I have plans to turn back to my Polar Lights D-7 soon, and want to add a bunch of details to it. It’s in subassemblies now, for puttying, then construction, then more puttying.
Question – if you add lots of fiddly little detailing bits to these kits, do you add them to the sub-assemblies first, then complete the kit, or do you complete the basic build, then superdetail?
Both concern me. If I build 100%, then superdetail, handing the kit might be awkward. But the fit on these plastic Trek kits is usually bad enough that you have to wrestle with them a bit to get them together (though the PL isn’t bad) and I’m also worried that the detail pieces will pop off when I am doing final construction.
Any advice – what do you all do? Thanks.
A lot of modelers attach their’ ships to a base with a pipe or something solid. When I’m building I usually have my model attached to the base and handle it with that. I don’t know what is provided in the PL kits but you may want to construct a base yourself. A pipe or rod that solidly attaches the model to a fine wooden base would work well. Just mask off the base when building and painting.
With a good base you shouldn’t have to touch the model at all, except to add parts.
It is easier to build the entire model and then to paint it, but that’s not always feasible. If you have lots of detail that require different shades of paint it could be a masking nightmare. Some parts you’ll want to build and paint before adding to the model. You might even want to paint the whole model before detail is added, and then construct and paint subassemblies and add them later.
Just visualize it before building and think of what part might get in the way. Also consider whether a small detail will remain attached if you mask it and pull away the masking later.
I hope this is helpful,
-Dave
You could do a little bit of both. Add to sub-assemblies and also to completed model. I would suggest adding them before painting, as plastic glues to plastic better than paint. Keep parts symmetrical when necessary( like same parts on corresponding warp engines, etc.) And sometimes less is more, try not to overdo the greeblies. Take a look at others’ work for ideas.