NCC-1701A Enterprise Refit
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Well, due to an unfortunate Klingon misplaced soccer ball, the three foot long, fully lit Enterprise model I built more than ten years ago is roached. The upper hull saucer broke off and the wiring was just too short to fix. A couple weeks ago after I cut the wires to separate the disk, I could see that there was no way to repair it.
Oh well, 100+ hours down the drain. So, I’m starting this build thread of a new 1/350 scale model. This time with far more sophisticated electronics and a new base that is waaaay more stable than the pile of crap on the original model. There is a lot of modifying needed to make this work and I’ve started removing plastic that gets in the way of the lighting and modifying other areas to improve fit. One of the first steps is light blocking with several coats of flat black, then a coat of flat white primer to make the insides reflect the light. Some pics. |
COOL! Can't wait to see the end results! :D
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I’m not scratch building the electronics this time. I built my own circuit boards before. Screw that. Now there are full lighting kits on the market for this model that should save some time. Also, the LEDs are smaller and brighter. I’ll be using very fine magnet wire (33 gauge) to save some room. The previous model was stuffed to the brim with wiring and it stressed the seams.
This one will be far more precise and clean on the inside (that nobody will see) and will help if it ever needs repair since it will be more organized. There are about six different circuits for various navigation lights, strobes, photon torpedoes, a color shifting deflector dish, etc. I’ll find a video and post it. Very neat if you are a huge dork like me. |
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Turn your audio off (why does everyone play that damn music with videos of this model?)
The electronics system has different modes. 5is is the dry dock startup sequence from the movie when they first fire up the new ship. The hardest part is the painting of the complex five color pearl panels all over the model. The masking alone takes about 40 hours. It is sprayed over a semigloss white and looks amazing. But maddening. |
I have the most logical boner.
I love this. I started one of these years ago, but just barely got into it before life got in the way. Can't wait to see the progress! |
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I need to figure out a base. The one that comes with it is crap. I was thinking of an oval shaped, black walnut base tapered like a river rock - sort of sleek oval blob. I’d then hollow out the bottom for the main controller board. But I don’t really have any wood working tools. Not sure. Another option is basically a shallow box with a laser etched, plexi top. I’d spray the back side black then have the etching done and put a bunch of LEDs inside so the laser etching lights up. I’ve seen some bases like that. But I ain’t paying $350 for one. |
How big a base is needed?
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Nothing is irreparable. 3D printers can be your friend.
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I’m using a plastic welding liquid glue this time. And then 3M structural adhesive on high load areas. That design was never meant to be under the force of gravity. Big stress point where the dish meets the neck. I’ll be using several types of glue this time. It ain’t never coming apart. It’s very hard to handle. Painting it stresses the joints. It’s a very difficult model. |
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Tablesaw, two drill presses with mortising attachments, planer, bandsaw, router and router table, jointer, lathe (small :( ), about 120 clamps, various hand tools. Got a picture of what you have in mind? |
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Let me give it some thought and do some engineering tests and make a drawing. It might need some lead in the bottom for weight. The support for the model is a single metal tube so that is easy. |
Maybe a base shaped like the shadow it casts.
Put a light directly over it, trace around it. BOOM, there's your template. |
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What if the base was shaped like the comm badge or is that too obvious?
