I have had a couple people asking about how the re-plating work is being done. I got lucky in this project because there was a 1:1 scale blueprint of the top plating to use in Photoshop to get tracings pulled for patterns to print. I was able to make any corrections to plating detail and layout by checking all the ref ( lol there were a few) it's still not 100% but its much closer now that the DeAgo casting was.
Also you can lay paper straight on the model and do a light transfer rub with a pencil for the pattern, I did this for some areas and will be doing it for the bottom and cockpit tunnel for sure...
First was sanding off the OG plating, removing the panels from the armature and sanding them on a flay sanding block mounted into a vice (move the model over the sanding block, not the block over the model, the model will press flat against the block and just rub the model piece back and forth) made this pretty easy, it comes right off.
Then Print all the corrected patterns, trim and make sure they fit and line up correctly ( this took a couple tries to get printer to get the correct scale...)
I used hobby glue sticks to adhere the paper to my sheet styrene, the paper pulls right off and almost all the glue sticks to the paper and not the styrene so that is nice)
I just use a straight edge to cut the straight lines and free hand the curves, which I clean up with some 320 sandpaper on a plastic bowl, the plastic bowl can be bent while you sand to match the radius, this worked out surprisingly well to quickly clean them up, then for the other end of the plate, put the paper on the inside of the bowl and repeat!
I FINALLY found a place that could make me a 3/16" hole punch ( was pricey but totally worth it!) its hard to see here but I have a slightly thicker pieces of styrene taped inside of it to act as a backstop so I can make each notch the same depth. I tried to add some slight variation in some of them so they don't look too "perfect and machined" the prop has some of this going on for sure! adds to the overall look I feel...
Thats it! Take the paper off and glue that sucker on, rinse and repeat, a few million times....