I was starting to wonder if anyone was even reading these. It's more of a journal-type thread, so no harm if nobody cares, but it is nice to hear some encouraging words.
Over the weekend, I made quite a bit of progress on several projects.
On the master for the Federation oCA -
I re-routed the "engine trenches" a bit more. The second (better) one is pretty much ready to proceed with next-steps on (just a minor "nick" to fill in with greenstuff). The sloppier first one was cleaned up and had the "waviness" removed, but is now much too wide. I'll fix this by adding greenstuff to the edges and then run that through the routing jig one last time (should be much easier to get a straight rout line in putty as opposed to hard pewter).
No new pictures on this one.
On the Klingon FD7 Fast Battlecruiser -
I epoxied on the brass wings.
Once the epoxy cured, I then covered their edges and surface defects with greenstuff.
(Most of this putty will be filed and sanded away, to leave a smooth, final shape).
I also cut the engines into two pieces and planned out how much I am going to space them out, filling the gap with greenstuff. This is to make the engines longer and look more powerful (since it's a "fast" ship).
On the Federation HDW re-build -
I built the "lower hull" module up with greenstuff, around the brass pins already epoxied into the two engines.
I'm having some doubts that the greenstuff will provide a strong enough mounting for the "neck" and the rest of the ship. I might file off the top couple 16ths of an inch and replace that portion with thin brass sheet.
On the Gorn CF Fast Battlecruiser -
Much progress was made on this kitbash. It's nearing completion.
I finished filing out the "groove" for the brass wings part to sit in. This left the main hull very weak and prone to sagging (it's got two heavy lead bubbles at either end after all), which i had to address later.
I changed the shape of the "wings" to make them a bit less wide and have a more raked "go fast" appearance. I also scribed in the "shuttle pad tracks". I then drilled and added two pins in the "groove" on the main hull to fix the location of the "wings" and drilled corresponding holes in the brass piece.
[Wings are shown held in-place, with the "stock" lead wing for comparison].
I then used some other, thicker, brass stock to fabricate some "stringers" to span over the wing part and brace the main hull. When it tries to sag under its own weight, the vertical faces of the "groove" will now press into the ends of the stringers and be prevented from going any further. Once glued into place over the wings, the stringers also served to fill a large portion of the "grooves" void, reducing the amount of greenstuff needed to fill to match the main hulls lines.
The mini was acquired without engines, so I'm using pewter Gorn BC engines from an ADB kitbash pack. However, I want the engines to have a visual indication of their increased power (it is a "fast" ship).
Using two conveniently matching-length pieces of small brass tube stock (from a bag of miscellaneous brass tube bits-and-bobs I bought last year), I added some larger "intercooler" housings to the two engines.
I did chuck both pieces into the Dremel to give them beveled edges and make them look a bit more "techno".
I also added greenstuff fillets to the forward edges of both to blend them into the engine nacelles a bit more.
My final steps yesterday were filling in the "groove" under the wings with greenstuff.
I then filed the rear portion of the center hull into a "wasp-waist" narrower shape (inspired by John Schneder's master for the Gorn DNL).
At this point, I need to file and sand the greenstuff over the wings/bottom-of-the-hull, pin and epoxy the engines to the main hull, add greenstuff fillets to both engines, and add phaser dots to the wings along with shuttle pads. Then she's done.
