First Base Coat!

Cockpit Base Coat

So I’m back to working on Slave I. I applied another coat of putty to the main fuselage seam, and, after some additional wet-sanding, I’m fairly happy with the results. Next up, I’ll have to restore the panel lines I removed during all the sanding, and I’ll also need to put back some of the panel details I removed….


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More Sanding and Painting

After much debate, I came to the conclusion the only way I would effectively remove the visibility of the main seam between the two fuselage halves was to attack it with some heavy duty sanding. Initially, I tried avoiding this approach as I knew it would remove much of the details around the seam including the panel lines and…


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More Greeblies

Having some extra time on my hands, I decided to get some work done on Slave I. I managed to finish the undercarriage, which consisted of adding a handful of small, detailing pieces. While I used the Tamiya thin cement to attach the majority of the pieces, I reinforced them through the mounting holes on the backside with some…


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Detailing the Undercarriage

After being away from the workbench for awhile, I managed to get some work done on Slave I. Having completed the main fuselage and wing assemblies, it’s time to move onto detailing the undercarriage. As shown in the picture, I completed the subassemblies for the main engine, the two supporting engines, and some additional detailing pieces.  


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Detailing the Fuselage

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost three months since I’ve been at my workbench, but such is life… Anyway, I managed to get back to Slave I today. After having puttied and sanded the main seam between the fuselage halves, I had to rescribe some panel lines. I did this using a Tamiya scriber and a flexible ruler…


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Let the Sanding Begin!

Sanded Seam

Today I started sanding the seam of the fuselage. I started with some 215 grit paper and moved onto 400 before finishing up with some 600. I used the wet-sanding method to help prevent any additional scratches, and it seemed to work well. I won’t know for sure until I prime. Next, I’ll need to restore some of the…


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The Fuselage Seam

Fuselage seam

After a small hiatus, I’m back to Slave I. Today, I decide to join the two halves of the fuselage together. I first attempted to do so using the Tamiya Thin Cement, which I’ve been using throughout the build. However, the cement didn’t quite have the hold I needed it to. Nor did it provide me with enough time…


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Starting the Fuselage

Fuselage Halves

Today, I finished up the right wing subassemblies, which are basically a mirror image of the left side I completed earlier. Each wing has a rod that is to slide through the support strut into the third piece, which I’ll refer to as the wing mount. The wing is supposed to rotate freely through the support strut so that…


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Assembling the Wing

wing subassemblies

Next up are the wings. Each wing is comprised of three subassemblies: what I’ll call the outer wing, the strut, and the inner wing. There are a handful of parts for each subassembly, so progress was a little slower today, but I managed to get one wing assembled. Following the advice of this article at Starship Modeler, I decided…


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