# My 1/350 TOS Enterprise Build --Why not? WIP



## Trekkriffic

*My 1/350 TOS Enterprise Build --Why not?*

Well I guess it's about time I started one of these 1/350 TOS Enterprise build threads rather than posting stuff in multiple threads; will save time and simplify posting I think. 

First impressions of the kit... well... it's like one of my old girlfriends used to say to me years ago.. "God, this thing is BIG!" 

Seriously folks, it's the biggest model I've ever worked on, such a sheer joy that it just so happens to be my favorite starship of ALL TIME! 
I'm taking all steps necessary to knock my own socks off with this one.

So far I've gotten the upper and lower saucer gridlines filled and sanded using Perfect Plastic Putty. I've sprayed the inside of the two halves with flat black, silver, and flat white in that order. Once I've made a template of where the gridlines go (in case I want to redraw them in pencil) I'll spray with Dupli-color surface filler sandable primer and see if I need to do any more filling. I'm fairly optimistic I got'er smooth as a Vulcan baby's behind though so keep your fingers crossed for me guys.

Here's what I did this past weekend...

Before I can prime the lower saucer I wanted to take care of that business of the three lower saucer portholes that were molded too far back along the rim on the wrong side of the radial gridline...

I took some Tamiya tape and poked holes where the current ports were to make a template. Then I placed the template further foward along the arc of the lower rim, overlapping the hole closest to the bow which I kept. So I was only drilling out two new holes on each side:


IMG_4031 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The new holes after drilling and filing:


IMG_4037 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I inserted one of the window inserts into the new hole locations and the fit was perfect:


IMG_4035 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I did the same thing on the opposite side of the saucer so I saw no need to take any pictures of it.


Next... working on the power jack and plug to the lower secondary hull...


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## Trekkriffic

I paid a visit to Fry's Electronics and bought a 4-pin Miini-DIN plug and matching panel jack to use for powering 2 electrical circuits inside the model-one for lights and the other for the bussard motors...

The lower mounting rod support part that inserts into a slot in the lower front of the secondary hull was modified to remove the support tube and insert a larger diameter section of Evergreen tubing. The Evergree tubing inner diameter fit the Mini-DIN plug from the new mounting tube perfectly:


IMG_4050 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The power plug dry fit onto an aluminum tube. Inside is a second smaller brass tube glued into the inside of the plug's plastic backshell and the aluminum tube. Four wires for the two circuits willl pass thru the brass tube and down into the aluminum tube which will fit into the base. This should give the support tube much more strength and rigidity than it would have otherwise:


IMG_4062 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The lower secondary hull mounting point was modified to accomodate the new panel jack. I was amazed at how well it fit. All I did was carve out some slots in the plastic support framing so the metal panel jack base would fit:


IMG_4051 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The panel jack had pins that stuck up higher than was planned when the kit was designed which meant I had to create new brackets to provided clearance for the PC lighting board to slide into place:


IMG_4056 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Looking thru the mounting tube in the underside of the ship at the 4-pin Mini-DIN jack:


IMG_4061 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Dry fit with the mounting tube plugged into the secondary hull. Once the ship is assembled and the mounting points have been glued in and reiniforced with epoxy putty for stiffening it should balance front to back just fine:


IMG_4058 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Next up... those bussards... they task me... they task me...


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## Carl_G

^They task you but you shall have them! 

Great work so far -- I love these threads, this model looks like so much fun!


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## davejames

Cool, nice to see someone else just getting started on theirs as well.  I just got done shrinking down the shuttlebay a tiny bit so I could fit in the lights easier. It was a bit of work, but it makes everything fit SO much better.

And I was planning to do the same thing you did with the portholes, and just start with one of the existing ones (I don't really need to be accurate down to a _millimeter _or anything; close enough is fine with me).


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## Proper2

Beautiful work!


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## Trekkriffic

Previously, over in the Tips and Trcks thread, I'd posted about my version of the system JHauser came up with for quieting the bussard motors using brass axles inside of ball bearings mounted inside the tunnel of part 42 and isolating the motors from the plastic of the nacelles using foam padding to reduce motor vibration and noise. Work progressed on this as I took some time over the weekend to tweak a few things with the bearings inside the tunnel. One thing was to cut a small piece of Evergreen tubing and insert it between the bearings so they would maintain their positions at the front and back of the tunnel. Even though they fit like a glove, the process of inserting the drive axles tended to force them forward or backward so the spacer would take care of that issue. I took a piece of plastic tubing a little larger than the inside diameter of the tunnel and after cutting it to the exact distance between the two bearings I cut out a small longitudinal section of the tubing, test fitting until it slid inside the tunnel under spring tension:


IMG_4047 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The rear bearing was then inserted into the tunnel:


IMG_4048 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Subsequently the bearings were sealed into the tunnel in part 42 with a homemade styrene "washer" glued on the back side of the part so the bearing wouldn't pop out of the tunnel when inserting the spinner drive axle. Sorry, no photo of this, so you'll have to use your own imagination!

Next I had a brilliant idea; or, what might be a brilliant idea if it works...

I'm going to redo the LEDs on the round lighting kit bussard circuit board to lengthen their legs so they will fit up and thru the "towers" in part 142 and inside of the colored plastic teardrop shaped inserts provided with the lighting kit which I will be hollowing out. This will involve either snipping or desoldering the legs of the existing PC board LEDs and replacing them with lights I bought online from Lighthouse LEDs. The new lights are ultrabright-wide angle-diffused LEDs in various colors-they even had pink! So I should get a LOT more light inside the domes than otherwise. Another thing I wanted to do was create a way to bounce the light around under the spinning fan dome and onto the inside surface of the outer bussard dome which is where I got this next idea using faceted chrome plated plastic buttons I'd bought at the craft store for use on another project:


IMG_4041 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The buttons fit perfectly in the center of part 142 between the light towers:


IMG_4038 by trekriffic, on Flickr

So... I drilled, routed, and filed a hole in the center of each button:


IMG_4042 by trekriffic, on Flickr

It press fit onto the spinner shaft easily:


IMG_4044 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Test fitting with the mirror button in position under the spinner and LEDs:


IMG_4046 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I'm hoping once I have the lights modified and lit, and the spinner going, the facets will bounce light from the LEDs above them as the spinner rotates. That's the plan anyway. You know, based on whether I place the button right side up (convex) or upside down (concave) on the spinner shaft I may get a different light effect. This may be one of my best ideas ever... or not...


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## Trekkriffic

The last thing I did this weekend was cut off the tops of the taller LED towers on part 142 and widen the openings so the 3mm LEDs can pass completely thru:


IMG_4063 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Then I sprayed the part with Testors gloss silver:


IMG_4064 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I also bought a sheet of color changing foil paper they sell at Michaels craftstore. It has little stars and comets on a dark blue background that shift from gold to blue to red as you tilt the paper in the light. Man is this stuff reflective! I plan on making discs with holes cut out to fit the spacing of the light towers so I can attach the paper to the face of part 142 under the LEDs. It might be overkill but every little bit helps if it gets me an effect close to what we saw on TV back in the day! Dontcha just love experimentation! Man that's the stuff right there!

Thanks for reading along. More to come soon!


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## Trekkriffic

davejames said:


> Cool, nice to see someone else just getting started on theirs as well.  I just got done shrinking down the shuttlebay a tiny bit so I could fit in the lights easier. It was a bit of work, but it makes everything fit SO much better.
> 
> And I was planning to do the same thing you did with the portholes, and just start with one of the existing ones (I don't really need to be accurate down to a _millimeter _or anything; close enough is fine with me).


I have some flat and very tiny surface mount LEDs I'm going to use for lighting the ceiling of the clear shuttle bay that came with the lgiht kit. 
I also have the Paragrafix PE set which includes the framing for the ceiling which will work well with the light shining through. 
I want the bay to be well lit, if I'm going to all the work to get it painted just right, I want people to be able to see it dang it!

I agree with you about the spacing of the portholes. Doesn't matter if they are exactly perfect since there will be no gridlines to use for reference on this ship!


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## StarshipClass

Excellent plans! Looking great so far!


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## Fernando Mureb

Trekkriffic, thank you so much for your patience in documenting your work. So far it is the promise of great fun for you and us, your avid followers. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## SteveR

Using that mirror button is a great idea! Hope it works!


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## Prowler901

This is some amazing work, Trek. :thumbsup: Thanks for documenting all your steps so well. I'm glued to my screen.


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## djnick66

This is going to be the best yet !


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## SteveR

Have you considered using chrome mylar strips as the bussard fan blades ... shiny side toward the lights?


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## RossW

SteveR said:


> Have you considered using chrome mylar strips as the bussard fan blades ... shiny side toward the lights?


I tried using Bare Metal Foil Chrome on the inside but couldn't detect any noticeable difference.


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## Trekkriffic

RossW said:


> I tried using Bare Metal Foil Chrome on the inside but couldn't detect any noticeable difference.


Good to know. It may turn out the same with the mirror button, no noticeable difference. I'm going to frost the inside of the spinner with Dullcote followed by a coat of Tamiya transparent orange. The inside of the bussard dome itself will be steel wooled and painted with thinned white paint, either acrylic or enamel. I need to do a few experiments. The fan blades? I have Paulbo's PE set which includes brass strips for the blades. I'm going to anneal them, bend them to shape and paint them with aluminum enamel before gluing them to the spinner with CA. I'll leave the backside brass colored. They will sit back far enough under the dome to be visible but when the lights are on I want the blades to cast shadows under the milky orange/amber whiteness of the dome. I have orange/amber LEDs. I also have some in gold.


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## GT350R_Modeler

This is awesome. Keep the awesomeness coming. You guys always blow me away. Nice work Trekkriffic!


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## Captain Han Solo

Very NICE work indeed my friend!:thumbsup:


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## davejames

Trekkriffic said:


> Good to know. It may turn out the same with the mirror button, no noticeable difference. I'm going to frost the inside of the spinner with Dullcote followed by a coat of Tamiya transparent orange. The inside of the bussard dome itself will be steel wooled and painted with thinned white paint, either acrylic or enamel. I need to do a few experiments. The fan blades? I have Paulbo's PE set which includes brass strips for the blades. I'm going to anneal them, bend them to shape and paint them with aluminum enamel before gluing them to the spinner with CA. I'll leave the backside brass colored. They will sit back far enough under the dome to be visible but when the lights are on I want the blades to cast shadows under the milky orange/amber whiteness of the dome. I have orange/amber LEDs. I also have some in gold.


I was considering spraying some kind of transparent orange, but found that just rubbing my finger with orange chalk pastel was enough to get a nice thin coat on there (plus it's easy to remove if you want to try different shades of color).


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## RossW

I'll be following this thread closely - love what you've done so far!


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## Moderbuilderzero

Great thread Trek, and I'll be following with interest. I have a question for you. In your pics of the hole replacements you did on the saucer section, your gridlines are white. Did you fill in your grids, or is that sanding dust? I was unsure if you are going with gridlines and the kits surface finish, or going for the "smoothie" look.

Thank again for the thread, and thanks again or all the valuable info.

Sincerely,
MBZ.


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## Proper2

davejames said:


> I was considering spraying some kind of transparent orange, but found that just rubbing my finger with orange chalk pastel was enough to get a nice thin coat on there (plus it's easy to remove if you want to try different shades of color).


I wouldn't invest on the permanence of chalk pastel unless you seal it with spray. The dust particles will eventually fall off.


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## crowe-t

Trekkriffic, 

WOW, this is already looking like a winner! I expect nothing less from your builds. 

Is Perfect Plastic Putty anything like Squadron putty? Does it melt into the styrene the same as Squadron?

Mike.


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## Trekkriffic

Moderbuilderzero said:


> Great thread Trek, and I'll be following with interest. I have a question for you. In your pics of the hole replacements you did on the saucer section, your gridlines are white. Did you fill in your grids, or is that sanding dust? I was unsure if you are going with gridlines and the kits surface finish, or going for the "smoothie" look.
> 
> Thank again for the thread, and thanks again or all the valuable info.
> 
> Sincerely,
> MBZ.


What you see is the Perfect Plastic Putty I used to fill the gridlines. It's a white water-based surface putty and very creamy. I used a syringe to fill the lines then smoothed it with my finger before sanding. Good stuff!


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## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> Trekkriffic,
> 
> WOW, this is already looking like a winner! I expect nothing less from your builds.
> 
> Is Perfect Plastic Putty anything like Squadron putty? Does it melt into the styrene the same as Squadron?
> 
> Mike.


Perfect Plastic Putty is only similar to Squadron putty in that both are surface fillers. 

Squadron is solvent based and will eat into styrene plastic if too much is applied. Being solvent based it gives off toxic fumes. It also skins over fairly quickly reducing working time.

Perfect Plastic Putty is water based and gives off no fumes that I could detect. You can thin it with water (I used a moistened finger to smear it into the grooves or a moistened cotton swab for tighter spots) and wipe the excess off with a moist sponge. Cleanup is easy using tap water. It is very creamy and can be applied using a syringe. It is sandable after about 15 minutes but I'd give it a half hour myself. It bonds extremely well to plastic and does not seem to eat into it like Squadron will do; it actually seems to bond better to plastic than Squadron putties do. 

In my opinion, once you try Perfect Plastic Putty, you'll never want to use Squadron putty again.


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## crowe-t

I'm definitely going to pick up some PPP and give it a try.

Is it made for model building, meaning can I get it at a hobby shop or is it a 'craft store' item?


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## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> I'm definitely going to pick up some PPP and give it a try.
> 
> Is it made for model building, meaning can I get it at a hobby shop or is it a 'craft store' item?


It's made for plastic models. I got mine form my local hobby store. Not sure if you'd find it at craft stores since it's made specifically for models; still, stores like Michaels have models, Testors small bottle paints, glues, and sandpaper, etc so I suppose they might carry it, although I've never known them to carry modelling putties of any kind in the past. 
Your best bet may be to order it online. Just do a search on the web under Perfect Plastic Putty. 

Here's what the tube looks like:


Perfect Plastic Putty by trekriffic, on Flickr

It's made by Deluxe Materials in the UK. 
I tell you, with all the plugs I've given this putty on this forum, I should be earning a sales commission from them!


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## Jafo

watching this thread with great interest!


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## Trekkriffic

*Spent some time on this at lunch today...*

The inner surfaces of the bussard spinners were painted with a brush using Tamiya Transparent Orange acrylic:


IMG_4070 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The spinners were set aside to dry after being stuck to some two sided foam tape to keep them upright:


IMG_4071 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I found the trick to getting an even coating using this paint was to always keep the spinners facing straight up so the paint always runs down towards the center to pool around the shaft. There is a little brush skill involved for sure. After the first coat dried I went back and gave 'em a second coat. 

The fan blades for the spinners were heated on the stove until the brass turned red. This made them soft and pliable so they won't spring off the spinners when attaching them. 
After they cooled I placed them on a piece of granite tile and cut them from the fret using a curved xacto knife.
The fret tabs needed to be filed off using a pair of PE pliers and a cheap Harbor Freight diamond file. The blades were very soft after heating and care had to be taken to align the edge of the blade with the edge of the plier jaws with the offending tab sticking out. This allowed precise filing without the danger of harming the blade itself. Then you just file along the edge of the plier's jaw until the tab goes bye-bye:


IMG_4067 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The cleaned up fan blades were stuck to two-way tape and painted with Testors Aluminum enamel:


IMG_4068 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Prior to spraying with black paint for light blocking, I masked off the gluing surfaces of the dorsal halves:


IMG_4069 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The black was followed by silver and white spray paint.


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## Trekkriffic

I have the transparent bridge included with the Polar Lights lighting kit along with ParaGrafix's PE set. The PE set includes tiny brass railings to replace the kit railings which are just undefined curved plastic curbs along the perimeter of the sunken floor. I decided it would be easier to just cut the center section of the floor out of the kit bridge (which is opaque making it easier to see what I'm doing than the clear part) and then make the modifications needed to accomodate the PE railings. I also went a step further and sliced out the captain's chair, the navigation console, and the two chairs where Sulu and Chekov sat in order to accurize them:


IMG_4072 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I actually am finding it easier to modify the existing parts than scratching entirely new ones. Once I've made the mods and glued in the railings I'll carve out the clear floor from the transparent bridge and transplant this one into it. Before that though I'll finish the PE for the bridge screens and control panels which I'll paint and decal. 
I'll also be removing the rest of the chairs from the kit bridge at each station and adding a piece of brass wire to the undersides so they stand up on their bases rather than just being triangular bits attached flush to the floor. These will replace the clear "chairs" from the lighting kit bridge which I'll cut off. 
One other nice touch with the PE set is the inclusion of decals for the station controls and the overhead screens; the kit includes decals for the overhead screens but not the stations. There are also tiny 1/350 scale brass figures you can paint and position how you like; I may use them but only if I can figure out a way to make them more three dimensional. 

The last thing I did today was to fill in the engraved "hatches" on the rear of the B-C deck part with PPP. I think someone in another thread mentioned that the kit decals did not align with the engraved lines so I decided to go with modifying the plastic rather than the decals:


IMG_4073 by trekriffic, on Flickr

That's it for this update. More to come!


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## SteveR

Trekkriffic said:


> There are also tiny 1/350 scale brass figures you can paint and position how you like; I may use them but only if I can figure out a way to make them more three dimensional.


Have you considered using PPP or Mr. Surfacer to give a bit of thickness to the figures? Surface tension might give the right "roundness" to the blob of paint/putty.

Great thread; thanks for keeping us in the loop. :thumbsup:


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## crowe-t

I'm really looking forward to seeing the modifications to the bridge!

I like that you filled in the engraved hatches. They were never engraved on the studio model and at least now the decals will look accurate.


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## djnick66

They make a lot of cast resin 1/350 figures now. Here is a set of U Boat crew. Just google 1/350 figures and hunt around. In this scale its easy to trim off head gear, etc. 

http://northstarmodels.com/product/kriegsmarine-summer-static-figures-set-1/


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## robn1

You could make the figures more dimensional by painting them with a thick paint, like artist's oils or Tulip fabric paint.

And thanks for testing PPP for us, it looks like great stuff.


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## Calamus

Looking great so far and I love the details your putting in to this build. Keep up the fantastic work!