https://www.geekcore.co.uk/pub/media...comm-badge.jpg |
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I followed your first thread, since I had also bought the Polar Lights 1/350 model. For various reasons, I haven't got very far (not much farther than the painting in your first thread, lol), and don't really have a good workspace right now. Outside of some painting, about all I managed to do was gather a handful of aftermarket parts (light board, LEDs, Aztecing template, printable decals) and finished the arboretum and shuttlecraft hangar deck:
https://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d...ics/Photo1.jpg Subscribed to the new thread, as I'm sure some of the tech is better than when I first started. Where did you manage to find the kit? The TOS Enterprise seems to be their only current 1/350 kit now. |
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I’m going to add some surface mount tiny, very bright LEDs for certain floodlights. I figured out that the holes are not angled properly to throw the light correctly. You have to modify the bridge (raise it 2mm and move it forward about an 1/8” to get rid of the huge shadow the center bump causes. The lights that light up the pylons are wrong too. They need to be redrilled at the correct angles. It’s sort of interesting to do the kit for the second time. I know where it needs work to fit together better and now have the right adhesives. DONT use CA glue on the plastic parts except for temporary bonds or to set LEDs. It becomes brittle after a few years and the bonds fail. I still collecting paint and build supplies. All my paint was solidified. I’m also running plastic conduit inside here and there to make running wire easier. There is so much shit inside it’s really frustrating during final assembly to run the wires. I’m also doing the five color, pearl Aztec Pattern. Don’t use the decals. They don’t last either. Feel free to add your build pics to the thread! Nice work on the shuttle bay. That is like a model unto itself. |
Out of all the Star Trek stuff I really think they fell down on the shuttle design. So lame looking tbh. But I think it's great that you're putting all this effort into something like this, I used to build all sorts of models when I was young and kinda fell out of the hobby.
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Thought I'd post some pics of the previous build paint job and some new pics of light blocking the engine nacelles!
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Super sick today. Might be pneumonia. :sadangel:
But did get some work done. Nothing like breathing paint to perk up the ol lungs! I made some reinforcements for the dish. Did a bunch of test fitting and modifying (they put posts right where LEDs go...). Also lots of priming and light blocking. And a bonus pic of Jess :D |
That neck fits like shit balls. Lots of filing and sanding to get it right. I don’t remember this kit being so ill fitting... I guess that’s what filler is for.
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I’ve been steadily at it working on the Enterprise. There is an arboretum that can be seen through the hull and I’ve put in a bunch of tiny bushes and flowering trees. (Looks like the gardener has been on vacation for a while! :rofl:)
I’ve also been working on installing a shit ton of tiny windows and doing modifications to accommodate the electronics. I’m using magnetic winding wire that is about the size of a human hair and realizing I can’t see shit. But I’ve got the neck pretty much wired up. I put a conduit in there to make it easier to run the bundle of wires through it later (that’s the tube in the neck photo. You can see there is a lot of stuff in there to get in the way.) the red lights are photon torpedo launchers. :dance: One thing that is very cool is the teeny tiny SMD LEDs. Super bright, the light up the dish and registry number (NCC-1701) on the top and bottom of the saucer. That’s a bandaid on my thumb. Jammed an Xacto knife into it. I’ve spent a ton of time just soldering resistors to LEDs with leads. So many tiny LEDs...:needcoffee: More to come! |
I’d never have the patience to do that, plus I can’t really do the tiny intricate work anymore, dang essential tremor won’t allow it. Nonetheless, very nice work and I look forward to the end product
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OK. This shuttle bay is going to be the end of me. I’ve painted, sanded down, painted, sanded down, X 4 on the most visible black surface (the landing deck).
Once I had it good and shiny with no scratches and finally got the ten LED sequential landing lights embedded and tested, I promptly blew them up by using the wrong test lead. In a fraction of a second, it was fried. Had to order 35 more LEDs. So....started over again. This time I built a fixture for the LEDs ...sort of like a circuit board. This will get hot glued to the back side. There are five separate circuits so the lights will blink in rows of two in sequence. There are also decals that go on with tiny yellow landing strips. PITA. I also got some flickering blue LEDs for the warp cores. That should look neat. The last model had static lighting in the shuttle bay. This one will be a flashin’ And a flickerin’! I’ve also started a plan for a base. She is coming along....only 150 hours to go. |
Not sure if this is the coolest thing ever or if you're nuts.:lol:
Thanks for sharing the pics and keep up the good work.:seasix: |
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http://i.imgur.com/rz1POa3.png I'm glad there are people in this world who do stuff like this and I'm glad I'm not one of them. |
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If I’m not working, I don’t know what to do with myself and get anxiety. So when Saturday comes, I work. And Sunday. Times 52 weeks a year. When I just can’t work any more, I drug myself to sleep to escape the anxiety. Not a healthy lifestyle. I find when I work on the model, I relax. Same with the car but I’m just not up to the heavy work of the car. The other benefit I’ve found is that when I go to bed, instead of figuring out work shit, I mentally engineer the project - working out the electronics, structural stuff, assembly order, etc. My mind never stops and, again, this is an escape. I don’t think I’ll start building more models. But for now, this one is a doozy. I’m betting it takes six months. Quote:
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I know exactly what you mean. I've built a few ship models and every knot in the rigging was correct. I was learning sailing for real at the time.
