I thought it best that I get this post out as soon as possible simply because it has been a bit longer than normal for my postings and the fact that I have run into a snag with my latest project. The Fusion Drive Spaceship was completely assembled yesterday. This was good and bad news all at the same time. The good news was that I was able to assemble it. The bad news was that I needed to disassemble it and plan a new strategy to improve the model. First some photos of the model itself.
After a lot of work I managed to get the paint for the front section of the model painted to my satisfaction. I was most worried about getting the paint to lay correctly when it came to the area around the hatch. As you can see from the photo above my efforts worked out very well.
The ring that runs around the mid-section of the model turned out very well too. The paint that I used is called chrome aluminum. Makes the part stand out very well and looks like metal.
The top photo is the rear section of the front of the model and the bottom photo is of the exhaust cowling. Both painted up nicely after sanding them smoothly with 600 and 800 grit sand paper, primer and several coats of gloss white paint.
This was also the case for one of the fins for the model. I also figured out the name for the spaceship so progress was still being made at this point.
Here are a couple of good photos of the engines for the spaceship. As you can see this is a large model to be sure.
The cowling and the center exhaust were assembled using guide pins and glue. The pins made this portion of the build a simple task as everything lined up as planned. The engines for the model were assembled in the same manner.
Here I started final or should I say my plans for final assembly of the model. The base for the model is made up of three layers of .20 thick plastic spaced apart which was cut using a laser cutter. This was assembled using standard 1/4-20 nuts and bolts. The center post for the stand is a short length of PVC tubing that has a 3D printed mid-section that allows the tube to be mounted to the base using a three inch long 1/4-20 bolt.
Here the nose section is mounted to the assembly. Already the model was taking shape as planned with no issues.
With the front section assembled I then installed the large fusion drive (light bulb). All of my planning at this point went the way I had perfectly designed it.
Here the model assembly had been completed. Looking at the photos anyone would say "Terrific! Good Job!" I am sorry to say that the photos were better than the assembly at this point. Trying to add the fins, motors, and center exhaust became difficult at this point. I did not account for the additional weight of these parts. Gluing them in place was not possible even using Super Glue. This actually made things worse as the fumes from the glue fogged up the blue fuel cells. The front section of the model was perfect but the rear section was only good enough to look at to take a couple of photos. It was nowhere near strong enough to even think about leaving it as it was and expect it to last more than a couple of minutes. Way to fragile to say the least. The model now had to be taken apart and rebuilt.
Along with this task the fins will have to be redesigned to be mounted using small bolts and nuts. This I have already started work on. I also have plans to modify the clearances that are needed for the light bulb to make the assembly stronger and easier to assemble.
The center exhaust and cowl for the model will also need to be modified in the same fashion. Once these have been redesigned I will set up assembly again before I paint the new parts and start again with new Fusion Drive Spaceship 2.0. So as they say.... "Back to the drawing board."
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