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## Trekkriffic

SteveR said:


> Have you considered using PPP or Mr. Surfacer to give a bit of thickness to the figures? Surface tension might give the right "roundness" to the blob of paint/putty.
> 
> Great thread; thanks for keeping us in the loop. :thumbsup:


Yes. I've been thinking of doing that. Might try the PPP on a scrap piece of brass first and see if it can be shaped with an xacto knife once it dries. I'd like to to be able to shape feet and facial features, albeit they would just be suggestions of noses and chins. Would be great if I could shape Spock's ears in putty but that might be pushing it.


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## Trekkriffic

robn1 said:


> You could make the figures more dimensional by painting them with a thick paint, like artist's oils or Tulip fabric paint.
> 
> And thanks for testing PPP for us, it looks like great stuff.


Thanks for the advice. I really need to check out this Tulip paint. I think my local _Joanne's_ craft store carries it.


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## Trekkriffic

djnick66 said:


> They make a lot of cast resin 1/350 figures now. Here is a set of U Boat crew. Just google 1/350 figures and hunt around. In this scale its easy to trim off head gear, etc.
> 
> http://northstarmodels.com/product/kriegsmarine-summer-static-figures-set-1/


Thanks for the link. Those figures are amazing. Such detail!


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## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> I'm really looking forward to seeing the modifications to the bridge!
> 
> I like that you filled in the engraved hatches. They were never engraved on the studio model and at least now the decals will look accurate.


Thanks! I'm going to try and make the captain's chair swivel if I can! And the other chairs will have brass wire (painted black) for their bases which will fit into holes drilled into the deck so they could turn as well. I'll be using the translucent white dome and will leave it removeable to expose the bridge for viewing.


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## RossW

I see you're prepping the pylon parts - how did you clean up the windows? Mine have a fair bit of flash (same for the secondary hull windows) around the edges and I really want the clear window inserts to slide in perfectly with no gaps (and flush with the outside). I've been watching some buildups on YouTube and some people there are painting the hull colour on the halves, inserting the clear window pieces, gluing them together then putting the seams and touching up the paint. This eliminates the need to mask the windows when painting (and also using the clear window inserts).


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## Trekkriffic

I haven't looked that closely at the window openings but from a cursory inspection it doesn't appear my frames have much flash present. I seem to have lucked out and gotten a real good kit. I'll have to dry fit some of the window inserts and see how tight the fit is. If there are any gaps I'll need to fill them with PPP and mask off the windows for painting.


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## Viabahn

Edited:

Oops! You already answered my question on page 2 regarding PPP.


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## Trekkriffic

Quick update on the bussard spinners...


After 2 coats of transparent orange this is how they look held up to the light:


IMG_4074 by trekriffic, on Flickr

At lunch I attached the fan blades. 

Gorillla Super Glue was applied to the fan blade slots. I used Tamiya tape to mask off the center hub and the sides of the slots. This helped keep any stray CA from getting on areas where I didn't want it:


IMG_4079 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The fan blades were very soft and easily maintained the curvature of the dome making gluing a snap:


IMG_4080 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After attaching the first blade I glued the next one to the opposite side to keep from messing with the first one while the CA dried:


IMG_4081 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After all the blades were on I brushed on a coat of Future clear acrylic coating: 


IMG_4082 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The finished spinner after a few coats of Dullcote:


IMG_4084 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The PE set included round covers for the center of the hubs but I think that would make them too dark so I don't plan on using them. I did paint the hubs with transparent orange however. We'll see how they look once I get the lights in and the outer dome frosted and in place. I can always add the covers later. 

Thanks for reading!


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## Trekkriffic

Update... Been workin' on the bridge and the saucer halves mostly...

The command pod, or whatever you call the center section of the bridge with the command chair and helm/nav console needed some work so I cut the chair and console free from the raised platform and went to work. 
Here's how it looked after some cutting, filing, and sanding:


IMG_4090 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After some light grey, black, medium gray, and red paint:


IMG_4131 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The chairs were cut loose and brass wire added to make a base. 
This was very delicate and tedious work considering the chairs are about the size of the end of a pencil:


IMG_4104 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Since taking this pic I abandoned the idea of gluing little L-shaped pieces of wire to make the legs. Just too much work and they just didn't look quite right. I'll probably just glue tiny bits of wire to the floor in an "x" configuration around the holes I drilled to insert the chairs. 
I'll do the same for every chair on the bridge.

Here's the bridge after adding decals, PE consoles and display panels:


IMG_4134 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Still need to glue the center section in. I also need to finish painting the chairs before gluing them in. The railings are PE too and look nice the way they are but I'll probably modify them too. I used the clear part from the lighting kit for the surrounding upper level consoles; they light up from behind and underneath as does the main viewscreen! I used the grey opaque kit part for the center command section. It was much easier to modify grey plastic than it would have been working with a clear part where it would be hard to see what your xacto knife and file were doing.


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## Trekkriffic

After the first shot of primer, the gridlines were still visible on the saucer halves so I slapped on more PPP. 
Needless to say, I went at it with gusto and renewed fervor:


IMG_4106 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I sanded away for hours using 150, 180, and 400 grit sandpaper:


IMG_4107 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Upper saucer after sanding (cough! cough!). You should have seen the clouds of putty dust I blew away as I sanded:


IMG_4133 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The upper and lower sauce halves after priming. I held my breath and... this time...NO DAMN GRIDLINES!


IMG_4137 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4135 by trekriffic, on Flickr

And the B-C deck got another puttying, sanding, and priming. No hatch grooves now!


IMG_4100 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Thank GOD! I have now exited the offramp from the gridline highway to hell...


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## crowe-t

Now that's what the saucer should have looked like right out of the box! Nice and smooth.

I can't wait to see it all painted.

What paint/color will you be using on the hull?


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## Prowler901

WOAH!!! That's some CRAZY work! This is awesome! :thumbsup:


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## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> Now that's what the saucer should have looked like right out of the box! Nice and smooth.
> 
> I can't wait to see it all painted.
> 
> What paint/color will you be using on the hull?


Probably ModelMaster Imperial Japanese Navy Sky Grey. 
I have 3 bottles of it, although, I practically have a whole quart left of the ACE Shady Cove. 
Might try mixing the two together to get more mileage out of the ModelMaster paint. 
I'll have to do a color experiment. 
I really like the slight olive tone of the kit plastic so I may also add in some Model Master oliver drab.
We'll see.


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## Moderbuilderzero

Trekkriffic said:


> It's made for plastic models. I got mine form my local hobby store. Not sure if you'd find it at craft stores since it's made specifically for models; still, stores like Michaels have models, Testors small bottle paints, glues, and sandpaper, etc so I suppose they might carry it, although I've never known them to carry modelling putties of any kind in the past.
> Your best bet may be to order it online. Just do a search on the web under Perfect Plastic Putty.
> 
> Here's what the tube looks like:
> 
> 
> It's made by Deluxe Materials in the UK.
> I tell you, with all the plugs I've given this putty on this forum, I should be earning a sales commission from them!


Available on Amazon.


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## crowe-t

Trekkriffic said:


> Probably ModelMaster Imperial Japanese Navy Sky Grey.
> I have 3 bottles of it:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Although, I practically have a whole quart left of the ACE Shady Cove.
> Might try mixing the two together to get more mileage out of the ModelMaster paint.
> I'll have to do a color experiment.
> I really like the slight olive tone of the kit plastic so I may also add in some Model Master oliver drab.
> We'll see.


Now I remember you used ACE Shady Cove on a 1/1000 TOS Enterprise. BTW, that was a very nice build!

I have a WalMart 'Concrete' color chip and so far the closest 'acrylic' match I can find is Tamiya JN Gray. I'll most likely paint my AMT 18" TOS E in JN Gray since I plan on using acrylics.


----------



## djnick66

Tamiya makes JN Grey in their AS series of spray paints, although the color is slightly different than the jar version. I may experiement with Tamiya IJN Grey-green (comes in jar and spray). Grey-green, is a light greenish grey shade. In Japanese this color is actually called olive. It's the color for early war Naval planes like the Zero. It is not the same as underside JN Grey.

http://www.tamiyausa.com/images/product/560/81776/header_86529.jpg


----------



## Trekkriffic

Quick update on the bridge...

I decided to make the bridge railings 3 dimensional rather than flat like the PE.
To do this I needed to turn the flat PE railing legs 90 degrees so...

First, I sliced slots into the short walls around the circumference of the bridge center section using a #11 blade. 
Then I cut the legs off the PE railings and glued them into the slots at an angle leaning inward. 
Talk about tedious work with a magnifier and tweezers! 
Once the CA dried I dotted the tops of the legs with CA and very carefully placed strips of Evergreen strip on top to form the rails themselves:


IMG_4139 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Once all the railings were in I painted the legs black and the rails Italian Red. 

Here's a pic of the center section with the completed railings installed into the outer ring:


IMG_4140 by trekriffic, on Flickr

There was a good sizes gap between the two sections which I filled with AVES Apoxy Sculpt. 
Once it's dry I'll do whatever cleanup is needed before touching up the upper level floor with Gunship Grey. 
Then I'll finish painting the 9 chairs and placing them into the floor at each station. 

I'll take a pic when it's done with LEDs in place behind the upper display screens and the main viewer so you guys can see how it looks lit up all pretty.


----------



## Moderbuilderzero

Trek, it looks fantastic, but you are a madman! LOL
That would drive me bonkers, but it's great to see an attempt at it. Your detail work is amazing. Can I send you MY bridge to do next??

Keep up the great job and posts.

Sincerely,
MBZ. :wave:


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Incredible, impossible!!!! 

How can you keep your hand steady? Do you use a robotic arm?


----------



## SteveR

Very nice! :thumbsup:


----------



## Trekkriffic

Today's update... a tale of horror and redemption... kind of...

So this morning I decided to set up and take some pics with my "studio" lights (the ones with the reflectors I got at Loews) of the finished bridge. 
Just need to add some figures:


IMG_4168 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4169 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4173 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After taking the last pic I got up for a minute and when I came back I noticed something so horrible... so horendous... I wanted to shoot myself with a phaser! And not on stun either! 

I had left the hot lights on too long and too close to the bridge and it had caused it to soften and warp. 

Arrrrrrgggggh! 

The bridge was now oval instead of round. 

Holy crap! If I wasn't so afraid of cracking the concrete I would have beaten my head against the garage floor. 

8 hours of work was circling the drain of my own stupidity (sob)...

Frantic, I grabbed it up and noticed all the putty had softened and cracked off in spots around the center section and the it just came free in my hand when I pressed it from below. Two of the railings had broken free as well. The outer walls were warped but while it was stil warm I was able to get it back to basically close to round. There was only minor buckling in one of the ion pods.... er.. I mean, one of the overhead PE display panels has bent slightly; luckily, I was able to press it back down and flatten it. 
It could be fixed but the center section... not good news... I tried reheating it but it was no good. It just wasn't going back to round even putting it in my hobby vice and heating it with a heat gun only caused it to bow in the center making matters worse.

You can imagine my disgust at myself as I tossed both pieces into the trash and contemplated just building the ship without the bridge. 
After all, at least I had photos of the work I'd done. I could just glue the dome onto B-C deck housing and leave it at that. 
Nobody would even know.... 
except me... 
I would know. 
Still upset with myself I glanced around my worktable and noticed something sitting quietly off to one side in a dish with some odds and ends. It was the clear center section of the clear bridge which I had removed when I used the kit section instead. There it was just staring at me coyly. It was intact except for some roughness around the rim from the xacto saw. Yes! So I took it, kissed it, primed it with Tamiya surface primer, and painted it up. 
I didn't have the energy to make all the same mods I'd made originally but I was able to fake it pretty good. The hand rails were solid clear plastic so I painted the short wall at their base and the legs black. Then I painted the red railings on top. In between I left the light grey primer. Here's how it looked:


IMG_4176 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Not bad, not bad.

Then I squeezed it into the outer ring and glued it in with CA before filling the gaps with AVES like before. I lost 3 of the chairs so made 3 new ones from scratch. I think they look better than the old ones in fact. 
To give the impression of the handrails being open between the legs I painted the gaps between the legs dark grey to match the color of the carpet on the upper bridge level when viewed fromm the lower level. On the other side I left the gaps painted light grey to match the lower carpet color. So when you view the rails from the lower level it gives the illusion that you are seeing the darker grey carpet thru the rails and vice versa when looking down from the upper level. It's a very convicing illusion. 

Here's the new bridge:


IMG_4181 by trekriffic, on Flickr

All things considered it was a decent save I think. Once it's inside the hull and lit up I think it will look fine. 

Thanks for reading about my moment of horror and how I was able to salvage something presentable from the wreckage.


----------



## djnick66

Actually in some ways I like the second one better although it sucks the first one melted. Both are VERY good.


----------



## SteveR

Great save! :thumbsup:

No, really. It looks good.


----------



## Gregatron

That story was painful to read, but the fix looks good!


----------



## crowe-t

I also have to say that I kind of like the second one more. 

That is a excellent save and it's great that all your efforts weren't destroyed!


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Man, you are a monster. I thought that make one nano-bridge was impossible and then you made two!?! I bet you melted the first on purpose, just to have an alibi to humiliate us. :freak:


----------



## morrihl1

I know I'm getting ahead of where you are now but I've done something similar to what you've done with filling the grid lines and now I'm scratching my head about how to precisely align the upper saucer decals without the grid lines. Any thoughts on how best to do that?


----------



## J_Indy

If you didn't make a tracing-paper copy of the pattern beforehand (the best solution), then you might:

1) go to http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints-main2.php and download a top-view of the ship
2) use a paint program to scale the top-down view of the saucer to model size (as 1 image you have a big printer - or cut-out pie sections if you don't) to print.
3) use the printed template(s) to mark off locations on the saucer
4) apply decals and erase markers

This would be so much easier if the grid was decal(s) like the refit aztecs. Then they could have scaled the lines to the proper thinness for the scale of the saucer.

But some bean-counter with no idea about models probably thought the scribed grids would be his "creative contribution"


----------



## djnick66

I don't mind the scribed grid myself, but I can see where other's may not want it. I would think someone would have some grid decals for the 1/350 kit. They make them for the 1/650 model.


----------



## Trekkriffic

morrihl1 said:


> I know I'm getting ahead of where you are now but I've done something similar to what you've done with filling the grid lines and now I'm scratching my head about how to precisely align the upper saucer decals without the grid lines. Any thoughts on how best to do that?


I made a template of the gridlines off the saucer halves using graph paper for when I need to redraw them in pencil. I'm probably going to use a harder grade art pencil sanded to the sharpest point possible and apply minimal pressure so as not to score the surface. The larger diameter concentric circles will be the trick though as my current drafting compass won't reach that far. I'll probably have to buy one from _Michaels_ or an art supply store that comes with an extender.


----------



## Trekkriffic

djnick66 said:


> I don't mind the scribed grid myself, but I can see where other's may not want it. I would think someone would have some grid decals for the 1/350 kit. They make them for the 1/650 model.


God could you imagine the problems with silvering doing the gridlines with decals though? Especially on the lower saucer.


----------



## djnick66

The straight lines would be applied individually. This wouldn't be so bad. No different than cheat lines on big airliner models. I'm not sure how you would do the radius lines.


----------



## J_Indy

Trekkriffic said:


> God could you imagine the problems with silvering doing the gridlines with decals though? Especially on the lower saucer.


Would it be that bad? The refit aztecs are decals.

I started watching "Steve Neill's Garage" on YouTube recently, and he has been building a Reliant.

Gloss coat, aztec decals, Micro-Sol, matte coat.

The Micro-Sol is amazing in how it made the decals conform to the contours of the model. No silvering.


----------



## Trekkriffic

J_Indy said:


> Would it be that bad? The refit aztecs are decals.
> 
> I started watching "Steve Neill's Garage" on YouTube recently, and he has been building a Reliant.
> 
> Gloss coat, aztec decals, Micro-Sol, matte coat.
> 
> The Micro-Sol is amazing in how it made the decals conform to the contours of the model. No silvering.


Yes but silveriung is less noticeable on the white hull of a ship like the Reliant I think. Darker tones can be more problematic. I'm not saying it's impossible of course but you would want to be sure and get a good glossy finish to start with.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Sunday's update...

Decided to work on the photo-etch crew figures. These are sooooo small. Kirk, Sulu, the Navigator, and Scotty had to be cut from the fret before painting since I needed to bend their legs and arms using tweezers and PE pliers and didn't want to mar the paint in the process.

Here's a pic of what would end up being the wee Sulu figure after I bent his arms down and bent him at the waist. Both the helmsman and navigator had to have their legs amputated to fit into their seats unfortunately. Poor Sulu:


IMG_4182 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I used foam tape to hold the seated figures still while I painted them:


IMG_4183 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Some of the figures I left on the fret to paint. Left to right here are a redshirt, Spock, McCoy, and Rand:


IMG_4184 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The figures were glued onto the bridge using Elmer's clear glue. I liked it better than CA because it's easier to remove the figures if I want to reposition them. Also less messy:


IMG_4202 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4206 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4208 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4216 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Next thing is to work on how to light it. I have a few ideas.


----------



## djnick66

The bridge and figures are just awesome !


----------



## SteveR

I think that's about as good as it gets ...!


----------



## Proper2

Why not build this at 1:32 or so and then shrink it?


----------



## iamjafi

Proper2 said:


> Why not build this at 1:32 or so and then shrink it?


Wow! You reminded me of the comic book one of the big model companies put out when I was a kid. it was about a group of kids who would build kits and then use a machine of some kind to blow them up to full size. The comic showed how the group built their models correctly and they would race against a rival group - the Messy Modellers. Of course, the Messy Modellers did a sloppy job on their models and would always lose.

Does anybody else remember this?

(Sorry for the OT threadjack.)

Great job so far Trekkriffic! I love what you've done so far.


----------



## Prowler901

Yeah, that was from the Revel modeling club. I loved those!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Prowler901 said:


> Yeah, that was from the Revel modeling club. I loved those!


I remember joining a model club back in the 70's based on an ad I saw in a magazine. I sent away for the super duper model building tool kit in the ad and after 3-4 weeks it came in the mail. Not what I imagined it would be at all. All I remember about it now was these cheap red plastic clamps that didn't work for crap.


----------



## Prowler901

Yup, that's the same one.  I remember those crappy little red clamps.


----------



## djnick66

I had a Revell Takara kit from Japan that came with a whole set of those crappy rubbery plastic "tools". It had clamps, a funny sort of putty trowel, and a couple other largely useless things.


