The end is near… in a good way. The nameplate is finished and ready for pickup. The plexiglass is ordered and will be ready on Friday. I got the 2nd deck compartments glued up and ready for paint. I had to modify the wood decking. I’m reprinting a modified ceiling beams, and changed my strategy for the hoist trunks.
Here’s the fully built 2nd deck compartments. I added corner bracing to help hold it square. It’s rather flexible. It won’t be when fully glued to the decks on top and bottom, but I want it to be stable as possible, so that goes well.
I’m adding mounting blocks for the styene armor deck below, and the wood main deck above. For the styrene armor deck, I’ve glued styrene 1/4" sq. stock. For the wood main deck, I’m going to glue in 1/4" sq. basswood blocks using CA, so I can get a better adhesion to the wood decking.
After further analysis, I changed the positioning of the 2nd deck structures which changed the shape of the main deck. The cutout portion in the right rear was now too small. I’m good at doing “Board Extending” and had not one chance to do it today, but two. A twofer if you will. When I measured for the first extension, I hadn’t positioned the cabins properly. I needed to add more. Luckily, I had more of the ply, and used epoxy to hold on the biggest part, and then med CA with accelerator to glue the smaller piece. I filled any gaps with CA and then went back with Bondic. When all was hardened I sanded it flush. When finished the repair will be invisibe.
I had to make relief cuts on the lap bracing so they cleared the styrene compartment walls.
Here’s the modified deck properly fitted on the cabins. I also did the cutaways on this structure. The reason for the cutaways is just to show the pathway for the ammo hoist trunks. I’m not doing any detailing of these various compartments. They are not the focus of the model other than to show that the magazines are not directly below the gun mounts.
Things are moving quickly. I have to put in the lighting for the magazine before I get any further. I changed the scheme for the hoist trunks. Just like on the big gun model, getting the hoist part to thread through all the decks and bulkheads was just not working when I mentally constructed the model. As in the big gun, I’m separating the hoist into pieces that will glue in seperately between the decks and buikheads. The viewer doesn’t care if they’re actually contiguous, just that they’re there. For their passage through the Splinter Deck lattice, I’m just going to remove the lattice completely, rather than try to cope in a precise path. You won’t see it and it greatly complicates the installation.
There’s still a lot to do, but I’m on a roll and all the critical path items are on track. There could still be nasty surprises, but hopefully not as heart-stopping as I had with the final asembly of the big turret.