Hasegawa 1/72 Macross VF-1A Max TV Custom - 3

Some minor progress on Max's VF-1A. I moved onto working on the engine nacelles. As I noted in my last post, the kit's engineered in such a way that you have to paint the exhaust outlets before you can assemble the nacelles. I had originally had planned to do it that way, but decided against it because I didn't want there to be the possibility that I would ruin the painted outlets while I was assembling the legs.

After thinking long and hard about it, I decided that I would cut half the cup that the outlets sit in, then assemble the leg. 

The assembled nacelles. Since I'll be displaying the finished model in flight mode, I also glued on the landing bay doors. However, the kit was engineered for gear down display, so the fit of the doors is a major pain in the ass. It's not a clean fit, so I'll be doing some sanding and filling to get everything at least semi-flush.

However, it turns out the that even with the cut out, the outlets are too wide because of the slight riser that sits in the cup. With the nacelles assembled, there's no way to slide the outlets in. I had to shave the sides of the outlets down enough for it slide in, but leave enough material for it to be able to seat into the inside the leg. The right shows the stock piece, and the left the shaved down unit.

You'll also noticed that I abandoned the idea of adding a ridge to the end of the outlets. I simply peeled of the pieces of styrene, cleaned it up, and scribed in new panel lines where the ridge would have been.

That's it for now. My plan this week is to finish cleaning up the nacelles. I've got most of the sub assemblies finished, so hopefully, in the next couple of weeks I can start putting primer on. Until then, happy modelling!!