No Skin off my Nose

Well, back to the build.  I have used the Dremel to rout out a "notch" to place the rear cockpit in behind the Pilot.  This was a point of much consternation for me as I debated to place it in the same manner as the original on the Forgeworld version of find some way to have the second crew member face forward.

I came to the conclusion I would have to create a huge "bump" on the back of the Vampire to accomplish a forward facing second canopy.  I "cleaned up" the canopy section of a Eldar Vyper fast weapons platform (no longer a jetbike the last few codices, Grrrr) and nestled it into position through numerous test fits and gentle trimming.

The next stage is the "skin" for the fuselage.  I fell back to old methods of scratch building by using "comic backing board" (thick single layer cardboard - ask your comic retailer if they throw it out when their shipments come in.  It is invaluable for saving the amount of sheet plastic you waste with mistakes.)  You can get exact shapes with the cardboard and then trace them onto plastic sheet for minimal "fixing" of problems later on.

I also finished placing plastic strip along the fuselage fore to aft to have an anchor point for the plastic sheet "skin when I apply it.

With the cardboard sections cut, I will be making sheet skin and applying it.  Next post you will see the fitting of the flying base hole on the bottom of the fuselage.  I will be using 1/2" clear plastic acrylic rod for the "flying stem" of the base.  this only ran about $2.50 a foot from my local plastic/acrylic fabrication store downtown (found in the phone book under "Plastics" - who woulda thunk it)

Having problems uploading pictures today, so I will try and get caught up next time.