I've actually stopped work on Hyperion for the moment, due to waiting on some parts for the lighting, in favour of her sister ship, the Elysium. This ship uses the same filter cartridge engine design, but has 3 engines and a very "Thunderbird 2" nose shape.
I started on the nose by making a 3d cardboard template, then cutting out filler pieces from a sheet of extruded polystyrene foam. This is the infamous "pink foam" you hear a lot about on various forums. It's pretty cheap, as you can get a 1M x 1.5M x 3cm sheet for 5 euro, and, because it's used in building insulation, you can usually find chunks of it in skips! Compare that to the horrendous prices for balsa, which is now a protected wood....
Anyway, after about an hour's carving with a craft knife, I had a reasonably Thunderbirdy snout shape. I was surprised I could even sand the foam, although if you get a bit too eager, it melts.
Next phase, paint it to seal the foam, as it will apparently react badly if directly coated with bondo/isopon/epoxy putty. I tried this with gloss paint. The results weren't too great, as the foam seemed to absorb the paint. Second attempt to seal it : PVA wood glue (well, Ponal, the german equivalent) as suggested on xrobots.co.uk for sealing plastazote foam. Initial attempts with diluted PVA didn't work well, due to the foam causing surface tension problems and making all the glue run off. Undiluted glue worked a lot better, making a nice thick even coat.
Finally, the chance to play with epoxy putty! Well, between the Minis and the Striker (as you see on the Avatar) I'm no stranger to working with it, or fibreglass layup, for that matter. (The wings on the Striker required quite a bit), so I spent the weekend on my balcony making strange smells, and sanding away madly. I coated the pattern once, rubbed it back smooth, then filled the various imperfections with plastic putty, rubbed those back, then put on another layer, rubbed that back this evening and am now waiting for the second set of filled imperfections to dry.
I'm wondering which way to go with this : either make a plaster mould to then produce the nose halves (I've only done the top half so far, the bottom is next on the list) by fibreglassing/moulding isopon, or building a small vacuum table and taking two pulls - one in thicker plastic, then one in thin plastic for panel detailing. Having learnt a few lessons from the first project, the chassis for this model will either be thin MDF or perspex, depending what I can find at the DIY store.
Pictures to follow as soon as I get them off the phone.
