Maksymilian Spaczyński

Hey everyone, time for Update #8! Once the paint was completely dry I jumped straight into panel lining, and to be completely honest it turned out to be the absolute worst and most frustrating stage of the entire build. I am always open to testing different modeling techniques, but scribing is something I have tried three separate times and I just completely hate it and cannot get the hang of it. I much prefer doing traditional panel lining and meticulously cleaning up the excess, although on some parts the liner was spreading so awkwardly that it drove me crazy. I used Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color for this process and I want to address all the skeptics right away. If you apply it on isolated individual parts before assembly there is absolutely zero chance of the plastic cracking. That is a total myth, period. Nobody can convince me that a single detached part will split unless it is already under stress or snap-fitted into another piece.

Of course I ran into a couple of minor mishaps along the way. During painting I accidentally touched the wet paint on one part, and when I tried to sand it down to smooth it out I ended up stripping it down to the bare plastic without primer. On another yellow part I applied the panel liner but really did not like how it looked, so when I tried to wipe it off I accidentally pulled off some of the underlying paint. My perfectionism simply would not allow me to leave those parts looking sub-par, especially since the corresponding symmetrical piece would look uneven next to it. I decided to start fresh with those components. I dropped them into a jar filled with isopropyl alcohol overnight. The next day I took them out and scrubbed them clean with an old toothbrush. The alcohol stripped away every single layer including the panel liner, the cellulose paint, and the primer. I then washed the parts with soap under running water to eliminate all alcohol traces and odors. After that I reapplied the primer, repainted the parts, completed the panel lining, and everything looked flawless.

On top of all that, I have officially started assembling the inner frame. I am sharing a small sneak peek here with you, and in the next post you will see the absolute culmination of this stage with the fully assembled inner frame. Stay tuned because the next update is going to be truly incredible!