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BUILDING A BETTER NARCISSUS
page 4 |
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#7 "The Eyebrow"
- Drilling Vents
- Rescribing Linework
Even if you don't do all the vinyl panel work, here is a simple fix that helps a lot. There is a kit supplied decal which
represents the round vents above the cockpit windows at the front edge of the "eyebrow". It has 7 big round dots while the filming miniature shows 8 holes.
I drilled out the 8 holes with a pin vise rather than rely on the incorrect decal. Also, the kit's line-work on the eyebrow is almost correctly laid out, but should extend to the brow's left and right edges. I puttied the longitudinal running lines, sanded, and scribed in the missing horizontals.
#8 Missing Greebles
- Front Side Panels
- Rear Side Panels
The Front Side Panels are missing 3 pieces of fine detail – 2 on the right, 1 on the left. They aren't much, and I almost
skipped them. I did a quick mold with RTV putty of the detail near the cockpit window to reuse in the new spots. The RTV putty was purchased through Micro-Mark.
The new details are cast in polyester resin (Evercoat catalyzed glazing putty, a finer grained cousin to ordinary Bondo),
quickly cut and arranged to fit their respective locations. They probably should be done before the vinyl step to avoid possible disasters, but I did it after.
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The Rear Panels required a lot more work. The photos of the genuine article show a lot more visual activity than is
represented on the kit – its a bit flat and boring. I made 8 or so quick castings of the same Front Panel details, and cut and paste just to busy the side areas up more.
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The reference photos that prompted me to redo the front lower panels also showed another set of greebly detail missing from rear lower hull
of the kit. Outboard of each engine and fenced in by the side flaps, there are various small rectangular and two triangular shapes engraved into the hull. Looking to the filming miniature, these shapes on the
kit in fact mark the perimeter of where some greebly busy detail ought to live. With the engines and flaps already in place, this area of the hull was not comfortable to get to. So, I left this for …next time.
#9 Flap Backsides - part #s 3,4,5
The 3 rear flaps are only detailed on one side (the sides facing outward).
It would be a good idea to repeat the same detail on the un-detailed faces in vinyl. I didn't actually get to these. By the time I figured out my detailing process, it was too late for the flaps - they had already been installed, with no easy way to work the non-detailed sides.
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#10 Cockpit Interior
This detail is almost completely superfluous, as the kit's cockpit windows (part #28) are cast in almost black dark/smoked
transparent plastic. There wouldn't be much to see no matter what I did, but I wanted something in there. This was kind of a freeform event.
I didn't base my detail on research, reference, or any logical layout or use of the kit's cockpit. I loaded up the cockpit with greeblie detail, which I'd hoped paint-work could reveal well enough through the dark windows.
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Over time, when I've come upon interesting greeblie looking stuff, I've taken a mold of it in RTV putty for future use.
Some are pretty rough looking, but I've never intended them for close scrutiny. For this kind of operation those rubber molds really come in handy. As with the hull's Missing Greebles, the cockpit greebles are cast in Evercoat, quickly cut, and arranged to taste. I had to take care the cockpit glass didn't foul on any of the new detail, so I test fit it regularly. In this instance, much of the detailing is molded from the Revel/ Monogram Star Trek Voyager's upper sensor platform, cast, and heavily reworked for this use.
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#11 Rear Hatch Hallway
Again, I freely invented. With a small window in the Rear Hatch, I wanted something inside rather than just the kit's dark
window (part
#29). To that end, I also discarded the kit's rear window glass and instead used a piece of clear acetate. The kit provided a small depression molded into the rear main body, to accommodate the window attached to the backside of the Hatch Panel (part #23).
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I made vertical cuts through at this depression's outer edges, and scored at its base, to allow the cut piece to swing down and
inward, to become the floor of the new hallway. Then I built two triangular walls covered with greeblie detail (like the cockpit), matching their angles to the new hallway.
I also built a small ceiling piece (greebled as well) to cap it. The floor was finished off with corrugated Evergreen sheet.
It might have been a lot easier if the engines were not already in place and if I hadn't sealed the two main halves of the kit months
before. I did the whole hallway from the outside with tweezers, a steady hand, and a hot man-sized serving of peppery expletives.
On to part 5
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