PURCHASED:
070914

BEGUN:
070915

CONSTRUCTION LOG



070921.00
Holy crud!

Ordered last friday night and drove up to Atomic CIty's Laboratory in Hanford, CA the next day to pick up this beast.

The kit has some 20 parts if I'm remembering correctly. One that is not found on the original ship is called 'the bone', though 'spine' might be a better name. This piece fits down the middle of the two halves of the main hull, helping to fit and stabilize them better than if they simply glued together at the edge line as might be expected of any other kit.

I spent much of Saturday night and Sunday morning shaving the hulls and bone to get a good fit. Now that the parts are glued together, I think I could have done a little more shaving, but it works quite adequately the way it is.

I dumped 3 or 4 tubes of CA gel along all the seams and then as filler into the gaps! There's no way this baby is ever going to fall apart along that fault line!

Once that had dried for a day, I dumped Squadron's putty into the remaining gaps and topped off the overall seam line down the middle. The next day I shaved some more and topped off with a little fresh putty here and there.

That cured for one full day. Yesterday, I took my files to the putty and shaved that down to a nice smooth finish. It's likely that there is still some ridging that will have to be reputtied and sanded down again, but the result so far is quite beautiful!

I was going to dump some enamel primer on the hull, but had second thoughts all of a sudden... Previous resin work has shown some ugly results when priming and I didn't want any surprises on this one whatsoever. I did however have a test piece I could work on first...

The crown of the Cobra Head had some bad bubbling in the casting. Captain Cardboard's (a.k.a. Scott Alexander of Atomic City) policy is to replace defective parts immediately and without question. I let him know of the bubbles and a new part was on its' way. This left the old crown as a spare which I put to good use...

And I was right. The black enamel I threw down on the crown did some ugly stuff. While it didn't damage the surface (which was sanded, but not washed), the paint did pool and form a 'bubbly' pattern all over the piece -whether the paint went down thick or thin, one coat or several.

Though disappointed, I was not surprised at the result, having seen it before on other works. Fortunately, the paint didn't 'eat' the surface as I have seen it do on other resin kits!

And so, the hull got a thorough scrub and wash last night. I have as yet to try throwing any paint on it. I want to try some other tests first. There is little more I can do until I know that the primer can go on safely over the entire body...

I did have some white spray hanging around and that went on nicely. My standard practice is to throw down black first (sometimes a silver next for under sheen), then white and the base and finishing colors from there.

Black ensures that there is no sub-surface scattering -that is, light which shows through the material. Take a look at your finger next to a flashlight -that is sub-surface scattering.

Also, throwing down black gives what's called 'ambient occlusion'. That is, the black gets into the nooks and when you do a light pass of other colors over that, the black nooks remain dark and give some punch and the illusion of extra depth.

Another construction trick I discovered about this kit is that the bone at the neck must be drilled into at a slightly downward angle to the body so that the brass neck rod will fit properly and mate neck to body as seamlessly as possible.

...

There will be no lights for this one, though the kit can accomodate them easily enough. I am going with the decals provided as the original was not lit at all. Atomic City's web board has a number of useful tips available for overall construction.

This kit is so strikingly similar in scale to my 1701 refit, that I thought it might be the same at 1/350. Captain Cardboard assures of the original AMT story. If the D-7 is at 350th, it would simply be a coincidence. Looking at it further, I think it may be closer to 1/300th... I'll know for sure once the windows are on and I can do a proper side-by-side. Scale is more of a curiosity to me at this point.

I have come across modelers who only buy certain things at certain scales. Which, if you're going for a particular collection, figures all at one size, historical rockets. etc, this makes sense. But when you're dealing with fictional spaceships? That's a bit much.

As I say, this is more curiosity. If you want to scale fictional space ships to each other, simply set them at different distances and do some forced perspective photography...
...

This kit is a direct descendant of the filming model -which was the main selling point for me! And in that regard, scale is irrelevant. The Atomic City community of fans and builders was certainly a major factor. The quality of sculpts and molds still yet another factor. All of AC's kits are exceptionally well made with strict attention to detail.

It was the Mercury Capsule kit which introduced me to AC, there are at least two other kits that are in my future -the Aries 1B, the EVA Pod, and the Space Station (once that is built!).

The D-7 is no exception to the Atomic City rule. The master D-7 (a few generations off the original-original) had to be restored by the Captain and it is very well designed and cast, the parts fit great! A.C.'s 'no damage' policy is seemingly unique (try getting a missing or broken part from a company like Revell!)

The kit size is listed as 28" long. 'Twenty eight's a pretty good size', I thought to myself. When I pulled the pieces out of the box, I thought, 'Wow! This IS big!' It was when I got the hull together that I thought 'This thing's HUGE!' When I got the neck, head and body in a test fit, the true massiveness of this kit began to strike home.

I was staggering around in shock. This thing isn't just a big kit, it's a monster! I'm surprised that it is less than eight pounds!!! Wait until it's in one piece!

While it comes with an incredible stand/base, I am sure that I will be hanging this bird. Three ceiling hooks and three 20lb test lines. Even if two hooks and/or lines fail, the third should hold it long enough to be rescued from an 'accident'. (This is California afterall and earthquakes don't announce themselves with any courtesy call beforehand.)

The stand itself, the Klingon tri-foil, got a hole drilled in its' back and, once painted, will be hung as a display all its own!

More later.


070922.21
Stopped by the hardware store this afternoon, picking up several cans of basic black and white enamel spray paint. I'll check the brand later, it's essentially a generic, but it's treated me well -far better than some other generics.

Next, I went to the hobby store and they were our out XF-23, but had the 21. I'm not ready for that stage yet anyway, but I was psyched to have gotten it all taken care of today rather than later... Best laid plans...

This afternoon I started with a white coat as I knew that color was safe for the resin. As that dried up, I threw black down. I have enough silver on hand and am considering that before the final white pass after which the final gray and green goes down, followed by the decals.

The pieces will need more assembly in-between these coats somewhere. The warp engines and pylons are together, the impulse engine is in one piece, the neck and cobra bulb are together (I do need to do some filing there before more coats go on). The new crown is in the mail otherwise that would be glued down by now and the bridge sits ready for the crown.

A test fit of the neck to body is looking good. The port warp engine fits nicely but will need a minimal amount of putty to dress it up. The starboard engine pylon rocks against the hull and doesn't quite line up to any axis. I can get the outer top edge to line up, or the underside, but not both. Obviously, I will be going for the top edge.

Fitting either engine correctly long enough for the glue to set will be a pain, but this rocking part is going to be worse as the engines cannot be allowed to go on crooked! The way to destroy any spaceship or airplane is to set the wings crooked!

The impulse assembly doesn't quite sit right and I think that's a function of the hull pieces going together not quite as well as I should have gotten them to. Don't know if I will shave the front grill down -which could be a real nightmare scenario, or to throw some precision putty work there to fill the center and rear port gaps. That is not a critical decision as yet.

