Soyuz FG 1/96 #3

Keep your hands clean. An utterly important part of paper modeling. Something I experienced again yesterday. The third stage is getting close to finishing and I was doing some stuff to the engine section. The one bell I made for testing was made from aluminium coloured paper and I painted the inside metallic orange. After glueing I wanted to see how it looked and @#%$&^%, #^&#@^&@ and #$%^#! I happened to have some paint on my fingers and now it was all over the hull. I had to start all over. or didn't I? I decided to carefully cut out the middle section of the third stage. I printed out a new one and made inner formers which I glued into the upper part and engine section. I rolled the new hull and added it. The seam was covered up with a small silver strip I was going to add anyway.

New hull ready. Old hull with smudged paint on the right.
Bad boy PK!

Problem solved. But I really was getting sloppy here. I shouldn't do two things at the same time. No paint when assembling. 

Anyway, there actually has been made some progress in the work. Small, but here it is: Stage three!

The shroud will rest on the wider ring. The small protrusion upper left side on the tank is a silicone moisture absorbing bead. They're great for small ball shapes on models. But be careful. They're not really healthy stuff.

One engine. The cross you see is the mechanism for steering the 4 vernier engines of the stage.
Those will be added, too.

I followed the same principle as the first stage and strap ons, silver engine base and new self made instrument tunnels. The visible top of the kerosene tank is painted iron. Up next are the three other stage 3 engines. There will be small brass rings round the engine bells to suggest the cooling pipes to keep the engine from bursting. The insides will be metallic orange (I already took care of that.)

next will be the two other strap on boosters and then the shroud will be made. I hope I have room left inside the shroud to actually put a Soyuz spacecraft inside. I'd like to be able to get the shroud off and show the folded up Soyuz. We'll see.