Soyuz FG 1/96 #6

Well, let's call the first attempt to make a separable shroud a small fiasco. Okay, not really a fiasco but it was a failure anyway. But one to learn from. Here's what I did. I first redid the lay-out of the kit parts so I had two halves instead of one intact half and two parts for the other half. After that, after cutting out the parts, I glued them to very sturdy green card. I used rubber bands and a card roll to keep them in the right shape while drying.

In the meantime I went through my stash of model building stuff and I found that I had washers that matched the curve of the lower part of the shroud and I planned on using them to get the shape 100% true. I drilled small holes in the washer and cut it in half.

With some holes in it, I might take off the shroud quite easily..

Then the big assembly began...

The curvature was quite well fixed and the lower part kind of looked the part already. The trouble was in getting the stuff together. First I used the drywall mesh tape for the strengtheners at the insides of the shroud. That looked well, too. 

Hmm. A bit crude, I'd say...

Now the joining up. Here was where it went wrong: all parts appeared to have different measurements although in the beginning they were correct.The fit turned out awful and although the Soyuz kind of fitted quite well into both of the halves when testing, the two halves did not fit together at all. 

After some close inspection, the parts even seemed to show some big openings in the seams. So this was not the way to do it.

Argh! take it away! My eyes! My eyes! Horrible fit! Aargh!

I think that where I went wrong was the thickness of the paper. (I know I use paper that's thicker than modelers usually apply for this job but mostly it doesn't matter or even is a good thing. Not now.)

Next try will be with thinner paper, maybe thinner laminations, and another method of getting the fit right and snug.

An extraspecial crooked shot of the already very crooked building attempt.

So, concluding, there were parts that worked and looked good, like the mesh insides and the fit with the Soyuz. But the overall fit needs to be neat, straight and snug. And this was far from that. So, back to the drawing board!

Like my tagline on some forums says: Dei t dut mout t waiten! (Literally: he who does it has to face the consequences.)