Another visit to some Kuat space docks

The first 45 minutes

I somehow assumed that you, the reader, might find it amusing that it took me that long to get finished what you'd see in the two photos below. Something like twenty minutes went to bending the main hull into shape, especially that "chin plate". That's the bit in front of and below the viewport when the ship's landed and above the pilot's head when it's flying. The instruction sheet's "just bend it by hand" didn't really help much and somehow I had positioned myself so that the lights were continuously reflecting into my eyes. Getting anything aligned was bothersome.

That same silliness went on while I was working on the twin blaster cannons. Their rotation/aiming piece was easy, getting the cannons on that was still ok but oh my, getting that subassembly into the airframe.. that took some swearing. Again, the first one required much more work than the second copy.

All in all, this small amount of stuff took a ludicrous amount of time. And here I had thought that out of the two 'wars vessels this was the easier one!

The second round

This was ridiculous. Six (6) pieces that were to be installed flatly against the hull took a sick amount of time. The reason was that the airframe was curved and getting straight plates on it was more complicated than it sounded like, as the connectors just didn't align with the traditional "turn them 90 degrees and that's it" technique.

Luckily I got to start the first wing-rotating bit after these armour plates. Of course I then had to stop working just before I could proceed to the half-circle-shaped armour plate's twisting, turning and installation phase.

And third...

Getting that arced shape into proper form and then installing it was complicated. Again I had learned from the first one and the sequel went easier and with less head-scratching. Still it took about half an hour and I was about to break some bits while re-rebending them.

Here was the easiest piece so far: the Z-like shape that forced the main hull into its actual shape. After this I got to attack the cup-shaped bottom piece and while working on it I totally forgot to take wip pics.

The "best" part was that the parts that were supposed to lock the cuplike piece into itself just didn't fit together (either the slits were bent out of shape or the tongues were, something just didn't work like it was supposed to) and I decided to give up on them before I actually broke or bent something into unfixability. Maybe sillily I trusted that the decorative pieces hiding the seams were going to be enough to hold it all together.

Fourth session

I started by sealing the cup's front part with that extra armour piece. The grimacing was quite ugly, but there was nothing I could do with the actual attachment bits being totally useless.

Luckily the hull was installed in a way that hid the stupid gaps complately! I was actually surprised that this part went with so few curses.

These double cones weren't nozzles for the main drive but repulsor generators. They were still there to move the ship around, so for a non-fanatic this was assumedly a non-issue, if even that much.

The fifth and final element

After a couple of weeks of not working on the model I continued with the bottom disc. There were many greebly bits and they were all fascinatingly shaped, but still easy to install so the progress was pleasantly rapid.

Getting the last subassemblies together was (again) hair-greying fun, but as soon as I had the bottom disc locked into the cup-shaped skirt, I could bend the wing's top supports into the main ones and that gave the hull noticeably more stability. Those square-shaped bits were just a bit tight for twisting the attachment bits, but still I got them turned enough.

Slave I's display base was confusingly small considering the size of the rest of this model, I even had to bend the leg a bit backwards to get the setup to stay upright. Then I proceeded to work on the final bits - the wings.

Dear me, how complicated those buggers were! Getting the wing installed into the support bar was also a struggle of a kind, but it all worked out in the end. And as usual, the first one taught me how to do it all so the second one almost flew into place.

I wasn't sure if it was because of the angles of the photos or my own weirdness, but somehow, looking at the model in these pics, I got a strange asymmetrical feeling. Unbalanced.