INVAR
Sr Member
I see you have added height to the side walls, but I am wondering how that all works out when it comes to joining the 2 hull halves together with the rear end - particularly the engine block. I would have thought you would have to add some extra bulk around the edges of the block so as to match the height. Is that right?
Thanks for the kind words Mr. Hatter.
Yes, I raised the trench height .060" or 1.5MM across the whole length which at that scale put it more in line with the ILM 8 footer in terms of look. Not thick and stocky like the old AMT model and not as razor thin as the ILM digital assets show the SDII. Yes, when it came time to fit the engine block I was left with a dilemma. Initially I thought to halve the .060" and distribute the fill gap evenly top and bottom, but that was going to be near- impossible due to not finding .030" styrene strips and giving up on the idea of gluing several layers of .010 sheet together and then trimming it down to strips to glue top and bottom of the engine block.
I ended up simply adding the .060" strip to the bottom engine block where it meets with the hull, flush and then glued .010" piston pulleys for the engine slats at an angle to create the illusion it's fitted flush to the hull flooring. The top engine block sits in flush with the kit top as designed. Not perfect, but it works.
I also read with dismay that 500 feet is not enough fiber. I won't say how much I have because it would be woefully inadequate for the job but lets just say I am a few hundred feet shy.
Your going to have an interesting job trimming all the fibers in those tight spaces once the paint goes on. Personally, I'm looking at doing the painting first then adding the fibers afterwards to avoid having to do that. I may live to regret that decision.
I did not want to live to regret priming and painting first before fiber - because I used .30mm drill bits for .25mm fiber and running the fiber through those holes is already tight with no wiggle room. Priming and painting first would render those holes impossible to thread - and there is no way a .30mm micro bit is going to get through primer, paint and the plastic of that kit. I have already gone through 75 bits just drilling through the kit plastic - some of which I had to attempt by hand turning the bits to prevent busting them - which often happened anyway. I am anticipating another nightmare of trimming the fibers down and I have everything from micro scissors to Xacto blades on standby for the final tedium the model will require before displaying. Hopefully all of these two and a half years of nightmarish tedium will pay itself off in satisfaction when the kit is painted, lit and hanging proudly from the ceiling in my office.