StarshipBuilder's CR Galactica Build #2

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Lots of progress to report. The head is being skinned and it is going very smoothly. I am extremely pleased with how well the styrene panels are working out. They are much easier to deal with than the plex skins used on the first build.

The head is nearly complete at this point. The bottom is completely done. I started there as this is probably the hardest part. First, I finished up the bottom forward trench. Then, I fabricated and installed the KoolShade vent using authentic vintage stock (extremely rare and expensive today!).

With the trenches done, I could put the large "chin" panels on the bottom of the head. These are quite tricky to install. The styrene is not nearly as stiff as plex, so a good bit of structural reinforcement is necessary. I designed backer panels that get laminated to the inside surface of each chin panel. Whenever you do this, it's a good idea to add weep holes to the part to ensure an even glue bond. (You'll notice I do that sort of thing a lot to enhance structural integrity throughout the build.) They are further stiffened by the addition of internal stringers and they also get welded securely to each bulkhead using 1/4" square plex rods.

With the bottom skinned, I then machined the ends of the lower trench flush with the back of the head and installed the bottom forward trench rear walls followed by styrene cladding for the "cheek" panels on the very back of the head. I finished up by installing the "lower lips" to trim out the mouth trenches on either side.

At this point, it was time to start working on the top. I pieced the entire top skin together (already test-fitted from before) and installed it as a unit. The front section has to remain unattached for now in order to install the fiber optics inside the head. The rear center portion is part of the removable top hatch. So, the only parts of the top skin that can be glued down right now are the two rear pieces on either side of the hatch.

With those in place, I could finish up the hatch assembly itself. The clearance was very tight and the fit was perfect. (The hatch sub-structure even has little levelers all around so it can be made to sit perfectly flush with the top skin! I tried to think of everything. . .)

Next, it was time to start installing the side skins. I got the starboard skin in place using special clips I designed to make the process easier. The bottom of the skin was stiffened by adding plex bar stock on the inside of the lower edge. It was all quite solid and went together well.

The final touch will be the eye sockets. These are a royal PITA to build with this design, so I saved them for last. The top hatch, one of the coolest features of this particular version, has one drawback -- the structure blocks access to the inside of the head where the eye sockets go. Thus, there is no way to get at the underside of the skin when building them.

The skin itself starts out flat but it's curved when installed so you can't really pre-build the eye sockets on the back side of the skin before it goes on (well, maybe you could but that would be real tricky). Putting in the chin panels on the bottom requires full internal access, so the chin gets put on before the side skin. This means there's no access from below. Bottom line: Once the side skin goes on, all you have is a hole for the eye socket and no other significant access. This requires installing the sockets from the outside. Talk about a challenge!

The only way to proceed is with a lot of patience. I'm not really sure how I did this before, but somehow I figured it out. So far, I've fabricated the starboard eye socket (no pictures yet) and I'll polish it up over the weekend. With luck, the rest of the head should be complete very soon.