This is a great looking model, reminiscent of the old Centuri Skylab with it's square solar panel fins. It's definitely a Skill Level 3 build. There is some building challenges with the vacuform nose cone and some complex masking.
While the stickers are busy, they look good and add a lot of detail to the finished model. There is a good color contrast with the white, silver and gold nose cone cap.
I've been using some of your tips while building one of these. Very helpful ideas along the way. I'm at the paint stage and have questions about painting the fins. Did you paint the fins before gluing them to the rocket? Did you end up painting them white? The reason I ask about white is although the paint instructions show painting the fins white, the card that comes in the rocket package makes it appear as if the fins are silver. Although since the border of the fin decals is white, that's why the fins are left white? Thanks for any ideas on this.
ReplyDeleteHi Hammster,
ReplyDeleteThat build was nearly 13 years ago! I'll try to remember what I did.
It looks like I sneaked in some silver trim Monokote to avoid a tricky mask on the inside BT-50 areas. Tricky to do but easier than masking the inside surfaces.
I can bet the package picture fins are painted white with the
grid stickers just set over the flat fins. Going to the Custom website, it looks like everything is sprayed white.
You'd only have to mask off the black "rods" between the sections and paint the nose cone gold. If most of the model an overall white, the stickers add enough interest.
Hey Chris, yeah, I figured it was a long shot ask given the amount of time elapsed. I'm painting the fins white off the rocket. I have the root ends masked. I'll likely apply the fin decals before gluing the fins in place. I'll just leave them white since they are mostly covered by the decals anyway. When I do the silver paint parts on the body tube I'll mask where the fins will glue to the tube. Lots of dry fitting and marking on this one. Fun one, though.
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