1/72 revell U-boat U-96 [start 23.may.2011]

[Marko]

Hello guys,

When i purchased flags and decals from Dougie and Wink, i was invited to show my progress, whenever i will start my build. After few inspirational movie nights, watching the mini series "Das boot" i just could not resist anymore. So now, as my build slowly but surely started, i am fulfilling my promise to them, so im starting a fresh thread here, which will contain build of my u-boot, the famous U-96. Please note, i am building kits at super slow pace (sometimes even slower)  

so, first is the obligatory picture of "the box", followed by the first part of the research, with the mission of finding the right batch and shipyard, where the boat has been built.



as you can see, shipyard was Kiel and the batch was U-93 - U-99, which says us, that i can take the flood gates patterns from the U-94, which have been drawn by Wink and Dougie in their publication, i have to say, you really saved me a lot of research time  

absolutely next are the accessories:










+there is modelbrass and eduard set inbound. Needless to say, im sure that i wont spend so much on the model ever again  
if anyone wants a detailed review of any accessories, just give me a nudge, and ill try to do a photoshoot. (im still stuck with my 5 yrs old compact, so photos wont be as good as the ones made with better and newer cams.

since the flood gates patterns are different in the revell kit comparing to the ones from selected batch, some will have to be filled, and some drilled out. The following sequence shows us roughing out of the main flood gates, which have been drilled out with my proxxon "the dremel tool", then i used 6 mm ball milling bit, roughed some more on the inside, and finally finished with same bit on hand to get smoother and even surface. Note, i still have to use fine sand paper, and a tiny drop of the extra liquid cement, to finely blend in edges, and a touch of filler here and there.







and to finish off, box has been sitting on a shelf in a store for quite few years, so unfortunately i received my kit with a little bit of damage:


no biggie, we'll fix that!

sorry for the poor quality of the photos, im doing my best
And if you decide to drill out the flood gates, dont forget your carpet monster, or as i did, us at least tabletop carpet monster to vacuum up the fine dust - this procedure makes your workspace really messy with powdered plastic.

best regards,
Marko

[NZSnowman]

Hi Marko

Welcome aboard! Look forward to the build.

Simon

[wildspear]

And remember there is old people like MEEEE, that like lots of photo's

[Marko]

Guys, thanks for the warm welcome, i will do my best to keep progress coming regularly.

Wildspear, yes Sir! i will do my best

some of the todays work was reshaping Raboesch Props. For the basis, i used types 162-03 D-20-R-3bl-M3, and the Left prop marked
162-04 D-20-L-3bl-M3, i know most of guys use A-type, but far as my research reached, A-types were used on slower harbor boats up to '39, like tugboats, fishing boats, etc.
D types, with low cavitation capabilities were used on military ships from '20 till somewhere in the sixties (if i remember right). Basically, neither A neither D type are the right ones, so i took the D, which were more pointy, so getting final shape was easier  

here are some photos taken in the process:
clamping and adjusting the centre to reduce wobbling


and at last, it commences.


basic tip cutting with turning, we took off good 2,5 mm, directly measured with NC


final touch was the flat needle file, sorry no pictures here, all hands were on deck , so on to the finished product:


as you can probably see, the propellers are a bit longer than the original ones from revell, but far as i know, the distance between stock propeller and rudder is simply too high from the kit, so these are exactly 1,1 mm longer than the plastic ones provided in the kit. I have found some photos from the U-995 museum at Laboe, but the problem is i dont have permission (i didn't ask )  to publish them here, so for this reason im giving you the link: http://gallery.kitmaker.net/data/22547/laboefeature_047.jpg

i hope im not breaking any copyright rules with the link.

regards,
Marko

[Anakin]

Hi and welcome to the forums..

I think we all can wait for a superb u-boat model here...     Looking great already!

