Alien(s) Narcissus by DanBKing

[DanBKing]

"Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines." ~ Enzo Ferrari


With the bottom engines basically complete, I started on the top engines.

The top engines are a little more complex and the build procedure is different.
One thing to note here, when cutting out the floor of the engine, the part to the right in the pics below, be aware that the edge of the part under the indent has two angled planes and is not a straight cut. It is easy to miss this and if you do, it will create problems with alignment.

The main panels were cut out, edge coloured and pre-shaped..




In a similar fashion to the bottom engines, I back-tabbed the parts where necessary.
The exhaust cowling was made up first. When fitting the exhaust mounting plate make sure it is sitting perfectly square to all faces of the engine.




The main top panel was added next. I made up the grill detail panel and attached it to the main panel while I still had access, to glue it down firmly.




I made up the triangular side detail panels for the bottom and top engines.
The detail panels on the top engines are smaller than the bottom engines.
There is a fault in the template for these parts. The detail pieces that fit onto the small square of the side panel are not correct for the lower engines. They are too small!! The designer obviously copied the detail pieces from the top engines, but did not scale them up to fit the larger side panels of the bottom engines.
So, I made some new detail parts from spare card that fit correctly.




At this stage, I stopped adding panels and fitted the engine nozzles to the top and bottom engines. The reason for this, better access for gluing.




The front of the bottom engines was closed up, again making sure everything is nice and square with no twists.
The remaining panels for the top engines were carefully added, checking for squareness continuously.

The completed engines are ready for mounting to the hull!!



I am glad they are done! Very fiddly and a little frustrating at times, due to all the complex curves and angles.
They are not brilliant, but they came out ok, I think

See you all soon!!

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

I think that you are doing a FANTASTIC JOB on this project. Everything looks clean, clear and crisp.
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!

 

[Revell-Fan]

 

[DanBKing]

"Love is the only way to rescue humanity from all ills." ~ Leo Tolstoy


Next up, the rear deck, longitudinal spine and rescue hatch.

The rear deck is pretty straightforward. The two recessed parts and the pre-laminated detail parts were cut out and edge-coloured.
These parts were then glued on in their respective positions and the sides were glued on, completing the rear deck assembly.




I built the ringed airlock in different way than the instructions.

First, parts 463, 464 and 465 were cutout using various size punches and glued together as instructed.




This ring assembly was then glued to part 462, followed by part 461 underneath 462, as per the instructions.
The pre-laminated part 159 had the center of the ring cut out and lightly sanded to shape.




This is now where I diverted from the instructions a little.
I glued part 159, with the removed center, on top of part 460. Part 460 was not cut from the parts sheet yet.
Once the glue had dried I cut out the ring, part 159, together with the excess card around part 460 underneath, keeping the edges as perpendicular as possible.




The rest of the parts for the upper deck of the airlock were prepared and the airlock ring structure completed. I left a bit of white space around part 458 to give me more gluing area.




The airlock ring structure was then glued to the back of the upper deck and the detail pieces were added to this.




I laminated the main airlock deck plate to 1mm thick card, to give me more gluing area when attaching the sides of the plate. I clamped the deck plate upside down and concentrated first on getting the edge strip perfectly centred around the curved section. The long sides were glued after.
The upper deck assembly was then glued into position, completing the airlock.




The main plate for the longitudinal spine was laminated to thick card and the edge piece was assembled in the same fashion as the airlock main deck plate.
The laminated detail pieces were cut out and edge coloured. When edge colouring the blue lettering, try and be as accurate as possible here.




These detail pierces were carefully glued into position, completing the longitudinal spine.




We are getting very close to completion of this model now. A few more detail pieces to be made up yet and then we can start final assembly. Can't wait!

See you soon!!

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

I really like how that component came together. Your attention to detail is AMAZING! Everything is clean, clear, and crisp.

 

[mijob]

That is a awesome looking part all those details make it pop.

 

[DanBKing]

"There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story." ~ Frank Herbert

Added with great excitement, this post brings an end to the construction of this model!

A few detail parts, that were left until last to avoid breaking them off, were assembled.

First, the skirts.
The pre-laminated rear skirt and the side skirts have no texturing on their backs when cut out. To overcome this, I laminated pieces, from a spare copy of part 1 of the model, to the backs of the skirts. Then the skirts and all the detail pieces were cut out, edge-coloured and assembled.




The parts for the detail pieces on the side of the engine sub-assemblies, which I assume are thrusters of some sort, were cut out, pre-shaped and assembled.




And the same went for parts on the sides of the rear hull.




The wedges that fit in front of the bottom engines were made up. I read somewhere that this ship has a tricycle landing gear system, so I am pretty sure these are the two rear landing gear wells, the front gear well is between the nose of the ship.




And now the fun begins! Final assembly!!!

Using the rear hull, engine sub-assemblies and the latitudinal spine as reference, I glued the rescue hatch and rear deck together keeping both parts good and perpendicular.



This was then glued into position on the hull.




The longitudinal spine was added next.




The lower engines were glued on and the landing gear wedges attached....




... and upper engines were glued into position.




The thrusters and the detail pieces in the 'jaws' of the engine substructure were added next.




Finally, the skirts were added!




Back in a little while ...........

 

[DanBKing]

And, back.......!

I just realized in my excitement to finish the model, I forgot to take any pics of the engine/landing gear shrouds, and also the clamps on the ends of the lateral spine.
The shrouds require some good shaping to get them uniform. Also quite a bit of careful trimming and checking is required to fit the shrouds to the hull, and I still didn't manage to get them perfect!
The clamps were a bit of a nightmare. Very careful scribing, folding and gluing prowess is required here! But after two frustrating attempts to get them built, I chose the same route as the designer and removed the inner section of the clamp, just leaving the outer shell.



One other thing I did was to make a decent stand for the model. A piece of MDF wrapped in black card. I added thick card braces to stabilize the rod. The model is quite heavy!! I made a nameplate too.



Anyway, without further ado, here are some pics of the completed model....

From underneath .....




And the ships 'better side,' from to top..




I am quite pleased with how it turned out!!
Over the next day or two, I am going to do a little cleaning and tidying up overall and then set up my photo booth to take some beauty shots!

Thanks for joining me on this journey so far.

In my next/last post, I would like to add a few insights and observations about the build and the model.
But of course, the most important, the beauty shots!!!!

Time for a beer or two!

See you all soon!!

 

[mijob]

This looks realy great.

 

[Revell-Fan]

Absolutely stunning! A masterpiece!!!

 

[zathros]

Superb! I'm at a loss for words.

 

[micahrogers]

This is truly amazing!

I am always amazed by your craftsmanship with these models. This get my vote for a MoM.