This is a snap together kit - and about 1/2 of the kit was just snapped together with some cement around the seam to hold it shut and the other half had the snaps cut off and glued in place after a bunch of on/off and sanding to try and get the seams more consistent. I was partially successful. I was somewhat disappointed by the detail in the parts, but as the classic shape came together, I was happy regardless.
Just about every seam got 1-2 rounds of putty and a lot of sanding. The saucer came out best.
One half of the bottom module was much more warped than the other half - you can see the shiny bits after a light sand. The other part had no evidence of similar sink marks. Oh well - some practice for putty, sanding and primer.
The paint job was pretty straight forward. I finally have some confidence with the Mission Models paint, and especially the clear coat that I was struggling with. Below is Grey 1500 Mr Surfacer, then Light Ghost Grey Mission Models base coat, some detailing with mission models and masking, and a semi-gloss clear coat.
What I learned was: MMP recommends light wet coats - wet still means wet: I was putting too little paint down, and too slowly - like I was building up a lacquer base coat on a car, and was ending up with a textured finish. Turning the pressure up to get finer atomization did not help: more overspray and more dust. Solution: lower pressure and heavier coats applied as quickly as I can (using a full trigger pull on my 0.5mm needle). Just need to thin enough to prevent sputtering, which takes more than MMP recommends, but varies a lot from bottle to bottle. I think I knew this before this model, but this paint job came together the easiest for me.
I'm into the decals now. I'll post progress tomorrow. Prepare for something like 231 update posts to cover the never ending decals.
Nice start and looking good 
Good work so far 
