ALT 1977 1/400 [5]

I have started over with the 747. It is a slightly better fit than my first try, now I kind of know how I have to work the separate pieces to get them tighter together. I guess I have to acquiesce about the fact that it will not get it any better. Might be the paper, the size or something else I don't have figured out yet that makes it more difficult to get it all really nice and flush.

So, although not for a full 100%, I can say I now am more satisfied with how the parts come together than before. It still is hard to get it right, for instance, the outlines are hard to see. I try to discard the gluing tabs for a more flush skin and that is not the easiest job with this shinier type of paper without really dark outlines around the parts. I use internal gluing strips to line all rings up and the nose part is particularly difficult to get right. I guess it's due to the downsizing and the perfect fit it might have in 1/144, which is its original scale. The smaller, the bigger the deviations and the harder to get it snug and tightly fitting together.
Comparing it to the previous attempt, the nose almost looks just as rough but the overall shape of it is better. I am especially pleased with the cockpit windows. These were kind of recessed in the first version, now they are much more flush. And although the blue-white-red band across the nose is not aligning perfectly, a little further on it gets better and if this continues looking like this up to the tail I think I shouldn't complain.

So here's some picture stuff to look at. At the moment I am really busy with job-related stuff so i have to take this build slow. But I hope to update regularly. I'll keep you posted!

--PK

More after the jump.

Mir 1/400 [14]: Finished (finally!)

Well it took some time to show you all but here is Mir and Atlantis in the process of undocking during STS-71, the first visit and docking of a shuttle to the Mir space station and in some way the birthplace of the ISS. Not so much to add in words, more to add in pictures. Have fun with them!

Atlantis undocks from Mir, the 4th of  July, 1995

And for reference, here's the original photo taken from the undocked Soyuz:

© NASA

There are more photos of my model after the jump. This build was part of a mini group build, to see more of it, please take a look at this page on Paper Modelers.com where you can see the build of my good friend Zoltan Mertusz, who also made a very beautiful 1/100 rendition of Mir, but in a fictitious version, including a docked Buran shuttle (with scratched payload bay!!) and a very fine scratchbuilt TKS module docked to the front port.
--PK

small update

I had a very intensive couple of weeks with all the filming and moving to a smaller office. I want to take it a little slower for a few days before resuming this build -  or rather: start over. I already got the new paper and I will start work on some extra colouring this week. Thanks for the patience and see you soon!
--PK

ALT 1977 1/400 [4]

A small update. It is actually a tough little cookie, this 747. The original model was of a 747-400 but the SCA that I make is a 747-100, an earlier version with a smaller bulge on the back. Therefore the whole plane configuration differs a little with the original model.
And however well-made the replacement parts are, the lack of numbers and correspondence to locations on the model make this build more and more like a small scale 1000-pieces puzzle.
And I kind of lack the energy to see it as a challenge and plain fun to figure out where all the parts should go.
Four big interview shoots coming up in a couple of days. Crucial for the documentary we're making at the moment. Very time consuming and it all needs a lot of organising.

At the moment I am getting a bit stuck at the wing root. There are really a lot of parts, which make the shape all the more realistic but also very complex in 1/400. Maybe I will restart the build completely after the interview sessions are done, knowing now what I'll encounter later on. For now here's where I am.

a couple more pictures after the jump.

Small scale work - but on a different level

It's that time again. My job and its whatnots is getting in the way of my hobby. There is however one thing it has in common with the small scale I make my models in. 

We had to move out of our beloved luxuriously big office workspace because of, well, the recession also hits independent documentary makers. We loved the roomy environment, where we could walk up and down for miles and think, create ideas. We had two separate edit sets in opposite corners of the room, a huuge conference table, lots of storing space and, well, just we two in 45 m2 was great.
But we had to rethink it all. We had to move to a smaller office. And we did just that in the past week. It all is twice as small, now. We had to cram as much as possible into this tiny square room, had to throw out a lot of stuff and just think practically. Our huuge conference table now contains both of our edit sets and we use a small folding table for our meetings.
So now the office is tiny, subscale if you will, but hopefully we will save some money with it. And of course our ideas still are big.

As far as model making goes: I have been working slowly on the 747 SCA, the results are so minimal, it is not worth yet to make an update. I hope I will have some time on my hands in the next two days, so perhaps there will be something to show later on this week.
So, hang in there, I'll keep you all posted!

--PK