The neck fits very well, and should be no problem. The old crown sat somewhat oddly at the rear of the bulb despite my best sanding efforts. We'll see how the new one sits soon enough.

Once the current round of paint dries within the hour, I will complete the black pass for all the parts and likely assemble warp engines to the hull. The impulse deck will remain loose for a while as that simply sets on top.

I want to complete the head and neck separately and I think that will be the last piece to go on the hull. Leaving that off until last will help in wielding the body, which is massive enough without all the extra parts on it! If I glue the engines on tonight, silver coat will the top of the agenda in the morning.


070923.16
I've been priming and sanding all day long. I've got a few kits going, but D-7 is the star of the day. I took the engines, neck and bulb to silver with light white on top of that. They are ready for the next full stage of work.

The impulse engine has had some problems. The paint hasn't been happy at the top rear section and keeps 'fracturing'. I think I resolved the issue, but I've built the paint up very thick in this one area and now have to wait a couple days for it to cure so that I can shave it down again. Too early, and it will goop and make things more difficult. Patience is the virtue here!

The warp engines are happy as is the neck/bulb assembly. The bridge was the first piece to be completely finished.

The hull is dragging behind at this point. Getting the seam at the fore top edge to hide completely has been difficult. Putty, sand, paint, it's still there, repeat. The bottom, fore and aft are all doing well. The fore top bone ridge is almost completely hidden, but still not quite there, just like that one edge line / point just in front of it.

Whereas all the other parts got their white/black/silver/white coats, the hull is still trying to get its' first white coat down. (I tried going black on the impulse engine first and that was part of the problem I am now having.) So, white will cover the entire hull first. Black will kill any ambience. The silver will metal things up some and then the light white pass will be the base before geting the final 'factory' colors. I still have to attach the warp engines at some point before that...

A little more painting today, maybe the warps go on tonight, but that will be it. It is unlikely that I will get any more work done until next weekend. Though I will try to get the crown up to speed once that is here on whatever day that is. That way, I can go full bore into the weekend work. At that point, it may simply be final paint and decals! We'll see.


070924.08
The hull now has black on its bottom aft and fore. When I get home tonight, I will throw black on the top. The top then needs some minor patch and sanding.

Another coat of black after that, glue one engine on, let that sit a day, glue the next on, let that sit, patch and sand, some more touch up black, final white, leaving the neck and impulse engines to attach.


.20
While throwing down one last black coat on the hull bottom, I got a fingerprint on there too... I waited a bit and threw down one more coat to smooth it out; going to go look at it now and assess the situation.

The new crown came in the mail today!!! I'm going to sweeten that up, throw some basic colors at it and at the very least glue the bridge on top. Have to study whether airbrushing the crown attached to the bulb or unattached will be the better move...

More to come before the night is over!


.21
The fingerprint essentially disappeared. I threw some black on the top and have one more pass to complete that tonight. Tomorrow night, once the paint has truly cured, I will sand some more down, putty any grooves that are too deep and give a silver paint pass over that. Then, the hull is ready for the engines.

On the warps and neck assemblies, I filed and sanded some blemishes down and those are getting covered with new paint now.

Welp, the 'safe' white was not so safe on the crown afterall. Scott doesn't use resin release, so that wasn't it. It must be some chemical in the paint interacting with some aspect of whatever is on the surface.

The standard 'bubbling' occured all over the crown where I had sprayed. I pulled out some thinner real fast, damped a cloth and wiped it all away.

I then went to the sink and scrubbed the piece down with warm soapy water. Upon drying, it was time to scuff the surface up with some light sand paper.

Another light white paint test... This time, there was no bubbling. The paint went down smooth all over. Though in some of the tighter corners, I could detect the paint wanting to bubble, there simply wasn't the space to spread out I guess.

Along the lower front rim, some genuine air bubbles did pop up. While scuffing the surface up, I detected the dark color shift of air bubbles just under the resin surface -only along the front rim of the crown. This was the same issue with the last crown. This time, I stopped short of bringing that nightmare to the sruface though.

Why air bubbles should appear as they did I do not know. There could be some microscopic holes allowing the air to vent or give off a negative pressure in those spots.

Once the paint is fully dry, I will put some light putty over the holes, paint black, sand and go from there. The bridge will not get glued down until I am fully satisfied with the condition of the piece :( (I am too impatient!)

So, in another hour, I will throw some final-final white on the neck and engines, throw the final black on the hull (need to pick up a new can of silver tomorrow morning for the next pass), throw some white on the impulse engine which is now in happy shape (I don't know that I mentioned it previously, but I managed to file the fracturing and blobs down later this morning, threw another black on and the last of my silver a few mins ago which smoothed it all out at last!) and where was I...

I should be ready tomorrow night to put the warps on the hull, and attach the bridge to crown to bulb. That will leave the kit in three major pieces, Head/Neck, Body, Impulse engine.

While the impulse engine will need some putty filler towards the port rear, I think painting the hull top and impulse their final gray should go first with paint touchups to follow. I may do some light putty work along the outer pylon/ nacelle seam as well as there is a distinct line/gap along the lcoal z axis...

That has always been one of my modeling problems -the line/gap that shouldn't be there if this really were x amount of tonnage, but invariably is as it really is a small ounces-to-pounds object... I wonder if there's any way truly around it.

I will post pix of the crown to bulb assembly and that will show what I mean... That is one seam which cannot be hidden by my skill level. Even the bridge-to-crown line will have space that should not exist were this really 90,000mt of metal instead of eight pounds of resin...


.22
Engines are all set. May do another white pass along the neck in another hour. The impulse deck sits at final white. The crown is fully white and goes to black next, silver pass in the morning before final white. The hull is now completely black, also waiting for silver in the morning. I will have ultra minor filling to do on the hull where some indentations into the paint occured.

One interesting thing I noticed last night was that the tiny gap at the top, front edge seam was wet. I dismissed this at the time. This morning, as I was handling the hull, I found a wet smear on my finger from that very spot. I wiped the wet spot dry, smearing it along the edges of the hull.

The smear seemed to be a combination of putty and paint. I painted around it all day. When I threw the first black pass along the top an hour ago, I noticed that that spot was glistening in the light. I just looked at it again as I dumped the last black down and it is still glistening bright! It must be a long term chemical reaction going on between the putty, the paint and possibly even the glue got reactivated.

I will look at it in the morning again. I expect that when I touch it, it is going to smear again, despite getitng nearly 12 more hours to dry. I don't know what I will do at that point, though I will likely throw a light putty over it, hoping for the best.

If that doesn't work, I will have to excavate the area and putty anew. As it is dead-center, top-front, I will have to be very careful and do a super repair job to get it invisible again!

Don't think that there's too much more I can do tonight. I certainly can't handle the hull until the morning... There's nothing more to do with the engines... The crown still needs to dry, though I may be able to throw the black down on that tonight... The impulse deck is all set... I think that's about it!


