District 9 Fuel Cell modelling, here I go!

[scornflake]

I tried to fill in some gaps with some black model paint. Because it’s thick.

This worked ok. The problem was me. Impatient. I had the paint in the sun. For 30m. But it reeeeeally wants 24hrs.

While it sanded back….. oooooookay, you could tell. Even at 300 grit. That it was unhappy. Unhappy paint.

So I took most of it off. And hoped like heck that it decides not to bite me later!!! It def filled some gaps on the hex top. I hope it doesn’t react to another coat of 1k primer.

 

[scornflake]

I did another coat of 1k. And then some veeery light 600. I intend to do more primer over this.

What is nice is that the hex top is noticeably flatter/better. I’ve just cleared the groves with a sharp knife. So yet to see what another coat of 1k does.

The body is looking better and worse. I think it is actually better. The photos don’t convey how smooth it is, but I do need to get that to be the case with a nice solid primer coat.

 

[scornflake]

Being 50. With eyes of a 50yold. It’s amazing looking at the photos of my own posts. So much detail!!!!! So much to fix!

 

[scornflake]

Ok. Not too bad I don’t think. Base primer coat is there. I’ve not sanded yet. Thinking next sand will be maybe 1000+ just cos I don’t want to take too much primer off. Yeh the insets on the cylinder still aren’t quite there. But I’m being picky I guess.

 

[scornflake]

I think hex cap is gonna come out ok. I spent a decent amount of time sanding it by hand. Folding 300 grade and doing each little edge and face carefully. There’s still visible imperfections but it Is muuuch better than yesterday

 

[scornflake]

Ok. So. Probably silly. I took some close ups of the hex top. I’ve still a couple of small
holes to fill

 

[scornflake]

Clear 40mm. 2mm thick. Arrived this morning. Gonna see if I can cut some windows from it.

 

[scornflake]

Face palm. I didn't check that my cut was exactly straight!

So now I get to do it agggaaaaaaain

 

[scornflake]

What do you know? Checking accuracy *before* making cuts is a good idea!

 

[scornflake]

I found using the plastic cutting disc at about 12k rpm on dremel to be much much better than the milling bit.

For the 2nd window I cut it square then trimmed the corners after it was separated from the doner tube. Much quicker to do. Perhaps about 15m total?

Only issue now is that the plastic protrudes ever so slightly. I might sand the insets down but there’s only .2mm left there anyway. Ponder ponder.

 

[scornflake]

First dab of colour. One coat.
Sanded at 1200

 

[scornflake]

And our special guest. The hex part!!

The Matt black was way more glossy than I’d expected. Intention is to spray it using same Matt black model paint I tried to fill the top hex with. That seemed more true.

Mix of initial and then after 1200 sanding.

 

[scornflake]

Next coat of colour.

 

[scornflake]

On the side: a template for spraying some black lines onto the inside of the clear “glass”.

This was a single layer print heated while taped to the previous 40mm tube. It’s about half way there. Needs some more “convincing”

Still shaping this to the inside of the acrylic so that there is minimal movement/stuffing up when spraying

Not yet worked out how I’m going to temp afix the template to inside of window. It needs to release easily and cleanly so the spray doesn’t get smudged.

Ideas?

 

[scornflake]

More prep. Sanding at 1200 external and 400 internal.

 

[scornflake]

Followed by some quick top coat

 

[scornflake]

And because it’s here:

It shares the garage with the projects I’m painting. Right now no cover. Duh. But here’s the background you might sometimes see :/). ~500hp single turbo water injected. Cos.

 

[scornflake]

More spray of black onto the top. Part. Thing. Hex. Sorry if out of focus

 

[scornflake]

Some more progress. Using some model (matt black) on the hex thing; it's come out really nicely I think!
Also doing more on the "end rings" (dunno what to call them). The 30mm clear tubing arrived and is a perfect fit.

I've redone and reprinted one of the end rings (the one with all the inset detail on it). That's not shown here as I did this after these shots were taken. I saw I'd missed a whole bunch of lines/detail, so that's been corrected.

Also, in this design the end of the cylined with the simple black cap on it (5th shot in) actually slots snugly INTO that end cylinder. But I hadn't clearanced it. It didn't fit. So, thats fixed too! Now when you assemble the whole thing, the inner 30mm clear tube is held in position by the first end ring (which will be glued to the main cylinder part, the part that has the two cutouts for the windows)

 

[scornflake]

Started doing some experimental painting of the joins to the windows. Darker areas. All hand painted so far. Unsure if I'm going to try spraying it yet. The black ring is a 2nd experimental one, not the final piece.

The 'pins' of the piece weren't staying straight. So I glued the mount to its top and carefully drilled all the way through. More mounting point. It's *pretty good* now. Not perfect, but I think good enough for take #1