February 2004 - The saucer halves are made up of 12 wedge-shaped pieces, 6 for the top and 6 for the bottom. The 6 bottom wedges are identical, but since only 3 have landing legs the other three need to have an insert fitted in to cover the leg well. As if that isn't bad enough, the inserts fit poorly, with large gaps. You'd think PL could've sprung for the necessary mold work to make this un-necessary.

The ring segments fit together by sets of pins at the inboard and outboard edges. I cemented these pins first, making sure that the outer surfaces were flush with each other. The long seam between the inboard/outboard pins has no means of registering the parts, so it would be easy to have "steps" on the outer surface where the parts meet. After some trial and error, I found that clamping the flanges inside the kit together and aligning the edges so they were flush was the easiest way to make the outside surfaces flush. Binder clips made good clamps to hold the flanges together while cementing the seam.

C57D ring - clamped  |  C57D ring clamps - detail

Before cementing the saucer top/bottom halves together, 0.05" shims are needed to keep the lower half's edge aligned with the lip of the top half.

7/28/06 - Did some sand & putty work on those seams.