would have to chop off the top of the island and add a whole new deck, and on and on ... scratchbuilding is not so daunting when you realize that most complex shapes are just simple shapes stuck together. If you can build a styrene box, you can scratchbuild. Go forth, I say!

Good ideas, guys, thank you. My big concern now is the main battery gunshields, which are peppered with holes and badly warped. Their complex shapes are beyond my scratchbuilding skills.

Steve

mfsob wrote:

It might, but probably not. Things like gun shields are problematic in resin because of the inherently brittle nature of the material (ever had a HUGE fricking crater be the end result of trying to drill a small hole in a resin model?) If you can't get a smooth enough finish treating the gun shields and coamings with CA, I'd bite the bullet and replace the parts that don't look good with suitable styrene strip or sheet.

It might, but probably not. Things like gun shields are problematic in resin because of the inherently brittle nature of the material (ever had a HUGE fricking crater be the end result of trying to drill a small hole in a resin model?)

If you can't get a smooth enough finish treating the gun shields and coamings with CA, I'd bite the bullet and replace the parts that don't look good with suitable styrene strip or sheet.