----------



## Trekkriffic

djnick66 said:


> I had a Revell Takara kit from Japan that came with a whole set of those crappy rubbery plastic "tools". It had clamps, a funny sort of putty trowel, and a couple other largely useless things.


Yep. There was a crappy red plastic spatula too. Some kind of vinyl plastic.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Today's update from work done yesterday...

I wanted to see if I could approximate the ceiling soffit which illuminated the peirmeter of the bridge so I cut out a ring from clear styrene sheet and sanded it to help with light diffusion. The inner diameter was made to be about 1/16" less than the upper hull dome opening:


IMG_4217 by trekriffic, on Flickr

A ring was made from Evergreen strip and glued to the inner edge. The width of the ring matched the distance from the bottom of the lighting soffit and the underside of the dome openng above:


IMG_4218 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Reflective tape was wrapped around the edge of the ring to reflect light back inside the soffit and block light from showing thru the ring:


IMG_4220 by trekriffic, on Flickr

For the upper dome lighting I soldered two 30 AWG kynar wires to a warm white surface mount LED I got from Lighthouse LEDs. This was my first time soldering to such tiny LEDs; guess my experience working with the small crew figures was good practice:


IMG_4221 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The surface mount LED was epoxied to a styrene disc which was then glued into the underside of the translucent white upper dome. Here it is lit up:


IMG_4224 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I used the "N" wiring harness for which there are two sockets on the circuit board. These are optional ports intended for those who want to light the impulse engines but I won't be lighting those on my build so I used one socket for the dome light instead.

The upper dome in place on top of B-C deck and lit up:


IMG_4226 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The ceiling soffit ring is glued into the hull with CA:


IMG_4229 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The bridge is glued to the soffit ring with CA :


IMG_4234 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Trekkriffic

"Captain. You may want to look at this. It appears to be a miniature of our bridge."


IMG_4236 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4238 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4240 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4243 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4246 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4248 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After these pics were taken I went a step further and inserted small squares of semi-opaque milk jug plastic between the three LEDs and the bridge displays and main viewscreen to help diffuse the light more. Then this morning I mixed up some Envirotex resin and poured it around the bridge inside A deck up to the level of the LEDs. The clear resin helped to alleviate hot spots and more evenly distribute light around the bridge displays. It was a small but noticeable improvement. 

Thanks for following along!


----------



## SteveR

Excellent solution to the "bridge-interior-or-lit-dome" dilemma!

So ... the only non-standard LED is the tiny surface-mount LED inside the flip-top dome?
... and the soffit just diffuses the light provided by the kit's bridge LEDs in their normal "O-harness" positions? 

Thanks ...


----------



## djnick66

Looking good. In The Cage the bridge was depicted like this...








[/URL][/IMG]


----------



## Trekkriffic

djnick66 said:


> Looking good. In The Cage the bridge was depicted like this...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [/URL][/IMG]


I always thought that shot looked a little off. Maybe the clear dome's curvature is causing some distortion.


----------



## djnick66

I think its just a crudely matted composite effect. But, still cool.


----------



## Trekkriffic

SteveR said:


> Excellent solution to the "bridge-interior-or-lit-dome" dilemma!
> 
> So ... the only non-standard LED is the tiny surface-mount LED inside the flip-top dome?
> ... and the soffit just diffuses the light provided by the kit's bridge LEDs in their normal "O-harness" positions?
> 
> Thanks ...


Yep. The surface mount LED is non-standard. 

And the normal bridge LEDs light the bridge; most of the illumination coming thru the displays over the consoles and the main viewer. The soffit provides more of an ambient glow. I think it looks like what we would have seen on screen if not for the bright floodlights used during filming.


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Trekkriffic, thank you so much for this excellent and very well documented thread! :thumbsup:

I've got a question on the SMD that you epoxied to a styrene disc. Do the light diffuse itself uniformly throughout the disk or do it form a spot in the center? On the image it seems that the brightness is the same in every point of the disc.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Fernando Mureb said:


> Trekkriffic, thank you so much for this excellent and very well documented thread! :thumbsup:
> 
> I've got a question on the SMD that you epoxied to a styrene disc. Do the light diffuse itself uniformly throughout the disk or do it form a spot in the center? On the image it seems that the brightness is the same in every point of the disc.


The camera overexposes it. There is a bright spot in the center of the dome which I actually like.
I used a warm white SMD LED to match the light kit's warm white LED for the bottom dome.


----------



## Prowler901

THAT'S INCREDIBLE!!!

Amazing work, sir. Very well done. :thumbsup:


----------



## crowe-t

This is amazing! The lighting in the bridge looks like it did on TV.

Is the dome hinged?


----------



## KUROK

That mini bridge lighting is about the coolest thing I've seen in a long time!
Sweet!


----------



## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> This is amazing! The lighting in the bridge looks like it did on TV.
> 
> Is the dome hinged?


The dome isn't hinged per se but the solid 30 AWG wire is stiff enough to act like one. I'm trying not to flex it too much though for fear of the wires breaking at some point. 

As far as the lighting goes I'm seriously toying with the idea of using the other "N" port on the PC board to light a fourth wide angle warm white ultrabright LED (another one I got from Lighthouse LEDs) underneath the bridge pointing toward the bow. The instructions state that if you utilize the N ports to light the impulse engines you need to remove a string of strip lights in the front of the saucer. The only use for these SMD LEDs is to light the 3 round ports on the bow of the ship but If I cut a slot in the circular inner wall of the lower hull it should allow enough light to shine thru from the LED under the bridge to light those bow ports. The reason for the fourth LED under the bridge is to light up the helm and provide more light to the other bridge consoles than they currently get now. The helm looks pretty cool when lit from below as I painted the clear plastic black but then went back and poked tiny holes in the paint where the buttons would be allowing light to shine thru. So all the buttons will light up on the helm and navigator stations. I may also go back and drill out the amber colored round course plotter that resides between the helmsman and navigator and replace it with a piece of amber colored rod so it glows too. Delicate work to be sure.


----------



## Mark Dorais

What kind of syringe did you use to fill in the grid lines with the Perfect Plastic putty? Where can this syringe be purchased?........Your build looks amazing!!!!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Mark Dorais said:


> What kind of syringe did you use to fill in the grid lines with the Perfect Plastic putty? Where can this syringe be purchased?........Your build looks amazing!!!!


I used the syringes sold at TAP Plastics:

http://www.tapplastics.com/product/...plies/hypo_type_solvent_cement_applicator/409

I have store locally but you can also order them online.


----------



## SteveR

KUROK said:


> That mini bridge lighting is about the coolest thing I've seen in a long time!
> Sweet!


You're, like, the Raytheon of bridge domes! :thumbsup:


----------



## Trekkriffic

SteveR said:


> You're, like, the Raytheon of bridge domes! :thumbsup:


Honestly, what I came up with is not nearly so clever as the Raytheon Effect. But thanks for the compliment! :thumbsup:


----------



## Trekkriffic

Next up... the launch bay!

After removing the parts from the sprue I cleaned up with a file and sanding sticks:


IMG_4250 by trekriffic, on Flickr


I'll mask off the ceiling, side and rear wall windows from inside before I paint the floor and walls. My plan for the ceiling, side and rear walls is to paint them silver on the inside followed by black and a coat of primer. The silver on the inside will relect light back outwards thru the clear plastic towards the windows on the side of the hull. I'll paint the final colors before applying the PE which will be painted before gluing to the plastic.

The launch bay taped together for dry fitting into the hull:


IMG_4251 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I had to enlarge the slots in the floor (the lighting kit doesn't include a floor as you are supposed to use the kit part) so the sidewalls tabs would fit flush. On the rear of the sidewalls I had to file a little off the tab that fits between the pair of LED brackets on each side of the rear wall. 

Once I had all the wire harnesses in place and taped to the bay I did a second dry fit. The first test I did without the wiring was perfect. Everything went together with no gaps. With the wiring in place it was not quite so good. There was a 1/16" gap between the hull halves caused by not enough clearance between the LED's, the wiring and the hull itself. I could force it closed but I have no intention of gluing the hull halves together with the rear seam under constant stress so... I'll have to make some modifications to the wiring scheme. The LEDs appear to be wired in parallel so the board must be supplying 3 volts to each string. Perfect! One thing I'm going to do for sure is switch out the wire for a smaller gauge-probably the 30 AWG Kynar I just got. That alone might do the trick along with grinding and thinning the square LED that fits over the hangar doors. I'm also not going to install the LEDs in the trenches in the ceiling as those will be covered with PE; the ceiling beams are not meant to be lit in my opinion. I'm going to use thin SMD LEDs over the ceiling on top of the bay. If there's not enough clearance I may have to go ahead and thin the top of the hull plastic just a little so they fit. 

Stay tuned!


----------



## Mark Dorais

Trekkriffic said:


> I used the syringes sold at TAP Plastics:
> 
> http://www.tapplastics.com/product/...plies/hypo_type_solvent_cement_applicator/409
> 
> I have store locally but you can also order them online.


Thanks so much...will definately be ordering some.:thumbsup:


----------



## Fernando Mureb

This part of the kit alone seems to be is more complex than most sci-fi kits around.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Fernando Mureb said:


> This part of the kit alone seem to be is more complex than most sci-fi kits around.


Yes. I had the advantage of reading posts from those modellers who went before and experienced the frustration of trying to get the hull to close over this assembly using the lighting kit harnesses as is so I knew what to expect. 
I've already made a few mods such as using a round file to deepen the slots where the four LEDs mount to the back wall. I did a test fit with just those LEDs in place and the hull went together nice and flush. So those are not an issue, if, indeed, they ever were. The next thing I did was to flat file and sand the sqaure LED that goes over the doors under the beacon. This reduced its thickness and also served to diffuse the surface which will be better for getting a softer glow. I also removed it from the harness and soldered two lengths of 30 AWG wire to its legs. I then filed the slot at the edge of the ceiling where the wires pass over it, just the front edge immediatley behind the doors since I won't be running the wires thru the center trench which I need to leave open for light to shine thru unobstructed. I'll bend the legs at 90 degress and run the wires up the trenches inside the support beams on each side of the main ceiling panels since I'm not going to have LEDs installed in them there is plenty of room for running the wires from both the beacon LED and the SMD LEDs over the ceiling.


----------



## J_Indy

SMD's are the way to go for cramped quarters. You can even light the windows in the nacelle pylons with them if you wanted to.

Combine SMD's with Magnet Wire and you can probably eliminate/greatly reduce any fit problems.


----------



## iamjafi

Sorry for another threadjack, Trekkriffic, but...

I just picked up some Perfect Plastic Putty at my LHS (in the States, no less) and tried it out on an annoying seam on my current project. The seam is GONE! I love this stuff! No smell, dry in 30 minutes, and it sands like a dream.
Thanks for telling us about it! I may just try covering the grid lines on my 350E.

Back to your project, I can see where you'd be worried about lifting the dome over your bridge too often. But, the bridge is so beautiful that you are going to want to show it off. If you haven't glued everything into place, might I suggest making small metal contacts on the edge of the dome and on the bridge rim so that the dome just lifts off? Gravity keeps it in contact and lit but it comes off easily for display. I did something similar with my PL Jupiter 2, like so:










My contacts are way too large for your application, but a couple of pieces of 26 gauge wire might do the trick.


----------



## SteveR

iamjafi said:


> If you haven't glued everything into place, might I suggest making small metal contacts on the edge of the dome and on the bridge rim so that the dome just lifts off?


Now _there's_ an idea ...


----------



## Trekkriffic

SteveR said:


> Now _there's_ an idea ...


Hmmmm... Great idea! I'll have to see what can be done now that's it's all glued in.


----------



## jgoldsack

Maybe a silly question but... 

how did you cut out the lower part of the bridge so nicely? I've been looking at mine, trying to figure out how to not hack it into a million pieces....


----------



## Trekkriffic

jgoldsack said:


> Maybe a silly question but...
> 
> how did you cut out the lower part of the bridge so nicely? I've been looking at mine, trying to figure out how to not hack it into a million pieces....


I used this Trumpeter engraving tool mostly:

http://www.modelsforsale.com/catalo...rumpeter---Hobby-Line-Engraver-Scale-na-09912

I worked from the underside scribing all around the circular center section. You end up having to fill in the gap caused between the upper floor and the center section with putty if you plan on doing what I did.


----------



## Trekkriffic

iamjafi said:


> Back to your project, I can see where you'd be worried about lifting the dome over your bridge too often. But, the bridge is so beautiful that you are going to want to show it off. If you haven't glued everything into place, might I suggest making small metal contacts on the edge of the dome and on the bridge rim so that the dome just lifts off? Gravity keeps it in contact and lit but it comes off easily for display.


Cudos to you jafi for a great idea! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

I spent a few hours Friday and Saturday trying a few different approaches but finally came up with the idea to use leftover brass fret strips to make the contacts for "A" deck and the dome. This was the third idea I tried after making a mess trying to retrofit using the existing wire leads (which were very thin and short putting me in constant fear of breaking them off) using drops of solder on tin strips. Alas, the solder made ugly blobs that wanted to push together and short out. I also tried using tiny springs on either the dome or "A" deck to make the contacts. Neither worked well and the dome would only light intermittently if at all. 
Then the hammer dropped as, during the last of these early attempts, I burned out the SMD LED in the dome!  
Turned out this was a blessing in disguise as it forced me to pop the dome open and redo the wiring for the replacement SMD LED. 
This was key to installing brass contacts in the dome. 

Here's a pic of the new dome wiring with the final solution, brass contacts:


IMG_4261 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I went with clear styrene this time so I could see how the contacts were lining up with the contacts in the top of "A" deck. I'll be adding some more detail to the underside of the dome so the wiring will be hiddden from sight.

"A" deck with brass contact strips soldered to the original wire leads:


IMG_4273 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Soldering in place was tricky and required a quick hand with the soldering iron so as not to melt the hull plastic; also, CA tends to let go when heated.
You also have to be careful and not apply too much solder or risk it dropping off into the bridge below. I had that happen dutring the first attemps at using solder blobs on tin strips and almost took out Spock! Yikes! Holy Harry Mudd's hemorrhoids I thought- well, not really, but you get the idea. 
Fortunately I had moved Spock from his original position at his console bending over his viewer and moved him over beside Captain Kirk standing with his arms behind his back in that classic Spock pose. I wanted him to be more visible too and over against the black console he all but disappeared. 
Anyway, continuing the horror story with the solder, the drop of molten liquid metal landed on the other side of the railing behind Spock and missed the console and Spock's chair entirely. 
I think I did hear Uhura scream though as it landed fairly close to her. 
The solder warped the railing slightly but, luckily, I was able to fix it by heating a spoon shaped metal paint stir stick and pressing it against the railing until it returned to it's original curvature. 
A little paint touch up and it looks fine now. 
Learning from my mistakes, when I went to install the final brass contacts, I took the precaution of placing a small piece of aluminum foil over the bridge below the opening to catch any solder droplets. Sure enough I had a nice big blob of solder drip off the iron and land smack dab where Kirk's chair would have been if not for the foil. I tell you I feel like Houdini with some of the narrow escapes I've had with this bridge!

Anyway, enough of my travails, here is the bridge dome in place and lit up:


IMG_4270 by trekriffic, on Flickr


Now back to the shuttle bay...


----------



## Trekkriffic

Here's the taped together launch bay in place with the rear wall and fantail LED wiring harness in place but not the upper LEDS for the ceiling and beacon light:


IMG_4252 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The hull went together fine with little need to try and force the halves together:


IMG_4253 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The fit wasn't so good after I tried installling the bay with the ceiling lights in place; I ended up with about a 1/32 inch gap in the upper hull and stern. I think I can fix that though using SMD LEDs and filing down the thickness of the rectangular beacon LED over the doors. I'll also remove the kit wires and use something thinner like 26 or 30 AWG. 

Switching gears, mI masked off the areas of the shuttle bay that I either wanted left clear or that I would be applying CA to in order to glue the brass photo-etch in place. Then I sprayed Testors silver on the inside of the walls to reflect light from the rear wall LEDs outwards towards the inside surface of the hull to hopefully illuminate the rear windows on either side of the bay:


IMG_4256 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After the silver dried I left the masks on and sprayed with Tamiya grey primer:


IMG_4258 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Today I airbrushed with Model Master Sand:


IMG_4277 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Next I'll mask the Sand areas of the walls off and airbrush with MM Dark Ghost Grey. I'll also paint the PE before gluing it to the inside walls. 
Then it'll be checking for light leaks and applying PPP and more paint as needed.

Moving on while the paint dries I took a gander at the strobe lights that came with the lighting kit. 
Ports "P" on the main PC board in the secondary hull are meant to power the strobe lights in the stern. 
When I plugged the wires in though I noticed one flashed at a slow rate, similar to the saucer flashers, while the other one barely flashed at all! 
Cripes! This woudl not do! 
Then I had a brilliant idea. 

Years ago I had purchased a dual synchronized strobe flasher board from my LHS:


IMG_4275 by trekriffic, on Flickr

It's powered by 9-15 volts which is perfect for this project. The bulbs are incandescent and tiny; I believe they are referred to as grain-of-rice bulbs. 
I powered the board up for the first time and the bulbs flashed very quickly, just like I saw on TV! 
I also noticed an open port on the PC board; it's the one in the lower righthand corner which is an unassigned port. 
I checked it and written below the port it lists it as a 12V LED strip port which is great because it gives me an easy way to plug in the strobe board using one of the unused N harnesses from the saucer. 
I will fit the strobe flasher in right behind the shuttle bay with room to spare and I think it will look much better than the strobes from the lighting kit. 

One last thing to mention before getting back to work, if you are looking to use a different approach for attaching the power supply plug into the kit base or a custom base of your own and would rather plug it into a panel jack rather than using the harness in the lighting kit with it's mating inline coupler, what you want is a size "M" panel jack. I had one that I got years ago at Radio Jack and it fits perfectly to the power supply plug. It will fit really nicely into a hole I'll drill into the refit Enterprise base. I have a 1/350 Reft kit which was the first issue with the rectangular "drydock" base. I'll use it instead of the round base from the kit which I'll swap out and be using for the refit at some point. The panel jack has solderable contacts in the rear which I'll split two circuits off from to light the LEDs and the motors separately with rocker switches. 

Anyway, that's it for now, back to the garage... 

Oh... and thanks for watching my progress! 

