Been a while since the last update but I have been working on this on and off in the background
the back face of the baseplate has had some short lengths of tubing CA'd to it and the surface scored
the inside of the bottom end of the main casing has had the same treatment
this is because I plan to pour some resin in to seal the base of the shell
the idea is that it will key to the tubing and score marks with the purpose of making it so that the base will not fall off and deposit the sand on the carpet
I cleaned up the end of the casing to remove the moulding flash - I found that scraping with blade edge seemed to work best
once the end was flat I CA'd the baseplate on to the end of the casing
although it fits well there is a small gap left between the two parts so I splurged some of that new formula squadron grey putty
made a bit of a mess with it but at least I got the hole filled
after many hours of sanding back it is looking a lot neater
the casing itself has also been subjected to many many hours of sanding and polishing with a scotch pad
the vinyl type plastic they have used is horrible stuff - it doesn't sand very well and I have found that the mould release lines keep on coming back
thought I was going mad but sure enough, sand them away so all appears nice and smooth, leave a couple of hours and they come back
the surface also appears to hold a charge - every piece of dust sticks to the surface
I think I will have to give it a soapy wash down and prime it then see how good/bad it is
it may need a few prime/sand/prime/sand to get a smooth surface good enough to paint