Merchant Vessel part2

 I have been working on the cockpit exterior.

As the very front part has a compound curved surface I am unable to simply stick flat 0.5mm styrene panels on. 

I attempted to heat form a piece of 0.5mm over the bottom surface from which to cut panels with no success. It was simply too big an area to heat evenly with my heat gun.

In the end I decided to experiment with a Martin Bower described method of applying thin strips of masking tape as a sort of raised panel joiner line. He usually uses this method on his carved Jelutong models which have compound curves as a way of adding surface detail. The tape is sprayed with around four coats of primer, carefully fine sanding between, to remove the texture of the tape. I used 3mm wide automotive painters masking tape. Martin Bower simply cuts normal masking tape into thin strips  by placing it on a sheet of perspex and Probably I should have done this as 2mm wide may have looked better than the three I used in this case.

The photos below show the result. I still need a couple more coats of primer and sanding on the strips yet.

 Thanks for looking.

More soon...