070925.09
Placed all the pieces together and this kit fully uses the majority of tabletop! If I used the stand, there would be no place to display it!

The center gap is indeed still moist. I have to make a decision on that. I took a few new pix this morning and will post them soon. I'm off to get some silver and look around for the Krylon Jade...


.10
Got the silver, but this store didn't carry Krylon either! I've got one more paint store option that I know of offhand. After that, I'm going with the Tamiya mix option.

Put silver down on the crown and the hull bottom, aft, fore and sides. I may be able to white up the crown before I leave in a couple hours, but the hull is going to take a couple days.

Unless silver spray paint is very dry, it leaves blemishes when touched. It will take at least four passes to get the whole piece done, which means up to four days. I may be able to get away with doing it 2x per day, in which case, the hull will be ready for final white paint by Friday -not counting the excavation work in front of me that now looks to be a guarantee. You can see the goo wound in the pictures (#154 and 157) below,

I also took some close ups of the engine pylons. These show the gap that I mentioned above somewhere. It's a tough one to fill!

Scott wrote me explaining that the bubble holes in the fore crown are essentially unavoidable due to the pouring process without the aid of a pressure chamber, though he will be experimenting with different techniques for all future castings. Just go easy when working that front edging when you get your kit!

Also, the term for the paint bubbling that I've experienced is called 'Fish Eye' -as can coincidently be seen directly to your left and up a couple pix on the original crown. Scott says this is unpredictable. However, I would suggest here that it is not quite so random.

I used to think it was mold release on the figure kits I've done that caused fish eye. Scott doesn't use that, so it is ruled out in this case. Scott's molds are silicone. Therefore, it would seem likely that there is a chemical reaction between any silcone residue and something in the enamel. Once washed, the resin does not manifest fish eye at all in my experience. I thought sanding would help, but it did not help on the new crown until I scrubbed and washed it with it with normal dish soap and a green scrub pad.

Going to go and try the white on the crown. If good, then I'll be able to glue the bridge on tonight when I get home. If not, then it's tomorrow morning for that. Still don't know whether I will glue the crown-to-bulb before final paint yet or not. The nooks and cranies are likely easier to paint before assembly...


.21
Much to my surprise, I got the entire hull silvered up tonight!. I also wiped the goo out of the fore crack. All other parts are ready. I'm going to go check the notion of gluing the bridge to crown now.

...

The bridge glued down fine and fast - must have been because of the paint. The resin-to-resin pieces I glued did not bond anywhere near as instantly as these two painted parts did.

I am going to hold off on gluing the crown to the bulb as the underside angles involved in the combo would make for difficult and haphazard spraying.

While sitting around, I also did some more light filing on the engines and gave them a dash of black to cover that work up. They will be fully white again tonight.

Tomorrow night I will examine the hull's crack more closely. At that point, I will either try some putty, or go with white paint.

If I go white, I will throw down several coats, then sand that down a dash, fill the crack and paint over all that again to build it back up. I want a solid silver base underneath all the white, rather than going into the silver coat straight away which would reveal the black layer just under that.

It looks like I may need to do some overall light sanding on the hull anyway. There are a very few slight indentations from where the hull was resting on the supports I gave it.

So that's wednesday night, thursday night I should get one warp pylon attached, friday morn or night the other pylon should be on.

I guess saturday I can put the final gray on, sunday mask and paint the green. Then, it's attaching the neck and impulse reactor followed by the decals, with a final matte sealer to finish things off.

...

I went to Krylon's site today and found a number of stores here that should carry their spray. Searching 'Jade' on Krylon's own site came up empty. I did find the Celery and Tidepool colors that another modeler mentions.


.23
I just put a white coat on the hull top. Also, the engines will be fully white tomorrow. I will also need to pick up some more paint! I've run through 2 or 3 cans of white and another 2 black since saturday on 4 or 5 kits I've worked on!


070926.08
Argghhhh!!!!

I was just looking at the crown sitting on top of the bulb and noticed something odd...

The bulb is twisted off-parallel from the neck's base! All the lines at the neck's base are about ten degrees off from crown!

There's no way to pull the bulb off the neck as I glued it down fairly well. The only thing that springs to mind is to carefully slice the resin just behind the bulb and flush with the neck, leaving the brass rod intact. Then, I can twist the bulb parallel, re-glue and patch. Theoretically.

The only other idea that comes to mind is, if it's even possible, to 'soften' the resin and twist the neck parallel... Now that the idea springs to mind, I do not want the result to be a twisted looking neck. So I guess that idea's already dead.

I'll have to think about this today.

Freakin'-A!

Still... It's not a crisis by a long shot. Simply an unexpected challenge to overcome and improve my skills by.

The engines are fully repainted. The hull needs one last pass on both sides of one wing and will be fully white'd up before i leave for work. I think I can glue one engine on tonight.

...

I ran out of plain white, so I pulled this old can of white gloss out. To avoid a potential shine on one side of the ship and not the other, I just did the entire bottom in gloss. I'll have to do the entire top now as well.

Perhaps all the other parts will get a light pass as well to ensure they are all even. I've got some flat medium gray around, but if some parts got that and not others, there would be a distinct color cast going on that I don't want whatsoever.

I'll get and post all new pix tonight as well.


.21
Threw some light gloss white down over the other parts. They should be completely covered before bedtime.

I thought about the offset neck all day long and the only solution that made sense was to slice the head off while preserving the brass tube.

I selected the thinnest slicer-disc I've got for the dremel and proceeded to slice as close to the head as I could. The result was acceptable. The blunt trauma damage was minimal to the surrounding area. The patient is in great shape and should heal perfectly fine.

The underside of the neck was the most difficult to cut and I had to go in at an angle due to the physical shape of the dremel and bulb. I'm leaving those pieces loose tonight as the crown has fresh gloss on it that must dry first.

I will need the crown on the bulb to more accurately align the neck base-lines to crown-lines. The top of the bulb is not accurate enough a gauge. So that is a project for tomorrow night.

In the morning, I will examine the paint job on the hull. There is one blob that I have to sand down on the bottom of the hull. There may be one on top, but I have to let that settle more before I can accurately gauge that one.

The many layers of paint I now have on the hull should allow me to sand down pretty well and get a smooth surface that will be easier to get than if I was sanding into resin.

Tomorrow night I should at last be able to get the first engine glued down. Considering the problem I just had with the neck, I will pay very close attention to getting the best angle set for this engine.

The 2nd engine will be more difficult as it has the 'rocking' issue mentioned previously. However, if I can create a cradle for the newly assembled part, that will be ideal.

I wiped that fore gap out as best I could and painted over it. It seemed that the goo went further back than I initially thought. I think it is going to remain gooey for some time. I will have to try sealing it up with putty tomorrow morning.

