There’s been quite a bit of scraping and sanding. I’m happy to say that other than being time consuming it has gone smoothly.
It will be greatly missed once it is empty. I picked up a bottle of Testors’ latest version, but the applicator is a plastic tube rather than metal like the original. I’m already scheming of ways to try and refill the original bottle. I love the needle applicator on it and the consistency of the glue is just right to lay it along the edges of the halves to be joined.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there are similar pre-made options made of laser cut fiberboard, but I find it gratifying to design and construct something like this.
I plan on making another organizer with slightly larger pigeonholes to go on the shelf above this one. I’ve got my eyes on a blade for my cabinet saw with a 1/4" kerf on it that would make cutting the slots a lot faster. I could cut them in a single pass rather than two.
I would think a 1/4” straight router bit would be quicker than two tablesaw passes, even if you had to clamp a straightedge, no? A router table with a fence (if big enough) might be ideal.
Not a bad suggestion. If I had the equipment I’d give it a whirl.
My current setup is pretty good. I made a crosscut sled for my cabinet saw which makes short work of it. No adjusting fences or anything. The sled automatically makes the work piece square to the blade. It’s just a few seconds to shift the work piece over and do the second pass. It’s more of a pain when doing the layout.
As I mentioned earlier the figures are progressing well. No insurmountable issues.
I’m currently working on alignment of the pilots arms. To do that I had to build out part of the cockpit tub. Thankfully it could be done with drying fitting a few pieces. After that was done I put some blue tack on the pilots shoulders and then aligned the arms to the controls and pressed them firmly into the blue tack.
Once that looked good I drew alignment marks.
An unexpected reveal was the space taken up by the blue tack appears to have actually helped with alignment. Having learned that I’ll use some apoxie sculpt as filler and include a little more to blend the seams at the same time.
The mechanic is moving along. There were some details areas were the lines had gone really soft so I’ve been scribing away.
Increasing the definition between the soles of the boots and the upper as well as ensuring a clean line for the sock.
I also didn’t like how the belt loops were little more than mounds on the belt. I’ve been scraping away at them to increase their definition.
That aint derailing brutha! That’s socializing and is a good thing. Think about it…if we all met at a show, face to face, that’s exactly the kinds of conversations we’d be having. I’m not speaking for Johann as much as I am bringing the social aspect of these communities to the forefront. Scale modeling is merely what brings us together. It’s the social aspect that keeps us together and builds friendships and enables us to have a good time together while we’re building.
Continue the assembly of the pilot. I did use apoxie sculpt to act as filler and hold the arms in place. After squeezing out the excess. I used a wet toothpick to shape it.
I was surprised by the amount of filler required to properly align the arms to the controls. At the moment the epoxy sculpt is curing.
I was going to use more apoxie sculpt to attach the legs but decided against it when it looked like it would cause more problems than it would solve. Instead I glued on leg in and started to fill in the more apparent gaps in the figure.
Letting the glue set on the leg and then will do some touch up with filler where the leg joins the torso and clean up the filler. Once that’s done I’ll proceed with attaching the other leg.
I was going to attach the arms at this point but the hands are too close to the legs in order for me to be able to paint them cleanly. The plan is to paint the hands, shorts, legs and all the exposed skin first. Then I’ll attach the arms and paint the rest.
The apoxie sculpt took a bit longer to cure than expected. Possibly because of how cold the garage has been lately. So while waiting for that to set I got started on the hull.
Here’s the cockpit tub dry fitted. The instruments aren’t present because they attach to the hull. It’s a pretty basic setup.
Cleaned up the lower half of the hull.
Started building some of the assemblies for the lower hull.
So far no surprises. Everything has fit well together.
You’ve gotta love it when there are little to no issues with a build. After some of the builds that I’ve had to deal with, builds like this are a true welcome sight.
The Destroid Defender wasn’t horrible but everything needed massaging in order to fit. It was really nice to have the first few pieces of the Falke just fit together.
I’m just hoping I don’t end up regretting saying it so early in the build. Murphy is always listening.
I would guess it’s part of the kitbash used to create the original prototype, just like how all the Star Wars ships have various identifiable model kit parts all over them. It’s fun to notice!
Work continues apace. Started on the engine. 5 pieces total. All came together will. However, one thing I wasn’t happy with was the sprue gates on the exhaust nozzle. They were thick and ill placed.
There were 4 of them around the circumference of the exhaust. Lots of slow patient whittling of the stubs followed by careful sanding. I spent over an hour on that alone. Pretty happy with the results.
Overall there is minimal flashing on the parts. Some parts on the lower hull did need some cleanup. I recently acquire the Wave Kisage Knife (triangular blade) for scraping.
I’d been wanting to try one of these for a couple of years now and finally pulled the trigger on it. This is my first use of it and I’m thoroughly impressed. The design of the blade allows for very fine control of scraping away excess material. Removal of raised ejector pin marks was a breeze and had no issue following curved surfaces. Even in small spaces! It was such a pleasure to use I forgot to do before and after pics. So much better than using a #11 blade!
