This morning, work was begun on applying the first bit of detailing to one side of a Protostar fin.
With the riveted panels separated, the first order of business was to make the matching cutouts for the holes in the fins. Each section was positioned on the fin and the hole pattern marked out.
A little precision work with a sharp X-Acto blade produced the cutouts.
Here is the root edge panel placed on the fin.
The remaining two panels are formed and applied in the same manner. I tried to leave a little more space between the panel edges to exaggerate the seam line so that it would be more visible.
Back in the planning stages for this model, the original intent had been to paper the fins with one continuous sheet of label material, then scribe the seam lines with a blade. That would have produced too thin of a line featuring raised edges. The separate panel method I chose here seems to work better, even though it requires a lot more labor.
For this part of the build, I thank my many years of experience with stamp collecting in which I learned to carefully precision-align thousands of small pieces of paper in an album.
Once all three panels are in place, any excess label material is trimmed from the edges.
Since the hand-cut holes in the label material are somewhat uneven and ragged, a light application of a Dremel tool with a rounded sanding stone is used to make things pretty.
Here is the completed side of one fin.
Now, it's rinse and repeat five more times.
Phew!