:wave:


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Trekkriffic said:


> Oh... and thanks for watching my progress!
> :wave:


My pleasure, sir! :thumbsup:

Thanks to you pioneers we latecomers can begin from a more solid base. 

This thread should be used by R2 as an assembly instruction manual. :wave:


----------



## Prowler901

Nice work, Trek! Really, really clever assembly solutions you're coming up with.

I agree on the ion light flashing. I was disappointed with the rate when I first plugged mine in. It certainly is way to slow from what I've seen on the screen.


----------



## iamjafi

Trekkriffic said:


> Cudos to you jafi for a great idea! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


Wow, it looks great! Your implementation is even better that what I had envisioned. Hope you don't mind if I steal your design when I build mine.


----------



## Trekkriffic

iamjafi said:


> Wow, it looks great! Your implementation is even better that what I had envisioned. Hope you don't mind if I steal your design when I build mine.


By all means! You should be able to do an even better job than I did without having to retrofit using the existing wiring. If I'd gotten your suggestion before installing the bridge I could have done all my soldering beforehand which would have been so much easier and less nerve wracking. 
BTW... I'm doing a few more things to the contacts on both the dome and A deck to make them look more like some kind of improvements to the upper sensor array. I'm trying to come up with greeblies that will resemble the look of the original series.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Update...

I've spent the past few days working on the upper bridge dome, the shuttle bay, and the shuttle itself.

For the bridge dome I wanted to add some interest to the underside. 
I figure no one ever saw the actual ceiling of the bridge so I was free to add whatever I wanted. 

For starters I drew a geometric design on some scrap sheet styrene. 
I also cut a hollow disc from Evergreen tubing to go in the center.
A rhinestone fit inside the disc very nicely:


IMG_4278 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I also found some decals in my stash that looked like gold screening which I cut out and applied to the front of the housings around the "A" deck contacts. I know they liked the look of screens on the original series so it fit into my sense of the design ethos back then:


IMG_4302 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The finished underside of the bridge dome. I went with a grey and red color scheme to match the look of the bridge below. 
I also used the gold screen decals in the center pie sections:


IMG_4303 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I had two rectangular rare earth magnets that looked like they might fit inside the shuttle cavity:


IMG_4280 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Sure enough, they were a perfect fit:


IMG_4283 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I glued the second magnet to the underside of the shuttle bay floor using Devcon 5-Minute Epoxy:


IMG_4281 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I noticed there were no landing pads on the shuttle so I cut the heads off some small pins and glued them into holes drilled into the front underside of the nacelles:


IMG_4289 by trekriffic, on Flickr

For the rear landing strut I bent a pin near the head and cemented it into a hole drilled into the stern undercut:


IMG_4297 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Cont'd...


----------



## Trekkriffic

The shuttle in profile. It has just the right degree of tilt now I think. 
The magnet inside really grabbed the cap on this bottle of paint... or needle files... or pins... or tweezers... or any ferrous metallic surface: 


IMG_4298 by trekriffic, on Flickr

As you can see here, the shuttle can be placed on the floor of the bay and held upside down without fear of falling due to the attraction between the magnet inside it and it's mate under the shuttle bay floor:


IMG_4304 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Moving on, for the shuttle bay parts, I masked off the sand colored areas on the walls and airbrushed them with a 50/50 mix of Dark Ghost Grey and Neutral Grey. Then I removed the tape on the windows and brushed them with fluorescent white acrylic paint. This included the ceiling too:


IMG_4305 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I've already painted the photo etch parts with the 50/50 grey mix and will glue them to the walls and ceiling next.

Thanks for reading!


----------



## SteveR

Good fun and great work! Thanks for the ideas! :thumbsup:


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Magnets to hold the shuttlecraft. One more great and original idea!


----------



## Prowler901

Incredible work, as usual sir! :thumbsup:

Thanks for sharing your great ideas with us.


----------



## KUROK

Cool!
When I saw the magnets, I thought you were going to try a "floating" shuttle in the hangar.
I wonder if that could be done with some very fine clear thread to keep it steady and "floating" with magnets???


----------



## BOXIE

Fantastic job!I will be using several of your tips whe I start building my saucer fleet.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Update...

ParaGrafix PE was attached to the walls and ceiling. PPP was then applied between the observation booth PE window frames and later retouched with the 50/50 grey mix to block light leaks. PPP was also used to bring the frame edges up to the level of the slanted lower surfaces of the booths. Basically I wanted the frames to look integrated with the booths. 


IMG_4308 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The back wall and floor: 


IMG_4310 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The floor was sprayed with Tamiya Ocean Gray 2 which is very close to the color of the 50/50 mix. 

The walls and ceiling were sprayed with Testors Glosscote in preparation for decaling.

I also sprayed the shuttle with Tamiya Light Ghost Grey. 
Prior to that I extended the rear landing strut so it is more in line with the bottom of the rear of the nacelles. 
Oh... and there are lots of decals for the shuttle too:


IMG_4315 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4320 by trekriffic, on Flickr

For the nacelles I'll paint them a slightly darker tone using Testors Light Ghost Grey and a touch of black (or maybe steel). 
Or if one of my other grey paints is a little darker I'll just use that. 
I must have a half dozen shades of grey in my stash right now.


----------



## DCH10664

Another fantastic build in progress ! I'm learning a lot of things I would have never thought of myself. And that magnet trick is the coolest thing since sliced bread !!! :thumbsup:


----------



## Trekkriffic

Memorial Day Weekend Update...

Over the long weekend I ended up redoing the PE for the small observation booths for the side walls in the shuttle bay. 
I had painted the clear plastic with acrylic white fluorescent overcoat but with the grey paint cracking off the tiny PE window frames during installation and having to go back and retouch them with more of the 50/50 grey mix they just ended up all gunky. 
So on Friday, I finally decided to stop trying to fix the mess and just popped the PE off the booths and started over. 
Fortunately, ParaGrafix included a second set of frames for these tiny booths; I'm not sure why but I'm grateful to Paul for doing so. 
Anyway, after removing the PE from the booths I decided to scrape off the white paint and leave the windows clear. 
This meant I had to pop the PE off the other long windows on the side and back walls which had white fluorescent painted windows like the booths.
This was not too difficult to do but I had to be careful not to bend or mangle the PE as there were no extras of these parts and I had to be able to re-use them. I took a spatula tool and starting at one end of the long PE strips slid it along under the PE causing the CA to break loose. Once all the PE was removed I filed and sanded the molded frames off so the PE would sit flush to the clear plastic. One sidewall had some minor but noticeable light leaks where some of the silver undercoating had gotten scraped off; there was no way to fix the leak wiithout repainitng the silver light blocking/reflective layer so that wall was stripped down to bare plastic and repainted with Tamiya Bare Metal Silver, Tamiya grey primer, Model Master Sand and the 50/50 grey enamel mix. 
This was done on Sunday which meant I had to wait until Monday in for the paint to dry. 
Meanwhile, I cut the PE from the fret, cleaned up any fret tabs with a diamond file, stuck the tiny PE frames gently down onto a piece of double-sided foam tape on a piece of cardboard to hold them while I painted them with primer and more of the 50/50 grey enamel. I allowed the paint to dry overnight before gluing the frames to the walls with CA. 
I also brushed on some Future acrylic coating to the clear windows. 
I still ended up retouching some of the frames with the brush but it was a much neater job without the white acrylic paint to deal with. 
After the CA dried I used my precious Tamiya epoxy putty and evened up the edges of the PE frames with the slanted surfaces of the observation booth plastic and filled any gaps between the frames. The Tamiya putty is firmer and stickier than AVES and really allowed me to sculpt and shape it more readily than either the AVES putty or the PPP surface putty without worrying that it might come loose or get messed up as I worked with it. 
The only negative is it takes a day to dry so I had to set the parts aside early on Monday and work on other stuff while it cured. 
I'll post some pics later today of that other stuff I did. 
Thanks for reading!


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Trekkriffic,

All the difficulties you are dealing with will be so usefull for us. Thank you for taking your time to carefully detailing your experience. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:


----------



## Trekkriffic

Here are a few pics of what I finished yesterday and this evening...

There are two harnesses labelled "M" for connecting the saucer board to the single 5MM flasher LEDm on each side of the saucer at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions. The LED sits sideways between the holes top and bottom where you insert the plastic domes for the flashing formation lights. As is, the LED is bright enough but it's not pointed directly up or down to get the most illumination shining thru the plastic inserts so... I cut off the LED on each harness and spliced in two clear 2mm lighthouse LEDs wired in parallel purchased from Modeman Tom's website, Modeler's Brand Hobby Supplies. 
Here's the link to his site:
http://modelersbrand.com/

The board is providing 5V so no resistors are needed.
These LED's have long round narrow flat-topped necks that are the perfect size to fit thru the upper dome hole; just drill or route out a matching diameter sized cavity in the red and green domes provided in the lighting kit and insert the LED up thru the hull and cement into the plastic dome. For the lower flasher you would drill a matching cavity partway into the smaller clear part and then insert the kit part thru the hull in the lower saucer. 

Anyway, in this pic you can see the lighting kit harness on top and my retro-fitted harness below. I now have separate dedicated flashers for each dome light top and bottom on each side:


IMG_4323 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Here are the shuttle bay walls and floor. Only the _Galileo_ shuttle, back wall and floor have been decalled at this point:


IMG_4342 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The back wall:


IMG_4344 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The shuttle:


IMG_4348 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Tomorrow I should be able to finish the wall decaling and assemble the bay.


----------



## djnick66

It would be cool to cut out the Galileo's windows and put an LED up through the floor to light the shuttle.


----------



## Sparky

djnick66 said:


> It would be cool to cut out the Galileo's windows and put an LED up through the floor to light the shuttle.


I did a variation on that idea. I glued a white LED inside the shuttle and ran #30 AWG wire through the shuttle floor, along the engine pylons, and through the shuttle bay floor. I masked out where the window decal would be and painted the shuttle. Pulled off the mask and applied the decal. Was originally just going to leave off the decal but the decal give the shuttle a more finished look. The light from the LED doesn't really look too bad coming through the window decal. 

A lot more work but it really animated the shuttle (if that's the correct way to put it).

30 AWG wire can be a bit delicate so I crossed my fingers that I wouldn't have a broken wire after all the twisting and manhandling prior to final glueing of the shuttle in place. Fortunately no broken wires.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Sparky said:


> I did a variation on that idea. I glued a white LED inside the shuttle and ran #30 AWG wire through the shuttle floor, along the engine pylons, and through the shuttle bay floor. I masked out where the window decal would be and painted the shuttle. Pulled off the mask and applied the decal. Was originally just going to leave off the decal but the decal give the shuttle a more finished look. The light from the LED doesn't really look too bad coming through the window decal.
> 
> A lot more work but it really animated the shuttle (if that's the correct way to put it).
> 
> 30 AWG wire can be a bit delicate so I crossed my fingers that I wouldn't have a broken wire after all the twisting and manhandling prior to final glueing of the shuttle in place. Fortunately no broken wires.


Yes. That is another option for displaying the shuttle and I'd thought about it but decided to go with the magnet idea instead. This way I can remove the shuttle from the bay or rotate it inside the bay to show it off from different angles.


----------



## Sparky

Trekkriffic said:


> Yes. That is another option for displaying the shuttle and I'd thought about it but decided to go with the magnet idea instead. This way I can remove the shuttle from the bay or rotate it inside the bay to show it off from different angles.


That's definitely the trade off, the shuttle is fixed in place. I was trying to think of a way to have my cake and eat it too (removable and lighted shuttle) with some kind of thin leads that stuck into jacks recessed into the shuttle floor. Gave up on the idea though. 

Your magnet idea is quite clever for a removable shuttle.


----------



## SteveR

Sparky said:


> I was trying to think of a way to have my cake and eat it too (removable and lighted shuttle) with some kind of thin leads that stuck into jacks recessed into the shuttle floor.


That sounds like the removable bridge dome idea (using contacts), but maybe through the pinhead pads in the shuttle nacelles?

Then there's getting the wires from the cabin down to the pinheads ...


----------



## Sparky

SteveR said:


> That sounds like the removable bridge dome idea (using contacts), but maybe through the pinhead pads in the shuttle nacelles?
> 
> Then there's getting the wires from the cabin down to the pinheads ...


It would be difficult and likely the pins would break at some point.

Of course one could install copper foil pads on the underside of the shuttle nacelles and matching ones on the shuttle bay floor as contacts. If this could be combined with a magnet idea somehow to hold the matching copper foil contacts together. Might work.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Sparky said:


> It would be difficult and likely the pins would break at some point.
> 
> Of course one could installed copper foil pads on the underside of the shuttle nacelles and matching ones on the shuttle bay floor as contacts. If this could be combined with a magnet idea somehow to hold the matching copper foil contacts together. Might work.


Interesting notion. It's a rare earth magnet though with a very strong magnetic field. Would that have an impact on electricity flowing thru the wires from the pads?


----------



## Sparky

Trekkriffic said:


> Interesting notion. It's a rare earth magnet though with a very strong magnetic field. Would that have an impact on electricity flowing thru the wires from the pads?


I wouldn't think so. If you recall the old electomagnet from science class (http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/electromagnet.php), a DC current through a coiled wire creates a magnetic field. Reversing it, If you put a strong permanent magnet near a coiled wire you could induce a current. 

In this case though with no coiling, I wouldn't expect any induced current effects on the LED circuit.


----------



## SteveR

I wonder if conductive paint is relevant to this discussion?

http://www.bareconductive.com/bare-paint-1


----------



## Sparky

SteveR said:


> I wonder if conductive paint is relevant to this discussion?
> 
> http://www.bareconductive.com/bare-paint-1


That's pretty cool. We are always running into tight places to run wires and that looks like a neat solution. Paint 2 stripes instead of running 2 wires.

Could be a solution of the hanger bay if you could mix it with regular paint.


----------



## SteveR

Sparky said:


> Could be a solution of the hanger bay if you could mix it with regular paint.


If that doesn't work, maybe a black conductive circle could be painted on the floor as the circle of the shuttlebay turntable. That would also allow you to place the shuttlecraft in various orientations. But you'd need _two_ circles, right ...? Left nacelle on one, right nacelle on the other? They could be concentric.


----------



## djnick66

I just got my kit Tuesday. There is so much good stuff in this thread (and the others) to make note of. Really great work and also technical ideas and solutions.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Here are a few more pics of the shuttle. Not the greatest pics. I took them using my cheap (it was free) Harbor Freight LED flashlight so they have a definite blue bias...


IMG_4349 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4350 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4352 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## PixelMagic

Trekkriffic, there is an idea I wanted to run by you. Based on your suggestion, I have bought some Perfect Plastic Putty and the pin point syringes to fill in the gridlines. However, I had the idea to see if I could mix the Perfect Plastic Putty with black paint, so that when the gridlines are all filled, they will be black. Then once I paint my base coat over the hull, I'll have a nice subtle gridline under the paint. Do you think this would be possible, or will the chemicals of water based paint mess up the putty?


----------



## Trekkriffic

I tried that using black watercolor paints and they didn't mix. 
I didn't try acrylics or ink though.


----------



## PixelMagic

Trekkriffic said:


> I tried that using black watercolor paints and they didn't mix.
> I didn't try acrylics or ink though.


I suppose someone could draw back over the dried and sanded putty with a black paint marker. That could be better than mixing with the putty itself.


----------



## Trekkriffic

PixelMagic said:


> I suppose someone could draw back over the dried and sanded putty with a black paint marker. That could be better than mixing with the putty itself.


I don't think you could get the lines fine enough using a paint marker. 
In my case, I already made a paper template to help me redraw the lines after I've applied the basecoat. Once I've got the lines on in pencil I'll apply a second basecoat so they will be very faint.


----------



## SteveR

Regarding gridlines, Apoxie sculpt comes in black. It might not perform as well as PPP, but it might be worth a shot.


----------



## WEAPON X

Boyd, Awesome artistry display on your part, sir! Love your approach on the command bridge and shuttle bay! :thumbsup:

~Ben G. :wave:


----------



## djnick66

Be careful if anyone is tempted to draw a black grid in place and paint over it. Markers like Sharpies WILL BLEED through paint over time. People tried this already on aircraft to shade panel lines ahead of time. Months or a year later the ink bleeds through the paint and looks like patches of black mold. Not worth the risk going that route.


----------



## Trekkriffic

WEAPON X said:


> Boyd, Awesome artistry display on your part, sir! Love your approach on the command bridge and shuttle bay! :thumbsup:
> 
> ~Ben G. :wave:


Thanks! My name's not Boyd though. :thumbsup:

Finally finished tweaking the shuttle bay walls and applied the decals. Once they're good and dry I'll Glosscote folllowed by Dullcote. 
I'm going to assemble the bay with the back wall off initially and take a photo looking out the doors from behind the Galileo. 
May make a neat pic if I place it in front of my starfield backdrop.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Today's work...

Got started on the base. I'm using the base from the Refit kit; the Refit will get the round base from this kit. I cut out rectangular openings for the two lighted rocker switches on top for my two circuits; drilled out an opening on the side for the "M" sized DC panel jack the power supply plugs into; and carved an opening in the channel down the middle for the support tube to slide into. Then I gave it multiple coats of Dupli-Color primer:


IMG_4357 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I plan to spray it with Krylon Black and then give it a coat of Krylon Steel. I even have decals for the lighted panels that were included on the Refit's decal sheet. Too cool! I didn't even know the Refit base had decals until I tuned in to Steve Neill's blog and saw where he was using the same base and his customer asked him to apply them. They will look great I think; especially if I can mount a few LEDs on top and shine them up at the underside of the Enterprise. 

Moving along, I also mixed up a batch of paint for the main hull color. I used two bottles of MM Imperial Japanese Navy Sky Grey, most of a bottle of thinned ACE Shady Cove (left over from my 1/1000 build); most of a bottle of MM Flat White; and a dash of MM SAC Bomber Green to taste. It's pretty close to what I want, I might want to add a little more white. 

Here are a few pics of the mix against a color sample from ACE...


IMG_4355 by trekriffic, on Flickr

and next to the unpainted kit plastic...


IMG_4356 by trekriffic, on Flickr

It's veeeeery close to the shade I'm looking for think.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Well as some of you may have noticed PhotoBucket has decreed that I have reached my forum bandwidth limit and have disabled all the links to my photos until such time as I sign up and pay for their Plus package which starts at $29.99 per annum for 20 GB of bandwidth. As I am still undecided as to whether I want to spend the bucks on something I can still get for free on other photo sharing sites I am providing a liink to my 1/350 TOS Enterprise album for those who still want to view them:

http://s146.photobucket.com/user/Tr...e&page=1&_suid=137027797004103607196274746292. 

