season's greeting everyone!
took over a year but finally finished the bristol t188. it's a free model by epm design available at kartononbau.de. my main goal was to see if it was possible to cut a model entirely on my laser cutter. also wanted to find out if scoring was an option because i don't like paper models with printed panel lines and rivets. before cutting though i spent several weeks removing all the color, thinning the lines and laboriously removing 2/3 of the approximately 11,000 rivets! another goal was to test alclad stainless steel paint on a paper model. i added some scratch-built details to the cockpit and the landing gears. finally, i wanted to add making my own decals to the learning process. overall i am fairly happy with the experiment though at close inspection there are flaws that make me cringe (i am a self confessed rivet counter)!
the cutter doing it's thing
formers made with .5mm/300gm card
one of the biggest pieces. cutout for wheel well. .2mm/180gm card
coming together
main gear well unpainted
painted grey
engine cowling and tail attached
laser cut tiny bits
some printed parts cut out and added as raised texture
fan blades and the hole are cut instead of the original printed parts
i can't roll to save my life! couldn't do this without the laser cutter
main gear legs coming together
one after soaking in ca the other after sanding
completed legs
back of the ejection seat. mixed media-plastic, brass and paper
seat parts. laser cut
seat almost complete
had to use putty to fill gaps. not sure if the laser cutting was the culprit. sealed with minwax wood hardner.
sandable automotive primer
after sanding
after a few coats of alclad gloss black primer
to be continued on part 2...
(Edited as by the author's request)