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What about using the dome from the sister of battle immolator kit for the top?

I am way too late with my advice, as it appears you have managed to strip away all the paint and gunk. Next time, you might give one of these a spin [pardon the pun]:



Nope, it isn't Gary Busey's toothbrush. It is the Rubbermaid Power Scrubber.

http://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-1839685-Reveal-Power-Scrubber/dp/B00BEUDWJQ

I find it complements the Detol/Simple Green/Purple Power stripping process well by doing an excellent job of removing paint and some adhesive after a good soak. Wear goggles and apply in a tub, as an imprudent application of the spinning scrubber has the potential to turn your surroundings into a Jackson Pollock. I am exaggerating for comedy's sake, but the process can be messy until you develop a technique.

There is also a dome on the Ork burna-bomma. It might fit. Also the front canopy of a Valkyrie might help the front canopy.

I'm all sorted for canopies thanks, you lovely folks. I'm either going to repair the original now that t's clean, or cut the piece from the crashed set. the dome will be from the crashed set, and I'm very slowly cleaning that.

For the record, the Aquila dome is bigger than the Ork Bommer's, and sadly the Valkyrie canopy has a different back-end.

What I'm stewing over now is the weapon and supports. It has three possible guns, and I can look at an unbuilt one (but not touch!) for measurements.
Heavy Bolter, Autocannon or Laser, I believe.

We also have a Latin name for the birdy-plane! Caput inter nubila
I think I'm being insulted.

Try isopropyl alcohol next time. I suspect it may be the same active ingredient as dettol that strips the paint, and it has the added benefit of not making your sink smell like a hospital.

Although it does need good ventilation (it'll smell like a vodka distillery instead).

My experience with electric toothbrush was quite poor, it just kinda moved the paint around a lot. A regular toothbrush and a set of wooden toothpicks helps. Note to anyone who hasn't tried this yet - keep the model under the IPA while you scrub. If you just take it out and dunk it in water, the paint reactivates, goes the same consistency as chewing gum, and ends up everywhere.

It's a messy process and requires rubber gloves and a lot of patience; having said that I've rescued several tac squads, some swooping hawks and a couple of rhinos off ebay with this approach.

PS can we see the final product when it's done?

Not much progress I'm afraid.

I'm in the middle of securing the missing parts (undercarriage, clips) from what's very likely a recaster but I have no other leads. If that fails I'll probably scratchbuild, but the two leg balance is very precarious.

It's much cleaner and the wings are now attached smoothly.

I have a tiny airbrush curved stencil, and will be doing realistic blue flames, over a white, ice and grey colourscheme.
Going to practise like buggery first.

So, I gave up and I called in a TechPriest. I named him Ollie.
Note: I didn't make him, he's another eBay-rescue.



What do you think, Ollie?



"I think she'll fly again. Metaphorically speaking. I also think I could do a better job with my creepy lobster claw than you will with your clumsy meat-fists."

Thanks, Ollie. Always a pleasure.



Get used to that greeny milliput, over the next few days you're going to see a lot of patch-ins. It looks rough as feth right now because I'm building up and then will file down then it's cured.
All my shonky spare parts turned up. You may notice the Nubila is no longer suspended by a plastic box, but actual legs, and one of the engine covers is replaced. The original crumbled to dust when I tried to repair it.

To give an idea of how much I'm having to reconstruct around the joins:

It still annoys me on a visceral level that the navvy is crooked. I have tried everything from gently tooling to abuse, but he just will not shift.

Anyhow, the fun part is so close, I can taste it.

I'm still taking it slow because I'm near-comatose this week. I literally poked myself in the face repeatedly with the wings whilst turning it over to fit the feet.

Might be too late now, but for freeing trapped resin, I have successfully used the 'freeze and snap' method. Froze the model, made the super glue brittle then broke the part away.

 Joyous_Oblivion wrote:
Might be too late now, but for freeing trapped resin, I have successfully used the 'freeze and snap' method. Froze the model, made the super glue brittle then broke the part away.

Sadly the joined areas for this were just too large, and don with slatherings of epoxy resin rather than superglue. I could almost sense the stages of despair the original owner went through with this thing.

At which point you are saying, "Feth it, I'm going to glue this into a solid inflexible lump of pain and anger." to a near £100 kit, it's time to put the glue down.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:

 Joyous_Oblivion wrote:
Might be too late now, but for freeing trapped resin, I have successfully used the 'freeze and snap' method. Froze the model, made the super glue brittle then broke the part away.

Sadly the joined areas for this were just too large, and don with slatherings of epoxy resin rather than superglue. I could almost sense the stages of despair the original owner went through with this thing.

At which point you are saying, "Feth it, I'm going to glue this into a solid inflexible lump of pain and anger." to a near £100 kit, it's time to put the glue down.

Tears will be shed for that which this could have become...

You poor damned soul. At least it isn't a pewter thunderhawk...

