Comic Book Jupiter 2 by Orne Montgomery part 3

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FINAL BUILD:

Detailing of the upper hull was completed

PAINTING AND FINISH:

Once flat black primer – to prevent interior-illumination from leaking through the finish – was sprayed inside the hulls, Krylon Primer Grey was applied to the exterior and buffed with medium steel-wool.

 An overall color of Testor’s Metalizer Stainless Steel was sprayed over the primer, then buffed; the finish was shot with Metalizer Sealer. Light coats of Polly S Anodized Metallic Blue and Interior Green, for shading, followed.

“Mold-it” latex rubber was then brushed in alternating layers onto the exterior to mask all panel-work for different colors. Paints were primarily Testor’s Metallizers, airbrushed. The laminated layers of latex rubber masking was pulled away pretty much like a banana-peel; the residue was removed with probes and 70% alcohol.

Further detail was added with enamels and inks. Striping-tape and decals were laid on (the one set of decals most people won’t see is a batch of license plates attached to the lower aft rim by the “Alpha Control launch crew”) and several clear coats of acrylic were sprayed on to fix these in place.

The first layer of weathering was laid down with dry-brushed enamels and rubbed-on chalk pastels. Testor’s Zinc Chromate was then applied to the hull in airbrushed “splatters”: in the comic-series, this “vegetable-shellac” serves as a protective ablative-coating.

Another dusting of weathering with dry pastels, and three coats of clear acrylic enamel to seal everything, followed.

All exterior sections were scrubbed with medium steel-wool to wear the completed finish.

FINAL ASSEMBLY:

Painted separately, the kit fusion-core – glued to a backing-plate – was bolted onto the Lower Hull. With both hulls – windows, portholes, and light-fixture covers of .030 clear butyrate sheet already in place – and the Flightdeck completed, all electrical connections were hooked up to check that the light-system was functioning, then the Flightdeck placed onto the retainer-ring without glue, friction alone locking it down.

The Upper Hull was set atop the Lower Hull/Flightdeck assemblies – and once carefully inverted – mating-bolts were inserted and the seam was filled with gap-filling superglue (baking soda was used as a filler). The seam was sanded flush and painted. Once more right-side-up, the upper dome-bubble was glued into its circular frame.

OPERATING FEATURES:

The sliding airlock-hatch is the original kit part (with clear butyrate portal), cut from the hull and placed on strip-runners built into it. An opening rear-hatch is mounted in the lower hull to allow access to a toggle-switch for the lighting system.

To either side of the “Cyclops-eye” panel above the Flightdeck windows are the observatory telescope and the ship borne force-field projector (the last device alluded to in “The Derelict”); both are lighted and retract into their respective housings.

There are approximately sixty-five working lights in the model; as the interior was an “on-the-run” affair and constantly being refitted for effect, plans to bundle fibre-optics into it were discarded and various size light-bulbs – wired in a “parallel” circuit, to insure the burnout of one bulb wouldn’t extinguish the entire network – were substituted.

Two more 7.2 volt bulbs were used to light up the fusion-core (the advertised Lunar unit was unavailable during construction).

All exterior/running lights were hooked up with gloved alligator-clips so that the model could be safely disassembled for refitting.

Wire-soldering was done by Adam Stines, an R/C model car-builder; and the wiring-harness hookups were completed by Aaron Mach, an electronics-prop builder.

The power-source for all lighting is external; after several experiments with various units – including an internal 7.2 volt rechargeable flat pack-battery – a 340 watt transformer was purchased (with a 7′ I.E.C. cord) from All Electronics Corp.; the available power was more than sufficient, with a reserve for further equipment that may be installed.

An AC/DC transformer jack is built into the hull beside the rear landing-gear casing.

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