I also noted while handling the parts that the paint is not fully cured deep down. I should likely put the parts away for a week to really let it set. Place it in as much direct sun as possible. I'd put it in the oven on low if I didn't know better.

Maybe no new pix tonight afterall. I'm beat. I'll be working most of saturday, so that leaves sunday for any weekend work.

I don't mind this taking extra time. Patience is the virtue that will get this piece rocking.


070927.05
Sucessfully glued the bulb back onto the neck!

I taped the crown to the bulb to facilitate parallel alignment. I plopped a bunch of CA gel on the end of the brass rod and a drop or two of regular CA to the bulb.

The gel takes some time to cure and is positionable for a few mins usually. The regular CA bonded almost instantly and gave me a moment's anxiety when the bulb wouldn't twist at all! But it has worked out.

It took me under 10 mins to align the bulb exactly. It didn't want to twist gently, it lurched whenever I gave it a tweak. It now sits true. I dabbed a few drops of regular CA onto the new seam when i was sure. I will dab a dash of putty in there before I leave for work in a couple hours.

I finished off the last wing of the hull with gloss white. I also smeared a dab of putty onto the fore gap. As expected, the area was still wet from last night. This has become a very long term chemical reaction! I am hoping that this putty layer will bury the whole situation. I will not try to sand it down until tomorrow at the earliest.

I will determine tonight whether to glue the first engine onto the body after I examine the bottom paint blob. There is a light blob on top that will be easily sanded as well.

All other parts sit ready. I still have to locate some Jade Krylon. If I could find a swatch of it, I could likely mix it myself, but not even Krylon's site lists Jade Satin as a color they produce. Other folks on the AC board have found the color, so it must be out there somewhere.

New pix tonight once everything is dry!


.20
As I sanded both sides of the hull, the edge of the sandpaper caught against the surface and ripped the paint up in an unfriendly manner here and there, leading to further, delicately aggressive, sanding of the area than I had planned.

The bottom now has its' last primer. That will be dry in a couple hours and I will give the top its' final primer in the morning as I do not want to risk damaging the bottom paint job. All other parts are ready and waiting to go!

This white gloss I have been using pools real easy. Too easy! I have to buff out the bottom aft concave center again as paint settled there!

A decision I will ponder tonight is whether to glue these final pieces together first, or to paint them separately doing spot work here and there to finish them off.

Scott is posting an up-to-the-moment-new paint/decal guide on the boards tonight. I'll be looking forward to reading that in the morning -or later tomorrow at work;)

...

Got a couple good tips from Scott too which I will share in detail as I go. First one, briefly, is to attach the neck to hull, with some mods, before painting.

Another is to not glue the crown to bulb until the decals are on -something I wasn't considering doing until final painting, but will now delay even longer!

Still another good trick I'll detail is a way to accurately square the neck to hull, cos if that goes off, it will be impossible to fix!

There were one or two others that I will remember after some refreshing sleep. I'm off now as it's coming up on midnight.

More tomorrow night -including those new pix I promised for this night!


070928.22
Put a light coat of white gloss on the hull top this morning. Threw the gray on the pylons, neck base and part of the impulse deck.

Just got home and finished off the impulse deck, touched up the port warp pylon. and gave the hull top a first pass.

This testor gray goes down thick and luxurious! I think it's too dark for the model though... But the finish is quite succulant, if that's an appropriate adjective for a layer of enamel :)

Gotta head out briefly. I may need to put the slightest dash of putty on the top hull unfortunately. If so, will determine in a few hours when the paint is drier than it is now.

If I do need to putty, I'll do that in the morning and finish it off tomorrow night when I get home. More pix have been taken -stand by!


.23
All the gray looks good except on the hull. That could be much smoother. I will need to put a slight putty on one bit just fore of the impulse deck. That will go on in the morning. I will put the 2nd (and last) coat of gray on the hull tomorrow night.

I now have to hunt down that Jade Satin!

All 198 pix are now posted.


070929.05
Woke up around 2am. Couldn't get back to sleep by 3am, so I went to have a look at the D7.

Almost instantly, I decided to glue the port engine on. That went relatively smoothly and about as easily as expected, though it was certainly a struggle to keep the part in place while the glue set,

Next up about 10 mins later was the starboard engine. In some ways, despite the rocking edge, that one went smoother than the first...

Checking the symmetry was somewhat difficult. The problem is that the model is so big that to check for parallel lines, you have to get farther away than arms length. And, of course, you have to be ready in an instant to break the bond, yet still hold it in place as you don't want it to fall off early.

As it happens, Scott's engineering won out and the parts went on symmetrically. I rocked the 2nd engine into place until it 'felt' right' and that was dead on.

I was feeling good about this and thought a little bit before deciding to do the neck.

Scott gave me a number of great ideas on how to square the neck to the hull. I was impatient however.

The process I followed was to set the hull on a raised flat surface (which you will see in some of the pictures), insert the neck rod and rest the bulb on a can of spray paint. I rocked the neck a little and it rocked back flat into place. I then took a water based marker and dotted the corner points.

Next was to remove the neck and sand down the back connector area. Another of Scott's great ideas is to gouge away a lot of the material back there so that you're only working with the edges of the neck attaching to the body. This helps get a better connection because of the compound curves involved.

I began sanding the hull hardpoint, but the primer was so thick that I had to use a buffer on my dremel to rip away the paint layers. (I'm happy about how dense the paint came out to be!)

Once all that was done, I set the pieces again on their rests and got the alignment going. I pulled the neck away and dabbed CA gel into some areas, including the brass rod length and dabbed CA regular around the rim of the neck.This time it was going to be for real!

I slotted the rod into the body and pushed. The CA gel blobbed against the hull. I pulled the neck off a fraction and then pushed back down to help tack the gel up some.

Getting the alignment was horrible! It was mostly right, but little tweaks of pressure to twist the neck were needed. The neck broke free at least twice and I re-applied new glue at least twice.

On the 3rd time, I was able to hold the body as far away from me as possible and using one eye, I checked parallel lines on the bulb (and the taped on crown) against points on the hull. generally it looked ok!

The trick now was to keep pressure on the neck to get a good and lasting bond. What I came up with was to hold the body upside down length-wise. Clasping my hand around the base of the neck, I balanced the body's mass against gravity to focus as much weight to the neck as I could.

I walked around the house for about 20 mins like this. The first few paragraphs of this morning's entry was done one-handed with the D7 in the other hand.

The D7 is now resting across my garbage can. It seems stable. I still can't get rid of that goo gap at the fore top edge of the hul!!!


.11
Looks good! I rested the body back on it's cradle with the bulb resting on the spray can. About an hour ago, I took the can away and stability has been achieved! That's good cos the neck is a heavy piece with all the weight contained in the head at the far end.

I pulled the movie D7 off the ceiling and set it with the TOS for comparison. (photos below)

I have access to the PL 1k version as well. I will get that and take a family photo. I suppose now I will have to get the original AMT kit to see how different they made that from the Studio version.

