Space Shuttle Endeavour with ET and SRB's in 1/96 [Part 3]

The third installment is here. Looking back, I know I made a couple of small mistakes and the way I handled them was in hindsight a little unecessary. However, I think my solution looks better. I am talking about the position of the little NASA logo next to the United States sign on the side walls of the Shuttle. I didn’t study the parts well enough, otherwise I would have seen the logo was on the engine section, sticking out a little to go over the seam of the side walls and the engine section. I just shoved the text on the sides a little forward to make way for the logo. It now is not on the right spot but It also saved me the hassle of getting a more complex glue line.

I have had just a little progress but it was quite significant. I'll show you a progress picture here, the rest of the story follows below after the jump.

So, onwards we go.

Wing spar and flaps. Bodyflap. I reinforced it all with a piece of cardboard inside to make it a little sturdier. I was a bit puzzling over the order in which the parts would go together but I assumed it would lead itself to the right time and place to what goes where and when. Unfortunately, I appear to have no pictures of the buildup of those parts. Or they have disappeared. Well, they were made, you have to take my word for ti.

Very tight seams, well, with the naked eye they are.

The engine section was waiting. I first had to remove the NASA logo from it to make up for my own mistake. After that I cut the main part out and tried it in the slot between the wings. It turned out too small. Everything was correct apart from the connection to the belly. Back to Photoshop. I don’t know whether it is my fault but in the end, in this build I neded a broader surface for the belly part. Measuring and adjusting added three mm at leat to the width of the belly part.
Now it just fits perfectly. Then another dilemma surfaced: the Fortezza instructions tell me to completely construct the engine section and then attach it to the forward fuselage. But then I would have no way to attach the belly as snug as I wanted to. So what to do? I test fitted the part and decided I would first glue the belly part to the wing section. The engine section still was flexible enough to be build in an easy way afterwards.

I first wanted to detail the aft connectors a bit more. I had a couple of test prints and I used them for this purpose. I cut out the connector parts of the engine section and glued the other connector sets behind it to create a but more depth. I also cut out a couple of the individual connector holes and made them 3D, using silver coloured paper.
Then I partially glued the engine section together. I left the tapered top part open to be able to reach the bottom part to glue that to the wing section. After I did that, I closed the box up. The triangular reinforcement part mentioned in the instructions wasn’t included in the photoreal version but I printed out the specific page of the original kit. I also reinforced the back of the behind, where the engine bells will be sitting. I thought it was a good idea and it made the back a lot sturdier to receive the three large SSME’s.

 

As a prevention, some reinforcing of the back end where the SSME's will go. It now is very sturdy.

This triangular part wasn't included in the photorealistic version, I used the original Fortezza version
to make it. It is a necessity to secure the shape of the engine section.

The body flap is temporarily on.

The final assembly of the main part of the engine section was a little tricky. I decided first that the long spar with the flaps wasn’t necessary and I also could add them later in two parts, so I had all the space I needed for the attachment of the engine block to the forward section. 

The glue strips over the spar were coloured with a dark grey marker
to make sure there wouldn't be any white visible.

Now, although the Fortezza instructions are helpful, the drawings and instructions leave a lot to one’s own imagination on what comes first and what comes next. Also, the drawings are not always very clear. And while the result which is coming into existence on my work bench looks amazing, a lot of it is guesswork and model making experience.
From the drawings it is hard to figure out how the engine section exactly needs to be attached. With the help of some detail photos of the real thing I more or less figured it out. There are so many loose ends, bits and pieces hanging out and being still unglued inside that is is not just "shove the part over the back end and there you are" kind of thing.

Man, this is a hard kit to master.

In the end, I figured out the engine section needed to be flush with the rounded section of the cargo bay. And that's what I did. The next step was the OMS pods. They hace a sort of reinforcing / structural part which goes onto both sides of the engine block's tapered part. Now the OMS parts have the truster section attached to its main pod part and it is quite small and has a lot of mountain an valley folds. This was less easy. Besides, there is a part on the pod of which it isn't clear whether it should stay on, should be folded or just cut off. It has to stay on as is. You have to glue the thruster section on it.

The white diamond shape. The instructions are unclear. Fold? cut?
It has to stay on as is. It's important.

Still not sure if this reinforcement is all right. Perhaps too thick.

While Dragon 2 was docking with the ISS and I was watching the livestream, I was building the first OMS pod and I wasn't concentrated enough. The live stream was choppy and constantly froze up or stopped. I made some mistakes with the build and the result looked bad. I didn't like it. Bash.

Frustration. And one step back. But now I know how to make it.
In the end I think I will have made the shuttle twice.

So I'll have to do it again.

And that is something for the next episode.
Until then, it's bye bye!
--PK