Project: Thunderhawk Part 8

Remember when I was talking about having to come up with odd ways to apply pressure to items while glue set? I think I've found the best of the best (so far):

Yup! That is a medicine bottle being pressed into the side of the Thunderhawk by a rubber band, and a tail fine being held in mid-air by a series of 3 mini-bar clamps.

The medicine bottle pressure point is to hold a flat panel against the side of the body while the glue dries. The angle of the body is wonky enough that I couldn't get a clamp around it, and a rubber band wants to slide up and off the panel. The tail fine is being held in mid-air because there are a series of points that need to be glued down and allowed to set.

But enough about the holding the parts while they dry. I've been putting more thought into constructing this monster out of styrene. One of the biggest... challenges with this template has been understanding how it goes together. For example this:

when cut out, and folded up properly is intended to become this:

As you can probably tell from the fact that it's taking 3 bar clamps to hold the piece while the glue sets, this is a rather annoying part. So I'm thinking about other ways I can build it. One way I'm considering is taking a piece of 4mm thick sheet styrene and cutting out the over all shape of the tail fin. Then using .001m styrene cut out the respective panels and pieces and fit them together like a jig saw puzzle. Kind of like this: