There's a small lip - TOO SMALL to glue without making a mess! I superglued the styrene square to an acrylic piece to make a panel for the engine bay. I sanded the entire styrene square even with the edges of the acrylic part, when the very end should've extended about .60" of an inch over one end. I remembered when I had to make engine bells that needed to be separated after being glued incorrectly. I used a kitchen knife with an upholstery hammer tapping it slowly on each end of the blade as it cut between the styrene, and the acrylic with the acrylic stood up on end - pretty much the same way I did with the engine bells. I had to do this very carefully, so I didn't cut myself while holding it.
I don't have any glue, but tomorrow I'll go to the hobbystore to get it, and some styrene shapes for the laser barrel heatsinks. A few days ago I did a little job that netted me enough money for glue, so full-steam-ahead! Here's a little something I did a couple nights ago. I guess this is all for naught seeing as it didn't come out the way I intended it to. I'll have to buy the expensive-assed corrugated styrene sheet I should've bought for this to begin with afterall!
This is the very beginning - right before scribing the lines into the styrene. I didn't use the master pattern since it was too thick, .40" - and the original one was .20" thickness, the same as corrugated edge on the Saturn V parts, which is the reverse of the ribbed panel (bottom photo of this post).
I'll have to redraw my lines for the sealab parts onto a new piece of styrene. This is the first picture I took after washing these two once separated from each other. I'll have to sand the styrene, and superglue off with 100 grit sandpaper, then smooth it out so the glue can adhere to both pieces evenly. I'll need to use another piece of .40" thick styrene so this will have the correct overlap on the end, and distance from the radiator panel the second time around.
This is the part I was talking about - it was sanded too short on one end. I took this picture after I separated these two, and washed them in the sink. I wanted to show the damage this caused by being glued together with superglue gel that was almost too dry to use. This just made a mess while I was applying it. It didn't dry evenly around the edges. Take my advice people: if your glue is like chewing gum - THROW IT AWAY!
The first run of scribe lines came out good, but at this point in time I was getting tired of doing this, so I stopped for the night, and picked it up again yesterday morning.
This was a lame attempt to show all the scribe lines a little clearer, but the flash washed out the other panel at the angle it sits at. The panel closest to the camera (left front) became the panel for the left wing, as the first one wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. I flipped this over since it wasn't scribed, and used it as a reverse from the right wing pattern it originally was. I traced out two right wing panels, and one left wing panel without really thinking about it at the time.
Each of these (like this post) has taken two hours to make from start to finish. It's still a waste of time, and effort, but I'll use these pieces for scratch making something else some other day - if I don't die before then.
These curled up from being scribed, as this made a relief on one side since I made five passes, which cut through most of the styrene. This makes spaces between the lines, and the panels between which causes them to spread out and away from each other.
This is the material that I need for these pieces - notice how it has ribbed, not scribed lines, and it has a slight inwards rounded over edge between the panels. For some reason, Plastruct also moulded the corrugated side of this on the reverse. This is two sided, which is probably why it's so expensive. I guess being moulded with two designs on one sheet was also the reason it was used for the original four foot model on two different parts. Why not take advantage of having two designed sides to one sheet, when it can be used for more than one thing?
Here're some month old photos that I forgot about. I've been so busy with readying the garage at my grandmothers' house for the closing last monday - I didn't realise I had taken these until I was looking through all the pictures on my camera before uploading them to my computer. I haven't been able to get much more done since that time. Now that the house is sold, I can dedicate all the freetime I have available to finishing as much of the acrylic cutting I can before the weather gets too cold outside. I hope this will suffice until I can get more progress done.
This is the vault "buttplate" - only the top sides are too short, therefore they'll have to be lengthened to 3/8" wider than they are right now. I didn't realise this until I already cut the plate out.
These are the top, and bottom of the wings after I glued them, and cut them out. This picture was taken after they dried. I'll reinforce all the edges with Weld-on cemet to keep them from deforming while being cast.
These are the insides of the wings right after gluing them. I laid all these on top of the sheet of styrene on the bed while gluing, and cutting because it was the biggest clean, flat surface available. I still have yet to clean up the edges of the styrene because I still have to straighten out the acrylic pieces that I cut for them. Once this is all joined, I can cast the inside detail parts for the Stug, then glue them and call these done for the most part. I think I'll wait until they're completed before scribing the lines on them in case I make a mistake that will need to be sanded out, or filled.