Enterprise Refit 1:350 scale build
 

I promised a thread on this project five years in the making. I’ll do my best to get some images and update it over time.

I will add images in between this wall of text. I want you to understand the under taking to make this thing shine. It’s not really a kit. You have to engineer the damn thing to light it and fit everything.

The build was actually done in about a year but then I started having surgeries so it has sat for four years. This caused me to lose mental track of how it is wired. It’s difficult to explain but wires need to be routed in such a way that the model can be assembled - it’s super awkward in shape and balance.


I mounted the circuit board in the lower part of the disc. Almost all the wires have to travel down the neck and out the front where the dish will go. Then wires from the engines, shuttle bay, fuselage, also run out the front too. Here they are matched with the correct wire to the circuit board. (first image)

The model is designed for lighting but doesn’t come with it. There are about thirty circuits and all the lights and wires, speakers, etc. all have to fit. It’s stuffed full. I can’t see where the wires go and can’t disassemble the painted and finished parts.

This means I’m having to trace every circuit with low voltage power and/or multimeter to make sure the connections are correct. I figured out I can light up each circuit to confirm connections. It’s very slow. I have schematics too but my wire organization leaves a bit to be desired.

This is an EXTREMELY complex model with a detailed five color matrix of shapes (called Aztec pattern) with five separate masks, iridescent paint over flat white. Then decals, then acrylic flat clear over the entire thing.

Masking and airbrushing took two months. I still have to merge the disc top and bottom, fill and paint the tiny edge and not upset the paint or decals. Somehow it goes on a post with six wires going down through that to the controller and power. (12v 1500 mah).

It must be light sealed. The insides are painted flat black, then silver to make plastic opaque so the light only comes from windows, thrusters, etc.

The LEDs are tiny. There is a controller with six buttons that fire up the model in different sequences. The deflector dish transitions from yellow to blue as the warp engines come on. The photon torpedos fire and light up.

The model lights itself with strategically placed LEDS all over the craft. For example each engine has two little spot lights that shine down on the decals on either side of the body.

skip to :24 and turn sound off.

a few more pics

@Bruze wants to see pics of the nekkid 1:350 scale Lt. Uhuru.

Glad you got this back underway. Have you solved the pedestal mounting problem?

Had to look it/her up, had no clue what this thread was even about. :shrug:

34" - not bad. Half the attraction to the Polar Lights approach is that you have to figure the shit out. For example: "How in the **** do I mask five colors in an aztec pattern without overlapping colors?"

Or "Why is there a wire sticking out that doesn't do anything?"

My favorite "Is that smoke leaking out of the board?"

I need to get a photo of it. It looks amazing.

But the puzzle of mounting it still persists. Right now I have it temporarily connected to the control panel through the clear rod and down into the routed cavity on the bottom.

My biggest concern is the lack of surface area to glue the mount part on - this model sags front and back and all the weight is on a very small ring of plastic. I've built some reinforcements - but who knows?

Once I have all the wiring ironed out - that's next. The parts are all painted and have decals so no room for sloppy.

The dilithium crystals are probably going bad.

Holy crap! :willy: That is a labor of love. That photo with the LED next to the penny really shows just how tiny they are.

It’s been a bit since I updated this thread. There isn’t much to show. I have traced every circuit and have 99% ironed out. Almost everything was correct except a couple connections. I’m still trying to figure out two mystery wires that need a matching connection.

I figured out I can run power to the system and then ground one circuit at a time to see what lights up. The problem is a huge number of wires disappear into the main fuselage with no way to visually track them.

Zero ways to crack it open so if a circuit doesn’t light I mark it and I’m hoping through the process of elimination I’ll get everything connected right. I had to disconnect previously soldered connections to correct a couple circuits.

I’ve attached new images of the model. The wires are all over the place because I had to pull them for testing. Once I have confirmed everything the wiring gets tucked in neatly.

The base looks amazing. I finished it with vintage Gold Top Les Paul lacquer. As you can see the mounting ring that holds the entire model has very little surface area for glue. I will be creating some reinforcements once electronics are settled.

For all that complexity, the ****ing thing should really fly!

It'll certainly fly at least once

Still working on mine, but not NEARLY to the level of precision of yours, and very slowly due to limitations from ET. Still trying to paint some details before assembly, and putting off installing LEDs and wiring as long as I can. I decided to give myself some motivation by ordering my next project, a Moebius 18" dia. Jupiter 2. Can't start that until the Refit is done.

It’s a bear to paint.

I’m not really a “modeler” I’ve just had this obsession with this model since 2007.

My first one had a simple handmade board that lit up the entire model and handled strobes and slow slashing nav lights. It only had one color Aztec - pearl white over flat white. It lasted about three weeks until my son hit it with a volley ball and it was destroyed.

The second one never got finished it had a three color Aztec. It ended up being a parts and testing mule to get this last one right.

I have scavenged parts from the previous models as well as decals. The hardest thing was painting. It took a month to figure out how thin the colors needed to be to get a subtle look that still is pearlescent in red, good, blue, green, over flat white.

I bought an airbrush which made a big difference. The paint is from a taxidermy shop for doing iridescent fish. This thing shimmers.

Once it’s all buttoned up, it will get a coat of acrylic clear sealer (actually flooring finish) then sprayed with flat clear to knock the shine down.

If it ever makes it that far. It’s getting a beating in this wiring debacle.

Keep sharing progress!