Well there was going to be a substantive update but the site keeps returning a "403 Forbidden" every time I try to post it.  After fiddling with my post for over a half hour I give up.

Summary:

New box fits and is in place. Missile cover to be assembled.

PG, sorry to hear this. Very frustrating for sure. It takes the wind out of ones sail. If you look in the problems section, you were not alone.

The site seems to be working now. 

Steve 

Bakster

PG, sorry to hear this. Very frustrating for sure. It takes the wind out of ones sail. If you look in the problems section, you were not alone.

The site seems to be working now. 

 

Steve

Yeah, I had zero access all weekend long.  It was slow but usable Monday.  I've had the 403 errors before.  It seems to be related to something in the content I am posting that the site doesn't like.  Changing the post usually resolves it, but it just wasn't happening this time.

I'll try to post the pics again later today.

Another attempt at posting progress of fitting the missile box into the shoulder.

Good fit right away.  Only needed minor sanding here and there to get it to slide in.

That's all for now.

Great job there Phoenix, the rocket tubes look fantastic and nice to see you got the box to fit into the shoulder perfectly! 

Yeah, I posted some stuff Sunday evening and was waiting about five mins for each page to load.... 

Awesome work PhoenixG!  Any idea how to make the missiles?

Gamera

Great job there Phoenix, the rocket tubes look fantastic and nice to see you got the box to fit into the shoulder perfectly!  

Ditto. 

Bakster

 

Gamera

Great job there Phoenix, the rocket tubes look fantastic and nice to see you got the box to fit into the shoulder perfectly!  

 

 

 

Ditto. 

 

Thanks Gamera and Bakster!  Things rarely go as planned, so it was a real pleasure to see how well it fit.

Real G

Awesome work PhoenixG!  Any idea how to make the missiles?

Thanks Real G!

As for making the missiles.  They are essentially capped tubes. 

Cutting tiny circles  freeehand is not something I wish to do.  I'm borrowing a circle punch from a friend to make a few dozen caps for the missile.  They'll be glued to the tops of the tubes, and then rounded via sanding.  As can be seen there are two smaller circles on top of each missile.  I think of them as the detonators.  Debating including those as not certain if I have access to punches of that size, but they are the kind of detail that would raise this to the next level. Which means I'll probably find a way to make it happen.  Anyways, after all that is done I'll prepaint them before installation.  I'm hoping to have the circle punch by this weekend so work can resume.

I'll paint the inside of the missile box black first and then secure the individual missiles with CA.  What I haven't figured out how to create even spacing when placing them.

And having just said that a small epiphany occurs.  Perhaps a template can be made out of sheet styrene that can be temporarily affixed during installation. Should be simple enough to make.  Pretty sure I can reuse the cutting templates to create an alignment pattern. 

And looking at this picture I now realize I still need to come up with those radiused support arms for the covers. 

This mod is the gift that keeps on giving.  lol 

I'll check my Wave Destroid Tomahawk and see what the missiles look like.  If you get stumped making yours, I might be able to send you the parts, assuming they are of any use.

I'll dig the kit out this weekend and take some measurements and photos.

This build is officially on long term hiatus.  Things were going along pretty well.  I'd gotten the punches and was cranking out discs for the missiles.  Just before doing that I'd painted the missile box black and put it in the paint dryer.  This is where the fatal error occurred.

I use a home made drybox to cure the Vallejo paints.  It uses a 60W bulb as its heat source.  It burned out last night and I replaced it.  However, I unwittingly replaced it with a higher wattage bulb with the end results you saw above.

The shoulder is a complete loss.

There's still potential for the model to become a battle damaged mech but I'm not interested in attempting that at this time so it's been boxed up and set aside.

Maybe someday I'll get back to this.

For now, time to move on.

Real G

I'll check my Wave Destroid Tomahawk and see what the missiles look like.  If you get stumped making yours, I might be able to send you the parts, assuming they are of any use.

I'll dig the kit out this weekend and take some measurements and photos.

 

Thank you Real G.  That is extremely kind of you. 

I'm sorry, but  I wrecked the build last night.  I'm shelving it for now.  Hope you didn't spend too much time this weekend on digging out your Tomahawk. 

Again, thank you for generosity.

Rat farts!  

Were just the shoulder blocks damaged?  Both of them, or one?  If you still want to continue, I have an old started kit.  I can take a look at the condition of the shoulders.  If they are useable, I'll let you know.

