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I haven’t built any models for three weeks – well, I hadn’t – and at last inspiration struck. Why did inspiration strike? Read on!

From this point on, unless otherwise stated or completely obvious, all abbreviations are written using the Latin alphabet.

I had to start a new model in order to save it. Why did it need saving, you might ask? Well… Because I have kittens. They haven’t settled down yet and spend all day – and all night, just to make things more interesting – charging around the apartment like a horde of Huns, climbing and… I’ve had this kit for quite a while and had been storing it on top of a bookcase. But the kittens, especially Herr Otto Flick, learned to climb onto the models stored up there. After the kit had been knocked down twice from about 2.5 metres, I decided it wouldn’t be very healthy to leave it there. So I moved it to the kitchen, where I normally “work”. But our kitchen can’t expand indefinitely either, so… I had to start building it.
Well, today was its turn. Here come steps 1, 2 and 3:

Since it’s a MENG kit, I wasn’t expecting any assembly problems. In my opinion, they’re one of the best model manufacturers. Every kit of theirs that I’ve built has had clear, precise instructions and an almost perfect fit between the parts.

Fitting parts C18 and C32 to C25 was a slight surprise, as you can also see in the video, but I’m not complaining. It becomes clear enough once you start assembling them. Of course, I managed to “forget” parts D50 and C11, but that was no problem. In fact, I would recommend doing them the way I did.

This step was surprisingly easy. Of course, it wouldn’t be me if… If I didn’t have to revise the description now, while writing the article. It turns out I forgot to glue on parts C17, C43 and C21. Fortunately, adding them in the next session won’t be a problem.

Everything assembled so far is supposed to be painted matt black, except for C34 and C35, which should be burnt iron – something along the lines of cast iron or steel. I decided it would be easier to brush-paint them at the end. They won’t be particularly visible anyway…

Here I only glued together C56, C57 and C36. First I need to prime and paint everything assembled so far, and only then join the assemblies together; otherwise it will be a nightmare. But I tried dry-fitting them, and I’m very, very pleased with how it’s coming together so far!

So, after around an hour and 15 minutes of work – plus another hour and a half setting up cameras, lighting, audio and all the other wonders, then dismantling the whole setup – the progress is reasonably good:

Here is the shortened version of the build video:

And here is what the build looked like in real time:

Of course, it wouldn’t be me if I hadn’t done something silly. While preparing to photograph the result, I decided to swap two lenses: take one off camera B and put it on the stills camera. In the process, I managed to drop it onto the assembled parts, breaking those delicate little things sticking out on the left. Fortunately, they snapped cleanly at their bases, and what you see now is simply glued back together with a little cement. I don’t think it will affect the finished model. Or at least I hope not…

I’m not sure when I’ll continue yet.