Challenger - Cut it

From the beginning, the plan was to cut the Challenger in half, to be used as book-ends. I tried first with a dremel (Proxxon actually), but the angle was too awkward to successfully cut straight. Besides, I've never been able to cut straight anyway.

One way to cut perfectly straight is with a hacksaw, which made short work of the hull.

More clamps required to force the top and half together.

I used 1mm styrene sheet to close the halves.

Filled the interior with Chinchilla sand, which I had lying around since my experiments with anti-slip surfaces on the Merkava's. Added diluted white glue to keep the sand in place. Also had to create a small styrene box around the gun breech.

Once finished, the weight of the model went from 120g to 550g. I hope it's enough to keep the books in place.

Primed in black, it's now ready to receive the first layer of paint, which will be the first time I'm trying out MRP.