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There were some minor spots along the trailing and underside edge of two of the wings that I filled and wet-sanded
smooth. The rocket body has locating holes for pins on the mating edges of the wings and stabilizer to facilitate attachment. Those were cleanly molded on my copy.
This was an incredibly easy model to build.
Just wash the parts, sand the molding seams, attach the wings, fill and sand the seams where the wings attach, prime and paint.
By the way, resin kits are a little different from styrene kits in terms of how you build them, but not much.
- Wash all parts with a mild soap like dish detergent to remove any mold release. Use warm, but not hot water. Really hot water can make
the resin soft!
- You will need a cyanocarylate ("CA") glue or alternatively, 2-part epoxy glue to put it together. If you use CA glue, you can get
accelerator to spray on the glued part and get an instant bond. It comes in a pump spray bottle and you should find it at your hobby shop or a shop specializing in R/C aircraft.
- When filling seams, I use a filler I made myself. It consists of 2-part 24 hour epoxy and microballoons mixed in equal proportion and
then brushed into the gaps. You can get microballoons at a hobby store or R/C aircraft shop. The nice thing about this is, where it is mostly epoxy glue, the stiff really strengthens attachment of a part where
it is used to fill a seam between parts. Also, it won't shrink. Before applying the filler you should rough wet-sand (#200 or #400) the area where the filler will be applied to get a good bond. That will prevent
the filler from peeling away from a surface when you sand it. IMPORTANT! When you make the filler, mix the resin and hardener thoroughly first BEFORE you add the microballoons. Allow it to sit for ten minutes
before you add the microballoons. Otherwise, the microballoons can prevent the hardener from working and the filler may not harden. That's kind of a drag when that happens, believe me!
- ALWAYS wet-sand a resin kit or use a breathing mask or both. Resin dust can be harmful to your lungs. Do not breathe it in. Hence the
need to wet-sand to eliminate dust. Besides, wet-sanding works much faster.
After initially attaching the wings with CA glue and a squirt of accelerator, I filled the seams with the mix above, allowed it to set for
24 hours and sanded it smooth. For quick sanding I use a #220 paper. Be careful with this paper that you don't over-do it and sand away detail or too much material! For fine polishing I use a #400 paper.
I painted the rocket with Duplicolor automotive paint. The primer was Duplicolor Scratch Filler and Primer. The rocket itself was painted
Duplicolor Honda Signet Silver. Some details of the rocket were painted with plain old Tamiya black. The base was done in Tamiya German Grey and drybrushed with Tamiya sky grey.
Why use automotive Lacquers? Well, these paints dry much faster. That means you can apply more coats more quickly. It also means that there
is a lot less time for dust to get on the finish. They also dry much harder so there is much less chance of marring the finish by handling the model.
Why use primer? It gives a better surface for the paint to bite into. Also, it protects the model underneath from any chemicals in the
paint. A good scratch and dent filling primer is an absolute must if you use this kind of paint on a styrene model. Without primer, the paint will do a lot of damage to the plastic of the model.
As you can
see, the Wilco Luna builds up quickly and easily into a great model of this classic and elegant 1950's era space ship.
Dave Hussey
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