About the props...  I do not know anything about them but wasn

[Kptlt. Wolfgang Ott]

Welcome aboard Marco,

I will be watching your build with keen interest.   I am also in the process of building a 1/72 Boote,  at a snails pace, but Wink's incredible U-557 has me fired up, and I really have no problem in taking my time.  Good Luck Mate! We are "On Watch" 

[Marko]

Hi guys, many thanks for the warm welcome.

Anakin, yes, i think you are right about the props, however the shape was probably same all the time. I just went over a ton of photos, trying to find an early VII in drydock, with photo taken at right position There were several taken, but many of them too far to see the distinct shape, though there was a bit luck.

I think this is a boat with the early tower, far as i can see with my glasses, please try to recheck for me


and i found this one in the cluster of photos, which is supposed to be VIIB U-99 in drydock (built in '39-'40)
it gives us the same form of props:


the only problem is, that props could be changed later in the war due to any type of damage, which makes it even more problematic to say the right shape, though first photo looks like a crisp new sub to me 

however, my props are still more roundish, since i just didn't want to turn them more tapered, since the M3 thread is quite deep in it, and i was afraid of ruining them, although there is 75% of chance that it would be doable 

Wolfgang, i have to check for your thread of the u-boat, since i enjoy watching them build by the others, and exactly Wink's boat gave me a lot of inspiration too. And yes, there is sooo many options how to make your u-boat, that almost every one has done something different

regards,
Marko

[NZSnowman]

I think they change to steel a little later in the war, 43's or 44's I am sure, Dougie will know

I lie

[Marko]

Wow, very nice prop picture. Is it taken from literature or was it drawn by you? i would love to have these pictures for my references. Yep, you should be right about the year.

Today i will probably do some work on the torpedo doors, or on the long flood channel. If i will find some time

regards,
Marko

[NZSnowman]

The drawing of my U-1308. You can see more drawing at http://models.rokket.biz/index.php?topic=106.0

I am hoping to have a large update of my working drawing within the next few weeks also. http://models.rokket.biz/index.php?topic=124.0

[Rokket]

Excellent work, very well done on props, very impressed!!!

[wildspear]

Marko,

I can be a bit slow at times so sometimes my questions are a bit simple. Are you planning to do a cut away to show the inside detail?

Or maybe build the sub, then the inside detail as displays arond the sub? Interesting idea.....hmmmmm

[Marko]

Hello guys, just came from work, and as part of my relaxation program ill go to do some anti stress work on the boat

Snowman, my gosh you really show us true design skills with that thread, i love your design! without a doubt, ill use it as reference with my build
Also many thanks to rokket for the compliments, i will try to keep my build as good as possible.

Wildspear, you set a good question there, and i did think a lot about that even before when purchasing sections. basically, im choosing with from that two options as to cut away the hull or display interior separately, with the pressure hull casing (cylinder) only, which would have to be scratched, and the rest of the ship extra as the hull. One idea that i am toying with at the moment is also designing missing interior sections (electric motor compartment + rear torpedo room, and the front crews quarters with the toilet and sonar and radio room), then have them printed with the 3D printing device at work. However, this is not confirmed yet, it depends if i will have enough strength, will and nerves to do it

[wildspear]

that sounds like a great plan. keep us up to date on your work. i havent built a u-boat as of yet ( still pokeing along on my gato) but a u-boat will be next. l'm thinking of one of the experimental boats with a turret on the fairwater.

