RtC: Prep and Assembly

So my current competition level project is a Gnarlhorn Satyr. Why did I choose this model? I've painted one before as a favor to a friend and just really enjoyed it. This is a chance for me to paint one for myself for the display case. Since I'm not painting it to field it in an army, I won't feel the same urge to finish it as I do with most of my projects. I plan on really taking my time with this model to get it just right.

Here's my current progress:

This represents trimming, filing, more trimming and more filing, and more of that stuff until I was satisfied. I didn't go completely overboard on trimming since several of the places were very tedious and risked damaging other parts of the model. In the cases where I didn't go the extra mile it was also because I knew I could hide the problems with painting techniques. After all that trimming I scrubbed all the pieces with warm water and then did the assembly up to this point above. I'm leaving the head separate to start with due to the challenge of reaching parts of the horns and shoulders. I'll assemble it more once those parts are done. I also added a ring of green stuff in the neck area to extend his neck just a touch. This will give me more final posing options. After all this assembly was done I went back and scrubbed him again with warm soapy water to get any last bits of release agent or oils from my skin off of the surfaces. The scrubbing step is something I rarely do normally but for competition pieces I find to be a key step worth my time.

On to Priming!