the reason for this separate thread is to accommodate the building process of this set, which will accompany a review I have written . just figured it would be easier to find and follow as a separate one.

Starting with the side skirts holders. these will be the parts that connects (with other parts) to the side skirts themselves. this assembly contains 6 parts, and repeated 6 times:



these are the parts used. the "end" parts are located on sheet 'F' and are not seen in the photograph - it a photo of sheet 'G':


a holder in the making - soldering skill will serve you good, though you can do with glue. note the tiny "header" you need to add. to make things easier I place a copper wire to hold all four, then make sure they are in place I solder them together and in the end, clip the wire:






now, rinse and repeat! :



creating Parts 'b' and 'c' are pretty straight forward. it's in fact part 'a' (which you build six of) but with different end pieces:

building 'b':


end result - don't forget to make 2 of these! :


building 'c':


end result - again, don't forget to make 2 of these:

continuing work on the holder, this time beginning to add the tank to skirt connector.

now, this fold is a bit more tricky than those i;m used too, and it took me some time to figure how to do it right:



sheet 'I':



the part:



the first step (to my opinion) is to form the bend in the part where the "hole' is. you should bend it to two halves and attach them to each other. so, place the "finger" at the half of the hole and bend:



and firmly press the bend:



now, you need to make another bend there - just where the "hole" area finished you need to make it. just press the "finger" at the sort of shoulders formed and bend:




the other bends a simple, just aim for a box. it may be easier to place the skirt's holder before closing the box entirly, to save you from opening it a bit and risk a possible break:





the finished thing:

rsvd

reserved

Hello

Nice close photos are always nice. Good work with the soldering. Hope to see more soon.

Sincerely
ANPW

man, I thought I could edit my posts indefinitely. that's why I reserved some posting space
oh well. continuing with the holders:



next step - the end is near as you move forward and finish the holders which are the more difficult part of the set, things start to look more promising:



when you build the parts (as seen in the instructions above) pay CLOSE attention to the folding method. I have broke one due to carelessness of my part.


fold it into a "W" shape:


press and tight:


next part is a sort of a box into which the above part enters (personally, I think those two steps could have been produced better)



and the two together:


building the "front" of the above parts. to save time, I have placed one part under each finger of my "hold n' fold":


half why through:


placing PE bolts "caps" is always a bit of a difficulty for me, but I have found a method which makes it easier for me (maybe you know it already, but for the sake of other folks): I pour a drop of CA onto a plastic bag (you can use broken CD cases or stuff like that). with a needle i "pick" the smallest amount of glue i can (just poke the glue with the needle) and then I spread it to the surface which the bold comes on to. then, I pick up the bolt, and carefully places it in place:



adding all the parts together:


some sanding is required, to get access solder tin off, and to overall clean the parts:


that's all for this time. sorry about the empty posts.

enjoy!

well, I'm basically done. tomorrow i'll get all the bits in. I'm afraid my PE skills doesn't do justice with this set I know it could be better, but this is what I managed to get out of it.

anyway,

the instructions calls for a 2*1 mm pieces to be cut and attach to the skirts holder. tried to solder it, with no luck, so i've tried to glue it with epoxy glue. unfortunately, result were not satisfactory, so I chopped them off


building the skirts themselves:


when you press the "bolt heads" on this part, do it on a hard surface. I did the first skirt on a soft one and they didn't come as crisp as they did when pressed against a hard surface:


attach the two parts, then add the "slide" underneath:


to attach the hull-skirts holder, I chopped off the places where the academy's skirts come on:


gluing in place, and covering up gaps with putty (when it's dried it'll be sanded)


end result. I have decided to go with academy's last piece in the skirts array. less fuss.



when it has dried, I will add diluted putty to the holes, then drill a tiny hole in them to get the miniature bolts in.

cheers!

MAN that is some fiddly looking PE work.... Rather you than me mate !

It is looking great so far, all that work is paying off.


cheers
Jon