Note: I’m identifying the steps that can be done independently with letters, and dependent ones with numbers.
The two pieces for this step are the gearbox and the tail rotor that will be put on the main body once it’s further along.
Here’s the gallery of 50 images of this step.
Lessons learned here:
- The tail motor pieces are super thin, so you can’t be too aggressive with sanding or things break off. Also there are some legitimate part protrusions that look like sprue snip points.
- Dental curettes are handy for placing and removing poster tack used for holding pieces in place for gluing.
- The sprue join points on very visible edges (the rotor blades for example) meant I had to use progressively finer sanding grits to make sure everything was smooth before priming.
- I’ve had problems with the Vallejo Air white not spraying well on another build, so I tossed it (the paint, not the build).
- The Future (Pledge Revive It in the United States) floor polish worked well as a self-leveling protective gloss layer; it protected the paint against the turpentine thinner used with the oil-based weathering products.
- The Mission Models paint and thinner worked really well — 10 parts paint, 3 parts thinner.
Technique YouTube videos reviewed for this step:
This step took about six hours.