# 1/350 refit Enterprise Questions



## OzyMandias (Dec 29, 2004)

Hi Guys. I'm setting to work on my Refit E and I have a few questions I'm hoping that those that have completed the kit already might be able to answer. I'm building the 1701 version:

1. The painting instructions say to give the whole model a coat of pearlescent white before applying the Aztec decals (which I have bought separately). On the sections of the hull that are highlighted with other colours, eg duck egg blue, do they get a coat of white as well, or should they be painted after the pearlescent coat?

2. The bridge module has a section labelled as painted 'rust'. The forward part of the bridge dome to be specific. In all the reference photos I've looked at, that area appears to be a very pale metallic gold colour with a pearlescent finish. Is that correct?

3. Optional parts 21 and 22 appear to be reversed in the instructions. The 1701 has a black vent with more narrower fins if I'm not mistaken?

4. What colour are the bridge dome and sensor dome? The bridge dome looks silver coated pearlescent and I just can't figure the sensor dome colour.

5. I've tried the Tamiya rattle can pearlescent white and it looks good on a test piece, but the cans are tiny and expensive. Is there a more economical way of sourcing white pearlescent paint?

Thanks in advance. I'm probably going to have more questions as I go, but that's enough to get me started.
I will be lighting the kit using the Trekmodeller lighting kit and I've got Paul's excellent Paragrafix PE set coming as well.


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## galaxy_jason (May 19, 2009)

Skip the duck egg blue. Its not even close. The blue areas are Flocker Medium Blue.

As for the other colors and the "Aztec", you can use the decals but the best
results are done with interference colors.

I will take you a few days to read through but check out this thread, all you 
need to know. The discussion of the pearl paint evolves over time, check out
my research towards the end...

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=188494

Here is how it is supposed to look ..

http://www.galaxyphoto.com/jw_ent.htm


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## OzyMandias (Dec 29, 2004)

Thanks Jason. I'll check through the thread and your site.


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## OzyMandias (Dec 29, 2004)

Fascinating information Jason, thanks for pointing that thread out. Love your Enterprise! 

I have already elected to go the pearl white and Aztec decals. I've seen some tremendous results using these (although I do understand it is nothing like Paul's original process. I bought his book!) and my airbrushing skills just are not up to the task of trying to replicate that. 

If anyone on the board has used the decals, I'd love to hear how you went with them, and maybe you can answer my previous questions?


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## Garbaron (Apr 23, 2004)

Hey Ozy, let me see if I can answer some of your questions: 

1 - If you want to apply the decals you should apply a pearl white first, than the darker non white areas. You can also paint the ship primer white (original studio model color), paint the detail colors (strongback "engineering green", deflector area etv.) and get pearl white to dust it over. Most pearl colors are not opaque and need a base color. But as Jason pointed out, you'll only get the correct looks if you paint the Aztec yourself. Its time consuming, yes, but so worth it. I know, I have done it. You can find a gallery of my finished model right -here-, two links to the buildup threads are at the end. 

2 - That is correct. See 4- for more 

3 - Correct again, the narrower version is for the 1701 Refit. 

4 - The bridge dome has a pale gold shine to it but it's NOT painted in gold! The bridge dome has a almost white sand / yellow base color with several layers of the interference Aztec gold layered over it. That Aztec gold is what gives it that metallic sheen. The top section of the bridge is just the base white with Aztec gold layered over it.



Same goes for the planetary sensor dome, interference gold layered over the base color only that its base color is white!

How I know this? Take these two sensor dome pictures:




In the top one you can make out a silver blue central ring, the rest is a pale gold hue. In the lower one the silver blue centre strip is almost not there. The silver blue is an illusion and is created by the complementary color of the interference gold. It will shift from gold to this bluishgrey when you move around the sphere shape makes it look like a seperate greyblue band. It's the same bluishgrey you can see on the bridge domes top section. The second picture also shows that the domes "normal" color is very close to the saucers base color, which is white like the rest of the ship. Reverse logic says: the dome / bridge top section has a white base color with several layers of Aztec gold coated over the base color. 

My bridge and lower sensor dome where done in the way described above. Although I admit, my bridge domes sand base color is a bit too dark. But hitting the correct colors for a TMP Refit is very hard since we don't really have any usable color reference pictures, the Refits TMP shots are all B&W.