Real G

Rat farts!  

LOL, you can say that again!

Real G

Were just the shoulder blocks damaged? Both of them, or one? If you still want to continue, I have an old started kit. I can take a look at the condition of the shoulders. If they are useable, I'll let you know.

It was only the left shoulder that was damaged.  Everything else is fine.  I'm still interested in finishing it and have started looking into availability of a replacement kit. Thanks offering to take a look at your stash.

Hey PG, SO SORRY to hear this. It seems there are a million ways for a project to go south on a person. 

This sucks. You invested much time into this. I know what it is like. Sometimes the build seems to fight a person and you had seen a few battles already. And I know what it is like to reach that point of saying, stick a fork in me... I am done.

Please don't let this discourage you from building something new. 

I enjoyed your build and I am looking forward to a new one!

Guess I should have read further. Okay... keep going sir.

PG,

Okay, I'll pull the old kit and the Tomahawk missiles and take some pics and measurements for ya.

Don't pull your hair out over setbacks - even the pros have days like yours.  Maschinen Krieger creator Kow Yokoyama had a similar accident when he was scratchbuilding his Dollhouse missile tank.  The story goes he had one of those arm mounted work lights at his bench, forgot to turn the light off (this was the 1980s so the bulb was incandescent, not LED), and went out for a bit.  Well, as fate would have it, the lamp slowwwwwly sagged to a point where it was over the turret he had built.  The hot light bulb melted a portion of the turret, but in an inspired moment, he kept the damage and worked it into his build!

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. If you don't like lemonade, just throw the darn things back at 'em!  And go for the eyes!  

Ooh, I just had a thought - I know, super dangerous, like a rabid dog in a supermarket.  Can you still attach the damaged shoulder to the body and arm?  Maybe use some rare earth magnets to make a swappable shoulder.  One all blown-up with a mangled missile bay, and one pristine bay?  I can give you the old decal sheet if there are any markings on the shoulder to decorate the blown-up version. 

Sorry, I'm doing it again.  Bothering the other kids and being a distraction.  The problem with being an adult is that there are no teachers to drag me by the arm into the "Time Out" corner!

Phoenix G,

OK here are the Spartan parts and the missiles from the Wave Tomahawk:

The missiles are not so hot looking, and three of them are "squished", probably so they could fit within the Tomahawk's missile bays.  If you want to use them, you will have to cut the missiles free and trim some of them to fit in the Spartan's bays.

Anyhoo, PM me if you want the parts.

Bakster

Hey PG, SO SORRY to hear this. It seems there are a million ways for a project to go south on a person. 

This sucks. You invested much time into this. I know what it is like. Sometimes the build seems to fight a person and you had seen a few battles already. And I know what it is like to reach that point of saying, stick a fork in me... I am done.

It was very disappointing to open the paint dryer and find that melted lump.  Much to my surprise that was about the extent of my reaction to it.  No idea why, but I haven't been finding this build to be particulatrly frustrating.  Plenty of long sighs of exasperation but surprisingly little angst.

This is the exact opposite of my build of the Star Trek Grissom, where after a while all I wanted to do is grind that $@#! under the heel of my shoe.   And that was a very simple build.

I'd like to come back to the Spartan, but I'm not in the mood to go for a battle damaged look.  So it's going to wait for a while as I source parts.  Real G has kindly offered to look through his stash to help out.

Bakster

Please don't let this discourage you from building something new.

I enjoyed your build and I am looking forward to a new one!

Oh heck no!  I'm absolutely still building more!   I've been extremely fortunate in that my failures so far have been few and far between.  Plenty of challenges though!  LOL. 

I've had a second project going at the same time as this one.  It involves a couple of figures for a group build.  Setting this Spartan aside for the moment is giving me an opportunity to focus on them.  I didn't set up a WIP for the figures so they've effectively been under the radar except for a few posts on the GB thread. 

Real G

PG,

Okay, I'll pull the old kit and the Tomahawk missiles and take some pics and measurements for ya.

Don't pull your hair out over setbacks - even the pros have days like yours.  Maschinen Krieger creator Kow Yokoyama had a similar accident when he was scratchbuilding his Dollhouse missile tank.  The story goes he had one of those arm mounted work lights at his bench, forgot to turn the light off (this was the 1980s so the bulb was incandescent, not LED), and went out for a bit.  Well, as fate would have it, the lamp slowwwwwly sagged to a point where it was over the turret he had built.  The hot light bulb melted a portion of the turret, but in an inspired moment, he kept the damage and worked it into his build!

