Moebius-1 part 6

I have started on the main hull and cockpit section.

First up I reinforced the 3mm aluminium plate with some 3mm thick angle, pop riveted on. The weight of the flat top was sagging a bit after pressing on it while detailing the top surface of the flat top. Next some 10mm thick foamed PVC sheet formers were positioned and some 2mm black styrene sheet was added longitudinally.

67mm OD PVC tube was cut up on the bandsaw and superglued to the sides of the black styrene box to form the curved sides of the top of the hull.

The hull was carefully profiled with a Dremel sanding drum to match the curvature of the dome/half sphere which was masked up and superglued to the front end of the hull.
I then filled in the compound curve section of the lower hull with foamed PVC leaving about 2mm left for car putty to form the finished surface.

Car Putty was then applied. When the filler was still at the leather stage unwanted lumps were cut away with an extended Olfa snapper knife, then after fully set sanded with a sanding stick, a piece of 6mm plywood with 80 grit wet and dry sandpaper spray glued on.  This was repeated with rapidly decreasing amounts of filler about 4 times to eventually fill in all the low spots.

The Blue tape covers a DC power connector installed flush with the bottom of the hull. The other hole is for the support pipe.

The dark line shows the point where the hull is split. It hooks on at the top with a tab that fits into a slot and is retained at the bottom with a screw that goes into 3 layers of 2mm styrene. I didn't have this split originally but found I had no room to remove the ribbed cover under the flat top that is held on by a magnet to access all the wiring. I think it will be better to have the cockpit section removable to work on anyway so its turned out for the better. I will install a plug and socket for the electrical power to the cockpit lighting.

Here is the model the right way up so far with a few shamefully unfinished projects in the background.

I was attempting to get this finished for the Wasmex scale model show which is in April but I don't think I will make it as there is still a lot to do. Hopefully I will have it done by Supanova which I believe is in June.

Thanks for looking, more soon...

Moebius-1 part 5

Along with some more styrene sheet and kit part detailing, I have added a piping layer to the underside of the Flat Top.

The large pipes are made from 8mm ABS solid Rod from Hobby King with mid sizes from assorted plastic knitting needles. These were heat bent using a hot air gun and a simple right angle made from a slightly rounded corner of a scrap of 9mm plywood. The solid works well for heat bending as it maintains its profile while bending unlike tube that would collapse and fold in on itself.

Some short pieces of Evergreen Styrene tubing were used on the 8mm rod for joints. The small size pipe is from the usual pvc sheathed copper single core electrical cable at 4mm.

Then, to see how how well it is looking and whether any more detailing is needed it was time to spray some grey primer.

I think it is probably enough detail for now, the rest can be done in paint.

It is time to get started on the hull and cockpit bubble.
More soon...

Moebius-1 part 4

I started paneling and detailing the flat top side of the moebius-1 project.
It's still a work in progress.

 
The long grey finned panel at the rear above where the engines sit is a paper guide from an inkjet printer. The two red panels are from the transformers SCVNGR toy.

The rest is an assortment of kit parts, evergreen panels and strips, black 2mm, 1mm and 0.5mm styrene and 3mm and 6mm foamed pvc sheet.

There is still more paneling and piping to be done as well as a fine detail pass.

Thanks for looking.
More soon...