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Angry spirits bent on vengeance for crimes committed against their people. Its Poltergeist all over again!



No. Not really!



For a long while I thought it was a chemical reaction between paint, putty and glue. But the fact is, the same putty, primer, glue and resin is over the entire body. So why there and no other seam?

That lead me to think that because this is the top front and weakest point, perhaps gasses are venting to this spot. Thus not allowing the underlying paint or primer to dry.

But considering the thorough gouging I did the other day, I have no good clue at this point. Looking through the build notes on my site I see that it occurred almost from the first.

It sat with the open wound over the weekend. Monday night I began putty, tuesday primer, an hour later, the signs were there, weds night I carved out a small patch (1/8thsq"). What was nice about this time is that the area/edges I carved weren't moist. The previous gouging I went until I got a hard edge of paint and as you can see from some pictures, that was a huge area.



Last night, I blobbed some Tamiya putty on the spot; as tamiya dries very dense and hard as compared to the squadron I was using, which is more cakelike when dry.

I'm going to look at it now. Tonight I should be able to file the new tamiya patch down. Whether I throw another layer of putty or primer on after that I don't know yet. So maybe she can be hanging from my ceiling this weekend, if not be ready for decals.

If the tamiya doesn't work, Mr. Scott suggested a flour and CA mixture -nearly as hard as cement. If that doesn't quell the angry spirits, I don't know what will! New pix this weekend.

Good one. I hadn't thought like that. You also automatically mask off the underside of both pieces for gluing. I'm going to have to scrape up both undersides when I glue them down...

And Lou, you did hull to pylon to nacelle, right? I did it the other way as I was worried about getting the symmetry wrong, but Scott keyed this bird perfectly.

You also mentioned that you did it that way so you could get the seams down good. I thought I hid the pylon/hull seam on the underside, but it was there on the top too. Some quick work took care of them. Another nice thing about that is you don't have to mask the nacelles off. You can simply spray the entire body gray and green.

Finally, when I last test fitted the IMDeck, I saw that it was off center of the neck. Had you noticed this on yours, Lou? I had also gouged up the underside of the IMDeck to get it to sit better. This (and a ton of paint) could have easily thrown off my registration causing the apparent offset...

btw -I took an empty 50 dvd-stack cylinder, folded a towel on its' top, taped that down, then saran wrapped it all smooth so it would not cause the paint of either side any harm... It's the perfect size as the D7 sits real nice on it too. And the super nice thing is that the 50 stack is the exact right height to keep the nacelles, once attached, just above the tabletop! Painting the top or bottom, the D7 always rested on the 50 stack. In Lou's case, the IMDeck would thwart that for belly painting, but she can rest on the table all regular-like without the 50 stack in that case.

I definitely rec. the 50 stack for all belly resting! It's wide, not too tall and 'solid' so there is no chance of her ever falling off. -watch me get with an earthquake this afternoon now!

My IMDeck rocked as well, which is why I gouged it -got rid of the rocking. I scraped some of the ball keys away to account for the underside gouging. It just sits a dash offsides now, so as long as I keep an eye on it with the glue down, it will be alright!

I gotta check your pages to see your (?)latest(?) pix!

I noticed that each pylon had the slightest bit of wiggle room, with the starboard being a bit more so.

On 9/22 I wrote in my log (link here at the top of thread):
"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."

I test fitted for a long while first, seating the pylon in every possible way I could. I finally determined that, since the outer pylons were more obvious, that the undersides would hide the seam.

I did the port pylon first (nacelle already attached). Perfect fit!



When gluing, I first dumped some CA gel into the hull's key groove to fill it up; then dabbed some regular CA around the pylon perimeter face to give it the instant bond needed.

I had a second or two before the glue set. In that second I shifted the pylon as far outward and even with the front as possible. Then held it tight for a couple minutes until my hands cramped, then I held tighter even longer! Now the pylon was as even as possible on the front and outside. This left the rear a bit off.

With the port side complete, I test-fitted the starboard again and again. I was extremely worried about symmetry, but I'll say it again, Scott did a great job getting the angles down!

On 9/29:
I rocked the 2nd engine into place until it 'felt right' and that was dead on.

Same situation as the port, CA gel in the key and regular around the perimeter, shifting the engine to the fore and outside and holding tight!



As you can see, the starboard is clearly different than the port. Getting the outer seam was more critical to me as repairing that would be far more difficult and obvious if I screwed up! So the outside and front edges fit perfect, the inside and rear do not.



After the pylons were safely on for a few days, I dabbed some putty into the underside and rear gaps. I used a small sculpting tool to trowel in the putty along the pylon angle of the seam, thus making it look like the pylon extends into the hull, rather than the hull extending into the pylon.
These are the only two pix I have of the putty phase. This is the first application and there was much shaping after this!


Port:


Starboard:




I extended the putty along the rear hull face even further than pictured to give it as smooth a transition as I possibly could.

Sanding the inside seam was a pain! It will take several putty/sand sessions to get it right. This was also a function of my second-rate putty skills which clearly need refining! You can mostly scrub in only one direction, so I got these long sanding streaks along the length of the pylon and it was difficult to get rid of the scratches and bumps. I also used a flat-headed sculpting tool to scrape away the bumps.

I don't yet have any closeups of the repair. In my next photo session, I will document the whole body before proceeding with my next steps.

My build log is a mile long, and if you have a slow connection the 300+ pix will provide a slow page load, so sorry about that folks. I've gotten too used to my broadband and forget the 'old days'. I went from 28.8kbs to 500kbs and never looked back!