ModelCollect's 1:72 B-2 Spirit: "You're on your own!"

GMorrison

 

 

Brhino

I don't know how designing a model airplane kit works, but I assume after they have the molds made, they go through some rounds of checking to see if they can actually build what they produced, and checking to see if their instructions make sense

 

 

LOL!!!

 

 

No, they don't. That would only either (a) make them guilty of deliberately selling garbage, or (b) cause them to revise their tooling at great cost!.

 

Bill

 

Well, maybe I'm giving them too much credit.  I'm an engineer, which means I have to design things that actually work... I assumed model makers were subject to similar rules.

Pawel

On the wing - it looks to me as if you were better off cutting one (or both!) tabs off and just using those large flat surfaces to glue the parts together.

In the photo above something is interfering with the fit and I could bet a small amount of money it's one of the tabs (or both). Maybe it would be a good idea to narrow the tabs down (chordwise, so to say) or at least make teir sides taper - that could help, too. Once again, in the photo above if you could move the left part "down" (towards the bottom of the photo) it would not only take care of the panel lines in the top portion of the photobut also make the gaps smaller. 

I have been looking at the tabs.  I've reduced them some and may continue to do so.  There's a couple other places I've been looking at.

The very last mating surface in the back is the one place that's flush.  So I'm thinking that sanding it down a little might bring everything closer, and also allow the wing to slide back and make the panels match up.  I've sanded a little here and it may be helping, but I'm wary of trading one highly visible gap for another one.

This mating surface, second from the front, is complicated with a sort of internal shelf.  This is one area where I can't see all the way through the gap, so there could be an interference here - it's hard to tell.  I've been testing out removing some material here as well.

Attacking the areas noted above with sandpaper helped to some degree, but I started getting diminishing returns.  So I did the best I could, and now it's time to improve my putty skills.  I'm starting on the top of the aircraft, because it will be least visible there when I hang it from my ceiling.

I'm doing things in sections so I can test out some things as I go.  I've got the port side of the top puttied and painted, and while you can still see the seam it's a heck of a lot better than it was.  I'll try to improve it even more while I do the starboard side.