For now I will be using Flickr, ImageShack, or Picasa for future posts; whichever turns out to be easiest to work with. If any members here have recommendations for free photo sharing sites, other than the ones I've just listed, please tell me about them.


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## jgoldsack

Thats what you get for building such a good model 

seriously tho, sux.


----------



## Trekkriffic

jgoldsack said:


> Thats what you get for building such a good model
> 
> seriously tho, sux.


I knoooooow! :jest:

I set up a set on Flckr! this morning. They provide one TERRABYTE of free bandwidth! Here's the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157633905999730/


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## crowe-t

Trek,

What happened? Did you reach your limit and fill up the storage on Photobucket?


----------



## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> Trek,
> 
> What happened? Did you reach your limit and fill up the storage on Photobucket?


Yep. I have lots of STORAGE space but no SHARING space left. 
I guess with posting on 4 or more forums I exceeded the allowable free bandwidth of 10 gigabits for forum views. 
They want $29.99 per year to expand that to 20 gigabit. 

No thanks say I. 

There are too many other options for free photo sharing sites on the web for me to shell out 30 bucks to P*ss Bucket!


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## crowe-t

BTW, I forgot to mention the work you are doing on this is beautiful!!!


----------



## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> BTW, I forgot to mention the work you are doing on this is beautiful!!!


Thanks man! I have some more pics to post later from this weekend. 
I got the shuttle bay together and light blocked (FINALLY!) and got all the dorsal and saucer windows glued in with Devcon 5-minute epoxy. I also wired up the lights in the dorsal and glued it together. The dorsal has the orange window towards the back and the two windows with photo-etch screens behind them on each side just like the original! I also glued the pylons together with two sets of wires to power the bussard lights and motors separately. I mounted a length of Plastruct tubing into the top of the base and packed epoxy putty around it's base after gluing with styrene cement. The aluminum tube with the 4 pin power plug slides into it and is all wired up now. I also wired up and installed the 4 pin power jack into the underside near the front of the secondary hull and packed epoxy putty around it too. I had to be careful and make sure it was good and straight before it dried or the ship woudl lean to one side or the other. And I carved small cavities with my little battery powered "dremel" tool in the colored plastic light kit bussard bulbs to fit over the colored LEDs I bought from Lighthouse LEDs.


----------



## crowe-t

It's looking like you'll be spraying some paint on this soon.


----------



## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> It's looking like you'll be spraying some paint on this soon.


Still a few things to get out of the way before I start the basecoats. One thing I'm undecided on is whether to do some sort of light aztecing. Not full blown aztecing like the refit of course but maybe just some subtle variations between flat and semi-gloss panels. Something to add interest to the hull surface but nothing real obvious until you looked up close and at certain angles to the light.


----------



## crowe-t

A very light atzecing might look nice on this kit since you got rid of the engraved grid.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Weekend update...

I cut about an 8 inch length of Plastruct tubing and glued it into a hole drilled into the top of the base with styrene cement. The aluminum tubing with power plug will slide inside this sleeve allowing for removal from the base:


IMG_4360 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The tubing was reinforced underneath with AVES and Tamiya epoxy putty:


IMG_4376 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The fantail windows had to be cut from their backing and glued in flush with the interior surface of the hull with CA; otherwise, the fit was too tight with the shuttle bay in place to allow the hull to close:


IMG_4363 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The windows viewed from outside:


IMG_4364 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Work was done on the connecting dorsal...

I wanted a mix of dark and translucent white windows so I had to cut up the kit parts to mix and match. The windows were then glued in using Devcon 5-minute epoxy which doesn't mar the inside layers of light blocking/reflective paint. It does tend to get on your fingers though which is a real PITA. 
For the orange window on each side I overcoated it with Tamiya transparent orange acrylic on the backside. For the two windows on each side with screens behind them I carved away the backing plastic with a dremel router bit and thinned the window pane to about 1/32" thickness in order for the photo-etch screen to be barely visible when backlit:


IMG_4365 by trekriffic, on Flickr 

Once the PE screens were cut to the size of the window frames I laid them into the recesses and filled from behind with CA: 


IMG_4366 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I then laid down adhesive-backed foil strips to frame the opening and lessen the chance of light bleed:


IMG_4372 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The dorsal halves with windows in place. I made the starboard side match the studio model as far as dark and light window placement; the port side was done with a different pattern since since I do not think it logical to assume that window symmetry would be a requirement on board the Enterprise:


IMG_4361 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Trekkriffic

Dorsal work continued...

I pulled the G and C harnesses from the light kit and followed the instructions to connect the light strip sections using the edge connectors. No matter what I did I just couldn't get them to light using the connectors so I desoldered the wire leads from the connectors and soldered them directly to the strips:


IMG_4373 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Once that was done I peeled the backing tape off the strips and stuck them to the locatios indicated on the top and bottom inside surfaces of the dorsals facing in opposite directions. The tape didn't appear all that strong to me so I first laid a rectangle of double-sided adhesive foam tape down on the hull mounting points before sticking the LED strips to the foam tape. Then I squeezed a nice glob of hot glue on the wires at each end of the strip to provide strain relief for the solder joints and added insurance in case the tape ever gave way. 

Here's a light test of the finished dorsal with the wire harnesses for the dorsal and saucer power hanging out:


IMG_4375 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Moving back to the secondary hull, I soldered the wires to the four DC power panel jack contacts and sealed them shrink tubing. Then I packed the jack with Tamiya putty all around makig sure not to get any where the other hull half needed to mate up with it:


IMG_4359 by trekriffic, on Flickr

For the nacelle struts I glued in the black window insert to the outboard halves before laying in two sets of wires and gluing the two halves together for each strut using styrene cement:


IMG_4377 by trekriffic, on Flickr

One thing I notiiced about the strut halves concerned some slight warpage of the parts when I first removed them from the sprue. I had planned to clamp them tight between two 2x4 wood blocks when gluing them together so when the glue dried they'd be flat but I didn't need to do that after all. I surmise that having lain on my worktable in the garage for some weeks where the sun could warm them thru the garage door windows they gradually flattened out on their own. Nice!


The last thing I did Sunday evening was some work on the bussard lighting parts...

I modified the plastic bussard bulbs to allow insertion of clear and colored LEDs inside the bulbs. 
This should hopefully translate to a brighter lightshow once the orange coated inner spinner with mirror button and white frosted outer domes are in place. First I snipped off the shaft at the base of each bulb designed to fit into the bulb tower bulkhead. Then I drilled a small hole using a bit in my pinvise before using a round router bit on my battery operated "dremel" to finish the job. Some of the bulbs had air bubbles inside which greatly speeded up the process:


IMG_4370 by trekriffic, on Flickr 

After doing about 5 or 6 of these I was able to get an almost perfect fit each time with the Lighthouse LEDs. I'll use a mix of diffuse amber/orange, white, and maybe yellow/gold wide angle and ultrabright LEDs for the 5 always on lights in each bussard and a mix of blue, pink, green, and red lights for the flashers:


IMG_4371 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I hollowed out 22 bulbs in all giving me a few extra in each color as I'm still deciding what mix of colors I want to go with for the flashers. This took about 2 hours to finish as I had to take a break now and then due to finger cramps from holding the bulbs as I worked.

Here's one of the amber/orange LEDs inserted into an amber bulb and powered up:


IMG_4367 by trekriffic, on Flickr

That's it for this update. 

Thanks for sticking with me on this build!


----------



## Calamus

Just a fantastic job on this build. Absolutely jaw dropping work and details.


----------



## Trekkriffic

A question came up on the RPF about the reason behind including metal screens in the windows. They were included based on this drawing done by Gary Kerr where he notes their placement on the studio model:


Windows by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## djnick66

Being lazy I was going to tint two clear windows with Tamiya smoke to give them a grey look.


----------



## Trekkriffic

djnick66 said:


> Being lazy I was going to tint two clear windows with Tamiya smoke to give them a grey look.


That would be the easier solution for sure. I had to thin the windows to make the screens visible at all. A decal would also work if you had some with a screen pattern.


----------



## djnick66

you could probably draw on some fine cross hatch lines too . I just got my E kit last week and don't know what all to do with it yet. I'd kinda like to do a pilot version but I don't know. The bussard lights would be cool for the series ship...


----------



## RossW

djnick66 said:


> Being lazy I was going to tint two clear windows with Tamiya smoke to give them a grey look.


That's exactly what I did. I don't think the scale of this kit lends itself to grids in such small windows so a light coat of Smoke seemed to simulate it just fine for me. Same with the orange window - a light dusting of Tamiya Clear Orange sprayed through my airbrush looks pretty good.


----------



## Trekkriffic

RossW said:


> That's exactly what I did. I don't think the scale of this kit lends itself to grids in such small windows so a light coat of Smoke seemed to simulate it just fine for me. Same with the orange window - a light dusting of Tamiya Clear Orange sprayed through my airbrush looks pretty good.


Yeah. Putting PE grills behind the windows was probably overekill but I just couldn't help myself. I already had the PE on hand so it didn't entail any additonal expense. And if you look closely you can see the screens which I think is neat.


----------



## djnick66

Question - do you get colored plastic bussard "light" pieces in the lighting kit? Or do you have to tint the clear ones in the model?


----------



## Nova Mike

Yes you do there are four color choices, I used a stain glass amber from Michaels on the inside clear dome it really helps diffuse the led's


----------



## Trekkriffic

Nova Mike said:


> Yes you do there are four color choices, I used a stain glass amber from Michaels on the inside clear dome it really helps diffuse the led's


I tinted the inside of my inner dome with Tamiya Transparent Orange acrylic myself. Amber would look good too but I'm going to have 5 amber lights under each dome already so I thought I'd use orange for contrast. And I'm coating the bulbs with flat lacquer to hekp diffuse them more. Plus some of the LEDs I'm using are diffused types; the plastic is more translucent than waterclear.


----------



## Nova Mike

Trekkriffic said:


> I tinted the inside of my inner dome with Tamiya Transparent Orange acrylic myself. Amber would look good too but I'm going to have 5 amber lights under each dome already so I thought I'd use orange for contrast.


Thanks I mixed green and blue pieces with the orange and with the amber dome it softened the other colors so they are noticeable but not overpowering


----------



## djnick66

Thanks for the info !

That's about what I did for my 1/650 kit. I used Tamiya Clear Orange and Clear Red to mottle the domes, and have flashing red and orange LEDs inside. It looks good turned off as well as on. I tried frosting the domes with sandpaper but this was actually rather hard, so I frosted them with Dullcoat first. This also helps the clear paints stick.


----------



## Nova Mike

PS Trekkriffic I am really enjoying your build thanks for sharing:thumbsup:


----------



## Trekkriffic

Yesterday I started working with the Miniatronics strobe flasher board and while gluing the incandescent bulbs into the clear kit strobe inserts one of the bulbs burned out. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed with the fragility of the bulbs and after trying to see if I had any more 1.5 V grain-of-rice bulbs in my stash (I didn't) I changed course and decided to go in a different direction. Using the lighting kit port P's on the Polar Lights board wasn't really an option since one of the ports was bad and just didn't work. I probably could have tried wiring 2 LEDs into one "P" port but, even had that worked, it wouldn't have changed the other thing I didn't like which was the flash rate; It was too slow for what I wanted for my strobes so...

I had purchased a flasher controller online from Modeler's Brand Hobby Supplies for 10 bucks:

http://modelersbrand.com/html/item_pages/ctrl_flashers.html

Modelman Tom runs the site and he had told me you could run up to something like 20 LEDs wired in parallel off his controller in a variety of modes, flash rates, and brightnesses. So for 10 bucks I thought it sounded like a good deal and went ahead and ordered one to try out. 
I hooked it up to an open 12V port on the secondary hull lighting kit PC board and wired it to two LEDs with 510 ohm resistors. 
Then I made a video...






It worked great and I am so thankful to Modelman Tom for offering this excellent flasher controller at a very affordable price! I'm just sorry I flubbed his online store's name in my video! It's modelersbrand.com damn it!

Anyway, take it easy everyone and I hope you like the vid.


----------



## Captain Han Solo

Great work Trekkriffic!


----------



## johnF

Trekkriffic,

Are you going to use the kit decals, or paint mask like the orbital drydock's set to do your markings and numbers?


----------



## Trekkriffic

johnF said:


> Trekkriffic,
> 
> Are you going to use the kit decals, or paint mask like the orbital drydock's set to do your markings and numbers?


I just viewed Trekworks review of the Orbital Drydock masks on YouTube and they look very nice. He sells them on eBay for $29.00. I don't have an account on eBay though and don't intend to; I prefer to pay by mailing a money order. Does anyone have Brett's email address they could PM me? I don't want to register with eBay just to contact him.


----------



## modelnut

I have started my own kit and have gone as far as to test the "fans" in the Bussard collectors. They are hopelessly out of whack. I have tried soaking them in boiling water and straightening them out but they just go back to their original shape.  

Did I see that someone got replacement parts from Round 2? 

I am going to email them and see.

- Leelan


----------



## djnick66

I am going to get the Aztec Dummy markings masks myself. They look sweet and should be super simple to get


----------



## leejones

I'm really excited to see this finished!


----------



## Trekkriffic

djnick66 said:


> I am going to get the Aztec Dummy markings masks myself. They look sweet and should be super simple to get


Yes I see where Lou is getting his masks ready and it sounds like he is going to offer options if people want just the ships registration and other markings or just the aztec masks or both.


----------



## Trekkriffic

modelnut said:


> I have started my own kit and have gone as far as to test the "fans" in the Bussard collectors. They are hopelessly out of whack. I have tried soaking them in boiling water and straightening them out but they just go back to their original shape.
> 
> Did I see that someone got replacement parts from Round 2?
> 
> I am going to email them and see.
> 
> - Leelan


Yes. Round 2 willl replace warp bussard spinners. 
I think you just need to email them a defective parts replacment request with photos attached of the bad parts and the UPC 
code off the box as proof-of-purchase.
I was lucky with my kit; no warped spinners. 
Speaking of which I'm just about psyched up enough to tackle the swapping out of the bussard board LEDs with colored ones. Lots of tiny bits to solder. 
I love soldering- I mean, how can you not like playing around with hot molten metal with acid flux inside it?


----------



## Trekkriffic

*Latest progress...*

I am soldering the wire leads to the LED strip lights and sticking them down to foam tape before squirting a glob of hot glue for strain relief at each end:


IMG_4387 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Here's the lower saucer with strips installed:


IMG_4386 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Last night I soldered 30 AWG Kynar wire to two tiny SMD LEDs and taped them into the trench over the center of the shuttle bay using transparent tape:


IMG_4393 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Then I did a light test with just the two SMD LEDs on. I still need to add the 4 LEDs that mount on the perimeter of the back wall to light the sides of the bay and the side gallery windows:


IMG_4390 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The rearmost LED is almost directly beneath the three small spine lights so I'm pretty sure I'll get them to glow too.


IMG_4391 by trekriffic, on Flickr

IMG_4389 by trekriffic, on Flickr

For the gallery windows on the back wall I glued some of the Shadow casters from the ParaGrafix PE set:


IMG_4392 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I won't be using the two sternmost LED strip lights as most of the windows in that area are not lit. Instead I'll place one 5MM superbright LED in that area
facing the back wall of the bay. It should provide some additional illumination to the bay and really make the figures in the backwall gallery pop!

Last thing for this report...

I wanted the option of showing the bay doors open or closed so I cut out the middle section of bay doors from the "closed" bay door part to use with the "open" door part. The closed door part was thicker than the open door part so I thinned it with my dremel, a seam scraper, and sandpaper before light blocking with black enamel and primer on the inside facing surface. The outside of both parts was painted with my custom hull color mix:


IMG_4396 by trekriffic, on Flickr

That's it for now. 

Have a good one!


----------



## RossW

Looks great, Trekkriffic!

BTW, I'm also soldering the LED tapes and I'm covering the solder points with liquid electrical tape (insulator), then dabbing on some hot glue.


----------



## Trekkriffic

RossW said:


> Looks great, Trekkriffic!
> 
> BTW, I'm also soldering the LED tapes and I'm covering the solder points with liquid electrical tape (insulator), then dabbing on some hot glue.


Liquid electrical tape? Good idea. I have a can of that. I may go back and dob some on myself.


----------



## RossW

Are you using the opaque white window inserts for all your lit windows?


----------



## Trekkriffic

RossW said:


> Are you using the opaque white window inserts for all your lit windows?


Yep. The only clear windows are in the shuttle bay.


----------



## RossW

Trekkriffic said:


> Yep. The only clear windows are in the shuttle bay.


How is that looking with the lights on and parts sealed/taped up?


----------



## Trekkriffic

RossW said:


> How is that looking with the lights on and parts sealed/taped up?


Well the only subassembly sealed up and lit so far has been the dorsal. And based on that, it appears the translucent windows have a nice, warm, even glow with no hot spots. Looks pretty much like what we saw on screen I think. The only negative with them is that you get no benefit from using the Shadow Casters; the plastic is too thick for you to see any silhouettes thru them. If you wanted to have figures visible behind the windows you would probably want to use the clear windows. Even then you might need to grind them down thinner. For me, as far as trhe lit windows go, it was either clear or translucent, not both. I wanted some uniformity there. I did mix the unlit and lit windows in different configurations between port and starboard though with the starboard side windows mirroring what we saw on screen.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Got some more work done at lunch...