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There's got to be somebody somewhere with a Borg cube and barrel full of Tannerite. Get video. |
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Years ago I had the Enterprise, Klingon battle cruiser, the bridge, and Galileo 7. Never with this kind of detail, though. I did get into WWII battleships and planes for a while and tricked them out.
I did a scene from an air battle from WWII in my bedroom when I was a kid. I used fishing line to hang them from the ceiling. I had a B17 with a ME109 and FW190 diving in on it with a Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane, and P51 coming in on them. I used an awl and heated the tip to make bullet holes and had cotton sprayed with black and gray to simulate smoke. I really got into 1/24 scale cars. Did the chrome trim, plug wires, a little custom body work. I still have some of those on display in a case in the back room. Most of the ships and planes didn't survive. Still have a few packed away upstairs. The best ship I had was the Constitution. I did the rigging, sails, the whole bit. Took me months to build it. It survived for thirty some odd years until six months ago. Chimney flashing sprang a leak, got onto my ceiling, and caused a collapse. The Constitution was on my mantle, and falling debris did what the British couldn't. I still have her, but have not tried any repairs yet. Hell of a job you're doing. :seasix:I don't have the eyesight anymore for the detail work. Shame, too. Got a '57 Fairlane I started but never finished. |
Mega Update
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I'm just going to upload a bunch of pictures and a video. I've been working pretty consistently and it's about the most damn frustrating project EVAR. But I knew that going in.
This thing is a beast. Either I will win or it will break me. First up - the duel color deflector dish. When the Enterprise first fires up, the dish is amber (the photos do not reflect the actual color) then it fades to blue as the warp drives come on line. Very neat two color LED. Since I took those shots, I've cleaned up the little splines quite a bit (holy crap I almost went blind gluing all those in there. Next shot is of a little light box. There are a few of these inside the model I've fabricated - they seal off the light so it doesn't bleed into another area. That little round port hole also has a duel color LED that is synced to the deflector. Without light boxes, the impulse engine LEDs (red) would bleed into the other and look like shit. Wires, wires and more wires. Not sure how all of this will fit in there. May have to move the circuit board to the base. A shot of another conduit (a red straw in this case) to route the wires through the pylons. Lot's of wires and very little space. I've got my pearl paints - the model will first be shot in grey primer, sanded with 1500 grit, then sprayed with flat white enamel. (Inside and out. On the inside there is an additional layer of metallic silver to block the light). Over this flat white, I'll spray white pearl over the entire thing. Then, after about 60 hours of masking, I'll start laying in a 4 color aztec pattern with gold, blue and yellow pearl. Very light and transparent. (5th color is white). ****ing bananas. But I love a challenge. I bought vinyl laser cut masks but still an insane job of masking, removing, remasking, removing, remasking - for every color. I'll post a video of the effect - it's worth the effort. Here's a more recent video update shot tonight. |
The aztec pattern masking. This guy is a master. Fast forward to the end to see the end result.
