antampatz

With the plastic cement fully cured, the next step was removing the excess material squeezed out of the seams and restoring the surface finish of the weapon components.

This stage focused primarily on the bazooka, which was by far the largest and most complex of the three weapons. Because the bazooka is designed to be dismantled for storage in the kit's original rear container, it consists of multiple sections, each split into two halves. As a result, it contains significantly more seam lines than either the beam rifle or machine gun.

The removal process followed much the same approach used throughout the rest of the build: a combination of sandpaper, metal and glass files, scraping tools, and the back of a hobby knife blade. The objective was to remove the hardened plastic squeezed out during cementing while restoring the original contours of the parts.

To help with this process, I made a series of custom sanding sticks using old plastic cards and double-sided tape. Sandpaper was applied directly to the cards, creating rigid sanding tools of whatever length and width was required for a specific area.

I generally prefer this approach over many commercially available sanding sticks. Not only does it allow the size of the sanding tool to be tailored to the task at hand, but the rigid backing also makes it easier to maintain flat surfaces and crisp transitions. Softer sanding sticks and sanding sponges tend to conform to the part being worked on, which can make it difficult to preserve sharp edges and can gradually soften surrounding details.

The bazooka provided several examples where these custom tools proved particularly useful. The larger cylindrical sections were relatively straightforward to clean up, as the seams ran along continuous surfaces that were easy to access and restore.

Other areas were more challenging. The scope, in particular, contained seam lines running through small recessed details and around subtle surface features that were difficult to reach with conventional sanding tools. Having the ability to create narrow sanding sticks of specific dimensions made it much easier to work in these confined areas while minimising the risk of damaging surrounding detail.

Although the work was time-consuming, the improvement is already noticeable. The various sections of the bazooka now read much more like single components rather than pairs of parts joined together, bringing them closer to the appearance of a real piece of equipment rather than a model assembled from two halves.

With the bazooka largely cleaned up and refined, the remaining seam removal work can now focus on the beam rifle, machine gun, and their associated accessories.