Major assembly continues
Several large pieces have been glued together, and this means a lot of electrical wiring is now closed up. The fit was poor, but that probably had more to do with customizing the interior and stuffing wires here and there. But, in the end, everything works, including the strobes (a slightly more scary bit of the electrical system because not paying attention can mean frying the circuit.
While the lighting clearly works, it is nevertheless a challenge to appreciate the desired effect because of light being transmitted through the plastic. Of course, painting will resolve this.
Speaking of which, once the surface has been worked further to remove defects and details have been added, the objective is to polish up areas featuring portholes and windows. These will be masked off. The sequence of painting thereafter will be a complicated layering process starting with Tamiya gray primer, gloss black lacquer, detailed painting areas (yellow for thrusters, for example), then various metallic shades using Alclad II paints. At this point, the plan is to give the overall ship a matte aluminum finish, with a subtle contrasting color for panel detail. Engineering sections will be a darker shade of metal. Engines and thruster areas will be accented with burnt metal and gold titanium shades. Or something. We’ll see how this go.