I followed RossW's advice and brushed on liquid insulation to the LED strip solder joints:


IMG_4410 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Then I started working on dry fitting the shuttle bay into the hull. First thing was to carve a trench into the hull directly over the ceiling trench of the bay. I made it deep enough for the spine light insert to sit flush with the inside surface. This would also avoid impinging on the delicate wiring of the SMD LEDs in the trench:


IMG_4400 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After gluing the 4 LED harness to the back wall of the bay I realized that, as is, there was no way on earth to close the hull halves due to the bulbs sticking out too far so I carved trenches about 1/16" deep into the hull at the back of the bay:


IMG_4401 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Then I did another dry fit with much better results:


IMG_4402 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I was able to get the hull almost completely closed. In fact, even brute force squeezing didn't get it much tighter. Once I apply glue and clamp it tight to dry there should be no gaps to speak of; and if there are, I can easily putty them:


IMG_4403 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4404 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Light test with just the 4 back/side wall bulbs lit. I'll need to address the light leakage around the edge of the bay doorframe. I might try sticking some rolled AVES onto the hull along the frame line before inserting the bay so when I glue and clamp it will be squeezed in good and tight between the hull and the frame. Then I can trim away the excess before lightblocking the AVES with black enamel.Then I'll give the frame and doors a shot of the hull color. That should do the trick I think:


IMG_4406 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The outside windows light up pretty well. As you can see, I'll have to light block where I dug the trenches:


IMG_4407 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I'm really looking forward to getting the hull closed up with the overhead SMD lights on and the superbright LED shining thru the rear gallery windows in addition to the back/sidewall LEDs. I think the bay will be plenty well lit after all the LEDs are operating.


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Fantastic job my friend! And, again, thank you so much for the detailed documentation.:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:


----------



## DCH10664

I'm loving that shuttle bay. It's looking sweet. And BTW, thanks for the info on the Perfect Plastic Putty. Had never heard of it. But got some, and it's great. Very easy to work with.


----------



## djnick66

I ordered some Perfect Plastic Putty too but Amazon (or the vendor there) did not say they were in the UK so delivery time is listed as sometime at the end of JULY.


----------



## Trekkriffic

djnick66 said:


> I ordered some Perfect Plastic Putty too but Amazon (or the vendor there) did not say they were in the UK so delivery time is listed as sometime at the end of JULY.


I guess the word's gotten out about the virtues of PPP. I went to my LHS a few weeks back and saw where he'd gotten some more in so, knowing the troubles some of my fellow modellers have been having getting it, I bought another tube.


----------



## DCH10664

djnick66 said:


> I ordered some Perfect Plastic Putty too but Amazon (or the vendor there) did not say they were in the UK so delivery time is listed as sometime at the end of JULY.


Ordered mine off of Ebay from Phil's Hobby Shop here in the U.S.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Update...

Earlier I related my work to replace the single flashing LED on each side of the saucer with two parallel wired "lighthouse" style LEDs I got from modelersbrand.com. That done it was time to prepare the plastic colored red and green (upper saucer) and clear (bottom saucer) domes for insertion of the LED's. To do this I first had to shorten the neck on the LED for the lower saucer domes as they insert into the clear part from inside the saucer rather than feeding thru the hull first. This picture compares the upper saucer LED on the left with the shortened LED for the lower saucer light to the right:


IMG_4414 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After drilling holes into the plastic kit domes I glued the upper saucer LEDs up and thru the holes in the hull leaving the colored domes off until after I finish painting; it will be much easier to mask cylinders as opposed to domes. Then I glued the lower domes onto the LED and left them free until it's time to glue the saucer halves together. I will need to mask the domes on the bottom though but that's what MicroMask liquid mask is for.

Moving on, I finished soldering the connections between the the secondary hull halves. I even added a white LED mounted between the pylon buttresses to provide extra light into the rear of the shuttle bay. I also afixed the flasher controller from modelersbrand.com (which will power the strobes) to the lower port side of the secondary hull using foam tape:


IMG_4419 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Even using heavy duty clamps after gluing with Testors cement and CA , the halves still had about a 1/32" wide gap to fill along the spine. I filled it with Tamiya epoxy putty:


IMG_4423 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I wanted to see how the shuttle bay looked installed with the lights on. The pic below was taken with the rear/side wall and upper ceiling lights on but not with the rear facing LED that sits between the pylons aimed at the rear gallery windows on:


IMG_4430 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I gotta admit, I''m pretty happy with the bay lighting! It will be even a little bit brighter once I have the rear window facing LED lit up. It's tied into the "E" LED strip light string with a 510 ohm resistor on the negative leg to handle 12 volts. 

One thing I wanted to do was light up the 3 lights over the bay on the spine aft of the nacelle pylons. I think I accomplished that pretty well:


IMG_4429 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Today I did some sanding of the Tamiya putty then I gave the seams a treatment of the PPP:


IMG_4431 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4432 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I'll wait until later to go back and sand the PPP. Then I'll brush some Mr Surfacer on the seams and we'll see where we're at. Once I've got the seams smoothed to my satisfaction I'll start masking the windows. I'm hoping to use Mr Surfacer for light blocking along the seams. She'll then get another coat of primer. I'd rather not have to resort to undercoating the primer with a layer of black paint if I can avoid it. 

That's all for now folks! Thanks for reading!


----------



## Griffworks

Fantastic work! It's like watching art taking shape.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Griffworks said:


> Fantastic work! It's like watching art taking shape.


Thanks Griffie! 

I wanted to mention one thing for those using the lighting kit shuttle bay. 
I noticed a small light leak along the base of the sidewalls; no doubt caused by not being able to get the side walls seated perfectly flush with the bay floor; although, I thought I had made every effort to file the wall tabs and slots in the bay floor for the walls to fit as tightly as I thought possible to the floor. 
There is also the difficulty inherent in trying to light block clear parts which translate light to places you hadn't even thought of as presenting a light leak challenge. 
My solution to the light leak was to brush some black watercolor along the base of each wall with the lights on. It only took a couple of applications for the leaks to disappear. 
Once it dried, I went back with a moistened microbrush and cotton swab to clean up the excess on the walls and floor. 
I used watercolor rather than acrylics or enamels because I just knew there was no way to apply it without getting it on areas where I didn't want it so I needed something that cleaned up with water rather than thinner so it wouldn't eat the existing paint. 
Acrylics are water based too of course but they dry too fast to allow for easy cleanup for use in this case.


----------



## Trekkriffic

I'm going to have to correct an error with the LED I mounted between the pylons facing the rear of the shuttle bay just before I closed the secondary hull up. I used a leftover LED from the lighting kit assuming it was warm white. When I turned the lights on after gluing the hull together I realized it was cool white. Problem is the rest of the lights in the bay windows are warm white so it just looks odd having the windows on the back wall glowing a different white. I tried to convince myself I could live with it but it just bothers me... IT TASKS ME AND I WON'T HAVE IT!!!
I don't think I can pull it out very easily since I glued the leads to the starboard pylon buttress with CA and the bulb itself is glued into the recess between the buttresses with hot glue so I think I need to reach in and clip one of the wires to the LED which will be a little tricky considering I'll have to reach thru the front of the hull all the way in to the front edge of the pylons and avoid all the intervening wiring. Last thing I want to do is clip the wrong wire! Once it's been disabled I will splice a new warm white LED into the wire leads running to the upper bay lights (5V so won't need a resistor) and glue it in just above or below the existing cool white LED. 

Wish me luck!


----------



## SteveR

Good luck, man! :thumbsup:


----------



## Trekkriffic

Well made some progress on replacing the cool white LED. My wife had a pair of long bladed scissors, the kind that are good for making long straight cuts on cloth or wrapping paper. Anyway, I maneuvered it inside the hull and was able to snip one of the 2 wires to the LED to shut it off. Then I located the unused "N" wire harness with LED attached; it was to light up the impulse engines which I'm not doing. I did a light test and it was a warm white color luckily so I cut off the connector and soldered some 6 inch leads to each wire to lengthen them. Then I spliced the lengthened "N" harness into the "Q" harness which powers the bay ceiling lights. A light test proved successful and everything lit up like it should. Now I just need to hop over to Harbor Freight and buy a long handled hemostat to grip and install the new bulb. They sell one that's 12 inches long which is perfect for my purposes.


----------



## Fernando Mureb

My friend, if you ever think of write an e-book (or a physical one) about your incredible build (AND thread), you can count on me for one. :wave:


----------



## Trekkriffic

Fernando Mureb said:


> My friend, if you ever think of write an e-book (or a physical one) about your incredible build (AND thread), you can count on me for one. :wave:


Thanks a lot! I appreciate it.


----------



## Trekkriffic

The latest...

Here's the offending cool white LED and it's resistor after I pried it loose from inside the hull with the aid of my newly purchased foot long hemostat. No Novacane was used:

$29 
IMG_4434 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I used the same hemostat to glue in the new warm white LED. It's visible near the top middle of this photo inside two sections of Evergreen tubing. The LED and legs slid inside a short piece of 7/32" O.D. tubing which itself slid inside a short length of 9/32: O.D. tubing that was glued to, and between, the pylon buttresses:


IMG_4438 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The rear wall lit up with the new LED:


IMG_4441 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Worked on the dome over the bay. The clear insert that fits inside the dome had clear rods at staggered heights that were painted with clear red, yellow, and amber paint:


IMG_4436 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Here's the dome lit up:


IMG_4453 by trekriffic, on Flickr

More to come!


----------



## RossW

Looks great!


----------



## Trekkriffic

RossW said:


> Looks great!


Thanks! 

After posting the photo of my shuttle bay dome I went onto a site with photos taken during the 1991 restoration and found this shot of the disassembled dome:


Hangar dome by trekriffic, on Flickr

I noticed something right off and that was the insert was made of what appears to be translucent dark green plastic with three rods of red, amber, and yelow projecting up from it at different heights. Of particular interest to me was the dark green plastic. The Polar Lights kit makes no reference to painting the kit insert dark green on it's face yet I think it's critical to giving the lit dome the greenish tint we saw on the screen. Since I've already jammed the insert in so tight it cannot be pried loose from the dome, I've gone ahead and painted the underside dark green being careful not to paint over the other colors. Once it dries I'll do another light test and we'll see how it looks.


----------



## SteveR

Good eye for detail on the green!
I also like the blurry figures in the window.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Thanks Steve!

Did a light test and the dome was TOO green so I thinned the paint with some thinner and it looked much closer to screen accurate. Unfortunately, I discovered something else I hadn't noticed before and that was a crack all the way across the dome. It either happened when I installed the insert or when I was trying to remove it but the dome was ruined. I am now forced to use the clear plastic dome. On the upside I now had the insert free from the dome so tinted some Future with green dye and brushed that on the inside dome-facing surface of the insert. That should look even better than the green paint which I wiped off the underside of the insert. 
For now, I have coated the inside surface of the clear dome using Floquil Flat Finish which gives it a milky translucense similar to the translucent white plastic of the original dome. Still, if anyone out there has a spare translucent white hangar dome they'd care to part with I would gladly pay the postage if you could send it to me.


----------



## djnick66

I'd use the clear one as the original seems clear (you can see the lines through it)


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## Trekkriffic

djnick66 said:


> I'd use the clear one as the original seems clear (you can see the lines through it)


Lines? I don't remember lines on the shuttle bay dome. Are you perhaps thinking of the lower saucer dome?


----------



## onigiri

same configuration as the classic hand laser emitter,


Trekkriffic said:


> Thanks!
> 
> After posting the photo of my shuttle bay dome I went onto a site with photos taken during the 1991 restoration and found this shot of the disassembled dome:
> 
> 
> Hangar dome by trekriffic, on Flickr
> 
> I noticed something right off and that was the insert was made of what appears to be translucent dark green plastic with three rods of red, amber, and yelow projecting up from it at different heights. Of particular interest to me was the dark green plastic. The Polar Lights kit makes no reference to painting the kit insert dark green on it's face yet I think it's critical to giving the lit dome the greenish tint we saw on the screen. Since I've already jammed the insert in so tight it cannot be pried loose from the dome, I've gone ahead and painted the underside dark green being careful not to paint over the other colors. Once it dries I'll do another light test and we'll see how it looks.


----------



## djnick66

I am talking about the lines on the paper (?) that the dome is sitting on. You can see them through the dome, so it is clear not opaque or frosted.


----------



## Fernando Mureb

djnick66 said:


> I am talking about the lines on the paper (?) that the dome is sitting on. You can see them through the dome, so it is clear not opaque or frosted.


Did you saw the lines?!  Time to make another visit to my eye doctor.


----------



## djnick66

Hmm perhaps its an optical illusion th at you expect to see the lines continuing under the dome? anyway...

You can easily tint the dome white with a light misting of Tamiya gloss white acrylic mixed with some Tamiya clear gloss. It won't be opaque. I tinted the top and bottom domes on my 1/650 kit this way since my reissue lacked the green domes of the original model.


----------



## Trekkriffic

I ended up frosting the clear dome with Floquil Flat Finish. Here's the now translucent dome with the insert after I brushed on some Future mixed with green dye. I also sanded down the red rod just a little and repainted it so it doesn't butt up against the inside of the dome. I also sanded the insert's edges so it's not so tight as to crack the dome:


IMG_4459 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I liked the Floquil so much I did the bussard domes too:


IMG_4456 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I just loaded it onto a soft brush and sort of flowed it all around inside the dome. The key is to get an even coating. Holding it up to the light it gives you a beautifully translucent effect:


IMG_4458 by trekriffic, on Flickr

This was the same technique I used with my 1/1000 model, outer domes frosted with Floquil Flat and inner dome painted with Tamiya Transparent Orange. The difference this time of course is these bussards will have the rotating fan blades and colored lights:


IMG_1676 by trekriffic, on Flickr


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## Prowler901

Well, that Floquil looks perfect in there. I'm gonna have to pick up some of that. You're doing top work on this, sir! :thumbsup:


----------



## djnick66

Get any Floquil stuff while you can as RPM discontinued Floquil and Poly Scale a bit ago now.

I got essentially the same result with Testors Flat Lacquer/Dullcoat on my 1/650 model.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Picked up the last bottle of Floquil Flat Finish my LHS had in stock after work today. I'll give both bussard domes a second coat tomorrow, one had a few thin spots near the perimeter where my old bottle was running out so coverage was not quite as good as on the first one. Still, I'll go ahead and give the other one another coat too just to be consistent in my application between the two.


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## fire91bird

Your bussard dome looks great. Now, guess what my LHS was out of. I'm thinking/hoping the Testors Acryl Flat might be the same stuff, so I'm going to test that out.


----------



## crowe-t

Trekkriffic said:


> This was the same technique I used with my 1/1000 model, outer domes frosted with Floquil Flat and inner dome painted with Tamiya Transparent Orange. The difference this time of course is these bussards will have the rotating fan blades and colored lights:
> 
> 
> IMG_1676 by trekriffic, on Flickr


Your 1/1000 TOS E is beautiful! The bussards almost look like they are lit.


----------



## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> Your 1/1000 TOS E is beautiful! The bussards almost look like they are lit.


They are lit actually. There is a single 5mm white LED in each bussard painted with orange tinted white fluorescent acrylic paint.


----------



## Trekkriffic

fire91bird said:


> Your bussard dome looks great. Now, guess what my LHS was out of. I'm thinking/hoping the Testors Acryl Flat might be the same stuff, so I'm going to test that out.


The thing about the Floquil is it's slow drying so you can mop it on and let it flow around the inside of the dome to get a good even coat. It thins with paint thinner/mineral spirits. An acrylic will want to dry pretty fast in comparison. You may be wise to airbrush it unless you can add a retardant to brush it on.


----------



## fire91bird

Trekkriffic said:


> The thing about the Floquil is it's slow drying so you can mop it on and let it flow around the inside of the dome to get a good even coat. It thins with paint thinner/mineral spirits. An acrylic will want to dry pretty fast in comparison. You may be wise to airbrush it unless you can add a retardant to brush it on.


Thanks for the clarification. I was pretty sure it was acrylic that I was looking it, but after reading your post, I didn't trust my recollection. So, I checked on Testors site and it turns out there are both Floquil Acrylics and Enamels. I understand why you'd want enamel in this case, my experience with acrylics has also been that they dry pretty fast, as you mentioned. The effect you achieved is really excellent, it really seems to duplicate that frosted translucent look.

<Edit> I've poked around some more and see the acrylics also referred to as Polly Scale by Floquil.


----------



## djnick66

RPM the parent company of Testors, Floquil and Poly Scale has discontinued the entire Floquil and PS brands. So all that is left now is Testors. Pretty much effective immediately what you will find in stores will be it. When its gone its gone.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Weekend update...

Took the plunge and redid the LEDs on the bussard boards.

First thing was to clipm off the kit LEDs leaving as much of the legs attached to the board as possible so I had something to solder the new LED legs to:


IMG_4460 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Then I used my Helping Hands to hold the board in place while I positioned the new LEDs onto the old LED leg stubs using a second set of Helping Hands. Here's the first board after resoldering. Not that I had to run jumpers from a green flasher over to the blue flasher opposite it to get the blue flasher to fire. For some reason that port on the board went dark on me:


IMG_4481 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Things went smoother with the second board:


IMG_4488 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After installing the amber LEDs (which required 2V max) along with their 47 ohm resistors onto the always on posts and white , blue, pink, and green 3V LEDs onto the flasher posts I powered the board up and saw I had a problem... the always on LEDs lit up fine but the flashers did not. After a little trial and error I discovered that when I removed the amber LEDs the flashers started working. I had fallen victim to that rule about mixing LEDs with different forwarding voltages- current will always flow to the LED with the lower current draw and ignore the LED with higher current needs; in this case it was the amber LEDs that hogged the current. Once I swapped out the amber LEDs for 3V white ones and stuck with 3V on the flashers the problem went away and everything lit up:


IMG_4469 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The resoldered board with the plastic tower part was a little thicker than before so I had to grind down the tabs inside the bussard housing that butt up against the bottom of the PC board so the assembly would sit lower enoguh in the housing to allow the clear (now translucent ) outer dome to fit properly:


IMG_4534 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Here I installed the PC board and the light tower part into the bussard housing. I used reflective silver "stars" paper under the LEDS. The mirror button in the center is shown here but it was later removed (it didn't do anytihng to enhance light bounce as I had hoped) and I went with mirror shards instead like the original studio model:


IMG_4483 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Lights on:


IMG_4485 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Cont'd...


----------



## Trekkriffic

The light effect with the spinner in place:


IMG_4472 by trekriffic, on Flickr

And with the outer dome:


IMG_4475 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4478 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The effect with the flashers going is pretty awesome IIDSSM.
I'll post a video once I've got the motor attached so you guys can see it all lit up with the blades spinning.


----------



## SteveR

Neat. 
Just checking ... why did you want to re-do those LEDs again? To bring them closer to the bussard dome?


----------



## Trekkriffic

SteveR said:


> Neat.
> Just checking ... why did you want to re-do those LEDs again? To bring them closer to the bussard dome?


