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METHODOLOGY
A vital ingredient to a well built model, be it assembled from a kit or scratch-built, is the establishment, before the first tool is raised
in anger, of a carefully sequenced set of steps that will assure the best possible results employing the least amount of effort, time, and materials. A 'methodology' is formulated – the assembly/building plan. The
establishment of a rational series of constructions steps. The project is divided into sub-assemblies.
I have found it useful to establish a mind-set in the shop, where I have become accustomed to regarding each sub-assembly as a model project
onto itself – other than periodic checking that a sub-assembly will integrate correctly with the other components - each is worked with the exactness and TLC I would lavish on a finished display piece. This practice
insures that there are no 'weak sister' elements. Once everything is put together the display is as perfect (or flawed) as the individual components that make it up.
My build-up of the FS-1 kit tasked me with quite a bit of sub-assembly master scratch building as well as eventual tool making and part
casting. I settled on dividing the job into six major tasks: The hull, the kit itself, needed serious corrective contour work; the hemispherical domes atop and on the bottom of the hull, these and the many gussets
that boarder them, had to be made; the forward bulkhead detail pieces, the intake grills, searchlight guards, and windows, all had to be scratch-built; the after bulkhead detail pieces, the access door, corrugated
panels and propulsion nozzles, more scratch-building; the upper and lower access hatches, each practical hatch comprising many pieces, all scratch-built; and the interior water tight cylinders (WTC's), pump-jets,
and equipment foundations. Each of these sub-assemblies has a worked out methodology which established which type material to employ, how these substrates would be worked by machine or hand, how the shaped pieces
would be finished. If a practical item, how it will work. And, finally, how these masters would be employed to create tools (molds), and how and from what material the model pieces would be cast.
I'll take each sub-assembly methodology and accomplishments through to completion as this article unfolds.
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