This is the second Drop Pod that I have put together and painted. After the disaster that the last one was I had almost decided to not field any in my army. Luckily the construction and painting on this one was TONS easier.
I started out by cutting out all the pieces and scraping off the mold lines. On my last Drop Pod the doors just wouldn't shut all the way. I fiddled around dry fitting this one and found an area on the bottom of the doors that was rubbing - preventing the doors from closing correctly. Liberal application of my hobby knife fixed this.
The red ring shows where the trouble spot is.
From here I carried on like I did last time. I primed the parts that were going to be yellow white - the outside door panels and the 5 vertical 'rails - and the metallic parts black - internal door panels, both bottom pieces and the tube assembly.
From here I carried on like I did last time. I primed the parts that were going to be yellow white - the outside door panels and the 5 vertical 'rails - and the metallic parts black - internal door panels, both bottom pieces and the tube assembly.Once everything is nice and dry it is time to do the detalis. The insides get a quick dry-brush of boltgun metal and the exterior gets a nice coat of black on some of the details. At this point I do just a bit of weathering and battle damage - I paint the yellow areas black and then add some boltgun to it. For the boltgun a nice watered down dab of orange brown for some rust.
After all this has dried - I usually give it a full day - it is time to glue everything together. I glue the door panels together and then the fun begins. From here on out you have to get everything in position with the glue still wet and wiggle it all into place. The first to go up is the vertical rails. I affix these to the top column piece with the fan and gun attachment. I then glue the side rails to the top of the bottom piece. While this is still wet I put the doors in the bottom piece of the bottom and then attach the top. Then the wiggling starts. I find it best to open and close the doors while tweaking the whole structure to get everything to fit and the doors still open and close.
Now that everything is all together it is time for the dip. This model is quite too large to be able to dip so you have to do a reverse dip. To do a reverse dip just grab a good sized crappy brush. For this job I used a $1 foam brush from Wal-Mart. Get a good amount of varnish on the brush and then just sop it over the pod. It really isn't possible to get too much on so the more the merrier. Once the inside and outside are good and coated close pick up the model by the bottom and give it a bit of a shake to get off any excess dip. I find it best to do this part somewhere warm so the dip will flow pretty well.
After it has been dipped let it sit for a while and then come back with the brush. Very carefully open the doors about half way and brush up any excess dip. You don't want to seal the doors shut. You don't have to worry about messing up the dip job because if you do this step early enough the excess will flow back into the sections that are bare or messed up and sort it out. If you do mess up a bit don't worry - just paint it black and bolgutn after everything dries and you will have a bit extra battle damage - that is why I don't weather them too much before this step.
After everything is good and dry - AT LEAST a day - make sure everything opens and closes correctly, finish up the battle damage, give it a good coat of Dullcote and she is ready for deployment.
I have one more drop pod to assemble for my current list and then I will be done for a while. Even though I am getting better at putting these together I will enjoy having all I need of them done since they are pretty challenging.