So, if you're ever wondering how to feel "really smart" and "really stupid" at the same time, have I got a lesson for you!
Remember the old carpenter's adage, "Measure twice, cut once"?
On the Falcon, my approach has been:
- Get every possible measurement you can find
- Analyze them
- Compare them
- Average them
- Proportionalize them
- Bandai PG convert them
- Choose your own number
- Measure it twice
- Measure it twice more
- Measure it again
- Once more, buddy
- Then make your cut
- Then do it right, since you screwed up the first one
Here's the forward section of chipping plate for the port underside mandible.
Which you'll need/want to make sure your mandible pit holes are in the right location.
Then derive perfection from there.
Oh, and also: remember how many times to measure and mark and manage before you commit? That goes for marking port and starboard sides too, especially since you'll be turning this thing over again and again throughout the build.
So here's a classic blunder I've made, despite everything:
Yes, that's right side up. Yes, the port mandible holes are in the wrong location, as are the starboard mandible holes. That's because I marked the mandibles, but somehow had them "switched" in my mind when I started cutting the holes, and it took me three days to figure why I was so far "off".
So here's the fix, which is currently still in process:
1.) Fill the hole with the disc you cut out of it
2. Brace support it from underneath, completely
3. Putty like crazy
4. After the first layer is dry, a full day later, sand like heck
5. Then putty some more
6. Wait a full day for that to dry (that's today)... and while you're waiting, make your son a Shield of Gondor for his Lord of the Rings museum day show-and-tell...
When he asks why he can't hold it and play with it, explain patiently that the epoxy and paint are still drying!