Gotta spend some time at work, but once back, I'll do some more studying and notate here. I also may have found the infamous Jade Satin! Gotta remember to drive by on my way home...


.18
So... While walmart has every Krylon color there is, the Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles, three-story-tall walmart barely carries any Krylon whatsoever...

So, I went with a combo of two Rustoleum Satins -[they are so totally inappropriate that I have removed their names]. I will lay the darker of the two down first, then do several ultra light passes of the lighter one until I get the color I want.

With no reference to the Jade Satin, I can only guess what that looks like based on reference colors. This combo looks like it should get me close [false]. Should I ever change my mind [already done], it will be a relatively easy enough task to remask and repaint later on down the road. The kit came with two sets of decals in case of accidents.

Too bad about the Jade though, I was looking forward to it...

Will try a test on the Crown and Bridge as they are still separate from the body. Any serious painting of the body would have to wait until full daylight tomorrow anyway.

...

The [dark one] is way too dark and brilliant. The [light one] is too flat and gray. Together they should work well [nope]. I painted the Crown with the [dark one] and quickly did the top of the bulb in the [lighter] as almost none of that area will be visible once fully assembled.

Picked up some Press and Seal saran wrap stuff that was recommended on the Atomic City EVA Pod thread for masking. I will see how well that works tomorrow as it is my intention to mask over the hull top and pylons with that stuff. I will have to use some liquid mask on parts of the neck, but it should be good. I can do some of the silver brush work tonight I think.

Pictures at the end of the night, or early tomorrow morning.

Silvered the separate crown elements and the impulse grills. No more to do until the green goes on everywhere else.

...

I'm sure that I am not satisfied with the greens that I got. I did the combo test and it's very gray and very, very green. The difference between the regular gray I have on there and this green is significant and very contrasting.

No more work tonight is likely... Gotta think about it some...

...

Thought about it. And I think that I will be going with the single light gray across the body as orignally delivered from AMT, and as generally imagined by viewers ever since. I've been to five stores and not one carries this Jade color. Won't go with the Tamiya combo either as Scott recommends against it.


070930.14
This morning I made one final list and mapped out a route to five different stores in search of the now infamous Jade Satin. Of course, it's Sunday and even Sears was closed... :(

However, I wound up near enough to that same walmart again as yesterday, so I went back in. I had thought I saw the celery and figured I may as well have a look.

Well, I was wrong. They didn't have the celery. But as part of my list making, I studied the colors on the AC website and found a similar one there: Rustoleum Sage.

Not convinced that Sage would work, I got it anyway and went home. There was little point to more searching since the stores were likely to be closed and time was wasting.

I threw some Sage down on the Crown and liked what I saw! I put some Press and Seal on the top hull and pylons last night, so I sprayed a little on the warps and the bulb. Those looked nice too! I was very pleased! Two hours later, I did a final pass on the Crown and a full pass on the hull bottom.

Wow!!!

Sage is the color!!! Perhaps better than Jade -don't know as I still have as yet to find even a hint to the Jade whatsoever.

Still, I am psyched about the Sage and am proceeding forward. I should be able to have the final coats on tonight!!!

I have to do a first pass on the fore hull and the top and neck base. I will be able to safely handle the finsihed hull aft in several hours. I will also look at the Crown again at that point. I may need to dab some putty...

Looking at the ref pix again, it looks like the top of the crown may be gray and the sides, bottom and the bridge are green. If so, then I've got some crappy masking ahead of me! I glued the bridge down several days ago and putteid the inside for a solid fit!

Also looking at the ref pix, I think I have a near dead-on match with the Sage! I'm so happy about this that I cannot even begin to describe what a find and triumph this color is for this kit!


.19
The hull and neck have now been completely covered in Sage. It looks like there are some tiny bits of debris that got captured in the paint, so I will have to sand those down and paint again. I will also putty any dings away as well. Two weeks of work and I am almost there!!!

I may be able to do those repairs tonight, but I should probably wait until tomorrow night so as to give the paint a full day to cure. Therefore, the ol' girl will stay on her back until then.

I am hoping that the Press and Seal on the top hull doesn't do anything funky! It'a already been on there 24hrs and will be on for a full 50hrs before I get to pull it off!

At worst, I am hoping that it will simply texture up the gray paint and not rip it apart, nor have a funky chemical interaction with it all. I will give a full and detailed report on this after I pull it off tomorrow. So far, the overall review is glowing! I just have to see a little more to be utterly convinced. As of now, I have little doubt to it's amazing utility for model makers around the world!

I'm going to look at the Crown in a little bit. I will have to see how easy masking the bridge off is going to be. It makes sense that the crown top should be gray like the hull top. Most photos show no difference, but there is one photo where the difference in color is distinct enough to warrant serious consideration.

I should be able to glue the 3 little flat bits on to the rear of the crown easily enough. I painted them silver yesterday and they are ready for some action.

I will also do some extra silver work on the impulse grills. One coat is not very obvious. Two should give better coverage.


.21
After further study, I have determined that the aft crown top needs to go gray. So the 3 little bits will not go on quite yet. Masking the bridge will be a big pain due to the curved angles involved with the sensor dome.

Also, the lower aft half and underside of the impulse deck needs to go Sage.

I also need to do some more silver on the overall impulse grill areas. There will be further silver areas all around the body, but I will not be doing those until I have everything else done -except the decals, which will be last, followed (likely) by an overall matte spray coat, which will be last-last.

I also think that I will need to do a finishing pass on the upper hull no matter what the outcome of the Press and Seal. The paint didn't go down as the utter smoothness that I was looking to get and had some ugly particle-y looking shine in there. That means that I will have to wait several days for the sage to cure before I PnSeal that up.

No point in taking more pictures tonight. Though I will certainly get some tomorrow night during the next round of work. Whether they will post tomorrow night will remain a mystery until then.


.2230
Puttied and sanded all the blemishes on the hull, while also patching some of the more obvious seams along the pylons and neck base.

While the sage went down smooth, as it began to dry some fractal patterns emerged in some areas, but not others. I will have to let this dry until tomorrow to see if it goes away or not. If not, I will have to sand and do it again I guess. Regrettable.

I masked off the impulse deck and sage'd that up with no problems at all. Maybe for the hull I need to sand it, re-primer and lay down a new layer of sage?!?

Tomorrow, I will mask and paint the crown. Want to do it tonight, but need to let it thoroughly cure. Must be patient!!!


071001.21
The crown was masked and painted gray! I think it was successful. I am going to wait another couple hours and pull the tape then to see. I made sure to rub the edges down tight, but there is always that one spot to give you trouble...

I sanded down the hull and gave her a fresh coat of sage which is looking good so far -no fractaling or other issues!

I saw the posting of another builder who found the infamous Jade Satin and it is indeed a very saturated color as has been mentioned. The Sage Satin looks to be less saturated and in the same tonal family, if not exactly the same except slightly desaturated...

