Ok gang,
So here is the deal. I have 2 of these from Chronicles. Yes, I bought 2. Both to build as I have time as the first project on the bench.
The first one, when I opened it, was in good shape as I described.
The second one, when I opened it later for inventory (as a couple of parts were missing from the first one) wasn't as good as the first one by a long shot.
Both have unique issues, and I honestly think that the first one was worked over in house first (lots of sanding, better parts) to be done as a build up which didn't happen. In checking between the two, there are some significant differences in the part breakdown (one has 3 parts to the middle tower, one is solid cast etc). The engines on #1 have been cut apart, and one side sanded off (detail to replace) I'm presuming to prep for lighting. The second has solid engines. The second is more what I think is shipping as the kit, and my first is a fluke.
Needless to say, any way you slice it while this was marketed as the having the ability to light this, which in some areas its clear that you can see where lighting/fiber provisions were in the original models. However I'm not sure how practical that would be in light of the solid engines and single piece solid cast towers that shipped with most (all but my 1?) kits. Its going to be a ton of hogging out for the engines alone, and the towers I just don't see any effective way to fiber those as is. At this point, I'm looking at maybe molding the towers and the top of the bridge section on the rotocast front to be able to do a thin shell cast that is hollow to make fiber practical since you cannot really hog those out. Debating doing the engines too but honestly that is a lot of rubber for little return. I have added a second new die grinder to my air tool inventory and a large selection of burrs that will have some serious use I think when I start working on this soon. I will likely only do that for one build only, and the second kit sadly will be a static buildup with no lights as I don't see me wanting to go through all of that twice.
Steve/swpropmaker - I have been looking at this kit and while the resin is stout when layered I was already trying to figure out where I could make channels in the resin and then reinforce things with Aluminum plate, box, L and T's to stiffen its spine as much as possible. I too have concerns that long term this ship could droop far too easily, as this is cast in a standard type resin and not a polystone or anything like that that a little heat on a bad day or simply time would equal droop. That standard resin is fine, and clean smelling (no fillers etc) and what you need to have to be able to work over any of the parts, so that is good in a lot of respects, but without reinforcement or an armature of some type I think the droop issue is inevitable. As a part of figuring all that out, I pondered mounts and at a minimum I think without an armature the 2 used commonly on the 19" (rear main and front) would be the absolute minimum. 3 would be my choice unless I can figure out a way to get some serious square tubing (more hogging out) into the engine support spines as I think that is the one area that sagging will most likely happen regardless. No way a single floating mount in the middle would do it for something this big without an armature to spread the load around. I did like the custom acrylic laser cut cradle that showed up on the pre-production photos of the build, but that is not part of the kit and its not worth it to me to make that as I feel it ruins the looks of the ship on display.
LeeS, Nice of you to join us finally! I guess your ears were burning?
Ryan
