Carp to Gold: Ep. 2., Hullduggery

Before any doubt arises, yes, I will add more bad puns to the title of this series.

Anyway, I made some progress on the Aurora, which at first seems a backwards step, but alas! not so!

I managed to separate the deck and the hull halves. For the 1903 fit these require major surgery, and it is actually better to have access to the edges of the deck and the inside of the hull halves.

So I sanded most of the tacky glue off the deck, and then removed the two midships sponsons and the rearmost one with a scalpel, we won't need those. Also the rearmost deck house and the 6" gun have to be switched up, so I chopped the deck house off and will rebuild it later.

Testing the fit of the aftermarket self-adhesive wooden deck. I'll have to make some amendments to the main deck piece, but otherwise it looks fine! I also don't know what the deal is with that big empty gap between the first funnel and the upper works that hold the bridge, so I'll fashion a plasticard roof.

Speaking of aftermarket parts, the components for the 6" main guns also arrived. In her 1903 fit the Aurora did not have gunshields, so what I bought is some resin 6" RN naval guns in 1/350 scale, just compare it to the original and see the difference. 

Furthermore I'll remove the resin barrel and replace it with turned brass, originally for the Zvezda Borodino-class battleship's secondary guns, so fitting in period as well. I plan to leave the brass bare, so it's going to be one of the latest attachments.

Sanding the sponsons off the hull halves. Then I decided to hit the red paint (which I thought to be something like nail polish) with turpentine. It removed some, but not much. 

I sanded it some more but only got red slime on the sandpaper. Okay, I thought, leave it at that, but first just wash it over gently with some cheap drug store after shave... Turns out the paint was alcohol based and the after shave removed it almost completely. Incidentally the upper hull turned pink. Not sure if it's Mountbatten pink so it can be used as camouflage?

Filling the holes where the sponsons were with leftover plasticard, namely an old Covid vaccination card. Never had any other use of it.

Adding MAXX Putty to the gaps where the boat cranes were, and also smoothing around the former sponson sections.

After the MAXX Putty cured, I went at it and sanded the hull a bit more, further I managed to remove the overflown glue that stained the bottom hull (simple physical removal was required).

Next up is to add some additional armor plating to the upper works, filling and sanding smooth the places where the rougher filing and the old glue left marks, and then slowly but surely I should be able to stick the three main parts together again. With proper plastic cement, that is.