Nothing more to do on the lower hull until it is dry in the morning -or tomorrow night is probably a better idea. From here on out, she will have to rest on her belly; and that could cause some mild discomfort that I wish to avoid!

I will have to devise some kind of soft resting spot. I am using the spongy corners of some packaging right now for support, but that is too rough to touch the bare surface too. The top currently has the PnSeal on it for protection. Perhaps I will put that on the supports as well...

Still to do:
: If the crown came out good, glue the little bits on the rear.

: Finish touch-up putty on the top neck base and paint.

: Sand the neck/bulb join area and paint.

: Make sure all is smooth on the neck, sand and final paint.

: Remove PnSeal from Hull top and examine for damage, initiate repairs if needed.

: Finish silver on the impulse deck.

: Silver details around the body, mostly the neck base, pylons and warp engines.

: Consider gold on pylon nobby and crown detail.

: Glue impulse deck down.

: Decal the bulb and crown.

: Glue crown to bulb.

: Decal the neck and body

: Ummm...

: Final matte spray?

: Done???


071003.00
New pix added a few hours ago... Silvered engines yester-yesterday night... More details to come... The Press and Seal review... Tomorrow...


.23
Had a good look at the upper hull...

The Press and Seal tack would not wash off with a green scrubber pad and soap. I needed to sand the hull anyway, so I did.

Glad advertises this stuff to go in direct contact with our food and liquids. There are no chemical contents on the box or any signage of that sort whatsoever. This stuff can't be good for you to injest, but your food and your stomach lining will be covered in it. Ugh. They also advert that it sticks to wood, plastic, metal and all sorts of household uses... No thanks.

If it goes on and off quick, it's likely useful for fast masking -if it does not leave tack behind on quick jobs. Otherwise, I gotta vote 'no'. I will not be doing any further PnSeal tests on this kit, though I will conduct tests in the future...

...

Passed the 300 pix mark. Too many? You betcha! I'll prune once the kit is complete, getting rid of similar shots and see where that leads...

As I was saying, the upper hull got a complete sanding. The gooey part was still gooey so I did a major excavation! It led an inch or so up the spine and up to 1/2 inch to the sides of center. I will be letting that area cure until at least saturday and see what's what then. I will therefore not have this kit finished by this weekend.

Dry fitting it, it looks great! I am guessing that I will have to do yet another paint pass over the entire thing as there is a good chance that the bottom finish will get dinged as I work on the top... I noticed a couple blemishes on the Head's green areas as well.

That's it for today. A new entry is unlikely until Saturday at this point.


071006.01
I believe that I have determined the Goo Problem -and it is not because I puttied over an Ancient Indian Burial Site...

Here's my postulation:

The massive amount of CA gel I threw into every crevice on the spine was not fully cured before I put the putty down.  When I put the first paint down, the putty was not necessarily fully cured.  The paint however acted as a blanket and sealed everything down.  And as I put more paint on, the blanket got thicker and stronger. 

(Now that I think of it, early paint layers did have strange 'bubbling' going on that I dismised as odd surface issues coming to light due to the paint... The bottom did this as well, but those issues went away...)

Though the paint cured fast and sealed things up, the gel and/or putty was still 'venting' gasses/moisture. It wasn't obvious until the pressure built up and began dissolving the upper paint layers at the easiest place to breach -the fore point at the top of the spinal seam. 

My reaction was to put more paint/putty down. At one point, I scraped some material away, but it was too minor to make a big difference.  I was still hoping at that point to get away with a quick fix...

And so, more putty and paint went down and the problem disappeared -until the next welling that is...

And it was only a few days ago, after the ship had been on its back for awhile (and the top sealed and out of sight), that I had forgotten about the problem.  Upon pulling the mask off the top, I (was disappointed, though not surprised to see) realized that the mask had likely captured more moisture and gas, helping to tenderize the area and leading me to my current hypothesis.

I was conservative at first, just slicing away along the seam itself.  A few hours later I came back and noted that the 'soft paint' extended beyond what I had cut away.  Thus, I implemented a more aggressive routine.

The final area cut away was a few square inches.  I also took the precaution of shaving the resin down to get any residue off. Then I put a thick buffer bit on the dremel and gouged the area as deeply as the buffer would allow without bursting into flames from the intensity!

That was two nights ago. 

A couple hours ago I put a light layer of putty back down in the affected area. I checked back a few mins ago and scooped any still moist out of there and left the solidified parts as is.  I then smeared a thin layer of putty into the scoop.  I also sliced as much as I could to rough the surface up some -to help with adhesion and drying.

I will be looking at it tomorrow.  If it is cured well, I will sand it down and apply some more, repeat. Otherwise I will scoop the moist stuff out again and get myself some Tamiya putty as that hardens far more densely than the Squadron does.

From there, I've still got a long road to go, but the recovery will be swift and permanent now.  -unless it really is restless spirits!!!

Of course, like all good science, next comes the test.  If the answer is false, then I have to redraw my hypothesis.  If true, then it is theory and should be tested again someday to see if it holds up under repeatable, verifiable circumstances.  I will know by the end of next week, if not this weekend!


071007.12
Over the last couple days, I've put several light layers of putty down over the excavation site, sanding between each one.

After this current layer dries in a few hours, I am going to black spray the area as this will show me where more putty has to go and kill any color toning that would otherwise show through if I started with white.

I don't have a lot of Testor's gray left to play with, so I'll have to be judicious before use! And probly get another can of the stuff as well.

So far, the putty is going down smooth and solid.  I did not get the Tamiya this weekend as I figured I would give Squadron one last chance to work.  If not, re-excavate and putty with Tamiya...

There are no signs of goo-ing as yet.  Stay tuned!

No additional pictures as yet either...


.20
Put a few layers of black down and the area, despite being totally smooth, shows like an eyesore.  There is still a distinct depression that needs to be filled.  I dumped a blob of paint down on the last pass to help fill it up.  That will not likely be fully cured until tomorrow at the the earliest. I don't want to go smearing around semi-moist paint, so I will have patience and wait.

I need to find a thick paint that will fill in the little scratches and nooks -an auto paint perhaps.

Otherwise, there is still no sign of the goo at this point! If that continues and becomes a trend, we can call the repair a success! I'm not going to bank on it quite yet however.

So close!


071014.14
An entire week since the last entry!  Wow!

In that time, I bought the Tamiya putty and another can of gray.  I also picked up a can of camo gray which seems to be the apparant D-7 color on screen (when it wasn't blue that is).

I went real slow with the paint and putty this past week.  The goo did manifest itself early. This time it was a relatively small notch that I cut out of the top as compared to the archaeological dig of last week or the previous surgery still!

I dabbed the Tamiya on for the first time.  It was good.  The next morning, I sliced the top excess off revealing a softer core which gave me some concern, but not unexpectedly so.  That night, I dabbed a thin layer on. Same again the next morning.  This night I sanded it well and put a coat of camo down.  No bubbling. Next day, no goo either!  I sanded in the morning. Later on, I put another dash of Tamiya on, repeated the next morning. That was yesterday.

