It's time to proceed on to the Protostar kit's fin pods.
The first step, of course, is to cut away the bases of the three noses used for the pods, per the kit instructions.
Behold, I do follow instructions....sometimes....
The cuts are carefully made using many passes of a sharp X-Acto blade, followed by a sanding block to clean up the edges.
As with the tail section and nose, the pods' molding seam lines are removed by scraping with the hobby knife blade.
Now, here is where I must deviate from the stock Protostar in the interest of adding a 'Steampunk' detail.
In the fictitious grand scheme of things, I envision these fin pods to be three outboard tanks to hold the water supply for the mighty steam engine that drives this 'Marvelous Machine'.
At this point, the pods would not make very effective tanks if left open ended, so they need to have a lower cap installed.
So far, I have not found any ready made items in the BlastFromThePast La-BOR-a-tory that could fulfill this task, so I'm afraid I may have to grab some balsa stock, fire up the wood lathe, and custom make the parts.
Stay tuned.....