New Horizons (part 1)

This is a relatively new kit from Real Space Models, and depicts the craft that just had it's flyby of Pluto. 
Looking over the parts they are for the most part pretty good. A few bubbles here and there, but nothing to worry about. A little Vallejo Plastic Putty and they were gone. I didn't count the parts but each experiment was it's own part (SWAP and Ralph had 2). The HGA was the main dish, a medium gain antenna. 3 wire supports,  and then the lo gain antenna on the end of 3 more wires were all separate. Then there's the bus. The only little negative I would say would be the pour plus were pretty thick in comparison to the part. The "wings" of SWAP took me nearly an hour to get off the pour plug with breaking it.   

I also picked up a detail kit from Shapeways which included PEPPSI, The HGA receiver, the RTG, and Lo gain antenna.  All of these were more detailed than the kit parts. But the lo gain antenna came with the supports attached. One of them was bent, and I knew sooner or later I would break that off. Took a few sessions but I did. 
But here we start off with the parts - 

This is a pic of me with my hobby saw taking off one of the pour plugs -

Taking my time I got all the parts cleaned and they look great -

(L to R) Alice, Cap for LORRI, LORRI, wings of SWAP, and PEPPSI

The next step was priming all the parts - 

I didn't take a pic, but since 99% of the craft is covered in gold foil, I painted all the parts a bright yellow. This is in case the foil rips. You won't be able to see a rip easily as you would, if I left the parts the gray primer.
After doing my 1:5 scale New Horizons I remembered foiling all the parts, especially the small ones, takes its toll.  I did the bus first, so when I got tired of foiling I could start applying the parts to the vehicle. 
Here we have the louvers and LORRI applied as well as the Student Dust Counter - 

LORRI was my first slow down. The LORRI instrument is approx an inch long. but the socket for it in the bus was only 1/4 inch.  Rather than drill out the bus and possibly ruin the foil, I chopped off the LORRI tube. After that I filled the bottom of it with Aves and painted it black. My plan is to put a few drops of clear resin in it the recreate a lens. Since the cap to LORRI is just butt jointed to the tube, this will go on at the very end.

I wrapped Alice and the edges of Ralph as well as the low gain antenna (very tough), so I turned my attention to the Star Tracker. After its installation, the instruction calls for painting  the top center part white. Done. Check back again for the next and maybe final part.  Thanks for looking