Last night, I put the second coat of the Camo gray on.  Nothing. I sanded a couple spots smooth. An hour later, I put a heavier coat on.

For the first time, the hull top was smooth! 

I have to do one more sanding and then it's two coats of proper gloss gray for the final touch.

One other note is that while bringing the ship in and out of the house to spray it the other night, the port nacelle caught on the screen door.   The pylon, with nacelle attached, popped off the hull!

Fortunately, the nacelle was wrapped in plastic and I am hoping that protected it from any damage from catching or falling (can't look until I paint the final gray). The pylon was fine. I simply blobbed the CA gel/reg combo again, the pylon sat flat and everything is happy.

I do have minor putty and sanding on that 'new' seam line before the final coat of gray. That's today's major job. I have to mask the bridge and sensor dome off one last time.  I will need to get another can of Sage before I am through.  I will go to a different walmart and see if they have the proper Jade green.  If not, it's Sage whether I have to drive all the way back to the three-story walmart or not.

New pix in the next update.


.18
Nice.

I sanded all the putty down, got rid of a couple blobs.  Taped off the pylon vents. Took a breath and grabbed the gloss gray.

Lately, I had been holding the ship by the neck over the balcony to spray. This led to runs, which were acceptable for undercoats  This time, it sat flat in a box and got a luxurious top coat in the back lot. 

Inside, it looks smoooth under the lights. Another perfect coat in an hour and it sits for a few days.  By the weekend, the top coat should be tough enough to handle the mask necessary to protect it from the coming green (which I can't do until I get a second can for backup).


.21
The second coat beaded up and crystalized into this really tough bumpy layer.  It fought the sand paper with every stroke -even when it was mostly gone!

So, having sanded that '2nd perfect coat' away, I'll still be putting what will hopefully be the final coat on in the morning. It's far too dark now to risk it. If I am patient, I will only put a light coat down in the morning and another the next morning...


.23
Got the final few sprays out of the first can on the hull.  The colder it is, the more likely that paint will bead up. After many losses over several kits, I have finally made the correlation!

I will have to paint the upper hull during the day.  I will likely take a long lunch tomorrow or tuesday as I cannot wait until the weekend to put this final gray on.  I need to be doing the green this weekend. Then, the decals which have eluded me for weeks now.


071016.22
Rained yesterday for the second time in almost two years, the last time being three days previous.

Today I did the lunch break thing and while the paint was warmer than before, it was still cold enough to produce bubbles in the coat. 

Sanded those an hour or so ago.  Immediately decided I couldn't wait until tomorrow lunch. I threw the spray can on the stove -in hot water- and took my heat gun to the hull top, warming it up. The wings were solid and got colder faster.  The body is hollow, so it retains warm air -but that could expand in a bad manner.

Regardless, the plan was an overall success, but still requires another go tomorrow.

The paint is mostly flawless on the starboard wing though the pylon needs work.  The body is great except the port side has three pregressively smaller blobs along the body/wing line and tiny little bubbles are caught.

In the morning, I quickly sand the troubled side. When I get home at lunch, I put the kettle on and mask off the good starboard wing. I possibly finish off with a second coat before leaving an hour later.

That night, admire the great job and let it sit until saturday for full masking in prep of the green which I must go and buy saturday morning.

Am I there yet?

New pix tomorrow.


071020.00
Here's where things stand.

There are new pix, I have not uploaded them yet.

The goo is back, but in a very miniscule form as compared to previous incarnations. I will ignore it for now and take this model to completion. I will revisit the issue many months from now.  If that kind of time doesn't dry it out, then nothing will.

There is a minor scratch in the paint near the goo.  It is being ignored until I revisit the goo issue.

The port pylon needs another top coat.  I will do that after the green dries from tomorrow's application.

The leading top edge of the port wing has a similar issue, but I will decide that when addressing the pylon.

There is evidence of paint blobs along the port wing/body line. I will likely ignore it.

I put some touchup putty on the neck and head that will be sanded tomorrow before the green goes down.

The other nearest walmart is several hours drive, so I defaulted to the one I've been going to the last couple times. Still no Jade.  I also checked an Ace hardware and Sears on the way -both stores are Krylon carriers. The Ace had some krylon, but not Jade and the Sears didn't carry any spray paint whatsoever. At walmart, I found a Sage alternate -Kilz Cactus. It is the same tone as the Sage, but more saturated. Got a can and will test coat the ship with it, but have the Sage on hand to cover it up if needed.

The plan:
1. Sand putty on neck and head.

2. Confirm surface is ready for green.

3. Mask off all gray.

4. Spray green, several coats.

5. Apply more on Sunday if needed.

6. Mask and spray the bridge for the last time.

7. Let cure into next week before doing anything else.

8. Consider a sealer.

9. Decal.

10. Seal


.1015
1. Sanded the neck last night before sleeping.

2. Surface was good for painting.

3. Gray got masked off w/ saran wrap and tape.  There may be some top gray to put down again, but I still have to address the pylon anyway, so a little ain't so bad...

4. On 2nd coat of green, almost ready for third. Then, flip over and hit the top of the neck.

5. More green tomorrow is unlikely, but I can do the gray touch up at that point.

6. Will mask the bridge now...


.1045
Bridge looks great! Also repainted the aft impulse engine to match.  A third coat is now on the body and that is that!  I have to wait several hours before I can safely flip her over and do the neck top and the fore hull wall.

This Kilz paint really stinks. The color is nearly an exact match to the Rustoleum Sage. A dash more saturated, but not much.  It is so close that I will be leaving the bridge in two tones and probably the Sage nacelles as well.  WIll know better when I am really looking at it tomorrow.


.1130
I really, really want to flip it over, spray the last of the green and unwrap the masks.  But I have to be safe. I've come too far to mess it up now with impatience. 


.1230
You might think that 60 hours would be enough for paint of nearly any thickness to set or cure.  And you'd be as wrong as I am in this case.

I realized that by tucking my fingertips inside the bulb's cusp, I could hold the ship upright and spray the top parts green as needed.  I've now put two coats down and that is enough. 

In celebration of finishing, I removed the saran wrap from the hull's top and discovered creases in the coat.  The Wrap went down very lightly and I made a point of minimizing the creases as I put it down.  Nevertheless, there they are. Mostly across the central fore top where all the excavations have occured.

The edge lines were masked a bit dodgy in a few spots, so I will be putting another full gray coat down tomorrow. 

Done for today, though I will post the pix later...


071021.20

The edge lines were masked a bit dodgy in a few spots, so I will be putting another full gray coat down tomorrow. 

Did I say tomorrow? I meant several days from now when the paint has fully dried. No more work on this for a few days, though I may very well put the decals on the bridge tonight while waiting for my laundry.


