After several weeks of filling, sanding, filing, buffing, puttying, etc. I finally had the 4 main hull components firmly together. Once this was completed, I attatched one of the lower "scoops" and fins structures. This too needed to be faired into the overall shape of the hull and presented just as many fun filled days of filling, sanding, filing, buffing, puttying, etc. When these pieces were also firmy attatched, I decided to tackle the task I truly dreaded: scribing panel lines. The panel lines were indicated on the full 1:1 kit diagram included with the kit, but only a few squares were actually molded on the kit (as faintly depressed shapes just below the bridge). I've been going over these lines carefully for the past few days, transferring measurements from the diagram to the kit, trying to adjust for the 2-d to 3-d nature of the process. I had to do a back transfer several times by smearing pencil behind the diagram, then transfering the pattern onto the kit by tracing over it. It helped, but wasn't perfect. I'll have to see how it looks when I finally prime the piece.

While much of the hull was drying, I proceeded to grind off the rough attatchment points on the 2 part gun turrets. I had to use a Dremel at high speed with a cutting disk to smooth it over enough to get rid of all the rough burrs. Once that was done, I had to go over each turret again with coarse and fine grain sandpaper. The same process was used to smooth the auxilliary engine nacell ports. Cast in a softer white metal, they were easier to clean up, and fit very well onto the ends of their respective nacelles. The nacelles themselves had no interior detail, so I added an engine "spike" made of brass rod in each, then surrounded the interior of each nacelle with a thin sheet of brass cut to shape. Again, I don't know how this will look until priming time. What I do know so far is that these engines do NOT fit well into the slots molded into the main hull halves, and required much cutting and sanding...and filling, and filing....

Like the smaller auxilliary engines, the main engine had no interior detail. I had acquired the 1/350 scale Space Battleship Yamato earlier this year, and decided to pull out the engine bell from that kit as a reference. That piece is cast in metal, and has detail both within and without. The central feature of the interior of the Yamato's engine is a large spike. So for the Andromeda, I took a likely sized dowel and filed it to a bullet shape, then inserted it into the center of the engine bell. After doing this, I re-engraved the panel lines of the engine and set it aside to set. When it was dry, and I had finished with the hull markins, I joined these last two major hull components together. They sit on my workbench, waiting for the forthcoming filling, sanding, filing...buffing......

OK, more work posted on the site here. The major sub-assemblies have been completed -- bridge, gun turrets, hull, and auxiliary pods. The hull, as you have already gathered, was the most difficult part to complete. I finally managed to get it looking right, but only after multiple treatments of sanding, filling, filing, and priming. When the first round of priming was finished (I had used Armory Primer), I used Testors gray primer as a second coat. Though the Testors spray primer was at least 3 times thicker than the Armory's primer, in this case it worked to my advantage -- filling in tiny depressions and deeply engraved panel lines. I won't tell you how many times I had to clean the whole hull off in the bathtub in order to remove all dust from sanding before additional priming. The final additions to the hull were the numerous "pods and protrusions" that stud the hull. Most of these pods were plastic, and had to be sanded and primed again after being glued onto the hull itself.

After the pods were attached, the various fins were added -- 4 on the main engine bell and 2 just behind the bow. The M&M candy shell-like coating of the cast foam hull presented some difficulty a this stage, as some areas were very thin and brittle, and the slightest bump of a fin would pull both the fin and the coating off the kit. The fins, as mentioned earlier, were cut from a sheet of very dense board (styrofoam, though I'm still not sure), and though thin, could benefit from the addition of thin brass rod connector pins with wich to attach to them to the hull. After adding the fins, I tackled the Wave Motion Gun barrels in the bow of the ship. They were "rifled" will several thin strips of styrene (provided in the kit and cut to shape) which taper at the ends and surround the photo-etched brass apatures within the barrels.

At this time, I've primed all of the major assemblies, and pinned the fins into the hull. I have not glued them all in place due to the fact that the ship will probably be moving from one place to another (hopefully not too frequently) and might easily be damaged. The one wall I've come up against now is the lack of appropriate painting facilities. As this ship is so huge, and I don't have a spray booth, I don't want to risk airbrushing outside (where anything could land on and ruin a paint job), and I'm sure as heck not going to do it inside (I swore that off several years ago until I got a booth). So, until I get those things straightened out, here's the ship in it's semi-finished assembled state.