[thrakkorzog]

Ok, Gents. I'm in the home stretch. I've got the entire dang thing epoxied together, lighting is good to go. The only thing left is to attach the bottom of the secondary hull to the top. Here's the scenario:

Bottom and sides of secondary hull are glued with shuttle bay inside.

Nacelle supports are glued to the top of the secondary hull.

Top of secondary hull is glued to the mast. Mast is glued to saucer.

I'm building the whole mutha upside down (build some foam supports to hold everything at the right angles)

I need to somehow engage the nacelle support mounts in the sides of the secondary hull - any secret to this? Or suggestions?

I know it's gonna be a pain! I'm also going to install the deflector dish last - it looks like it will pop in after the rest of the secondary hull is in place.

I'm just wondering how in the heck I'll be able to engage(!) those little tabs - I'm hoping they will snap into place without breaking anything -

Help me get this thing out of dry dock and into the paint booth! Let me know if you want a pic!

 

[John F]

I assembled the top of the secondary hull to the sides and "captured" the pylon flanges in between, and then cemented the long seams in sections to make sure everything lined up right.

Your hull maybe flexible enough for you to spread it apart, but I don't know.

 

[thrakkorzog]

I thought about doing it that way but I didn't think I could get the shuttle bay in - did you any issues with that?

 

[ClubTepes]

I glued each pylon half to its appropiate hull part.

In test fitting the secondary hull sections together with the pylons attached, I found that you have to sand some thickness from the mating surfaces of the pylon flanges in order to not have any gaps in the secondary hull sections.

Once I sanded the thickness out, I taped the whole secondary hull together and glued the top and sides. Leaving the bottom for later.

This ensured that everything 'lined up' before the glue dried.
Afterward, I untaped the bottom and removed it until such time as I need to glue it in.

 

[John F]

I found it was easier to install the shuttle bay if I attached it to the bottom hull first then glued the bottom hull to the sides, but this means having to cut out the rear crossmember on the secondary hull