7/10/06 - In a rare attempt to build & finish a model soon after I get it, I'm taking this on. Who knows, it could be a "Model in a Month."

After making some registration pins / holes for the front fins, on they went. Assembly done!

There were a couple scuffed areas on the model; putty covers those now. One pour stub on the leading edge was easy to remove. The other stubs were on the fin - fuselage mating faces.

7/11/06 - Once the fins were firmly set, I injected green putty around the edges with a sawed-off hypo. Off to dry for a week, now...

7/19/06 - Wet-sanded, filed, and re-puttied areas as needed.

7/24/06 - Ditto. Hopefully this will be the last round of putty/sanding.

7/25/06 - It was. Did the final sand & file, then primed the model. After inspection, no further putty work is needed, so it's on to painting.

7/27/06 - After some experimenting with paint mixes, I settled on this as a fair replication of the on-screen main color of the pod:

3 parts Insignia Yellow 2 parts Radome Tan 1 part Insignia Red 1 part Leather (all colors are Model Master enamels)

7/28/06 - Painted the fins a 1:1 mix of SAC Bomber Green and Field Drab. Used black acrylic gloss for the viewport. Impulse engines were painted with pearl and metallic acrylic. Applied decals using Micro Set.

7/29/06 - It's finishing day. First I applied thinned leather and black along lines, around edges & such. I feathered out & mottled the grime layer with brush, cotton swab and the trusty old fingertip. I applied panel shading using earth-tone pastels in the ochre to rust range. I shaded the fins with dark and light gray chalks.

I laid down strips of Post-It material leaving small gaps between them, brushed in dark gray chalkdust, then removed the strips and lightly brushed over the line to soften them slightly. I then brushed light gray between the darker lines.

And in 19 days! That's a record, I think.