Thanks for the support folks! Eddie, if you have the time and the inclination please start at the beginning. The real beginning starts here:
https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...-vs-old-build-thread
It covers the first year of the Saga in the Layout Design Forum starting with the an empty room, painting the walls, covering the ceiling, building the L-girder structure, and then laying track and wiring to get a functioning layout. Part II picks up in this forum and goes from Ballasting to the present day. There are many deviations since I don't work in a linear fashion, periodically digressing to build a plastic kit here and there just to break the monotony. Over the years I've had some steady followers and have learned as much from them as they claim they've learned from me.
Today I did get the fuselage onto the bronze globe for its fitting. It was a good idea to try it out without another 30 pounds of plane hanging on it. It took two of us, me and Jeff Smith (a pilot, architect and member of the Bowman Field Heritage Team) to maneuver it into position and I did have to drill out all three holes in the bronze dome. I broke the cutting edges of the drill so it was shaped better for drilling in brass/bronze. The model will now slip in place when it's complete. The top of the dome is over 7 feet in the air.
Re: the Mars.
Yes! Putting it on a bias is primarily to limit the contact area to the FEP film. And yes, there are some shapes where maybe situating it flat on the platen might work better. I'm relatively new to this, so it's not quite the expert leading the novice. It's more like a lessor novice leading a newer novice. That said, I also consider positioning faces with more critical details downward so the supports don't make too much of a mess. I also look at hollowed out shapes and want them facing down so the uncured resin drains out of them before I pull them off the machine. I'm trying to remember why I situated the bumpers as I did, but it probably was a compromise of the variables as I saw it at the time. There is no hard and fast rules. The other thing I'm looking at is the supports and where they're attaching themselves. If there are too many on sensitive areas where removal would damage the details I try to reposition. In other words, it all depends...
