Greetings and salutations
Things are progressing nicely. The main parts are all together and ready for final assembly. I am patiently waiting for the lighting boards to arrive so I can have them all wired up. Once they're in, it's the finishing line ahead.
So, starting with the main gun batteries, they're all done. I ended up gluing the barrels into position because they were wobbling around and falling off, which is not very conducive to a good display. I placed them in a position I liked and there they shall remain :)
Next up, I have sorted out the lighting for the main superstructure. I used 2 LED's instead of one to ensure maximum light coverage. Bandai have rather ingenious "plug" system for the LED to sit in. The one designed for it is obviously completely different, but it's easy enough to stick 2 LED's in place of the one for a much better result
I have also put together the bulk of the lower half of the ship and fed through all relevant fibers and put the respective fibers in place. I have also pre-washed the panels lines using Tamiya's Panel Line Wash which should make painting easier
I have also begun painting the top half. I've pre-shaded the panels using paper to ensure a nice straight line and used russet brown as well for some streaks. Once the paint is on, you won't see much of this - but it will help with giving tonal variations to to over all finish - I hope
Well, that's it for now, but I will take some more pics once the paint has gone on. Speaking of paint, I am going to do something slightly against the show and paint the inside of the Wave Motion gun in the same colour I have the engine nozzles - I think it looks quite awesome myself and much better than plain 'ol grey
Thanks for looking
MH