Good luck on your Refit build.


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## OzyMandias (Dec 29, 2004)

Hey Garbaron, thanks for the reply. I can see what you and Jason were saying about the pearlescent paint as an interference medium. It stands out very clearly on your photos and on Jason's build as well. I can still remember sitting in the cinema on opening night, and being utterly blown away by Paul's work on the model. When you have an understanding of the process, it seems so simple, but it still stands up as the most spectacular IMHO, spaceship model ever built.
Thanks for the tips too. I have a few ideas percolating to get the detail colours popping now. The gold tint on the bridge strikes me as a major point of interest, and I wanted to make sure I got that right. 
If I can complete a build that looks half as good as yours and Jason's, I'll be a happy camper!
I'll be sure to add some photos to my gallery as things progress.


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## OzyMandias (Dec 29, 2004)

I had a bash at the bridge today. I mixed a pale sand colour for the front and the dome, which I washed with white before spraying the pearlescent coat. It wasn't until I uploaded the photo that I realised I need to tidy the edges.

I finished the arboretum floor a while back. Waiting for PE parts to arrive to finish dressing it.


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## Garbaron (Apr 23, 2004)

Looks great. Bridge is a very good match, just add some interference gold and you will have a smile on your face.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Tamiya pearl white is great. You will want to use a white primer anyway on the model, so it really won't take that much actual paint in the end. Also, the decals (good) are going OVER the paint so its not like you need to get 100% coverage over every square inch of everything. Really if you have a $100 kit and aftermarket decals etc. Then an extra few bucks for a second can of paint is not unreasonable. Why cheap out on the finish? As with the 1/1000 kit, a lot of the painting guide is bogus, so use photos of the actual filming miniatures. Like the slotted housings on the side of the impulse engines. The kits say to paint them rust but they are a coppery metallic shade.


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## OzyMandias (Dec 29, 2004)

Thank goodness there is a wealth of photo reference of the original filming model, otherwise it would be a tricky thing to get the finer details correct. I really love this kit, but I'm amazed that more care wasn't taken with the instruction sheets. To have glaring errors like the shuttle nacelles and the torpedo deck vent being wrong and not corrected in the second release is bad form. 

I noticed the the decal placement was all about face on the shuttle floor as well. The E-1/E-2 decal is upside down and the numbering on all the decals is mirrored on the instructions so it's backwards! Correct placement for everything except the 6 small white numbers on the landing deck is pretty easy thanks to having the movie on Blu-Ray. I put the odd numbers on the left (looking into the shuttlebay) and the even numbers on the right. 

I've also painted the lower sensor dome and applied the aztec decals. the effect is very subtle but it looks terrific! I'll post a pic soon.

Another question for you 1/350 builders/lighters; what sort of light masking have you found best for the inside of the hull sections? I've tried spraying black, then white, and that seems pretty effective. I'd just like to know if there's anything else I should be doing.

I'm planning on buying the Trekmodeler lighting kit. Anyone else used it? If so, how did you go with it? I'm a bit perplexed about running the wiring at this stage. My kit is the original with the three transparent supports. I kind of like the look of that, and I'm concerned that an unsupported primary hull might be too heavy for the dorsal connection. I'll have to drill a hole in the secondary hull for the wiring loom, and need to figure out where to put that for maximum support. 
I'd love to get a look at the Trekmodeler instruction manual, but they don't seem to make it available for download.


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## Garbaron (Apr 23, 2004)

The TrekModeler lighting kit is fine but it doesn't work for me for a specific reason. When you go to "warp" aka the dish fades to blue, the impulse deck goes off and the warp nacelles come online, TrekModelers lighting kit will fade out the hulls spot lights. I don't know what drove him or where he got that idea from to switch off the floods once you go to warp, since it clearly did not originate from the movies, since the Enterprise will have her floods all the time once she is powered up! 

So turning off the floods when the dish becomes blue and the warp drive goes active is plain and simply wrong and that's why I did never bother to buy the lighting kit. 