[Marko]

hey guys, time for a bit of update.

wildspear i agree, few days ago ive seen a documentary about Germany WWII weapons development. Most eye catching was a unpowered Helicopter project which could be assembled on submarines deck and launched with autorotation and towed behind the boat like a free floating  - on a wire actually - observation post.

as promised, i messed around a bit with the torpedo doors, one side is done, and more or less im happy with the result. Not perfect, but im quite satisfied. Now to the process:

first i liberated PE parts from inner segments, removed pins with needle files, while part was still in frame:



then same was done to the outside trim:


following by the drawing the limits with pencil and sawing, grinding away the excess plastic:


once that was done, i used 2mm ball milling bit to remove top of the plastic right near the drawn border, then some more filing came into action, and unfortunately i managed to stress fracture a bit of the hull in the process, marked with an arrow:


luckily for me fracture is minimal, and nothing what a drop of liquid cement could not handle..

i was aiming to thin the part so far as the PE part would fall in, with minimum requirements of filler when gluing the part in, i hope i achieved that

regards,
Marko

[Marko]

and here the other half:


the darned fracture went all the way through, while i was correcting it, so now i have to repair it ASAP
unfortunately i ran out of plastic cement, in order to get the matters worse, my tamiya extra thin is even 90km away at home, so i have an option to wait till i get it, or to buy the new revell contacta tomorrow.

[Marko]

a little bit of todays work. I managed to glue up the broken bit. And i decided to let it dry completely overnight, just to be sure, so no work has been done on that half. For that matter i decided to remove the main channel along the hull on the other side, notice that one part is especially rough, but that will come out anyway, to be substituted with the PE part from the flood PE fret. Final shaving of the flood gates and channels will be done once ill have the extra thin glue with me




the other side has been thinned out where necessary:


and the tools i used today:
-proxxon to thin the back side
-heavy duty OLFA knife to do the main cutting
-various needle files
+revell contacta and some duct tape, to hold securely part in place when drying

[Marko]

cheers guys,

a goodie, that arrived today:


in the whole afternoon i managed to carve out the other flood channel:



here is the comparison to the other one.

Note, i used a smaller ball milling bit on this one, and it came out better, with minimum file retouching. If i had to do another one, it would be waaay better - well probably . There is also the remaining duct tape visible, since i applied another drop of contacta, and i sprinkled and mixed it a bit with the dust that came from the carving the channel, it will give me some extra reinforcement, till i get the torpedo gates in. Far as i have been informed, the modellbrass also arrived, so with a bit of luck ill go home tomorrow to get the remaining flood gates PE, and those extra tools that i currently don't have here.

i also noticed in the process, that my starboard hull half is a bit warped, i just hope it is in tolerances with the other parts...

regards,
Marko

[iceonaboy]

You are doing a great job Marko. I am impressed with the amount of aftermarket kits you have invested in. One that particularly interests me is the conning tower detail set. What does this actually entail and who makes it? I am quite interested in obtaining something similar, cheers, Leth

[Marko]

Hi Leth,

many thanks for the compliments

you probably mean this one?
http://www.cmkkits.com/en/ships/u-boot-vii-exterior-set-part-i-turret/

it is produced by cmk, and it contains resin and turned metal parts. It contains parts for both guns and detail bits for both periscopes and various bits and pieces in the tower and bollards. Im not that sure anymore if it is worth 24 euros that i paid for it, and taken into account that cmk shop sells it even for 32,5 that is even more outrageous. Though i took it because i got quite a bit of discount + free insured shipping if i took all the sets from cmk shown on the picture (actually i skipped the exterior detail set 2, since it contains nothing more than a raft with a torpedo), yet i still got the discount with free shipping from the generous seller. you can even see the instructions on the page i gave you the link, there are also all the rest of the sets in their shop.

And yes, im impressed too of that how much invested into it. I guess i really shouldn't

however if you plan to do the exterior only, try to get as many as possible, since they do make a difference, and they give you another level of plastic kit building, maybe that's the reason why invested into it, and probably i wont buy any other kit for a long long time


regards,
Marko

[Rokket]

Marko, coming along excellent. Don't worry about the stress fracture! I did the same thing, and it's Dougie and me who designed that AMP set! I was also worried that it would be hard to bend the right shape to drop in and match the bow, but actually it was easy, and no user-complaints yet.

I like the accessories you have chosen, and love that you are thinning behind all penetrations. Keep those pix coming.

