Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
Amazing!Thanks. The reasons my wife and I were for the chiefs are a) Andy Reid was previously a Philadelphia Eagles coach… who we do support and b) Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are vaccine supporters and backed President Biden. NFL can tend to be pretty conservative. It's refreshing that they all aren't. Enough politics...
After flattening the drawing of the cutaway areas in SketchUp, I moved screen prints of the individual cut faces and imported them into CorelDraw. I then combined them in the configuration resembling a box unfolded and printed it out.
View attachment 763731
I tack glued this page to heavier stock paper abd cut the opening so I could trace the pattern onto the model.
View attachment 763732
I added some pressure sensitive adhesive to the pattern to help hold it to the model for tracing, but it really didn't do so well. I just held it in place during the trace. I had to pay attention to the lighting in the rear and be particularly careful around the ladder rungs runner up the side.
View attachment 763733
The above took place on Monday.
Today, I loaded a carbide router in the Dremel and went at the model. This was one of those scary kinds of modeling tasks where a false move could be a ton of rework. Since it's a complete scratch build I do have the ability to re-create all the parts, but I don't want to.
Before doing the cutting I mounted the rear lighting in place with the 3M Transfer Tape. Cutting went well. Actually, better than I expected.
View attachment 763734
View attachment 763735
View attachment 763736
The cuts, of course, were a bit ragged. I then used the Dremel with a diamond burr to refine the contours, and finally, files, sanding sticks, and my Micro-Mark power sander to clean them up further.
View attachment 763737
View attachment 763738
View attachment 763739
View attachment 763740
View attachment 763741
A lot of the roof is now Swiss Cheese and finding purchase for the front ceiling lights is now more of a challenge than I anticpated.
I needed to make some relief cuts on the roof beams where they cross over the rear lighting system. It's a bit rough, but it's the upper side and will not be visible.
View attachment 763742
I'm just about ready to prime this stuff. Today would have been a perfect day; 60 degrees, sunny and no wind, but alas, I'm not ready for that. The hobby shop has a spray booth in the back work room which I have access to. I may use that if the weather is not cooperating. Primer painting is on the critical path and I'm getting to the point where it will stop work if I don't get it done.
You'll notice that I whacked a couple more ladder rungs in all the rough handling during today's session. Not to worry, I have another dozen or so printed and ready for installation. Drill out the old and install the new. Can't do that with a kit. You break critical parts and you have to get customer service on the line to get a replacement.