armornut

  " Divert all power...to ..front.. deflector shields, all power to ...front deflector schields".

      " Ties at 137 mar 5..."  "Stay on target" 

     "I can"t hold them "

      " Stay on target"

    You got this Real G, hang in there.

 

"All wings, we've picked up a new group of signals - enemy construction problems, headed your way."

"What?!  My scope's negative."

"Pick up your visual scanning."

"Here they come - three problems at 4 weeks!"

armornut

  " Divert all power...to ..front.. deflector shields, all power to ...front deflector schields".

      " Ties at 137 mar 5..."  "Stay on target" 

     "I can"t hold them "

      " Stay on target"

    You got this Real G, hang in there.

 

"But that speed, are you sure the computer can hit the deadline?"

    Just like bullseyeing wamp rats in beggars canyon.

armornut

    Just like bullseyeing wamp rats in beggars canyon.

 

But only if you use the Force.

Or the great Asgardian hammer of modeling, Mew-Mew.  

    I think you'll make it....the FORCE is STROOONNGGG with you.

    Just do what ya can Real G, you have my number and I do receive pix on my phone. Plus you will share here when done. It it best to see perfection than a rushed job.

Thanks Armornut!  I'll do my best.  I finished making all the grilles today and was successful at heat forming the turret bases.  I'm starting to run out of items to make - a good thing!

I gotta take in the laundry and mow the lawn real quick now.  But I'll be back at it tonight!

'I've got you covered kid! Now let's blow this thing and head for Vegas!!!'

All joking aside looks great! I hope we keep you motivated, as cool as this is it'd be a shame for you miss the date...

Thanks Gamera!  Hai, gambarimasu.

I'm getting closer to finishing adding the vents into the wings and fuselage.

That laser pistol thing in the background is a small hand vac meant for railroad model ground cover recovery.  It's super useful clearing balsa bits as I dig holes in the model's skin to set the vents.  The suction force is weak, but by keeping the unit on until it can be pointed into the garbage can, the particles stay in until the switch is turned off and the bits fall into the can.

Next up is adding 0.005" scab plates in random areas.  I trialed 0.010" sheet, but it is way too thick and takes forever to sand back to 0.005" thickness.  I'm running behind schedule, but am still hopeful.  

Work has been slow again, but the scab plates are on.

I needs to complete the remaining surface details like the turrets by this week.

Looks good to me! Crossing my fingers you make the deadline. 

Gamera

Looks good to me! Crossing my fingers you make the deadline. 

 

Me too.  

Well, I thought we'd never git here!

      Good on you for a fine job on the Little Details! What color we gonna be?

I'm still running behing schedule, but am close to finishing all the putty and sanding stuff.  Still need to make some small bits, but moving forward.

TB, the model will be some kind of blue-grey with yellow-orange wing tips.

Good luck!

I've got my fingers crossed you make the deadline.

Thanks Gamera for your encourgement and support!    It's do or die time with just 2 weeks left.  

I painted the canopy flat black in preparation to filling the recesses with clear UV resin.

It looks okay, so the resin goes in this week.  I DID check the resin container and verified it was full and still liquid!

As I try to get the gun stations sorted, other long postponed work has commenced.  I had made a jig to spot where the pivot points for the Youngman-type external flaps would go, so I used a 0.5mm pencil lead tipped with red paint to mark the locations.  Sorry no pic; I'll take a photo explaining the process later.  Anyway, I driled the holes and stuck in some rods to check alignment in all 3 axes.

It looks acceptable.  Any small adjustments will be made by drilling corresponding holes in the flap ends.

Looks awesome to me! Love how the cockpit looks! 

Thanks Gamera!  The work continues...

I finally sat down and forced myself to cut out the 6 fuselage side gun position window frames.  I had a devil of a time cutting the window opening on the first one, but like I say I do things the hard way first.

Hard Way = Cut opening and trim with knife, hoping knife won't slip or make the dreaded "k-k-k-k" skip with resultant rough/faceted edges that propagate fractures.  I lost 2 window frames that way.

Easy Way = Drill pilot holes, use knife to butcher out a rough cut, then refine opening size and shape with elliptical cross section file.  Easy.  5 done in one sitting.

The window openings were backed with 0.010" sheet plastic.  I used the heat form buck to trace out the rough shape to get a drop-fit into the backside of the frame.  Again, easy.

There are 2 odd shaped side gun postions and one tail position at the back that need to be fabricated and installed.  I have those figured out already.  Some rain channels also go back there.

Those holes on the landing gear sponson are for little wire grab handles.

HEY ?

        Is it me or is that thing looking weirder and weirder? Luv it, Interesting Gunports!

You are not seeing things TB, it IS getting weirder.  

But most of the exterior details are on, so from now it is going to get - rivets!

   Thanks Real G, I told a mutual friend that I so NOT a rivet counter..... Now I gotta count every one

Weirder and cooler!!!

Rain gutters and the "crow's nest" tail gun fairing have been installed.  I had to turn a new heat form buck for the crow's nest, as the taper of the original part was insufficient.

That's whut I thunk!

 Rivets? Noooooooooo!.Let's do we break them upp in groups or do like Hawk Plastic did when Aurora copied some of their kits. Put rivets in Morse code patterns Spelling out RealG!LOL.LOL.

TB,

I was originally thinking of riveting every single panel's entire perimeter, but that may make it look like an iron bridge.  The fuselage will still be done this way, but the wings and landing gear sponsons require a re-think.  Like the "Game of Thrones" dragons, the rivets are coming... 

Well Yeah!

       I am taking my very sweet time to build a Treibflugel, What If Plane model. The areas I filled that made the rivets disappear didn't look right so, I put them back and cleaned up where the paint blocked them too. I was able to do that Because GoldHammer saw my dilemna and sent me a trio of Pounce wheels, he said he wasn't using.  Whatta difference! He said folks had assisted him in the past like this and he was paying it forward!

      So, see modelers do tend to think ahead! I have used them almost on a regular basis now.I actually didn't se what I was missing! What scale is the ship? The Smallest Pounce wheel would probably look good , or  arethey pronounced above the surface? If they are raised, Walthers Model Railroad Products has Rivet decals in all the important scales. You can feel them under paint too! 

TB,

With time running out, I'm gonna have to figure out the best use of the remaining days.  I did give a hard look at my riveting scheme, and once I get a unifying coat of primer on, I'll decide where they are needed and where they are not.

I did get some big bumps made and attached to the upper nose over the weekend.  This was the last engineering obstacle I had to overcome.  I was worried over how to heat form the bumps such that they were a perfect fit to the curvy nose, but in the end I realized they were thin and thus easy to flex a bit  into place.

I need to finish attaching the various turret rings before a final sand down.  I added the last gun position on the tail last night.  Primer will follow.

Very cool!!! 

Love all the bumps- reminds me of a beautiful bird as big as a battleship... 

Gamera,

That thing looks like some deranged muppet from the dark side of Sesame Street!  It could be Big Bird's crack addict cousin!  Remember kids, don't do drugs!

So the slog continues on in the desperate remaining days.  I took a leap of faith when I fixed the fin supports struts, hoping the jig I made had properly set the strut base angles.  I think it worked okay-ish.

The fins can still be slid off the fuselage for painting.  I confess it's not 100% perfect, but it will have to do,

I also glued on the engines - all eight of them!

Hurry, Star Force - there are only 8 days left!!!