I forgot to mention. After the pearl is all shot, the entire model is sprayed with Future floor "wax". It's not wax. It's a polyurethane acrylic. It can be sprayed as is through an air brush, self levels (you could brush it if you wanted) and dries very smooth and shiny. Then the decals are applied (there are about a million of them) using Microset to "bake" them in so they look painted. Decals look best over a very smooth surface. The Future seals the paint and gives the surface. Now you have another problem - the model is too shiny. So the last coat is a clear matte coat over the decals and pearl. It tone's everything down so it looks more to scale. Shiny looks like a toy. This thing is three feet long. |
Man you are going all out on this thing! :Jeff '79:
Best. Thread. EVAR. :seasix: |
Thanks much for sharing your amazing CCC-1701 working hobby model status! Incredible. I am very envious, and appreciative. Pls continue to discretely provide updates.
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:hurray::hurray::hurray: Amazing level of detail. I used to do a lot of model cars and did lots of air brush work.. Have also dabbled a good bit with LEDs and electrical gizmos to assist with my astrophotography but this is in another universe detail wise. Can't wait to see the final result.
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https://www.thevettebarn.com/forums/...1&d=1546569653
if this is the base you need, yes, i could make that. personally, i'd paint it gold, so something like poplar would work well. or some clear maple. if those dimensions are good, all i need to know is how thick you'd like, and how big a cavity you want in the base. |
Simply amazing the best I ever did was a glued up mess of a car followed by firecrackers. :rofl:
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Quick update. I finally got my pearl white paint for the base coat. Looks great. I can’t seem to photograph it but it’s a nice shimmering white. Over that will go four more pearl colors I got from a taxidermist shop for doing fish. Lacquer based, really fine pigment.
I’m giving my airbrush a workout. Need to practice. The pearl white will show through about 20% of the surface area. But the coolest part is the colors are transparent so you get pearl on top of pearl. I’ve also decided to move the circuit board to the dish instead of the base. Should be much easier to assemble that way. I still need to run five switches and power up from the base. But now I can test everything much easier. Need to test every single circuit before sealing it up. Ran into an issue with the shuttle bay fit. Big gap at the fan tail. Trouble is, the deck of the bay is all finished so no filling and sanding there. I have some ideas to fix but what a PITA. I swear, 90% of the process is fixing shit. More pics later. |
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update
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Sorry for late update. I’ve done a bunch of work, broke some stuff, waited on paint, fixed stuff...
I’m going to attach some pics Here is a couple shots of the pearl white dish and impulse engine. I relocated the circuit board to the dish. The trick was finding room that doesn’t block lighting. The board is on the bottom and a speaker is on the top (and another in the body) phaser and photon sound effects. Next up the jig I built to support the model for testing and assembly. Each sub assembly gets painted and declared before gluing it together. I’m not sure how to handle filling and sanding gaps. I’m betting lots of paint repair. Next up, here’s how the masking works. You transfer vinyl masks to a substrate, then transfer and burnish it on to the part, then remove substrate. You then remove areas, paint first color, replace those areas, remove other areas, paint - then put an entirely different mask on and do it again and again. I’ll get a shot of some painted parts. Progress will get very slow now. I did epoxy the shuttle bay in after shortening the body by an 1/8” to make it line up. This caused the top piece to not fit. Sigh. Wires are breaking from handling so I’ve spent hours checking and fixing. More to come! |
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I hope this one will be equipped with functional shields. :D
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9 hours of masking and shooting first two colors - blue and gold. Just on the bottom saucer. Next color is Red. Very happy with the iridescence. It took me about three days to get the colors toned down. They should be subtle.
Here are some process photos. |
And a short video of the effect. It’s more dramatic in real life.
Phone won’t embed. |
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Here ya go: Nice work. :seasix: |
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This thing is going to kill me.
