Volume 21 gives us one more large piece for the “underchunk” and just a single component to attach to it.
Once the component is on, this gets added to the “underchunk” and it’s now even bigger. When we flip it over, we can see where some of the dangly bits will eventually be mounted.
Volume 22 returns us to the forward hull and we begin to build the next major segment, continuing aft from the bow.
Our first step is to assemble this side panel. It’s pretty simple. A bunch of brackets go on the inside, and an orange intake gets glued to the outside. This is another case where plastic gets bonded to metal, so out comes the super glue. Fortunately, there’s no danger of damaging the surface, since (as seen at right) a large cowling goes over the intake. That’s some smart engineering. If you’re gonna make me haul out the super glue, give me some error margin to work with.
Finally, this side panel gets mounted onto the hull. There’s only one screw holding it on, but it’s just a start.
Vol. 23 is the same piece on the opposite side, and you can see where it will be attached.
This is where the ship starts to widen to accommodate its flight deck, and you can see the many brackets where more pieces will attach. Coincidentally, “Manny Brackets” was my radio name when I was a sports announcer in college. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Vol. 24 has another big piece for us. This will become the “floor” of the new hull section we’re currently building.
Left: First, two brackets get attached the tips of the latest hull segments. This is what will connect to the next segment to come.
Right: Next, the “floor” gets attached to some of the brackets on the side panels. Once it goes on, everything feels nice and solid.
Left: Flip it over, and we can see where the “underchunk” is going to attach. There’s a rectangular socket in it that matches this block.
Right: Finally, a metal brace goes across the new hull segment to reinforce it. And we’re done with Vol. 24.
Vol. 25 gives us a distributor box. Time to wrangle some fibers.
First, we collect the fibers by label and carefully cap them off. This is always a challenge, but when you’re done you can get a preview of how things will look when they light up. Nice payoff to the labor that went into those turrets.
Left: The main part of the distributor box is a panel of LEDs, some of which get covered by color domes that turn white into red, green, and orange.
Right: assembling the box and installing it is easy work. Sometimes it’s a struggle to get the plugs in, but this time it’s quite easy. As you can see, several other fibers will plug into this one later.
With that done, I try a test fit; the “underchunk” attaches to the forward hull easily. At this point the ship is 26″ long and there’s still the aft section to be added.
Vol. 26 returns us to the bow, where we will start assembling the forward flight deck.
Here we add a casing that will become a hangar for one aircraft or another. I think it’s for the Cosmo Seagull. One fiber is attached to it. You don’t see them yet, but two little magnets attach to the underside, which will help hold it in place later.
Vol. 27 continues this work and gives us another distributor box. This is much smaller than the ones we’ve dealt with so far.
Two doors go on top of the hangar block and the little distributor box gets attached between the two circular openings. Can you guess what will fit into them?
It’s the gun turrets, of course! Vol. 28 gives us all the parts needed to build two of them. And I’ve been dreading this, because the gun turrets were not well designed in the Andromeda model, and these look just like those. Each barrel gets an optical fiber in it, which goes back to the problem I described earlier: fiber tension vs. glue strength. See how tightly wound up that bundle of fibers is? That feels like the people at Hachette are just DARING me to get through this one.
When you compare the instructions with what you have to deal with in real life, it’s like we’re being gaslit.
This continues as the hubs of each cannon are mounted to the frame. Only a freshly-made fiber is as straight as what we see in the instructions. When you take freshly-made fibers (probably still warm) and coil them up, reality takes over.
Left: the bottom goes onto the turret frame and the fibers laugh and taunt you.
Right: but then…holy cheet. The barrels go on and…they actually hold the fibers in place! What’s more, the hubs of each barrel actually have some tension in them. The Andromeda barrels had none. You’d raise them up and they’d just flop back down like wet noodles. But not this time! You point them up, those suckers STAY up.
This is a VERY pleasant surprise. It tells me somebody actually paid attention and fixed the problem. It’s tough snapping them into their sockets on the deck plate, but once they’re on they work like a dream. Well done, Hachette!
Finally, we collect and cap all the fibers, then plug them into that little distributor box. I’m much happier at this point than I expected to be.
Vol. 29 moves us back to the newest hull segment, where we’ll attach an auxiliary runway. As you can see from the parts, it will have three layers.
Left: layer 1 gets bolted into place.
Right: layer 2 has a pair of fibers attached to it. There are “prongs” that you feed the fibers through, but they’re not tight enough to actually grip them. They’ll pop off the moment I let go, so I just suck it up and tape those suckers down. This is not an exposed panel, so it doesn’t matter if the tape eventually deteriorates. That’ll show ’em!
Layer 2 goes on directly over layer 1 and then another fiber gets attached in an unusual manner. This time, however, the prongs DO actually have some grip, and they hold the fiber in place (center frame on the right). I’m happy about this until I realize that they could have been doing this all along. Every time I’ve struggled to keep fibers from popping out of their channels, prongs like this could have saved the day. Better late than never? Or are they just taunting me again?
We’ve reached Vol. 30, and now we’ll be finishing off this auxiliary runway with a new hull panel.
It comes with interior parts; a couple brackets and what looks like a row of lateral missile launchers. This goes together easily.
Next, it gets attached to the hull just above the layered segment we’ve been building.
And now, after feeding that odd fiber through it, the deckplate snaps right in with a satisfying click. The only problem I notice is that it isn’t quite flush with the hull. There’s a noticeable gap running along almost the full length. I guess it’s where the deck hands drop their chewed gum and cigarette butts. Anyway, that’s it for Volume 30.
And here’s where we are with the whole thing. Hopefully the next round will allow me to bolt some of these pieces together, because they’re taking up a lot of real estate on the work table.