Color is on.
Below: I painted the EM guns with a mix of Alclad Copper and Alclad Aluminum. Firstly, I wanted the guns a different color than the turret housing. Secondly, the added aluminum brightened the copper some. I did not want a pure copper color.
Also-- all the pieces are treated with a Vallejo Black Wash. I thought I would give the product a try. It is an acrylic based wash. I think the stuff worked very well; it was easy to work with. Any excess I didn't want was easily removed with a water moistened cotton swab. How it works on an acrylic base is yet to be seen.
I am on the fence about painting the em magnets different colors. Mostly because the detail probably won't be seen anyhow and if I can cut some work out of the build, I am all for it. I will make the final decision before install.
Below: The stack and turret housing are painted with a mix of Alclad Polished Brass and Alclad Steel. Their brass is a beautiful gold color, but it is far too close to their gold. The gold bars I will add later I want to stand out and if everything looks gold-- you kind of lose the effect.
(Camera distortion on the stack) Speaking of the stack--I am on fence what color to paint the crown. I am leaning towards the color of the roof which will probably be a light green.
I will probably apply a topcoat to seal them, but I hate to. I love the sheen that the alclad produced. I may opt to not.
I love Alclad. Good stuff Maynard.
Below: In between things, I worked on fitting the roof to the carriage housing. Straight from the kit is a large gap where the two meet. The reason for this, as it turns out, are the circular pads. I had to drastically cut them back. And let me tell you, that was work. I used a large grained sanding stick that makes havoc with any plastic-- but there was a lot of material to cut through.
And this brings me to a side commentary. Over the months I have seen a few posts where people question the use of dremel type cutting tools in modeling. I use the thing a ton and I used it here too. Tired of endless sanding I attached a cylindrical cutter to my power tool and cut the material like it was a milling machine. It made quick work of the job and I only regret not doing that sooner. This is a case where I would have been cussing at all the hard work if I didn't have the tool. For me, the tool is almost indispensable.
And you can see how ugly the underside is and why I probably won't have the roof removeable. Too much work to make that labotomy presentable.
End of update.