Hi Guys
Thanks for all your kind comments. I have hardly touched this over the last few weeks as I simply have not had time.
I cut some grooves in the envelope and steering bag, these might look a bit gairy (if that word is correct or even English) but I have deliberatly oversized them because they will fill up with varnish and hopefully appear much softer, more like ripples if this works. now all the shaping on the envelope is done it is time to change it. I put extreamly thinned varnish on it in copiouse (probably got that word wrong as well) amounts, then when it was nearly dry but tacky a thicker coat, then once again the thick gloppy (another one!) coat. The properties of the dense foam have now changed and it is now hard but brittle around the surface, this does mean that I am screwed as far as any more alterations are concerned so I had better have done it right but on the other hand turnbuckles can be fixed into the skin and the odd knock does not put a cavenous dent into the soft version of the foam. The only floor varnish I had in the house had dark oak wood stain in it, I would not have used this if I had something else. It has given it the strange effect of filling the grouves with darker varnish, a not needed but interesting effect. I will now turn to acrylic and put a few coats on of this, acrylic only because I seem to have more appropriate colours in my acrylic paint collection than my oils. I starten by wacking some primer on it. This then showed all the imperfections and knock holes which I filled with my own filler concoction (wall filler power, PVA and acrylic paint).
Seeing other builds of this subject most people tend to leave out the two air intakes underneath. I heat shaped some plastic card by taping it around two cylinders with metal foil tape (that is the only stuff I find that does not come off in hot water and it conducts heat). I then shoved them in a cup of boiling hot water for a few minutes. There was no science involed in cutting them to shape, I just used judgment of eye and kept putting them up against their possition. Speaking of possition i have had to re do the lines on this three times now, the first was because the first coat of varnish dissolved the permenent marker pen ink (as well as the glue between the bag and the envelope) and I re did this with black wax pencil. I may still have to re do them again because after every layer of paint they become less vissible and I do not want to loose where they are. I glued the air intakes in place with PVA and then super glue although it was a bit dumb doing this now rather than before it was primed.
Thanks for looking in, Alan.