[Captain April]

It appears that the website where this was originally hosted has expired or something, so I feel it my duty as a loyal Browncoat to carry the torch forward for this venerable project.

One of these days, I'm gonna do a translation of the directions and switch around a few of the steps, but for now, here's where you can find your own little bit of Serenity.

 

[Lloyd Collins]

You need to set the album, to public viewing, since I don't have your password. I'm a member of PhotoBucket, and I can't get in.

 

[Captain April]

Try it now.

 

[Lloyd Collins]

Thanks for posting and saving the model. I love to build paper models, and this one I don't have...until now. Thanks again!

 

[Captain April]

I'm currently working on a color corrected version that I came across. At the moment, it's in the form of a Microsoft Word document, so I'm gonna have to do some converting, but so far as assembly goes, it's going well.

 

[Lloyd Collins]

Post photos when done, or at least a link to them.

 

[Captain April]

Now that I'm getting the hang of my digital camera, I'm definitely gonna post pics.

 

[Captain April]

Got lots of pics, and I'm not quite halfway done.

Stay tuned.

 

[Captain April]

Here we go.

First, the side engines...

Now, with the wings attached....

Note that at this stage, I'm deviating from the directions, and in that deviation, the above pics show a bit of an error on my part. Specifically, I shouldn't have attached those shrouds over the hinge assembly just yet. This will become clear in a moment...

 

[Captain April]

Next, the main hull...

And with it, I skip ahead to the end and attach the landing gear housing now, because otherwise, if I waited until almost the end of assembly, odds are they wouldn't fit, because the shroud over the hinge assembly would probably be in the way.

So, first, I attach the assembly (I still haven't decided if the gear will be deployed or retracted)...

Then, carefully remove those shrouds so that I can get the wings on straight, and then reattach those shrouds so that everything fits.

This way, not only does everything fit properly, but the shrouds now actually help hold the wings up, avoiding a rather ugly droop.

 

[Lloyd Collins]

Looking real good! Thanks for the tip, to avoid the droop.

What kind of glue do you use? I use mainly glue sticks, and some gel super glue. I also, use the blue 3M masking tape, with the least tack, to hold some parts together.

 

[Captain April]

Plain old Elmer's white glue. Glue sticks don't stick well enough, and are rather troublesome when dealing with dinky little paper parts.

If I ever try this with cardstock, I might try something else, but with standard printer paper, I prefer to keep it basic. Plus, it's a lot easier getting Elmer's off your fingers than superglue.

 

[Lloyd Collins]

I print all my models on cardstock. I like gluesticks, because they dry fast.

I have though lately, about just using paper for some model parts, since cardstock can be hard to work with, on cones, round, or very curved parts.

For the cargo bay of the Serenity, cardstock should work best, because of the many flat sides.

When you finish the model, are you going to glue it to a base, or hang it?

 

[Captain April]

For now, just find a place where it won't get crushed, but eventually it'll reside on top of my computer monitor.

 

[Captain April]

And now, the rear engine cone.

Here's where working on such a small scale becomes a major pain...

First, the smaller nozzles, then the big one...

Then stick the assembly on the end of the cone, since by this point, it's too much of a pain in the tuchus to put that little shroud thingie on there without a little more anchoring.

No, it doesn't quite fit right. That's something you have to get used to with this model.

For instance, that thing that goes right above the rear nozzles. Be prepared to really glob on the glue, because the odds are that the curve of the thing and the curve of the cone aren't even gonna be close.

 

[Captain April]

So, we move on to the little blocky thingies on the base of the cone.

One option is to hold the cone up to the monitor screen, with the relevant directions at the proper magnification, and carefully mark the places where they go, if you don't want to print out the page.

It's an idea that yielded mixed results, and an I wound up mostly eyeballing it anyway.

Onward to the horseshoe.....

 

[Lloyd Collins]

Getting better as you go along! I'm enjoying seeing the build.

I understand the pains in building some parts. As you said about ill fits, and the smaller parts, they can really test your modeling skills. Thanks to your work, I have picked up some useful tips, to use on my models.

 

[Captain April]

Color corrected version is now up.

 

[Griffworks]

Looks very nice so far, CRA. Thanks for sharing the pics.

 

[Captain April]

I figured I'd been around here long enough that it was "put up or shut up" time, and I'd been wanting to build another one of these for a while anyway, so...