Space Shuttle

This is your traditional polyurethane [plastic] model, which can be found at most hobby or craft stores.

The external fuel tank is a dark orange/red color [technically, matte dark ochre].  I found no such color in spray paints, so I used a thin coat of "competition red" over standard "orange" to produce a close match.

Most model kits recommend painting each part before cutting it off the mold.  I have found better results from assembling large sections, filling creases with model putty, and then painting them.  The trick is to use a mask of clear tape to protect certain areas from the paint.  I assembled the whole shuttle main body, spray painted it white, and then masked off the wings and sides as I painted the wing edges and underside with black paint.  While the black paint was tacky-wet, I carefully peeled off the tape mask to have clear and straight edges where the colors meet.

I estimate that this model took a total of 80 hours, not including the drying time after assembly of many of the sub-sections.  There was a lot of work in matching pieces and sanding the seams smooth after gluing sections together.  This particular model, from Revell, did not have good precision in matching halves of parts.  Also, the decals were very yellowed [probably from age], which definitely show against the white body of the shuttle.