Lots of photos to update. Just not enough time. I cooked one of the ICs on the board. Sent it back to maker for fix. Masking set just doesn’t have enough adhesive bite. The damn airbrush literally blows the friskets off. I need to sand down the neck and start over. Also dropped an engine nacelle and banged it up. This is after busting the clear grill out to fix some electronics, then drilling holes in the opposite side to use sticks to glue it back in (it needed to be pressed against a slot from the inside), then filling the holes, sanding, repainting, dropping, filling sanding, repainting. One thing I can say. This thing is solid as a rock using the correct glues plus 3M structural adhesive. The last one was quite fragile. Not this one. |
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She going to be battle damage from Khan? Looks like phaser scoring on the hull:) |
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I’ve painted, sanded and repainted the neck three times. I’m going for the pristine, right out of dry dock look. |
Love the scale. big enough to work on detail without going blind, but not the size of a Volkswagen
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Here are some photos from the last couple of weeks. Cracking open the engine nacelle to fix two LEDs that decided to stop working. Had to punch out the clear blue piece that was beautifully glued in place, fix with long tweezers, drill holes in opposite side to use skewer sticks to press it back into place from the inside out. Then fill and sand and repaint the holes. :willy: A shot of some guts. There are 46 different circuits. This allows the model to light up in the sequence from the movie when they first start it. It has a couple clearers in it for phaser shots (with synchronized LEDs) and for photon torpedoes - each torpedo light separate so they fire left, then right. |
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Most of the paint work done on the lower dish. When I close my eyes I see masks! All the paint is pearl. I wish I could photograph it. When you move it, the pattern fades in and out. Some colors get more prominent, and others fade back. From some angles you can hardly see the pattern.
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And a test of the shuttle bay - I really dig the sequential landing lights. Note the tiny little people - red shirts and gold shirts. There is a guy way at the back doing like a "touch down" pose. :rofl:
I also added the flickering blue warp engines. The reflective black deck is not correct but I like it better than grey - I put a couple coats of clear acrylic over it, then decals, then more acrylic. There is some dust in there and the camera shows glue on the feet of the people that the eye can't see. I blew the dust out and it's sealed up now. I'm bummed that the tiny railings are bent a bit - they are super fragile. No fixing now. :dance: Check out the lights in the ceiling and on the sides. That thing by itself is a complete model. Excuse the music - I used Youtube's crap - my original video had dogs barking their asses off. |
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Couple more shots
The neck and some detail on the engines. Every dang part of this will have that four color pattern. |
Hey Mr. Smart guy, just how were those little people breathing in space with the door open?:D On a serious note, very cool!
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Here’s what you should do with the one that broke.
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Look at the detail on that saucer. Holy crap. |
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Top saucer getting paint. Lots of intricate masking.
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That, sir, is as impressive as hell. Craftsmanship:seasix: at a professional level.
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Another idea for the crashed version.Attachment 24252
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Top of the saucer. The red around the center bridge area is too bright. I’ll tone that down later with some white, translucent pearl.
The colors aren’t as bright in regular light. Plus, this will be shot with clear acrylic (Future floor wax) then, a matte spray over that. That brings down the contrast. Good lord so much masking. I still have to do the outer edge and a bunch of details. Plus a shit load of decals. |
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Another shot of the masking at the impulse engine.
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That looks badass, 'Snik' ! I don't have the patience for the masking:)
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I think the colors are too strong but too late now. Having a lot of trouble with liquid masking the windows. So much paint built up they are not coming off cleanly. And there are a lot of windows.
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I’ll do some testing and decide. I’m not sure it will look bad if the fuselage and engines are more iridescent than the saucer. This thing is going a bit off the rails. But I persist. So many problems. :confused5: |
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Oh the tedium. Spent four hours ironing out the circuits for the secondary hull and engines. 19 circuits. Over 30 wires. Many tie together. I made jumper wires with the correct colors for hook up to the circuit board.
I also connected the part where the model mounts. It has to be strong so I used 3M structural adhesive. I’ve been using it on high stress points. Finally I used a special tool to describe the panel lines lost to filling and sanding. Next, crazy Aztec painting on body and engines. I am switching to clear lacquer with pearl pigment to see if I can get more luminance. We shall see. |
And I thought I was nuts when I was building a ship model 25 years ago when I was learning to sail and I made sure every knot in the rigging was correct even though you'd need a magnifying glass to see that.
