Drop Pods: final details and assembly

On the home stretch on the rather fun, if time consuming process of building drop pods. This is the last round with a few snippets of painting, plus final assembly.

Drop Pods: painting & detailing

Having put all the files and glue away - the drop pods are moving onto painting. This is one of the more complex sets of sub assemblies I have done with airbrushing, and includes a whole bunch of (hopefully) clever masking.

Drop Pods: an exercise in magnet & plastic engineering

Most model gamers think of the hobby in a 'build' mode and a 'paint' mode (and 'play/game' mode of course). I also think of there being an 'engineering' stage - this is distinct from just 'building' in that it covers modifying a kit so that it can be magnetised, open/closed, strengthened with pins/sprue or even just recut if grabbing parts from different kits.

I often quite like this part, as it involves thinking about how to solve something that isn't on the instructions. Often building in functionality or swap-ability it wasn't intended for. 

Not all models *need* this type of engineering; some don't need any at all. But some need an extensive amount. 

The marine drop pod is one of those models.