April 12, 2024
This post was supposed to be about me learning to cast parts. It's not. Yes, I learned how to make an open face mold, it didn't work and then it did. That all I've got in me to talk about it.
What was interesting to me was starting on the wings. When I got me armature from Jonathan, he was kind enough to include some beautiful castings of the wing roots/connectors. I had some interesting decisions ahead of me. The cast parts already had some of the greeblies on them. Greeblies that I had bought kits for and some I already had. My goal at the outset was to have a model made from original kit parts but this new development would certainly make things easier. My compromise was to cut off the greeblies and then replace them with the ones from the kit.
At this point I started laying out the parts to get an idea of placement.
I used the connector as a template and marked out the hole for the mount and the cuts on the Leopold parts.
It was at this point stress started kicking in. I had to mark where the access hole for the wing mount. What if it wasn't straight. I'll have to make sure the connector piece is centered. What if it's not? I'll have to cut those Leopold parts with a curve to but up against the connector. What if they're not perfect?
I have years of experience dealing with my brain when it gets like this. Basically I end up walking away and coming back when it's settled down. The problem is my brain knows it. Taking a break turned into fear masking as procrastination. I was a afraid of screwing up and doing something irreversible that would require having to spend more money on kits. More than that, I really didn't know where to start. What order of gluing things in place made the most sense? It was at that point I leaned into a quote for fellow RPF member, Adam Savage: "Trust the process, not the plan."
I started by drilling a pilot hole in the wing and then progressively opened it using a step bit by hand. The final size was 5/8" and that was just a smidge too big. I'll be going with 9/16" on the other wing.
Taking a cue from John Simmons at the last minute I decided to leave the greeblies on the connector in place. From there I held my breath and glued the wing connector in place making sure it sat flush with the surface.
The Leopold parts were sanded to sneak up on a close to perfect fit. They were glued in place using 5-minute epoxy so that I had a little time to adjust their position.
After that it was smooth sailing and fun, gluing on greeblies. The nice part about over coming the hurtle of doing something that there are two of is once one is completed* you have reference for doing the other side. *I still need to do the greeblies on the outside of the wings.
For the wing mount covers on the outside of the wings I've added 3mm grub screws like the filming model. These are purely cosmetic. The covers will be held on with magnets.
On last thing. I got my fuselage bodies back from fellow member mjhenks. He did a great job turning the grooves in them and I can't thank him enough.