.21
There was some gray 'dirt' on the fore crown, preventing me from decaling that piece.  I quickly sprayed new green over it. There is no longer any rush to get those decals on and out of the way.

Upon further examination, the hull top is essentially trashed with creases.  The paint is still pliant underneath it all.  I have no choice but to wait until this coming weekend for the current gray to dry more and then redo the whole damn thing. Will need a fourth can of gray for this feat, though I still have some left in each of the first three cans. The ship will rest on its' back until then. On a better note, the demon-haunted goo seems to be gone, but that could simply be the creasing...


071022.22
Took a moment and drilled a small hole in each corner of the aft wings and one more at the base of the crown ridge just behind the bridge. These will be the hanging points.

I considered simply looping fishing line around the nacelles and neck. After some thought, I determined that over time the line would cut into the parts due to the relative heavy weight of the craft.  A plastic ship weighing a few ounces is one thing.  This ship weighs in at nearly 8 pounds!  I'll get the drill bit number later. It may be a touch big, but overall I am satisfied.  The hole behind the bridge is nearly invisible and the ones at the wings nearly so.

My plan is get a tiny piece of a hard metal strip, notch it in the middle and tie off the fishing line to that with some serious knots. I will probably tie off above the body rather than underneath or inside it.

For the fore line, I considered drilling crossways into a neck-base feature and looping there, but was uncomfortable with the idea of the entire part snapping or wearing away.  By drilling into the crown, I can tie off inside that and there will simply be a line going straight to the head and disappearing. 

The trouble here is that if the line ever snaps or needs to be re-tied, the crown will be glued down tight to the bulb to hold the weight involved. I will check into the idea of getting ultra-strong magnets for this as an option...

Still no rush to decal the bridge, perhaps tomorrow night after work.

I sanded down the hull top for what I am hoping will be the last time.  Didn't get any pre-sanding pix... Any deep gouges I will putty over on thursday and paint on the weekend.  Still no thoughts on a sealer yet. That I can even muse on the notion of a sealer is a nice thing!  It means I really am getting that close!


071024.22
Considered the line snapping problem...  The solution is to use some wire looped at both ends. The fishing line goes in one end, the stopper at the other.

This morning, I decaled the crown and put some Solvaset on.  This evening I put a dash more solvaset on and once dry, finished it off with Walthers decal-hiding fluid -I'll get the name later.

I sanded down the hull top this morning and puttied.  I sanded again this evening and puttied... Again...  That will be ready tomorrow morning to be sanded and puttied again.

Almost there.


071030.16
Well, as I was sanding that last time, I went too deep and essentially struck wet paint. That ripped up all along the portside divider line.  I've spent the past week resurfacing it with putty, sand, paint and repeat routine.

I finally had it down this afternoon.  Totally smooth!  Put what should have been the final top coat down and it bubbled and pitted across the entire top surface! I am livid!  This was ridiculous!

The surface was blown clean with an air can and wiped down with dry tisue, the paint was at least room temperature, the ship was sitting int he sun for the last hour and was certainly not cold and I get this new nightmare! It just added days to this whole thing! I should have been gluing the last few pieces down tomorrrow and decaling the day after! Damn it!

The appropriate pix are numbered in the 432-442 range.


071104.17
In the last five days, I sanded down the mess that was to be the final coat.  I applied over eight layers of gray and silver to prime the surface again.  Yesterday, I got one light pass of the final gray on.  It needs several more light passes to be complete. 

If when I pull the tape off the masked edges are fine and all else looks good, I can proceed with spot painting bits and pieces such as the wing grates, the torpedo/sensor tube and a couple other knick-knacks. The decals go on, the bird gets wires and goes above my computer so that I can admore it every moment I am here.

There has been a good conversation going about modding this one to be exactly liek the original over at the Atomic City site.  I am aiming to get a second one in the summer and will be modding that one as much as possible. This one is essentially done with the paint and decals to come.

More pix later.


071110.20
It's getting there, alright? Jeez!

I ran out of gray today and the shop was closed. No other of two shops had the testors, but I did get some krylon primer which is very close to the testors.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow so I don't know that I will get any painting in.  But otherwise, with a little green touch up and the decals, the ship is finally done!


071117.20
Seven days to the hour. 

The last coat of gray went down. The green needs touchup.  Very close.  Just wrote most details at Atomic City.  Will copy and repost here soon.  New pix below!


071118.18
From the Atomic City WiP board yesterday:

The Port Wing Hassle:
A few coats ago I realized what was going on. Since the start, the port wing has had more paint difficulties than the starboard. (Which is why I was so dismayed a few posts ago when the SB wing had a paint prob.)

When I've been painting the ship, I've typically held it by the neck, rotating it on its' z-axis at arms length (not realizing that I was not moving the ship at a constant distance to the can, though I did some some deliberate distancing).

So I modified my painting to be strictly parallel by the neck, or flat on the ground -which gives its own problems (like can spurts).

I noticed the port buildup early while I painted the TOS AMT as well and stopped myself immediately. (That ship will be done tomorrow, just letting the last coat dry. Assembly tonight and decals tomorrow.)

and...
I've got the last coat of gray on the D-7's hood. It was 24 hours yesterday. I wanted to give it until today to tape the top off for green touchups. However, I am going to wait until next weds or thursday to be sure. I ruined one other 'final coat' by draping saran wrap over the top. I can wait.

One nacelle simply popped off the other week. I waited to glue it back on as it is much easier to paint the body without it on. I popped the other nacelle off the other night to match. I will slice the doodads off this weekend. My replacements are in the mail this coming monday.

Then it's mask the decals, glue the last parts down and hang it over my computer here!

I'm considering magnets for the impulse deck as I may want to repaint the hull top over again. It's not a perfect coat, but close. The Klingon dead haunting the hull are still there, but the effect is a minimal blob. I am sure that a few months from now the whole area will be fully cured. I will then slice any blemish there away, trowel some quality filler on, re-sand and paint.


071123.22
Got the new engine nobs yesterday.  Dremeled off the old ones, sanded things down and glued the new ones on.  Looks good.  Going to tape the hull off tomorrow and finish all the green at that point.

What's left? Glue the crown and impulse deck down, decal... Done...


071124.12
Taped the hull and put down what will hopefully be the only coat of green needed. Also painted the nacelles again. I may have enough green left for one last spot repair if needed, but that will be it.  Wanted to pull the tape off right away, but if a touch up is needed, then I'd have to redo it.

It will be another hour before the paint is safe to touch.


.18
Threw another coat of green on and pulled the tape off.  Things look good.  Letting it sit as it still has  a little bit of tack left to it.  I may be able to glue things together later tonight.  Otherwise, it will be tomorrow. Also have to mask the body off for the trifoil decals... Tomorrow.


071125.18
Finished three hours ago by placing the trifoil decals on the wings and hanging from my ceiling.

Will do one last thorough posting later. All pix are up-to-date.