EXTERIOR
CHANGES MADE: Made new sliding doors to compensate for new hull stripe. Corrected door windows for shape to match studio model. Added “Push” panel by door. Added missing hull markings by door.
Here’s where things start getting really “seat-of-the-pants” building. The outer sides of the shuttle were designed to be hollow wedge shapes with skinny wings. That wasn’t going to work for me. To make things a little easier on me, I started with the starboard side since it has no door.
First, I cut off the wings to address separately. That gave me an outer top piece and a outer bottom/inside piece. The inside piece needed to stay flat for gluing to the main body. I took some double-sided tape along the top edge where the inner and outer skin come together and curve. Next, I laid the piece flat and glued the upper forward and rear edges together. That gave me the upper hollow “pocket” of the skin. I glued craft sticks together with Super Glue gel until they made a solid brace across the center line. I cut the sticks at the front and rear to match the angle of the hull. This worked perfectly to keep everything straight.
I needed more sticks to completely fill the hole left by removing the wing, and give the wing something to attach to when I put it back on. I glued four more sticks together and only made them reach about 3/4 from the front to the rear, as the front/lower section starts to come together to a narrow point. Leaving these sticks square caused the center line to be too square and didn’t let the center line come together correctly. I solved this by using my X-acto to shave off, a little at a time, the top stick at an angle that matched the curve of the hull.
In the old design, the skinny center line you see is supposed to be folded out on the top and bottom and glued together to form a paper-thin lip. This doesn’t match the studio model, which has a thicker, wider center lip. I’m going to address this as a separate issue, but the section as drawn is about the right height of the lip that should be there. When I glued them down I overlapped these sections to use as a guide later.
To get a nice, straight, flat center edge I used my ruler to hold down the paper on the craft sticks while gluing.
With the edges sealed, the wing hole stuck out like a sore thumb. I covered it up with a piece of scrap hull cut to size and glued in place. Doing it this way created seams that aren’t on the original Galileo because the wings are molded in. But, I’d rather have a few extra seams than crappy wings.
Next, I layered the red panels that go along the bottom of both sides of the hull and attached the starboard one.
I glued the forward angled piece that covers the hole in the hull in place using Super Glue gel. The widest part of the piece ends right below the center line because of the way I’m building it. That leaves a small hole at the center line which will be covered by whatever new center lip I come up with.
This build is a little deceptive because I did have a good bit built before making posts on this one. The really slow part is me taking 4-5 hours to figure out how I'm going to assemble something (like the walls) because I'm making it up as I go.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but it bears repeating. Luckily, or unluckily depending on your outlook, I’ve had lots of practice. These engines are standard nacelles so the only change was the repaint.