[iceonaboy]

Thanks for the info Marko, much obliged. I am still in the early stages of my own 1.72 VIIC build and so, am still open to suggestions about aftermarket kits. I have the Nautilus wooden deck and Eduard PE for the the kit, and I have now aquired two VIIC`s and two VIIC/41`s. I am unsure as to whether I should get wooden decks for all of them or go for the brass PE decks. I like the wooden deck, but the hassle of getting it from the states with freight and customs is a bit of a put off. I am waiting with excitement for Wink and Dougie to announce the arrival of their lower flood hole kits (hint hint) , cos I am having real problems with opening them neatly and I want to just cut the lot out.

[Marko]

Thanks Wink, i thought it might pose a problem after all of that carving,thinning and fitting, though its noting serious, especially when cheeks will be installed with the epoxy glue. I have already pre-bent pieces along the kit parts when they were still on. I still have to do the final shaping by hand, and roll it our to get pretty much smooth curves, with the minimum indentation in the vertical way between rivet lines, since stressed skin will be incorporated too.

Leth, if you don't plan to show the interiors,  just skip on those, the turret and the tower from the CMK is so-so, there are bits of it which highly useable, like the periscope body and the base of the deck gun, etc. The basic problem of the any PE sets is, that none of them are complete, so you are almost forced to buy them all And yea, Wink told me about the future VII PE set release, though i have already ordered modelbrass few weeks before that. If ill ever wanna build the 41's boat, i can use the remaining PE and resin bits, and get the future PE set for the VII from Wink and Dougie when available
Regarding the decks, go for the nautilus, and try to cross use them with the other PE bits, so as will i in my build.

A friend of mine built the VII/C with nothing more than a eduard PE, and still got severe 1st places and best of show awards, so in theory that is enough

i recommend to use:
-eduard PE (good starting point)
-Flood gates, torp cheeks from AMP (will give more accuracy and authenticity)
-WEM set (& WEM torpedo loading set if desired)
-schatton turned metal parts (feel free to skip it if you purchase CMK exterior part 1, note: turned metal quality here is better than the one from CMK)
-archer rivets (looks like great stuff)
-nautilus deck
-modelbrass / currently best lower flood gates
-yankeemodelworks PE for the vents, yankemodelworks upper pressure hull surface (not best, but saves a lot of work, unfortunately not money, still requires fiddling around with)
-CMK exterior part one if desired

about the decks, you may thin out and drill the stock deck too, but you will get really close to ruining it, since you have to thin them out sooo much...
under the line, use at least eduard or WEM set

about the kit, i didn't do anything today, neither went to pick up the modelbrass set, since we had an IPMS competition here, so i went to stock up with new blades for the stressed skin, a pile of evergreen sheets, strips and profiles for the upcoming steps

Marko

[Marko]

Hi guys,

Time for a bit of update after few days. The time to get messy started just about now. I drilled the flood holes above the main channel few days before, but somehow did not come to publish them online
The PE is simply marvelous, and gives the model whole new dimension. As mentioned before, first i roughed out the holes on the kit, this gets really, and i mean really thin, and its still not enough, since i have to angle cut them a bit more to get the desired effect (pictures below):


next it comes the 2 component 5 min. epoxy from UHU, to glue all the four parts in:




after half an hour i decided that epoxy dried enough to file the edges of the brass parts off (darker edge of parts on borders). This will help blending in them with the squadron putty. Now its time to leave halves for a day to reach full epoxy strength. (and yes, the darned thing broke on the same spot again as the fracture before, anyways now the PE part and epoxy are providing the strength)
 By the way, you can also notice some random scratches on PE parts. I made these with filing and sanding, since here and there were imperfections like little rivet, or donut like dots and spots, besides, ill probably have to remove all the surface detail on them while blending them in, and it actually doesn't matter since ill use archer rivets and welds anyway

regards,
Marko

[Marko]

hello,

here it is, at last! holy grail for VII uboat
it comes sandwiched between two sheets of wood, secured with clear scotch tape, note the small portion with the details is bent backwards


here is the fret fully extended, now some serious chopping will be initiated.


