Articles - Maritime Science Fiction Modelers

		The next step was to make mold sections of each plug. Using a piece of thick plate glass works well in providing an absolutely flat surface to work on when molding and casting. Making "wells" around the plugs makes sure the fiberglass resin doesn't run all over the place. The final step was to cast again the inside surface of these half molds to reproduce the smooth side out. These half sections in fiberglass were assembled, now hollow and look identical to the original solid pieces. All outer hull sections were not glued together but rather were chemically welded together with fiberglass cloth saturated in resin.

		All windows are white opaque tinted clear resin and are chemically bonded to the hull. This ensures that the main casting material of the windows is chemically the same as the material that makes up the hull. Different materials have different properties. Parts fabricated from wood, plastic, fiberglass, etc., all react differently to things like temperature, moisture and such. Wood can shrink/expand or even twist, which if in a model also made of fiberglass or plastic could cause warping or cracks to develop. As much of the model was made from just fiberglass for this reason—to help preserve the model long-term.

		There are numerous hidden access points to facilitate the easy changing of interior bulbs. One of them is the half-round shuttlebay hangar door.