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What’s funny to me is I hate details. This thing requires a lot of details. It’s not really a kit either. It’s based on a kit but needs lots of customization to work. There are a total of 48 different circuits. Half the challenge is getting all that wire to fit in a model that wasn’t designed for it.
Here it is on the mount for painting (need to get that base going) and a view of the bottom saucer with the neck attached. |
I'd have a major case of OCD right now if I was building it...
Looks good! |
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Woof. This thing is kicking my ass. But progress is being made.
I had a crazy quilt of wires coming out of the beast - many of them the same circuits - so I minimized the number of wires to 19. I masked and masked and painted and painted and hammered the sides. masks are not reusable. Sanded it off and made my own masks. Painted it again. I'm going blind. |
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And a couple saucer pix. I notice there is a bit of over-spray on the bottom dish. I'll have to fix that....
There are still a lot of details that need painted and an absolute shit ton of decals. I'm using a solvent called Microset to basically melt the decals to the surface. Then shooting Future floor wax over it. (it's just a water thin polyurethane - works perfect and dries crystal clear and "wet" looking. That will seal the decals. Then I'll hit it with a flat clear spray to take the gloss off. (the flat gives it better scale - shiny looks like a big toy. Matte looks big.) |
Damn, son. :shots:
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:ohnoes: my base better kick ass :DAB:
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Very impressive so far. Clever approach to the decals (Future floor wax and clear matte spray paint) which, sure enough gives it a “big” look. I was (am) a past and present Star Trek fan...atic and appreciate what you are doing on several levels - but, you are officially in over my head - so I’ll vicariously admire through your pics. Thanks for sharin’
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Is bad asses man!! :seasix:
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Small update. I was looking inside the secondary hull to figure out how to run the rest of the wires than come from inside the saucer and down through the neck where they attach to the various systems.
Looking inside, there was a path but it had several corners and not much room. There are a shit load of wires that need to come through there (the ones you see all are for systems inside the hull. They each need hooked up to the circuit board controller in the saucer.) plus, wires for switches and power. So I carved out some plastic from a reinforcement bar and pushed a conduit in there with the help from a heat gun. |
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Doing tiny little touch ups and fixing cosmetic issues. Like some of the windows were hard to unmask. They pulled paint up making the windows look ragged. I used a tiny brush to round them off. Also cleaning up the shuttle landing lights. Here is a nice subdued shot of the bay with red landing lights on. It gets much brighter when all the systems are on. It gets a lot of light from the hull interior lighting.
I like how you can see the ceiling lights and blue warp cores. Also a shot of the inside with lights on. |
Coming along. Wow. Technologically superior to the original hanging in the Smithsonian. Did ya ever think?
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The hydra
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I’ve been spending hours doing tiny decals on the Saucer and painting the pattered in the engines. Holy shit the engines are going to take 20 hours just to paint but that’s the next step. I have to work in small areas.
Get them painted and decaled, then connect wires and glue in place tie structural adhesive. I also did a lot of detailing on the bridge and upper saucers. With tiny decals that really give it a sense of scale. |
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Getting into some serious detailing. Aztec painting the engines. Insanity.
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Engines
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I have spent weeks just painting these engines. Probably 4-5 hours to go. I can’t move to the next step until they are painted and decaled. The next step will be gluing them to the pylons and hooking up the wires.
Once that is done, I can start wiring everything. Although I may need to do more decaling first. The challenge there is it’s easy to damage the decals while handling it for wiring. But it’s a bigger challenge putting on decals after it’s assembled. I literally spent eight hours today masking and painting these things and I’m still not done. |
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Got some decals on today and more masking too hot to shoot lacquer today.
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Hoo boy. Finally done with painting the engines. I ended up shooting white pearl over them to tone down the colors. Now I need to do a lot of decals. A LOT of decals. Some are the size of a pin head. Once most of the decals are on the engines get wired and glued. Then the rest of the wiring and connecting the saucer. Then even more decals and painting more details.
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