i also took myself a second project, when ill have to take a break between resin cleanup (by the way, i did some work on command section, and its quite tricky to clean it, and even more trickier to line all major components up...)


and another full resin torture project (actually it has fiberglass fuselage), for the price of only 123 euros including shipping. resin ist cast superbly (aires/CMK class), contains masks, PE set, VAC-form canopies, so under the line, it comes quite cheap for what you get in the box, since its a full meal deal with exception of tools, colors and glue . And i simply love the plane, so the kit is absolutely spot on


regards,
Marko

[conus00]

Hi Marko,
the PE set in your last post, is it the Modelbrass set?

[Marko]

Hi Conus,

yes it is, check the Leth's thread about modelbrass contact for additional info.
http://models.rokket.biz/index.php?topic=777.0

regards,
Marko

[Marko]

A bit of todays work:

i roughed out and filed the forward flood holes on both hull halves, currently im pre-bending the PE rear lower flood holes
basically what i did was, lined PE part lower holes with the kit flood holes, marked borders and started to drilling bunch of holes near edges. Then i've cutted em out with x-acto knife, then alot of filing action came into account, and so you can see the result:


next update will have the rear holes cut-out and thinning the hull to make seat ledges for the PE parts, and grinding away the rear portions angled to get thin hull effect, and of course cleaning the needle files

Marko

[Rokket]

mmmm, the thrill of PE and progress!

[Marko]

rokket, i agree, the PE sets really do spice things up a bit. Actually, these flood hole panels spice em up a lot! first to position them right, then align other half to existing one, and glue them in place, especially rear ones. i tacked the rear ones in corners with medium CA, and baked them with the zip kicker - activator, then applied epoxy resin around the edges - including corners, now parts are sitting and adhesives are bonding them together, front were glued in solely with epoxy. here and there i still have to grind and file off the excess plastic from the edges, but we are getting there slowly. And since i am chopping stuff out at the moment, ill hit the GHG ger

[maxfax]

Hello Marko,

Nice work. I've done lots of PE on aircraft and tanks, but these parts are usually added to the surface of the model, not replacing large sections. I have to say I am a little nervous about cutting out these sections from the model. I have no experience with epoxy cement- would any kind do? I have heard of "5 Minute Epoxy" here, so I will probably get some of that.

Rob

[Marko]

Hello Rob,

These PE sets are slightly thicker than the usual ones from eduard, Part, etc. (zoom, exterior...), especially the Winks and Dougies Ubrass flood gates set is thick. this means lots of bending control. Its not that hard actually, just align the pre-bent parts to the plastic, the instructions give you proper locations, mark the outside borders with a pencil, or very thin Pilot marker. Drill small holes near those edges (measure distance from edge till the flood holes with a caliper or ruler to achieve maximum seat ledge for the part in next step - usually 1 - 2mm), cut them out with the xacto knife, then use small ball milling bit to grind to the exact spot where all flood holes will be fully open, then make a seat for the PE part right up to the marked border (which was made at step 1), then thin the insides to get the thin hull effect, and last mount the PE using epoxy for strength, and CA for tacking them in on edges if necessary.

i used UHU's 5 minute 2 component epoxy, but any brand will do the job. You can also use 1 min, 10 min, 30 min, or 24h variants,... however 1 min is too short, since it will start to jelly up pretty soon, 5 is just about right, and i had still about 2 minutes to relax and place the parts in their place with no rush. final hardness will be achieved within 24 hours.

i used exactly this one:
http://www.uhu-profishop.de/images/product_images/popup_images/745_0.jpg

and here you can see the drilling procedure, as it was done on my 1/72 f-4 phantom (though here i didn't had to mark borders, since i made holes to existing airbrake housing covers


hope this helps,
regards,
Marko

[Anakin]

Nice job! Really looking with great interest your project. I like your posts with good pics and explaining every step.

