Friday, February 19, 2016

D-Style Gustav - WIP 6

 Escargot anyone?
 
With the painting completed about a month ago, it is time to revisit the Gustav for the assembling process.
 
The first step in the manual is to assemble the base.
 
Parts for the base

Pilots in their respective seats. It does look a bit cramp but I guess Moonbay and Fiona doesn't mind.

Pieces for the next step

The canopy is a bit tricky to get into place. It can be irritating and some patience is required but once it is in, it looks good on the Gustav.

Canopy can be displayed either closed (left) or open (right)

Top view of the base
 
The next part are the wheels and the antenna

Wheels are attached to the either side of the base

Antenna is attached to the top
 
There is one thing to note when assembling the antenna. Make sure it is straight else you will have a hard time adjusting it later when the shells are assembled. With that the assembly for the base is completed.
 
Putting the base aside, we will now concentrate on the shell.

Pistons ready to be attached to the shell

From the picture above, you can see that the purple 'caps' and the pistons are not glossy anymore due to the Matte coat. I'm thinking of either leaving it in matte or just repaint those parts carefully to bring back the gloss.
 
There are some pistons which are hard to attach to the shell. Those are the ones at the end. As with the canopy, some patience is required. I used some glue to ensure that the pistons will stay in place permanently.
Comparison between the shell with and without the piston

Both shells with pistons attached

The next part is to attach the top 'brackets' to one side of the shell.

Shell with 'brackets'

Shell with 'brackets' attached

With the 'brackets' attached, the work for the shell is now complete. The next step is to put the base and the shells together.

Base and shells waiting to be put together

Left view of Gustav...

....and right view of Gustav (?)
 
A lot of pressure and force is required to attach both the shells together. Putting the shells together reminds my hands and palms of the pain I had to endure when I was working with the PG Astray Blue Frame.
 
After some major muscle workout, allow me to present to you: D-Style Gustav.
 


Completed Gustav
 
After some thought, I decided to repaint the purple 'caps' and the pistons. The Matte coating does not sit well with my original plans for the Gustav which was to have the 'caps' and pistons gloss coated.
 
Repainted purple 'caps' and pistons
 
The next post will be assembling the train for the Gustav so stay tune.

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