I have faith you can do this though based on your effort so far.

 Stormwall wrote:
You poor damned soul. At least it isn't a pewter thunderhawk...

I have faith you can do this though based on your effort so far.

Just to make this fun, if it's not painted by the 5th of September, I effectively screw up my £55 a ticket tournament entry.

There's motivation.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:

 Stormwall wrote:
You poor damned soul. At least it isn't a pewter thunderhawk...

I have faith you can do this though based on your effort so far.

Just to make this fun, if it's not painted by the 5th of September, I effectively screw up my £55 a ticket tournament entry.

There's motivation.

I feel you. I just started making a random dropship tonight as I got probably 30$ dollars worth of bits from my shop today in a trade. I am scratch building it and that is a pain but, at least it is clean and tidy and any mistakes are mine to own.

For you on the other hand, you're behind the curve fixing a mess someone else made. I hope you make the dealdine, I think you can though! .

Really at this point, I have just this left to do:
Repair the holes and splits on the vents and wing spars (left from original casting)
Fit the engines.
Repair the join between the wing and the body - the part I started.
Sanding.
Straightening the dome canopy and cut the "glass" out.
Mould the inside of the dome canopy with putty.
Drill a board. Heat form the glass for the dome.
Sanding.
Clip some glass for the box canopy.

Painting~

I can probably get it all done bar the heat forming by the weekend.

Great effort to rescue this, seems that you definitely like a challenge! I have a similar (though far less ambitious) ebay rescue project, an old 2 ed Rhino, that is waiting for some love, so you are not alone in your madness!

Good luck meeting your deadline; I look forward to seeing this in all its glory when you are done.

You know that glass for microscopes?

You could cut that and use it for the canopy.

Also, hi buttery. You changed your profile picture so I actually didn't recognize this was your blog till now, haha.

O.k i'm an instant fan of Ollie! he needs to make more random appearances with pithy comments! :-)

 nerdfest09 wrote:
O.k i'm an instant fan of Ollie! he needs to make more random appearances with pithy comments! :-)

Ollie is a champ.

It's a day of fabulous presents for the old bird. More milliput, and...
Look Ollie, engines! Two of them.



"Indeed. Thanks to your subtle placement, I can see them."

Guess that makes you an eng-

"No."

[Sigh] Fine.
So yeah, after five long months, she finally has engines.



Totally I've been mostly sanding the milliput, repairing the vents, and building on the front. Quite a lot of this vent damage is actually fault going back to Forgeworld's production standards, not the previous owner.



Tomorrow I will smooth and sand the applied putty, and put on the final fixes for the vents. I think this is going well! It looks a little ropey, but I tend to smooth after drying rather than during.



"Why don't you tell them about how you fitted all of the rare earth magnets backwards so that they alternate and serve no actual purpose? Or how having done that you got the whole thing wet again so that they rusted?"

Nobody like a bully, Ollie.

It finally happened. You've lost your mind with this thing

It comes to something when I'm being bullied by my own fictional assistant.

The magnets turned out to be an irrelevant bust anyway. I was trying to replace the clip function. I found a much better tool.

It's a toothpick, okay? I need someone with skills to do me a plasticard build, but I need the original piece to copy.

She will fly again... You make me feel bad for putting off paint stripping my old cadians :/ anyway, Im loving this project! And your engine is near indistinguishable from the original!

You should contact Blackadder, he is considerably more insane than you are.

I'd legit commission that piece if I could get dimensions. I cannot plasticard safely.
Actually I can't knife safely at all, I nearly sliced a vein in my upturned wrist today, slipping with a new X-acto when I was trimming the resin between the wing spars. Very barely missed, cut down my wrist, and had to have a break.

Always cut towards a friend, but I'm so spaced out on being ill this week that I've done some very dumb moves.

Is it the same scale as the crashed one from the Battle of Macragge box? I can get you measurements from that one.

What piece are you trying to fabricate?

Can you make a cardboard piece as a template?

kb_lock wrote:
What piece are you trying to fabricate?

Can you make a cardboard piece as a template?

The slidey piece from page 1:



I live with someone who has an unbuilt mint Aquila, I just need to get my hands on the piece and trace it.

Keep it up sir, great work there on that wreck!

Some of those really messy areas, I would just sand them flat and use plasticard and scribing to recreate the detail texture.
(it is terrifying to take a resin model to a belt sander, but it works - just make sure to have really good ventilation!).

I get the "Model Impossible" job, but hey, it is quite the challenge.

>I live with someone who has an unbuilt mint Aquila, I just need to get my hands on the piece and *trace* it.

You misspelled "cast"

Seriously though, just take his and pretend you know nothing

I would discuss the options of casting but, after having cast some things on these forums in my own blog, (which I believe I am going to remove,) I feel bad having done so.

You could very slowly copy his using card and existing things. Or beg Ruglud haha.