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. If you don't like lemonade, just throw the darn things back at 'em!  And go for the eyes!  

Ooh, I just had a thought - I know, super dangerous, like a rabid dog in a supermarket.  Can you still attach the damaged shoulder to the body and arm?  Maybe use some rare earth magnets to make a swappable shoulder.  One all blown-up with a mangled missile bay, and one pristine bay?  I can give you the old decal sheet if there are any markings on the shoulder to decorate the blown-up version. 

Sorry, I'm doing it again.  Bothering the other kids and being a distraction.  The problem with being an adult is that there are no teachers to drag me by the arm into the "Time Out" corner!

ROFL!  Real G, are you sure you aren't trying to do a vicarious build of this model through my efforts?

Interesting story about Yokoyama and the Ma.K. tank. Inspiration often comes from unexpected directions.

As things would have it I did look to see if I could attach the damaged shoulder but the attach points are horribly warped.  There's a slim chance I could heat the side and flatten it enough, but the chances of success are pretty low.

It is however, giving me ideas of a possible scene between a Spartan and a Regult.  An idea for the future.  At the moment I have more ideas than production.  I need to get some of those older ideas out.  It's getting rather crowded in my cranium!

PhoenixG

ROFL!  Real G, are you sure you aren't trying to do a vicarious build of this model through my efforts?

Yes.  Yes...  I do these things, you see.  I work for the Model Devil. 

Mwu-ha.

Mwu-ha-ha-ha.

MWU-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!

Sounds great, PG!

Real G,

Thank you for posting pictures of the parts!

Looking at the Tomahawk's missiles I think the level of effort will end up being about the same.  In this case I'll continue trying my hand at scratchbuilding the missiles.  The couple of test ones I assembled looked decent when compared to the box art.

As for the Spartan shoulders, yes please! I'll send a PM to iron out details.

Thanks for the assist!

Yeah, the Wave Tomahawk's missiles are kinda cheapy looking.  Good on you for making them yourself, as they will probably look better!

I'll give you whatever I have not destroyed from my old kit, in case you need extra parts for your project.

Real G

Good on you for making them yourself, as they will probably look better! I'll give you whatever I have not destroyed from my old kit, in case you need extra parts for your project.

Thanks again for those parts!
When I resume work I'll start with the right side shoulder since I'll have two them at that point.  Leaves me a spare just in case. 

In the meantime I'll work on writing up that comparison of the laser and inkjet printers.  I've had a chance to do some work with both and there are definite pros/cons to each.

I have spare parts!

Man that shoulder looks terrible, but now it has a replacement!  Work on this build will resume once I finish the figures.

PhoenixG

I have spare parts!

Man that shoulder looks terrible, but now it has a replacement!  Work on this build will resume once I finish the figures.

 

Apparently I fibbed about finishing the figures first.  Turns out I had a couple of days to kill due to prep work so I resumed work on the shoulder.

Cutting off the molded in missile cover did not go as smoothly as last time and left notable marks which I tried to fill in with putty. 

It was looking pretty good but I learned from past experience that putty is deceptive. So I applied some primer to reveal any issues.

Much to my not surprise there were flaws aplenty.  Hard to show in the photo but there is more filling and sanding in my future.

It's possible that at some point I'll do better with putty but I'm not holding my breath.

It's possible that at some point I'll do better with putty but I'm not holding my breath.

I am right there with you. It looks good until you put paint on it. Then, not so much. Maddening.

Looking good though. Keep up the good work!

Since I knew I was going to have fill and sand with the installation of the missile box I'd decided to install it before doing more clean up work from the removal of original cover.  Unfortunately the box sagged while the glue was setting.  Thankfully it wasn't too hard to remove.  I flowed in more Tamiya extra thing to soften the join and then used the hobby knife to seperate the parts.

The second attempt went much better.  I've got the box installed, the edges cut and sanded flush, and all the bits I could see filled and sanded.  Also, finished the missile cover and started work on the left shoulder.

I'm getting proficient at making these parts.  The third attempt at the cover turned out very clean.

Next up is priming these parts to reveal any lingering issues and then onto building the missile box and cover for the left shoulder.  While all that is setting up I'll take a new set of measurements so I can finish cutting parts for the missiles and start assembling them.