Priming the Frigate

Finally, I got around to finishing the build of the Nebulon-B Frigate-headache. Luckily, after getting the primary pieces reattached, the details have fallen together easily. I haven't had many issues, except a few parts cracking. But again, I just keep adding layers and layers of detail, mostly styrene strips. On a nice day, I primed it using Tamiya's Fine Grey Primer, a lacquer. And this folks, is why priming is so important. I had a lot of cracks and splits that I had not previously seen. I also noticed several places where glue had collected and needed to be removed. Also, the thrusters look really bad, so I'll add that to the list of things to fix.

A Nebulon-class Headache

So, my latest project is a rebuild of Nicholas Sagan's Nebulon-B Frigate. It's 1/500 scale and 3D printed from his design. Honestly, it's absolutely beautiful. He captured all of the detail beautifully, and the 3D print looks phenomenal.

However, it suffered a mishap in shipping or something. Anyway, another person wants to buy it and Nicholas commissioned me to fix it. And holy-hell does it need fixing. Apart from it being, well...apart, there's a lot of damage to the armor plates on either side of the main hull. Nicholas reprinted one side, but the port side is really bad. I'm having to kit-bash a kit-bash to rebuild it. What's worse, is that the 3D-print is very brittle. So, every time I try to add something on, something else breaks. It's quite the headache.

But, I'm trying to add as much structural support as I can. Wherever possible, I'm adding 1mm styrene strips behind pieces that I'm adding on. I'm also using 2-part epoxy glue more than CA superglue. Epoxy is generally stronger, but it also has a little flex in it. So, when I ship it, hopefully nothing will snap off again.