The Fusion Drive Spaceship Carrying Case Project Part 2

Lots of building and rebuilding has been going on in the shop this week.  With the redesign of the Fusion Spaceship model lots of parts needed to be redesigned and then 3D printed and now primed and painted.  Also with this work I have made progress on the carrying case for this large model.

This large carrying case now has all of the foam assembled to it's outer skin and the base has been nearly covered with the remaining fiberglass cloth to it's exterior.  The upper portion of the case still will need the last bit of fiber glassing done to the pink outer straps that now wrap it's exterior as well.

Mounted in the base of the carrying case are the three hard mounts that will locate the vertical supports that will hold the spaceship model in place once it has been completed and is in need of transport to some destination.  The hard mounts are nothing more the 1/4" thick plywood that have been fiber glassed into the base with the mounting holes already in the wood for an easy installation.

Bolts will be inserted from the bottom of the case up into the vertical supports to hold everything in place when the case is in it's final construction.  As I've said in an earlier post I have redesigned these vertical supports to make them a bit smaller in size but they will be the same height as what is shown in the image above.  I still may make up a hold down strap for the stand itself to secure the spaceship model more securely once it is inside of the carrying case. 

The interior of the base as will as the lid for the carrying case have been completely fiber glassed other than the edges where the two parts meet up together when assembled.  The edges will still need to be filled with a fiber glass resin/micro balloon putty mixture to seal them properly.  Not a hard task to complete but a little time consuming. It will make a nice clean edge on the two parts and so it will serve the purpose rather well.  Once I have both of the parts completely fiber glassed and edges done then the real work will begin to get everything smoothed out for paint.  

Luckily this will be simpler than trying to smooth out small intricate parts.  As the carrying case is rather large at roughly 15" x 15" x 30" in size it will be an easy task to take the parts outside and sand them smooth with an orbital sander when the time comes.  Then finally paint on the outside and I then plan on lining the inside with gray felt.  This will finish off the inside rather nicely I should think.  

For now this portion of the project has been put on hold as I am waiting for more fiberglass cloth and resin which should be here some time next week.  In the meantime I have been pushing hard to complete the spaceship model so that part of the project will be done when I complete the build on this big case.  I'll keep you up to date on the progress.  Have a good day in your shop!