The hand rails for the CM pilot’s space walk are now built. Soldering small pieces of wire togethre on that scale was a little harder than I expected: I’m a bit out of practice with that stuff, alas. But, they’re done, look at least okay (maybe even better), and are half painted. (Why paint silver-colored […]

Q-ball’s painted. I mixed some gray (primer, as it happened) and flat black, painted on with a brush. Doesn’t look great under the OptiVISOR #7 lens, but looks okay, and looks fine with the unaided eye. When I masked the fin fairings, I left a small crescent masked that should have been unmasked, and it […]

Finally! All the surface prep is done. The spirals are all filled and sanded, the minor dings in the wraps are filled, the gaps between the wraps and the body tube are filled, and the spots where parts will be glued after painting are masked. It’s time to spray some primer! Maybe, just maybe, I’ll […]

The bane and boon of aging eyes. About 20 years ago, I first noticed that my near vision was starting to go, ever so slightly. (I had a hard time distinguishing the pins of a min-DIN8 connector.) The eyes are now to the point that for all the fine construction work and fine finishing work, […]