Part 1

	A little better than a pizza platter. Still less than a spaceship. The J2 slowly rises from its keel (do saucers have keels? No matter.). This is about 2 months into the project. After starting my son had suggested I do both the landing gear bays AND the lower deck. Little did I know how long this was to take. The doorway into the starboard landing gear bay suggested itself while I was dry fitting the lower deck.
	The center circle in the lower deck was “masked” using a WD40 can. Dry fitting at each step was essential. Cutting the hole in the upper deck was to facilitate painting the circle there, however it takes a strange twist later on.
	I extended the upper deck to make it completely round. In addition I added 3mm white LEDs below the freezing tubes. The leads for this stick up outside the original edge of the deck for later connection to a power source. Note big mistake one: not masking preliminary coats of paint around the upper deck console. This resulted in a faint but discernable line in the final build.
	Peeking from its box prior to retiring for the evening. Not having an adequate work area is a bitch. Note the leads coming from the freezing tube LEDs.
	The lower deck starts to take shape. To make room for the landing gear bays, I pretty much had to abandon the pin holes in the lower deck and fit the pieces as best as I could. Lots of cutting and filing here! Note the wires peaking from under the outside galley wall. These go to DF Howard’s fusion core lights. I cut off the switches for installation later.
	Another view at this stage of the build. In the background is the upper deck. I extended the bulkheads to have a more satisfactory engineered look. The holes were to emulate Irwin Allen’s fascination with holes in girders, but also provided a handy path for the wiring that came later.
	The lower deck with all the stateroom walls installed. Scratch built the beds; covers made from paper towel and dry brushed. The stateroom next to the auxiliary control was halved making bunk beds logical there. That’s not a two holer in the head, that’s the washbasin. Behind the stateroom walls rests DF Howard’s sound module. I substituted a radio shack nickel sized speaker for the 3-inch jobby that came with it. I made a speaker enclosure for it that’s ported through the landing gear bay’s Irwin Allen holes. It’s kinda hokey, but I like it. Click the picture to hear it go “whoosh”.

Next