Exactly! I'd read where others thought the lights were too dim with the LEDs down inside the towers with just the plastic bulbs glowing so I extended the legs and hollowed out the base of the plastic bits so the LEDs could be inserted directly inside them to get a stronger glow. The images I posted of the lights under the outer dome show the colors but are underexposed and not as bright as they appear in normal room light. Also I mixed white with blue, pink, and green LEDs so the colors really stand out. When I get aeround to making a video you'll get a much better idae of how bright they are.

The images below have been auto-adjusted and are much closer to how the domes actually look:


IMG_4475 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4478 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## SteveR

Ah. Excellent job. Thanks!


----------



## Trekkriffic

SteveR said:


> Ah. Excellent job. Thanks!


Thank you sir! This evening I glued the bussard housings into the outer nacelle halves and connected the motors. Then I ran a test with lights and spinners running. All looked good so I got out the camera to take a video when one if the spinners stopped. Arrrrgh! The axle was turning but not the spinner. In fact it had unscrewed from the threaded coupler and was contacting the layer of Floquil flat on the inside of the outer dome. I could see residue of the milky white Floquil on the center hub of the spinner. The spinner pulled off the axle with no turning; that's when I noticed another problem- the pink flasher wasn't working!? Double arrrrgh! I must have done something to the solder joint on its legs when I had to adjust the angle of the bulbs to avoid rubbing by the spinner. Pressing down on the pink flasher caused it to flash so... I pressed a little more and found an angle where it was stable and continued flashing. Then I whipped out my trusty Tamiya epoxy putty and kneaded it to get a good mix of the two parts before stuffing it into the pink LED tower. Once dry it and set like a rock the LED will never move so that fixed that problem. This left the matter of the stripped spinner shaft. I fixed that by pushing the axle out the back of the bearing tunnel and packing epoxy putty around the threads; I also stuffed some inside the shaft hole (no jokes please) before screwing the brass threaded coupler into the spinner. I then unscrewed the spinner, reinserted the axle thru the bearing tunnel and screwed the spinner down tight onto the threaded shaft. Then I did a test with the dome on and it spun freely. I let it run for a half minute then checked and the spinner was still on tight so I set it aside to dry and repeated the process with the other bussard. The spinners are on permanently now but they should be stable moving forward. Thank god for Tamiya epoxy putty. Stickier than AVES and it won't run everywhere like 5-minute epoxy would have. And I avoid using CA on clear parts under stress as it can cause clear plastic to crack.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Update... the nacelles...

Spent yesterday and today fine tuning the bussards and nacelles. After gluing the bussard housings into one half of each nacelle I attached the motors with silicon tubing to the spinner axles, powered them up, and after a minute or two I noticed an annoying squeak coming from the bearings inside the bussard housing. Some adjustments to the spinners-usually involving pulling them a little more forward and lubricating the bearings with 3-in-1 household oil eliminated the squeaks. Had to be careful though and not pull the spinners too far forward or they'd rub up against the inside of the outer domes. Finally got them just right. 
Here's the port nacelle motor and bussard:


IMG_4537 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Foam pipe insulation was stuffed with some of the leftover thin foam protective sheets from the model kit:


IMG_4536 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The foam tubes were cut into sections and laid along the length of the nacelle to eliminate the tendency of the hollow cylinder to resonate like a pipe organ pipe would. A flat was cut along the sides of the foam tubes to accomodate the inboard nacelle trench:


IMG_4538 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The nacelle halves were glued together with Testors cement and wrapped with rubber bands to dry:


IMG_4539 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I wanted the blades to be more visible underneath the translucent domes so I used adhesive backed foil strips to cover the PE blades I'd painted with Testors aluminum previously. I also used foil on the center hub:


IMG_4540 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I think it looks quite a bit like the 11 footers bussard domes now:


image3 by trekriffic, on Flickr


I made a short video showing one of the bussards spinning so you guys could hear it. It's not completely closed up yet, still have to glue in the trench screens and attach the end caps, intercoolers, and reactor loops so I'm thinking it may get a little quieter still:


----------



## Trekkriffic

Double post


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## Fernando Mureb

So much smart ideas! This is maybe the best documented thread ever. :thumbsup::thumbsup:


----------



## Trekkriffic

Fernando Mureb said:


> So much smart ideas! This is maybe the best documented thread ever. :thumbsup::thumbsup:


Thanks Fernando! It's ironic though how some of my best ideas come after I screw something up. At least I'm honest about documenting my mistakes as well as my successes.

Next step is to fill and sand the long nacelle seams before gluing on the intercoolers, the flux constrictors, and end caps. I'll save the trench screens until after I've inserted the pylons so I can reach the wires inside the nacelles thru the slot and pull in the slack. I'll save gluing on the reactor loops until after I've painted the trench and screens.


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## RossW

I've been thinking about doing the same thing on my kit to reduce motor noise but I just realized that since the motor is no longer inside the bussard housing you have to seal up the whole nacelle - there's no getting that motor out again even if the housing wasn't permanently glued in as you would not be able to slide out the motor through the half-opening in the forward nacelle end.

Any idea on the difference in decibel level between this nacelle and one without the foam/bearings?


----------



## Trekkriffic

RossW said:


> I've been thinking about doing the same thing on my kit to reduce motor noise but I just realized that since the motor is no longer inside the bussard housing you have to seal up the whole nacelle - there's no getting that motor out again even if the housing wasn't permanently glued in as you would not be able to slide out the motor through the half-opening in the forward nacelle end.
> 
> Any idea on the difference in decibel level between this nacelle and one without the foam/bearings?


Yes. The motor and bussard housing are sealed in. I'd be more concerned about that if I were running the motors and lights constantly but as I only plan to have them on for a few minutes at a time I'm willing to risk it. If I ever had a problem with a motor burning out I would have to cut a section of the nacelle out to remove it. I'd replace it with one of those Sayama motors. Then I'd glue the section back in, putty, and repaint. A pain to do for sure but I'm pretty good at "body work" so I'm confident I could make the repair look decent. In fact, the easiest approach might be to just slice the whole front of the nacelle off in front of the pylon or just saw the bussard housing off the front of the nacelle. You would need to saw carefully around the bussard housing behind the rings, pull out the housing, then replace the motor. The motor is only held in place with double-sided transparent tape inside it's foam sleeve so it would just pull out; and there is enough slack in the wires to allow this.
The bussard lights would be easier since the domes are not glued on. I'd have to remove the spinner and pull out the circuit board which is also not glued in. There is also some slack in the wires to allow me to pull it out without having to cut wires; still, I coudl always resolder the leads if I had to. At that point, if the chip failed, I'd replace the flashers with some flashing LEDs I bought for just such an ocassion.

As far as decibel level differences between the non-foam motors and the foam/bearing motors; I have no idea. If I were to compare the sound heard on my video with videos of other engines posted by modellers on youtube there is a noticeable difference in volume. How much is hard to say but I'm not done sealing up the nacelles yet. I plan on packing some more of the foam box padding into the area behind the motors where the pylon wires reside. 
Then I'll glue the trench in followed by the reactor loops eventually.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Was getting ready to glue parts 5 and 6 to the rear of the upper saucer when I found I was missing part 5. This is the accelerator that sits atop and between the impulse engines. Contacted Round 2 and they sent me a link to the missing parts replacement form. Hopefully won't take more than a few weeks to get it. They were very quick to reply when I emailed them last night. I'm also going to see if they will replace that cracked white shuttle bay dome for free as I really liked the look of the translucent white plastic. The clear one with Floquil Flat brushed on is alright but I'd prefer the white dome.


----------



## modelnut

My replacement Bussard assembly arrived within not much more than a week --- eight days to be precise. The new parts are a vast improvement. 

I may steal your idea about the foam in the nacelles. It makes sense. And should not add any significant weight.

- Leelan


----------



## Trekkriffic

modelnut said:


> My replacement Bussard assembly arrived within not much more than a week --- eight days to be precise. The new parts are a vast improvement.
> 
> I may steal your idea about the foam in the nacelles. It makes sense. And should not add any significant weight.
> 
> - Leelan


Cool. I heard back from R2 and he said he would replace the stern dome for me as well at no charge so I am livin' large!

The foam sleeving is almost weightless. When I hold the nacelle it's like a club- definitely heavier at the bussard end. One thing to mention about the sound on the video, I was surprised at how loud it came across. I think my camera's microphone is too sensitive and exagerated the noise level. In person it seems much quieter. The next video I take I'm going to stand back a few more feet so the camera isn't quite so close. Should give you guys a better idea of how quiet it really is.


----------



## SteveR

Trekkriffic said:


> I think my camera's microphone is too sensitive and exagerated the noise level. In person it seems much quieter.


That may not work: the camera probably has an automatic level which brings all sounds up to a specific level, maybe 0dB or -6 dB. It's supposed to be a feature allowing us to hear soft-spoken people, but it may still bring up the sound of your motor.

It may be advisable to keep talking while the motor is going, so the camera adjusts your voice up to the set level and ignores the quieter motor. We'd be able to hear the motor in the background. Of course, I could be wrong ...


----------



## Trekkriffic

SteveR said:


> That may not work: the camera probably has an automatic level which brings all sounds up to a specific level, maybe 0dB or -6 dB. It's supposed to be a feature allowing us to hear soft-spoken people, but it may still bring up the sound of your motor.
> 
> It may be advisable to keep talking while the motor is going, so the camera adjusts your voice up to the set level and ignores the quieter motor. We'd be able to hear the motor in the background. Of course, I could be wrong ...


Thanks for the tip Steve. I'm sure that's what my camera is doing.

BTW... I went back and edited all the photo links in my earlier posts changing them to my Flickr! photo set so no more annoying PhotoBucket ad!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Progress from this past week...

I took the impulse engines and glued in the clear part. Then I backed the clear ports with black tape before gluing the part to the saucer. I also gave it a shot of Dullcote for a matte look:


IMG_4543 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I worked qutie a bit on the shuttle bay. I glued the clear control room to the top of the open bay door part then glued the doors to the stern with CA. I placed a white decal behind the control room window so it will glow but won't cause lens flares when I take pics of the stern. I took the ParaGrafix PE after heating to soften it and bent it around a round xacto tool handle so it fit around the clear control room piece without springing back on me. Then I glued it to the clear part with CA:


IMG_4550 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I took a break from the shuttle bay and worked on the nacelles. After a couple of sessions of puttying, seam scraping, sanding, and priming all the seams disappeared. The parts weren't bad as far as seams go; I've seen a lot worse. Then I attached the flux constrictors, intercoolers, and the stern "vents" with Testors cement. After another session of puttying with PPP around the edges of the aforementioned parts to fill any gaps I applied 3 coats of Duplicolor primer:


IMG_4551 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I'll save the end caps and ships "balls" for the end after I paint them.

The clear fantail lights were painted red, green, and amber orange using Model Master enamels. I also painted the top edge with black enamel for light blocking. ParaGrafix provides a PE piece to wrap around the face which really blocks extraneous light leaks. It also gives you nice, sharp, frames around the lights. I primered it preparatory to gluing it to the fantail with CA:

IMG_4552 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Aligning the top edge of the PE part with the bay floor left a slight rim projecting over the lower rim of the fantail so I used PPP to blend the lower rim of the PE part in with the uncercut:


IMG_4560 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Window masks were cut from Tamiya tape. I used dividers to measure the length and width of the windows before translating the measurements to the tape:


IMG_4562 by trekriffic, on Flickr

For the round windows I used a nail set to punch out holes in the tape. Actually "punch" is the worng term. What I do is stick the tape down on a vinyl mat; then I press the tip of the nail set down into the tape and twist back and forth until the tape is cut alround. I have 3 sizes of nail sets and it took them plus a couple of sizes of Harbour Freight hole punches to do the masks for all the round windows and ports in the saucer halves and connecting dorsal.


----------



## Trekkriffic

The last thing I did involved the saucer halves...

Sunday they got their first airbrushing of the base hull color:


IMG_4567 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4568 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After allowing a few days to dry I used a plastic flexi ruler and a compass to draw the radial and circular gridlines on with a sharp 2H pencil. Having the gridlines will certainly help a lot with decal placement. I used the smoke colored saucer domes with holes drilled dead center to anchor the pin on the compass arm for making the circles:


IMG_4569 by trekriffic, on Flickr\


IMG_4573 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The lower saucer was given a second airbrushing of the hull color over the gridlines to make them more subtle:


IMG_4571 by trekriffic, on Flickr

To those who think only the upper saucer had gridlines originally I'm fairly certain there were faint gridlines on the lower saucer as well because I've seen evidence of them in blowups of black & white photos taken of the ship during production at a low angle to starboard. I'm sure most of you are familiar with these photos. They are hard to see but they are there if you look closely. 

Anyway, the upper saucer will also get a second coat of hull color to mute the gridlines but first I need to spray on some rust for the rust ring!


----------



## PixelMagic

Looking fantastic. What color did you use for the hull color?


----------



## Trekkriffic

PixelMagic said:


> Looking fantastic. What color did you use for the hull color?


It's a custom mix. Roughly 3 parts MM Imperial Japanese Navy Sky Gray (per the kit instructions), 1 part MM Flat White (to lighten it up a tad), 1 part ACE Shady Cove (mostly to give me more volume of paint), 1 part MM SAC Bomber Green (I wanted a more greenish grey). 
By part, I mean, 1/2 oz jars. I should have plenty to apply 2 coats at least over the whole model. 
You could probably come up with close to the same color eliminating the ACE Hardware paint but I had almost a full bottle left over from my 1/1000 build so I threw it into the mix rather than pour it back into the quart can I have of it. 
The Shady Cove is a thick, gloss enamel and dries very slowly (3-4 days) but thinning it and mixing it in with all the MM flat enamels cuts drying time down to one day.


----------



## RossW

Beautiful work, Trekkriffic!


----------



## crowe-t

This is my favorite buildup of this kit! I really like the smooth saucer with the penciled on grid lines.


----------



## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> This is my favorite buildup of this kit! I really like the smooth saucer with the penciled on grid lines.


Thanks! Drawing the gridlines was easier than I thought it would be. I found that even though the saucer appeared smooth, when you viewed it at a low acute angle in the sunlight you could just barely see a ghost of the original incised gridlines. I mean you really had to look at the surface under bright sunlight to see them at a very low angle. I have no way to explain this but it was a godsend; I could use the original gridlines as a guide for penciling on the new ones.


----------



## crowe-t

Trekkriffic said:


> Thanks! Drawing the gridlines was easier than I thought it would be. I found that even though the saucer appeared smooth, when you viewed it at a low acute angle in the sunlight you could just barely see a ghost of the original incised gridlines. I mean you really had to look at the surface under bright sunlight to see them at a very low angle. I have no way to explain this but it was a godsend; I could use the original gridlines as a guide for penciling on the new ones.


That's a good thing that the grid was still slightly visible, a happy accident for sure!

When you spray on the hull color over the grids, do you thin the paint more so then usual?

You spray on the rust ring then go over it with the hull color to tone it down???


----------



## PixelMagic

Forgive such a stupid question, but how did you know what angle to set your compass to give you correct gridlines?


----------



## Trekkriffic

PixelMagic said:


> Forgive such a stupid question, but how did you know what angle to set your compass to give you correct gridlines?


The compass had no demarcations on it for setting exact angles. I inserted the one arm into the center hole of each black saucer dome and the pencil at the end of the other arm was lined up directly over the ghost of the original gridline which I could barely see when viewed at an extremely low angle in the sunlight coming thru my garage windows. Once I had the arm in the right position I tightened down the thumbscrew on the slider and drew my line with one hand while keeping the other hand pressed on the inside arm so it stayed in the dome hole. You have to be sure the hole in the dome is exactly on center which is easy with the lower dome but a bit trickier with the upper dome. Fortunately for me I was able to drill the upper dome hole in the right spot to make perfect concentric circles. I did this using a plastic hole template and Tamiya tape. I found a hole matching the outer diameter of the dome. The hole template had hash marks on the hole's perimeter at 45, 90, 135, 180, 225, 270, 315, and 360 degrees. I took the thinnest size of Tamiya tape and drew straight lines down the center of the tape; cut the tape into 4 pieces long enough to go over the dome and line up with the hash marks on the hole template; placed the dome inside the plastic hole template; placed the pieces of tape down over the dome aligned with the registration marks; then marked a hole with a pointed probe tool where the lines crossed. That's where I drilled my hole. 
If I hadn't had the ghost lines for reference I would have been in a bit of a pickle as the drawings I'd made did not take into account the curvature of the saucer. So they were really of not much use for drawing the circular gridlines as it turned out. If I were doing this again I would take a strip of paper (or a thin strip of styrene sheet) and lay it down on each saucer half before filling in the grid lines. I'd make pencil marks on the strip starting where the center hole would be on the top and mark where each circular gridline crossed it on the paper so I could use it as a guide once the gridlines were filled in. For the lower saucer I would just butt the end of the strip up against the sensor dome ring before making my pencil marks. The other option, if I'd had a compass with degree markings, would be to measure how many degrees it took for each incised gridline and record the measurements to use as reference when drawing them later.


----------



## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> That's a good thing that the grid was still slightly visible, a happy accident for sure!
> 
> When you spray on the hull color over the grids, do you thin the paint more so then usual?
> 
> You spray on the rust ring then go over it with the hull color to tone it down???


No. I don't thin the paint any more than usual for the overspray. I just stand back a little more and spray a wider field so as not to concentrate paint in any one spot. 

Here's the saucer masked off with blue painter's tape:


IMG_4574 by trekriffic, on Flickr

And after airbrushing the rust "ring". Not a ring so much as an arc really:


IMG_4575 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Tape removed. The flash makes it look darker than it is:


IMG_4576 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I need to spray the nacelles and the secondary hull (need to mask the windows) with hull color too so I'll wait until I'm ready to spray them before I do the overpray on the saucer.


----------



## harristotle

How do you get the nice and even circular cuts on your masks? 

I imagine you probably use the compass to measure and get everything symmetrical, but I would struggle with the actual cutting part.


----------



## Scotty K

harristotle said:


> How do you get the nice and even circular cuts on your masks?
> 
> I imagine you probably use the compass to measure and get everything symmetrical, but I would struggle with the actual cutting part.


Related to that, I was going to ask what compass you used? I have a compass, but it only opens so far and not enough to get to the edges.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Scotty K said:


> Related to that, I was going to ask what compass you used? I have a compass, but it only opens so far and not enough to get to the edges.


