Sternail

The kit has few parts, a collecting card and only two whale decals. Also a cardboard stand is included, but it is ugly and I'm going to use it only as a holder for building the model. 

Another possible paint scheme. 

Some drafts for the camo scheme. It might be a trait of the Ma.K -kits that they don't have definite painting and marking instructions. 

The camo scheme I'm going to stick to is based on the Cassiopeian Nautilus-spaceship from "Once Upon a Time... Space" -tv series. 

Parts are not glued yet. Just checking the balance. 

I have already made a great stand for te Sternail. 

There was no instructions about the lengths of the antenna and the laser gun, so I measured them from the picture and scaled up. 

Two 0,5mm rods like in the instructions. The middle laser gun is not two 0,1mm rods but one 0,1mm rod and 0,6mm tube. I think gun should have a muzzle. 

0,4mm rods in the back of the fuselage and holes drilled in the "solar panels". My smallest drill bit is 0,6mm but atleast there is room for adjusting the poses. 

2mm hole through the copyright symbol. 

The parts come together very well with the thin CA-glue. I should add some primer paint before the last parts. 

Filled an empty area with milliput and putty. 

Black primer on the fuselage and behind the "condensers" and "plasma rocket motors", that are based on T-62 tank turrets. 

More parts in place. The "solar panels" will be added last after painting, markings and weathering . 

Now everything is black primer. 

The main engine nozzle should have been painted separately, because now I had to mask the surroundings. Atleast AK's plastic putty is easy and fast to use. 

Pre-shading or is this called black basing with color variation? 

I added some AMig transparator in the light gray paint and covered the hole model. Tomorrow maybe comes the blue stripes. 

Masking the stripes was very burdensome... only the front fuselage was masked this time.  

Lot of work and I'm not sure is this good... 

Painting the stripes onto the back of the fuselage. 

All masks gone. I guess I get used to the blue stripes. 

Detailing the "solar panels". I wanted some blackish back with some texture, like the real solar panels have the grid on top of the solar cell. I though I would get some "griddish looking" results if I paint the base with black, add some chipping fluid, paint silver on top of that and then chip most of the silver paint. The result is not as I imagined, but it will do. I guess the Vallejo Air Aluminium does not chip nicely. 

White stripes on the other side of the solar panels. 

Damn masking tape teared of some paint. I guess I didn't clean the parts well enough. 

CA-glue failed, but it was easy to fix with more CA-glue. 

Decals are on place. I'm waiting for the Micro Sol to dry. 

Solar panels are in place. Next step is weathering... 

There is no typical weather in space, so what kind of weathering you use on spaceship? I tried out of curiosity the A.MIG Spaceship Wash and Spaceship Streaking. Also a little bit of panel lines. 

 

Sternail is ready! I lastly added matt varnish on the model and the nameplate. 

 

 

 

The whale decal got some damage during weathering.