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Here is the foot pad modification. An X-Acto saw blade was used to cut small slots in the foot pad for the addition of the rib
details. Each rib was one piece of thin plastic that was carefully cut and glued onto the pad and then filed down to the correct size. This was another time consuming modification but adds a great
deal to the appearance of the model. Again, the landing leg details are very accurate and I chose not to rebuild the pads and struts.
Here is the lower hull with the landing bay
sections removed. This was carefully done with an X-Acto knife and saw. I left 1/4" of material around the mounting hole intact to attach the landing leg.
To get
the basic mold line of the lower hull, use detail #32 or #33 lower level support walls from the J2 kit. The landing bay wall section you cut will have to be slightly modified to extend past the
lower deck floor line. You will know what I mean when you start cutting the new sections. Also, the height of the new section will have to be trimmed down to prevent it from interfering with the
upper deck floor.
After cutting and trial fitting the landing bay side wall, I drilled five 1/4" holes on 1/2" centers. I then glued a doubler that had been painted
"Gunship Grey" (use a color of your choice) to the back. This not only gives the bay wall added strength, it gives a nice bulkhead appearance.
Here is a completed landing
bay as seen from the interior of the lower deck (no room for staterooms). The bay sidewalls were glued in place so that they are flush with the lower hulls outer moldline but the doublers are not.
The bay walls may need to be carefully filed flush to match the lower hull. I considered using the upper deck floor as the top sections of the each bay, but since it is not a complete circle, I
would have had to splice in sheet plastic.
Now that the landing bays are complete and in place, the struts on the landing legs must be extended. This was done with sections of
1/8" aluminum tube. A 12" length was only 40 cents at the local hobby shop. The tube fit very nicely over the pin at the top of the strut.
Finally, the
finished landing bay! The only thing that remains is to paint the strut extension to match. This modification took the better part of two days to make but I
am very glad that I decided to do it. Leaving the kit as is would have been fine, but she is starting to look like our old Jupiter 2! and there is more on page 3
Send your comments to Jim
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