Anyway, I started on the light by taping off the area that was going to be removed.
Then, using my Dremel…
I roughed out a notch.
Some small files cleaned up the space.
Then, I glued a piece of clear sprue into the hole. A little gap filling CA helped blend everything in.
Lastly, I sanded it flush, polished it up and brushed another coat of Future. Here’s a back-lit shot showing how it looks on one of the Hase Phantoms.
Now, I just have paint ‘em up…
In one of the previous posts, the one where I show how I filled the gap behind the GIB’s canopy, you can see how much detail I lost during the shaping and sanding of the Milliput. Even with protection from some masking tape, I lost a little bit of detail. Also, the seam along the jet’s spine needed some cleaning up, so I lost some detail there too. Including the small round panels. Those were easy enough to replace. I just rescribed some circles on the spine. To replace the panel lines and the rivets, I used Archer’s products. I’ve never used ‘em before, and I gotta say, they’re awesome!
I tried using Solvaset to get the lines and rivets to snuggle down, but I found that an undercoat of Future, with the details laid on top while the Future’s still wet, worked best. I brushed on another coat of Future over the top, just to help seal them in and protect them. The over-coat really helps strengthen the bond. Before I had brushed on the second coat, I found that the details were easily damaged and/or knocked off. (Took me a couple of reapplications to learn that.)
Practically all the lines and rivets beneath the silver paint were replaced.
In this pic, you can see the lines and rivets both painted and unpainted. Again, about 75% of the detail beneath the paint has been replaced with Archer’s details.
If I were to do it again (when I do it again), I’d leave off replacing the raised detail until just before the paint goes on. You know, to protect it from my fumbling thumbs.
Anyway, that’s all I got for this update. Hopefully the next one will be a little more exciting. Feel free to let me know what you think.
Thanks for looking!
-O