As for the saucer support. It will hold up fine without the odd support rods of the first edition. I have that version of the model too and discarded the rods immediately. My new support is located underneath the Arboretum directly in front of the secondary hull lower part support beam. She is a bit nose heavy with that location of the support rod and you need to counteract for that with you display base of use a knee joint to position the model in a way you like. The 2nd edition of the kit has the mounting located even further forward at the front inside the forward secondary hull ring piece near the deflector dish housing. I thought about mounting mine like that too but I don't like the look of the rod coming out of the secondary hull at that location. So I chose a location that was closer to where the studio model is mounted which is directly at the secondary hull lower four phaser banks, since I wanted to save those phasers I moved the mounting rod forward by one deflector grid section. 

In case you have not see it yet, this is my PL Refit


(click to get to the gallery)


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## OzyMandias (Dec 29, 2004)

Oh my, she really is beautiful Garbaron. I love the extra detailing you added to the interior sets. Your paint work looks wonderful. Very crisp and vibrant. 
I noted that you went with the on-screen grey rather than the green for the secondary hull and dorsal. That is what I am planning as well. Frustratingly, the aztec decal sets provides three alternative colours to use; green, grey, and 1701-A blue, except for the decals that surround the navigational deflector. They only include a green set and a blue set for that. The blue set is not screen accurate either. They are grey overall, with a blue square in the middle of the leading edge of the decal. I'll probably end up masking that and painting that by mixing appropriate greys to match the rest of the aztec markings.

Good news about the primary hull. I can settle back to a single mount, though I'll have some holes to fill.

Thanks for the pointers regarding mounting location. I knew the 2nd edition of the kit is mounted well forward on the secondary hull. I agree with you that the approximate location used on the shooting model is probably best.

I like your lower airlock being open. Did you scratch build that as well? You have some great detail added in there.


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## Garbaron (Apr 23, 2004)

Well, my strongback and deflector housing do actually have a green tind that is visible at certain angels and light conditions, for that I mixed leave green in to all my basic colors, but it simply does not really translate in the pictures. Same goes for the Aztec colors which are more colorful in good light conditions. Shows you the limits a standard digital cameras sensor can capture of the optical spectrum. 

As for the airlock, yes it's a scratch build. 
Pardon to highjack you thread but it's the easiest way to show: 

Hatch:







Airlock:








continued ...


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## Garbaron (Apr 23, 2004)

I also heavily reworked the planetary sensor dome:



Enough high jacking.


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## OzyMandias (Dec 29, 2004)

By all means, hi-jack away. I'm grateful for the feedback, and you are giving me some hellishly cool ideas.
I hadn't noticed the extra yards you went with the sensor dome. It looks so much better for it. 
Yes, the airlock is awesome. The Paragrafix PE set has the airlock included, and I was considering installing it and working up a hatch cover held in place with a magnet. If I do go ahead on it, I'll look at augmenting the surface detail with extra plumbing.


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## Garbaron (Apr 23, 2004)

Yeah most don't realize just how much I changed on this kit. 

I rebuild the sensor cap rip, which is a rectangle, to the trapezoid we see on the studio model: 



Corrected the rear dorsal lines which are to wide at the top near the photon exhaust, it must be the same width as the rip on top of the secondary hull, which is the width of the rear dorsal leading edge:


I reshaped the saucer separation boss which reached down too far: 


Enhanced the tractor panels next to the bay doors an eihter side by scratching some detail parts:


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## Garbaron (Apr 23, 2004)

Added detail to the torpedo launcher:





Reworked the warp trench on top of the warp nacelles: 




And last but not least reworked all the docking ports to add the 3 - 9 o'clock light panel:






And perhaps a dozen small details I have already forgotten about.


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## OzyMandias (Dec 29, 2004)

I've just had an email from Trekmodeler, and they confirmed that the floodlights are on in "impulse mode" only. They said they can build the circuit with the floods on in both modes if requested. Yay!!!


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## Garbaron (Apr 23, 2004)

Good to hear. 
The pricing s still too steep for my taste.


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## MattA (Jan 18, 2012)

I wound up using the decals as well. They are nearly completely transparent, and the aztecing is very subtle. To give you an idea:


























The decals are super excellent, and you'll get great results from them. The ship was painted with white primer with a dusting of pearl white over that. 

The next one will have the aztecs painted on.


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## lizzybus (Jun 18, 2005)

I really like what you're doing with this! Great detailing and work!

Rich


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