The Eagle Transporter is progressing well with most major sub-assemblies complete, so I decided to paint up some of the details pieces.These parts go on the command module beak section and I sprayed them with Tamiya gunmetal followed by Alclad polished aluminium. Although I don’t think the details were highlighted at all on the studio model, I decided to bring out the details on the pieces with thin Tamiya smoke along the lines.  You have to make up four sets of directional control thrusters for the four shoulder pods. For the thruster bells, I again used Tamiya gunmetal followed by Alclad polished aluminium. The blocks that they stick into were problematic. The 1st run of the kit has a fault whereby the blocks are 1mm too tall, so I used my file to take that 1mm back off. Also, the moulding isn’t that good and the top and bottom moulds are not well aligned leaving a nasty seam line that needs to be filed and sanded out.

To finish the blocks I primed with Alclad grey primer to see where any defects were and then went with Alclad white primer for the white of the spaceship, top coating with Aclad flat. This is basically the same recipe that I found so successful on the PG Gundam Unicorn.
 The windows also need to be painted. I’ve left the model open so I can insert the windows right at the end. For the frames I masked and painted in white, but the lower windows and passenger pod windows need to be blacked-out. To do that I put Tamiya Smoke on the outside, and black paint on the inside. The black paint mazed a little, but I doubt it’ll ever be seen when the kit is assembled. You might be able to make out some of the paint mazing on these larger window pieces. Continuing work on the shoulder pods I decided I didn’t like how the arms that join into the corridors are open on the bottom, so I filled in all the gaps with Milliput. The two corridor sections are a little different for front and back but use the same basic pieces. The front corridor gets a command pod joining section (that I magnetized earlier) added on this surface, whereas the rear corridor does not, yet still has the holes for it, so I cut a small piece of plasticard to fit and finished the end nicely. While I was on painting white Alclad primer for the main white of the kit, I kept looking for pieces I could paint together with the corridors. Then I remembered I’m going to have to mask the grey primer undercoat so as it shows through in areas producing a panel effect. I’m going to have to carefully do that for each section of the kit.For the corridors I used thinned Tamiya smoke to bring out the details. Once that’s dry I can get out the Tamiya weathering master sets to dirty up this section. These are the inner-most parts of the kit, so they have to be completely painted before I can start assembling some of the framework around them or I’ll never be able to get the paint done properly.