The end is near for Zerstore, but the build is far from over…The machined metal thrusters are lovely. I’ve not put the LEDs in as the batteries I  ordered still have not arrived.My table is a mess of parts completed and  waiting for final top coat. The decals are mostly done at this point. There’s a lot of spare decals that I placed in extra places. Some decals you only just get enough of and it would have been nice to have more of them. Here I’m doing a quick test to see how the flat coat is going to look on the white sections. I love how the blue and red look with the gloss coat, but I think the white is going to be best flat. You can see the “red” decals on these leg “wing” pieces. The red decals are orange (like the orange plastic instead of red for the red parts) and they really should be a nice bold red. More pieces up for selective flat coating. The thrusters went into the backpack ok, but the top one really didn’t want to fit too well and popped off the red part that it sticks into. A little force and a little glue got things back to how they should be. The head. Oh how this head hurts me….

The head is meant to have an LED, switch and batteries inside, but although I got the circuit assembled and soldered, it really wasn’t going to fit. Then the super-glue stuck the switch in place so it wouldn’t switch any more, and then there was no way the two sides were ever going to fit so I ripped it out and gave up.

The I assembled the head without the electronics and it went together ok apart from the two sides which refuse to meet at the back.

More glue, more shaving plastic off parts to help them fit better and all is ok, but it’s not as good as it should be.

There’s the tiniest little photo-etched parts too, and although I nearly lost them while placing them, I did get it completed successfully. Now the legs are up for Alclad flat coat on the white sections. You can see the decals quite clearly now. The legs ended up with the most decals of any of the sections. The decals work quite well, and fit in reasonably with the pad printing on the armour parts.  Now for shoulder assembly. There’s small parts that clamp the wings and go over the inner should parts and then a bolt goes through. There’s no way to get good pressure on the plastic clamps to get them close enough together so that the bolt can reach the other end. This is just the typical bad fit issue that has plagued this kit. However, I can use a few dabs of glue and get something that works decently to hold things in place without forgoing the articulation.. For final assembly the skits go next. Here’s the rear skits in place. The photo-etched detail looks great on them. The parts that clamp onto the waist are very tight, but fortunately the peg into the skirts are just right to hold them off while still being easily removable. Front skirts on and we’re looking good.  Looking from beneath we can see more of the photo-etched parts and allis working well.  Now to get the hips in place. This is very very tight and a right fiddle. And of course, when you try to get the legs on there’s no way you can get enough pressure on them to make them stick, so off with the hips and on with the legs. It’s two steps back to go one step forwards… Ok, so let’s try working up from the bottom now. Legs on and tight.   And the torso joins on. And another two steps back while I take off the torso, off with the skirts and on with the stabilizers. The stabilizers are a very tricky fit and took force and a little shaving of the hole the blue back pegs insert into to get it to fit. And on with the second stabilizer. Once they’re on, they’re pretty tight though. And bending the stabilizers down they act to help keep this large kit upright. At the front of the stabilizers are some small photo-etched parts. Like all the tiny photo-etched parts they’re a right pain and because they’re not designed with the equivalent of a peg to go into a hole on the piece, you have to super-glue them in and of course it’s hard to do that without causing any mess, and because the parts are so tiny there’s always the danger of loosing them. Time for the backpack which was a very tight fit. It mated well with its connector but those stabilizers are so tight there was hardly enough room to fit the backpack between them. But eventually and with a little force I got it in place and it seems pretty tight. And now the skirts can go back on again. To prepare for the shoulders I moved the arms down. The left side moved down well, but the right didn’t want to go. Although I didn’t quite have to pull off a blue panel to get the arm down, eventually I forced things to where they needed to be. Putting the flying wings up gave easier access to put the necessary pressure to ensure a good fit with the shoulders. They slipped on easily enough, but they were tricky to guide into place. Now the beam sabres can go onto the shoulders, and the head on top. Oh, what do you mean there’s a neck piece? I remember now, I took it off when I had to fix the fit of the head side sections. Now where is it? It’s not on the work table, and it’s not in the metal dishes I use to keep small parts safe.

But there’s a spare of it on the runners isn’t there? Yes, I’m safe! But no, it’s only one part of the neck, so best keep looking…

On hands and knees I search the tiled floor around my desk, and then under my desk and then finally find it way at the back right up against the wall. I hate it when that happens. And the Zerstore is looking pretty much finished.  What’s missing? The gun….…and the shield (which with, you guessed it, a little brute force snaps firmly into place).

And now I need to take a break, tidy everything up and get some final photos taken. This has been a very tricky build and I’ll have a fair bit to say on this kit once I’ve calmed down from the stress of the final assembly.

Update

I managed to move the model to my office and cleared space on the shelf next to it’s 1/144 counterpart. I was happy that no parts fell off during the transfer. So yes, this is a big kit, but it’s still 1/100 so it’s not as big as a PG.