Here's the update, though a day late-- sorry!
Things are going quite well, but as you've all noticed I did not make my March 15 deadline. I should be able to start delivering the kits in the first week of next month, though. So, here's what going on:
This photo shows the mate between the window ring and the upper hull as it was in prior incarnations of this kit. The join is okay, but not correct.
This shows the mating surface, the top of the window ring. You can see there is an inset surface. At the time this kit was originally mastered, we thought there was a recess here, thus the inset. But, we now know this is not so.
This is the new joint between the window ring and the upper hull. There are other things going on here beside this clean, new joint, which I'll show later when this part is molded and cast.
Here we have an original lower hull part and one of the masters from the Custom Replicas version of this kit. The difference is in the skirting.
Custom Replicas decided the smooth skirting, which was not correct, should be more accurately represented. This is their version of the skirting and given the size of the model, was an improvement over the smooth version. Keep in mind that what you see here is greatly enlarged, so any deviation from an accurate texture is amplified.
This is the original smooth skirt detail from the master and the new skirt detail I'm adding. I've removed the Custom Replicas version from all the lower hull masters and will be applying this new detail. This pattern was made by making a panel of .025 styrene rods. At that size the number of corrugations is only off by 1! I've been casting a supply of the rectangular panels so I can cut out all the wedges at once. I'll have some new photos showing the applied skirting very soon.
Now we get to one of the real problems that had to be addressed. In the original version and the Custom Replicas version of this kit, the question of exactly how to anchor the top part of the legs was left somewhat ambiguous. As you can see here, the leg was simply wedged into brackets that were cast onto the inside surface of the Baseplate. The screw heads you see are holding the engines in place, on the outside surface of this Baseplate.
In this closer shot, you can see how the leg is held by the bracket. Note the space under the leg. This shows there is nothing to accurately align the end of the leg to the bracket-- either in/out or up/down!
The new version of the Baseplate part is now cast as two parts. The leg brackets have been modified to provide an accurate place for the leg to sit in the bracket and the leg itself has limiting blocks molded in, so how far in/out is accurately fixed.
The three parts that make up the legs are now molded separately, so anyone wanting to make the legs fold up now has a chance to do so. I've never done it, so I don't even know if making them movable is possible, but I do know you can attach them in the folded position.
This shows the new positioning blocks molded to the legs. They simply butt against the mounting bracket. I should mention that the block at the rear of each leg part, which looks like part of the mounting bracket, is simply a section of the sprue these parts are molded to. It doesn't do anything-- I just didn't snip it off.
You will also notice in this last shot that there are two holes with some styrene tube stuck into them. The tubes were used for alignment of the mounting brackets to the baseplate. The holes are not molded in, though 'target' dimples are. These holes will have to be drilled out by the builder (1/8"), as well as their counterparts in the baseplate. The holes are used to both align the two castings so the legs sit properly and to allow the use of screws to hold the engines in place, should the builder decide that's the way to go. Gluing the engines in place is what most people will choose, but because of the permanent bond, mounting the engines in exactly the right spot could be endangered. This is important because the legs are anchored with pegs into the sides of the engines. This means two legs must be installed at the same time and being able to adjust the position of the engines is desirable. I'll go over all this in more detail in the assembly guide. The process is only complicated enough to make it necessary to cover in great detail!
Scott
Things are going quite well, but as you've all noticed I did not make my March 15 deadline. I should be able to start delivering the kits in the first week of next month, though. So, here's what going on:
This photo shows the mate between the window ring and the upper hull as it was in prior incarnations of this kit. The join is okay, but not correct.
This shows the mating surface, the top of the window ring. You can see there is an inset surface. At the time this kit was originally mastered, we thought there was a recess here, thus the inset. But, we now know this is not so.
This is the new joint between the window ring and the upper hull. There are other things going on here beside this clean, new joint, which I'll show later when this part is molded and cast.
Here we have an original lower hull part and one of the masters from the Custom Replicas version of this kit. The difference is in the skirting.
Custom Replicas decided the smooth skirting, which was not correct, should be more accurately represented. This is their version of the skirting and given the size of the model, was an improvement over the smooth version. Keep in mind that what you see here is greatly enlarged, so any deviation from an accurate texture is amplified.
This is the original smooth skirt detail from the master and the new skirt detail I'm adding. I've removed the Custom Replicas version from all the lower hull masters and will be applying this new detail. This pattern was made by making a panel of .025 styrene rods. At that size the number of corrugations is only off by 1! I've been casting a supply of the rectangular panels so I can cut out all the wedges at once. I'll have some new photos showing the applied skirting very soon.
Now we get to one of the real problems that had to be addressed. In the original version and the Custom Replicas version of this kit, the question of exactly how to anchor the top part of the legs was left somewhat ambiguous. As you can see here, the leg was simply wedged into brackets that were cast onto the inside surface of the Baseplate. The screw heads you see are holding the engines in place, on the outside surface of this Baseplate.
In this closer shot, you can see how the leg is held by the bracket. Note the space under the leg. This shows there is nothing to accurately align the end of the leg to the bracket-- either in/out or up/down!
The new version of the Baseplate part is now cast as two parts. The leg brackets have been modified to provide an accurate place for the leg to sit in the bracket and the leg itself has limiting blocks molded in, so how far in/out is accurately fixed.
The three parts that make up the legs are now molded separately, so anyone wanting to make the legs fold up now has a chance to do so. I've never done it, so I don't even know if making them movable is possible, but I do know you can attach them in the folded position.
This shows the new positioning blocks molded to the legs. They simply butt against the mounting bracket. I should mention that the block at the rear of each leg part, which looks like part of the mounting bracket, is simply a section of the sprue these parts are molded to. It doesn't do anything-- I just didn't snip it off.
You will also notice in this last shot that there are two holes with some styrene tube stuck into them. The tubes were used for alignment of the mounting brackets to the baseplate. The holes are not molded in, though 'target' dimples are. These holes will have to be drilled out by the builder (1/8"), as well as their counterparts in the baseplate. The holes are used to both align the two castings so the legs sit properly and to allow the use of screws to hold the engines in place, should the builder decide that's the way to go. Gluing the engines in place is what most people will choose, but because of the permanent bond, mounting the engines in exactly the right spot could be endangered. This is important because the legs are anchored with pegs into the sides of the engines. This means two legs must be installed at the same time and being able to adjust the position of the engines is desirable. I'll go over all this in more detail in the assembly guide. The process is only complicated enough to make it necessary to cover in great detail!
Scott