-Anakin-

[Marko]

thanks for the compliments guys,
ill keep the updates coming always as soon as possible
i raided hardware stores again, bought new drill bits, to substitute the broken one, now i bought the budget version, so lets see how long will they last, since at the 3 pack boxing the difference was 2,5 euro. Next was the copper wire, diameter 1,5mm, ideal would be 1,2 but they didn't have one. Shortest length that i could buy was 1 meter, and the main cable is made from 3 wires,  so total length is 3 meters, which is more than enough. So i peeled the double insulation off, and cut the wires to 10 mm long bits, we need roughly 25 pieces per hull side.



now to the drilling holes for the GHG, and ill do them by hand, since these have to be accurate on spot.

Marko

[Anakin]

Because i

[Marko]

you are right, luckily i used 1,2mm drill bit, since it took only minor adjustment to fit in the bits. I measured it, and caliper says exactly 1,4mm diameter, but it does vary a bit. Now ill get back to the masking, since i want to apply putty only to the areas where needed

[Marko]

hello guys.

its not over yet, recently i have been doing messy jobs using putty, and i just did not make any pics of the process till now. Since my green stuff is running out, i ordered two tubes straight from UK on to the progress:

on the first picture you can see the difference between 1st of putty application, done my way. Firstly i masked of majority of the places where i didn't want to get the putty. This was been done in order to avoid unnecessary smearing all around, while filling the bigger holes. After sanding came one thin layer of primer. Upper hull half has second finer layer of putty sanded down (with exception of the anchor well, and a small portion at torpedo gates)




After all this chopping i felt confident enough to cut out the anchor well. Ive done this by drilling bunch of holes from inwards out with the smallest drilling bit i have (0,5mm) with slight negative angle out from 90

[maxfax]

Thats nice work that you are doing. I don't have the PE for the flood holes, but spent a great deal of time shaving down the plastic from the inside to open these holes. I made a decision to do little modification of the existing kit- I'm going to leave the anchor well and torpedo section alone and live with it, but I am always impressed when people go that extra mile.

Rob

[Marko]

Thank you max,

the build got now to a halt, since i have to wait for the mr surfacer liquid putty till 30. june. Im just unable to sand it smooth solely with the squadrons green, since PE has really sharp lines, and somehow gets often oversanded, or too thin and edges become visible after 1 day when handling again. And since i want it at least nearly perfect, not too thick layer of putty. So without surfacer im dead in the water.

So we are on hold for few days.
regards,
Marko

[Rokket]

Nice work!

I find the multi-strand electrical cable is excellent for really "hair thin" stuff, too. Like lamp cord, rip it apart, grab the very thinnest, hair-like single wire, and if you stretch it nice and taught and don't kink, it makes excellent railing cable. (as long as you affix it tight and no-kink, you wont get sag).

[Rokket]

Oh, putty - if you can find Tamiya grey putty - it's very creamy and vinyl-like, works wonderfully! BUT, 2 things: 1 - it can be "hot", as in solvent-like in too much and soften plastic; 2 - the second tube I bought I didn't use for a while and it's water and drizzly, and oozy and crap and I've thrown it out. I find Superglue (CA) is good for gap-filling, bt it is very hard and not so good for feathering.

[Marko]

Hi wink,

yea, those cables come in handy alots of times when building models. Though for the railings i got myself the ez line in various thicknesses and the lines from WEM the "lycra", though ill probably need alot of cables for the interiors, to boost up some extra details. And about the putty from tamiya, i held the darned thing in my hands at local IPMS contest 1 month ago, when one guy had his stand of tamiya and other products, considering either should i buy it exactly for this purpose or not... Yet again seems to me i got proven wrong, since i though to myself..aaah nothing can top the good old squadron

well, i've ordered the mr surfacer, which is use by a lot of modelers here, usually combined with squadrons green. (gosh im so mainstream)

the CA is fine too, though this one that i currently have, just doesn't cure that well without zip kicker, and if i use the accelerator, the glue tends to be much harder than the plastic, which causes again over sanding the surrounding areas..

well anyways, im a bit bored at the moment, so ill go try to do th ethings right with the squadrons again, i might get lucky

[Rokket]

Ahh, EZ Line! I bought a sample pack to play with looks like very cool stuff.

Yes, CA always gets very hard and that sand/blend is a problem.

good luck!

[Pat]

once that was done, i used 2mm ball milling bit to remove top of the plastic right near the drawn border, then some more filing came into action, and unfortunately i managed to stress fracture a bit of the hull in the process, marked with an arrow:


luckily for me fracture is minimal, and nothing what a drop of liquid cement could not handle..

i was aiming to thin the part so far as the PE part would fall in, with minimum requirements of filler when gluing the part in, i hope i achieved that

regards,
Marko

Sorry I didn't get to this sooner Marko, but a few personal problems in the last little while have taken me out of the loop.

Anyway, it's probably too late for this build, but in future a better and considerably faster way to cut out large sections of plastic is with a hot knife.  Using a Dremel with a milling ball is slow work, and if you touch the plastic for too long it starts to heat up and stick to the bit tip making you have to stop and clean your bit off.

A hot knife is basically an X-acto knife that heats up enough to cut through the plastic like a scalpel going through butter.

I bought mine from X-acto decades ago, and I don't think they sell them any more but you can easily make one.  It's just a soldering iron but instead of screwing in the soldering tip, you screw in the end of an X-acto knife with a # 10 or # 11 blade in it.  The threads are the same.  I've used mine as a hot knife for so long that I've lost the soldering tip and only use it for cutting. 

Over the years, I also found that I wanted a switch, so I put in one of those inline gear switches, and painted it red when it was 'on' so I knew which way the switch was set.

[Rokket]

You've mentioned the Hot Knife before, I have to keep reminding myself to give it a try. I'm sure I've seen one somewhere, ENCO maybe? MicroMark?

[Marko]

hello guys,

long time no see, well i finally managed to find some more time for modeling again, here are newest results.
the hot knife you mentioned, how much surrounding area is affected by heat - from the melting point of view?

well as you can see form the images, i started to cutting out the side portions to accommodate interior sections. Im also switching the cut outs with resin clean up and skin stressing just in order not to get the build monotone, repeating same stuff all over again, and since there is alot of skin, resin and cut outs involved, that comes in handy 
i also marked all of the lines with an alcohol based marker, these lines will later also be masked off in order to guide the CMKs saw and tamiya scriber (note one strip already applied)






note here the amount of resin scrap and pile of dust created only by few cuts. luckily i have my "gasmask" for these fine particles. Afterall, if we want to live long and build them all, we need to take care for our health 

[Rokket]

Nice, keep em coming

[Marko]

Hi Wink,

many thanks, i have just finished roughing out the segments, now its time to sand the edges to somewhat thinner, semi curved cross section so the hull will have some form, despite the panels have been cut out. Oh you might have noticed that CMK does not cover the whole interior, but since i am having one of those "what the heck am i doing" moments, i decided to scratch them, well most likely i will draw them out, and have them 3D-printed, tho i have to take the CMK's design so i will have a style match, and with a bit of luck, the rest will look as if CMK would produce them along with the rest sets. i just hope the design wont clash with the CMKs much..

[Rokket]

Great on 3D printing. That's VERY ambitious, but shuld be fantastic! Drop Mike Keating a line, he was waiting for the never released last section and might be interested...

Standing by!

[Pepper-mint]

Hi Marko

Awesome project ! Sticking on the evolution.

Cheers,

Pepper-M

[Greif]

Very, very nice build thus far Marko. 

Ernest