I used two compasses-one smaller drafting compass with a thumbwheel driven screw between the arms which I used for the smaller cicles. 
This is a very precise compass that I got decades ago when I took some drafting classes in college. 
You can see most of it in post 241 above; look at the fourth pic in the upper lefthand corner. 

For the larger diameter circles I used this 6" Locking Wing Divider I found at Harbor Freight for $4.99:


Harbor Freight 6 inch Compass by trekriffic, on Flickr

You can extend the reach by sliding the pencil out further than in the picture. I used a 2H artist's grade pencil which is fairly hard lead and makes a finer line that resists smudging. 

Here's a link to Harbor Freight page on it:

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-locking-wing-divider-96439.html


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> How do you get the nice and even circular cuts on your masks?
> 
> I imagine you probably use the compass to measure and get everything symmetrical, but I would struggle with the actual cutting part.


I laid the blue tape down in overlapping strips on a big vinyl cutting mat I only use for this type of thing.
Then I took measurements from the gridlines I drew on the upper saucer to make the arcs in pencil using the wing dividers I got from Harbor Freight. 
The I just used an exacto knife to cut the tape. I'm blessed with a very steady hand but if you just go slow you should be able to cut nice, even arcs.


----------



## Scotty K

Trekkriffic said:


> For the larger diameter circles I used this 6" Locking Wing Divider I found at Harbor Freight for $4.99:


I might have known that Harbor Freight would have something like that. I have one down the street from me, so I'll be making a trip tomorrow.

Thanks so much for the info!


----------



## Trekkriffic

*A tale of once, twice, third time's a charm...*

So I was working on the fantail yesterday afternoon and plugged in the "Q" and "R" light strings to check for light leaks when I noticed the rectangular LED under the stern dome was out!
It had initially gone out right after I sealed the secondary hull up and I attributed it to one of the 30 awg wires I soldered to the LED legs breaking free during the stress of gluing the hull together. 
On the first such ocassion I found pressing up from below the stern cowl on the LED caused the LED to go back on. 
So at that time I thought I could fix it without having to break the hull apart by just gluing the LED to the underside of the cowling in the position which caused it to light. This seemed to have worked and for a few weeks or more I had no further problems... until yesterday when the modeling god's turned their backs on me and my feeble attempt to jerry rig a fix. 
Just for ducks though, I pressed on the LED. It came back on! This time it came back on when I pressed it forward. Lauging at the modeling god's and thinking I could fix it again if I used a little more glue than last time I flooded the control room where the LED sits with CA. 
I wanted to be sure that this time that LED would NOT move!
It did the trick and the LED stayed on even when I was not pressing on it.

Later that evening I went back to see if it still lit up and...

Guess what? 

It was out!!!!!!????? 

"Arggghhhhh!" Cursing in anguish, I shook my fist at the modeling gods who taunted and tormented me. 

This simply would not do... I would not allow this model to have no light in the stern dome!

So I made the painful decision to fix the problem for good by resoldering the offending wire which meant having to cut a hole into the stern of the hull just in front of the opening for the dome where I knew the leads terminated to the legs of the LED.
I used an exacto saw blade and scribing tool to make the initial cuts before carving the plastic away with a chisel tool. I went dead slow so as not to go too far, too fast and cut off the tiny bits of thin 30 awg wires feeding the LED which would have really sucked! 
I was able to identify that it was the contact on the port side of the bay because as I carved into the hull, as I got closer to the level of the wires, the LED would flicker to life when I pressed the spot over the broken wire. 
This told me I was close. I surmised that the wire was intact and in position right over the leg of the LED just not in contact with it. 
Once I carved out the last bit of hull plastic I could see the wire and the leg of the LED and it was exactly as I thought. 
So I turned on the power and gripped the tiny wire with tweezers; pressing it against the LED leg made the LED light up just fine. 
After that it was just a matter of resoldering the wire to the LED leg which you can see here:



IMG_4583 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After soldering I sealed the "hull breach" with AVES Apoxy Sculpt. This morning it had cured and I sanded it smooth as glass:


IMG_4584 by trekriffic, on Flickr

A little more carving around the circular round dome opening was needed for the dome to fit correctly but she's all better now and ready for priming. 
And the LED... it lights up beautifully thank you! And the gods... the gods are not laughing anymore...

:thumbsup:


----------



## Fernando Mureb

I hate those gods due a bunch of good reasons.  :thumbsup:


----------



## Mark Dorais

I know this was discussed earlier but what spray paint, commercially available in cans, best approximates the correct hull color?


----------



## harristotle

Thank you for the tips! That info will be very helpful I think.


----------



## SteveR

You need to make a sacrifice to the modelling gods, dude. 
Blow up a Kazon Torpedo!

Oh, wait. That's not much of a sacrifice, is it?


----------



## PixelMagic

I am not having the luck with Perfect Plastic Putty that you did. I have gone over the gridlines 3 times now, and they are still showing up. Using one gridline of Tamiya putty, and while the sanding did take a lot more elbow grease, the gridline is gone. PPP seems to not stick to the surface as hard. Hmmm.


----------



## scifiguy67

PixelMagic said:


> I am not having the luck with Perfect Plastic Putty that you did. I have gone over the gridlines 3 times now, and they are still showing up. Using one gridline of Tamiya putty, and while the sanding did take a lot more elbow grease, the gridline is gone. PPP seems to not stick to the surface as hard. Hmmm.


same here! I'm using squadron white putty now. it works alot better!


----------



## modelnut

I used Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty. It is very cheap and available everywhere. It did the trick with only one or two applications. A few coats of primer and they are practically invisible. There is just enough of a trace showing that I will not have to pencil them in. 

- Leelan


----------



## Trekkriffic

Mark Dorais said:


> I know this was discussed earlier but what spray paint, commercially available in cans, best approximates the correct hull color?


The correct hull color? That's an age old argument that really comes down to "What looks best to you? You are the one that is going to be looking at it from day to day so choose a color you think looks right to you." Having said that, I like two spray can colors myself. For a slightly olive grey I like Model Master Flat Gull Gray (it's the closest I've seen to concrete). This would be my personal choice if I wanted a spray paint off the shelf. 
For a grey with a more bluish tint, I like Model Master Light Ghost Gray. Some people swear by Camouflage Gray.
For the darker gray accent colors I would suggest Gunship Gray for use with Flat Gull Gray and Dark Ghost Gray for use with Light Ghost Gray.


----------



## Trekkriffic

PixelMagic said:


> I am not having the luck with Perfect Plastic Putty that you did. I have gone over the gridlines 3 times now, and they are still showing up. Using one gridline of Tamiya putty, and while the sanding did take a lot more elbow grease, the gridline is gone. PPP seems to not stick to the surface as hard. Hmmm.


I found it took two applications to get rid of the gridlines. You have to just trowel it on fairly thick and go at it with some of the coarser grits first or it will take a lot more work to get through the initial sanding stages before you get down to the finer grits. I had no problems with it sticking to the plastic myself.


----------



## djnick66

I tested some PPP on a crappy HAWK Wierd-Oh kit to see how it worked and I had no problem with it adhering. It also held up well to wet sanding.


----------



## PixelMagic

Trekkriffic said:


> I found it took two applications to get rid of the gridlines. You have to just trowel it on fairly thick and go at it with some of the coarser grits first or it will take a lot more work to get through the initial sanding stages before you get down to the finer grits. I had no problems with it sticking to the plastic myself.


I've done 3, and on a couple of lines 4 applications. I'm just gonna have to try something else at this point.


----------



## Sparky

PixelMagic said:


> I've done 3, and on a couple of lines 4 applications. I'm just gonna have to try something else at this point.


For me the PPP has adhered really well to the plastic. Could remaining mold release agent on the plastic be an issue? I gave my saucers a really good soapy scrubbing and PPP adheres like concrete to them. Like Trekkriffic, 2 applications of PPP seem to work well filling the grids. I am really please with the product myself.


----------



## Mark Dorais

Trekkriffic said:


> The correct hull color? That's an age old argument that really comes down to "What looks best to you? You are the one that is going to be looking at it from day to day so choose a color you think looks right to you." Having said that, I like two spray can colors myself. For a slightly olive grey I like Model Master Flat Gull Gray (it's the closest I've seen to concrete). This would be my personal choice if I wanted a spray paint off the shelf.
> For a grey with a more bluish tint, I like Model Master Light Ghost Gray. Some people swear by Camouflage Gray.
> For the darker gray accent colors I would suggest Gunship Gray for use with Flat Gull Gray and Dark Ghost Gray for use with Light Ghost Gray.


....Thank you very much for the tips. I'm currently endeavoring to lessen the gridlines prominence with putty. After much sanding and priming I plan on using the paints you suggested...Thanks again. :thumbsup:


----------



## PixelMagic

Sparky said:


> For me the PPP has adhered really well to the plastic. Could remaining mold release agent on the plastic be an issue? I gave my saucers a really good soapy scrubbing and PPP adheres like concrete to them. Like Trekkriffic, 2 applications of PPP seem to work well filling the grids. I am really please with the product myself.



Perhaps it is the mold release agent, I did not clean my saucers. However, I wet sanded them 2 twice at this point, wouldn't the agent come off during that?


----------



## Sparky

PixelMagic said:


> Perhaps it is the mold release agent, I did not clean my saucers. However, I wet sanded them 2 twice at this point, wouldn't the agent come off during that?


Perhaps that is it. The mold release agent could still be within the grid trenches as soapy water has not has a chance to reach that area. The top sanded areas would be clear just due to the sanding action scraping the release agent off. Runoff water into the grids trenches from the wet sanding is probably not enough to wash away release agent without soap. 

I would definitely recommend a nice soapy immersion bath for the plastic pieces. The plastic really does noticeably feel less oily afterwards. 

Try a soapy bath then the PPP. That putty really works nicely.


----------



## PixelMagic

Sparky said:


> Perhaps that is it. The mold release agent could still be within the grid trenches as soapy water has not has a chance to reach that area. The top sanded areas would be clear just due to the sanding action scraping the release agent off. Runoff water into the grids trenches from the wet sanding is probably not enough to wash away release agent without soap.



Hmm, this makes me afraid that after time the PPP might come out of the grids months after I paint. Should I just strip the saucer back down to bare plastic with alcohol and start over after cleaning?


----------



## Sparky

PixelMagic said:


> Hmm, this makes me afraid that after time the PPP might come out of the grids months after I paint. Should I just strip the saucer back down to bare plastic with alcohol and start over after cleaning?


As it sounds like the PPP is not easily sticking to your saucers, I would think it is a legitimate concern. Me, I would probably redo it to be safe.


----------



## PixelMagic

Do you guys think an alcohol bath would remove PPP, dissolve it?


----------



## Sparky

Wondering if you could use a hobby dental pick to check the bond (and possibly remove if needed) of the putty in the trenches.


----------



## Trekkriffic

If it were me, before stripping the whole saucer, I would sand a small section down with 200 grit until I coud see the PPP in the trench. 
Wouldn't take long with coarser grit paper. 
Then take a dental pick and see if the PPP just pops out or not.
You know, I don't think I washed my saucer halves before using the PPP and I had no issues with it sticking.


----------



## djnick66

If you are worried just brush on some thin CA glue over the sanded PPP and then follow up with a light wet sanding to smooth it all out. This works on a lot of putties.


----------



## PixelMagic

djnick66 said:


> If you are worried just brush on some thin CA glue over the sanded PPP and then follow up with a light wet sanding to smooth it all out. This works on a lot of putties.


Something like this???

http://www.warehouse23.com/img/full/FTEPT02.jpg

Could you even use that to just fill in lines without PPP?


----------



## SteveR

We have to be a bit careful with CA; it often dries harder than the surrounding plastic, making sanding a bit difficult. Sanding before it's fully hard seems to work.


----------



## Dr. Brad

SteveR said:


> We have to be a bit careful with CA; it often dries harder than the surrounding plastic, making sanding a bit difficult. Sanding before it's fully hard seems to work.


Yes. If I use it, I try to sand it ASAP!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Dr. Brad said:


> Yes. If I use it, I try to sand it ASAP!


Meh.. never tried it for a filler. Got too many other options to choose from.


----------



## Carson Dyle

I wouldn't use CA in this instance... too many trenches to fill, you'll be sanding forever.

If the PPP isn't adhering or curing GET RID OF IT ENTIRELY before continuing. Last thing you want is some weird chemical reaction to disrupt the surface of your model six months after you thought you were finished with it.

Next time use Evercoat glazing putty (or Evercoat easy sand; both dry super fast, but the former has a bit more "flex").


----------



## Trekkriffic

OK folks. Back to the topic at hand if you please... 

I took a little break from the ship to work on the base over the weekend. 
One thing I'd been mulling over was coming up with some type of illumination for the underside of the ship; some kind of lights on the base. 

To that end I looked at my tubing stock and got to work...

I cut some square styrene tubing into sections and made four brackets:


IMG_4588 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I drilled holes for insertion of an axle made from piano wire. 
I also drilled out a hole to insert a hollow aluminum tube thru the base of the bracket to allow for wires to pass thru into the base:


IMG_4589 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Plastic tubing was inserted thru holes drilled into the corners of the base and glued in. The bracket slides in and can rotate 360 degrees:


IMG_4590 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Upper hinge ears were cut from .040 styrene sheet. Plastic mounting rings were cut:


IMG_4591 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4592 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The rings were glued into the upper bracket. The upper and lower bracket hinge will allow the spotlights to pivot up and down:


IMG_4593 by trekriffic, on Flickr

An aluminum tube was cut which fit the diameter of a 5mm Ultrabright white LED. The aluminum tube slides into another plastic tube which itself slides into the ring m ounted to the hinge bracket assembly:


IMG_4594 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I cut some cowlings from plastic tubing (the same diameter as the rings) at a 45 degree angle. All parts were primed with Tamiya lacquer primer then sprayed with Tamiya Bare Metal Silver: 


IMG_4597 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Trekkriffic

The completed spotlight:


IMG_4607 by trekriffic, on Flickr\


IMG_4608 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4609 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4612 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4613 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4621 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Four UltraBright spotlights that can turn 360 degrees and pivot to nearly vertical should allow me quite a bit of lighting flexibility with the Enterprise. 

The spotlights have their own rocker switch and will operate independently of the switches for the ship's lights and motors. 

Hope you guys like my spots!


----------



## harristotle

Very cool idea, I'm looking forward to seeing this all lit up!


----------



## Carson Dyle

Incorporating spots into the stand... I love this idea! 

Looking forward to seeing the final effect.


----------



## Proper2

Trekkriffic said:


> The completed spotlight:
> 
> 
> IMG_4607 by trekriffic, on Flickr



These are fantastic! I've wanted something like this for my MR Enterprise but could not find anything on the market. I ended up with a strip of partially hidden LEDs in the front pointing up at an angle at my E and Botany Bay. But this kind of thing is what I really wanted. Just didn't have the know-how and skill to make 'em! As Khan would say: "Excellent, excellent!"


----------



## SteveR

Trekkriffic said:


> OK folks. Back to the topic at hand if you please...


Whatsamatta? You don't like group hijackings? 

But as for the spots ...Very nice! Kinda "Gerry Anderson."


----------



## PixelMagic

Those spotlights remind me of lightsabers.


----------



## Trekkriffic

PixelMagic said:


> Those spotlights remind me of lightsabers.




You know you're right! 

I hooked the completed one up to power last night just to see how much light it puts out and it was bright enough to illuminate the underside of the shelf over my workbench which is about 5 feet above it. So with 4 of these I should be able to throw plenty of light onto the underside of the ship.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Carson Dyle said:


> Incorporating spots into the stand... I love this idea!
> 
> Looking forward to seeing the final effect.


Thanks for the compliment Rob! I'm a big fan of your work so it means a lot coming from you.


----------



## Trekkriffic

SteveR said:


> Whatsamatta? You don't like group hijackings?
> 
> But as for the spots ...Very nice! Kinda "Gerry Anderson."


Thanks a lot. I love Gerry Anderson!

As far as hijackings go I really don't mind them much. They fill the void while I'm working to make something worth posting pics of.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> These are fantastic! I've wanted something like this for my MR Enterprise but could not find anything on the market. I ended up with a strip of partially hidden LEDs in the front pointing up at an angle at my E and Botany Bay. But this kind of thing is what I really wanted. Just didn't have the know-how and skill to make 'em! As Khan would say: "Excellent, excellent!"


Thanks! I think I've seen mini spots listed for sale somewhere before but I can't recall where now. I don't think they were as small as these though. 
Took me probably 2-3 hours of work for each one. As Khan would say: "They tasked me! They tasked me!"
The piano wire in particular was tough stuff; I had to use a fiberglass reinforced cutting disk on my dremel to cut it.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Update...

Sorry for the delays in posting any progress updates. I got sidetracked last weekend working on installing a neighbor's kitchen faucet and dealing with the plumbing problems that ensued so haven't spent as much time as I might on this build. Here are some of the latest developments...

After masking the windows and lights on the secondary hull and priming with Duplicolor I noticed the seams needed a little more attention so there followed a few more rounds of puttying and sanding until I got them where I liked them:


IMG_4622 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4623 by trekriffic, on Flickr

You can see the shuttle bay doors in their closed configuration in the these pics. I made the center section removeable. The fit is so precise that the doors stay in place with just a friction fit and with the lights on there are no light leaks between the cracks. I probably spent 4-5 hours altogether just working on the doors to get them right.

For the neck I had previously sprayed it with my custom "concrete" base color. Then I went back and sprayed the leading edge with MM Hellblau:


IMG_4627 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Hellblau is an interesting color. It's kind of a blue-green gray which leads me to believe that's why some folks think it's greenish and some think it's bluish; actually it's both!

The neck was glued to the secondary hull. The seam was filled with AVES Apoxy Sculpt:


IMG_4628 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The AVES went on so smoothly that I shouldn't need to do any sanding at all but I'll probably give it a once over with 600 grit just in case.

Next, I came up with an idea for the impusle engines involving this cheap Dollar Tree push light:


IMG_4655 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Trekkriffic

Stuff to do with the impulse engines...

I'm pretty old school when it comes to the original series Enterprise so at first I thought I'd just leave the impulse engines dark. But then I got to thinking how neat they looked lit up in the remastered episodes so... I came up with an idea for having it both ways. 

First thing was to cannibalize the push light. In addition to 3 LEDs the light also had a pushbutton switch inside. A little desoldering freed it from the circuit board:


IMG_4630 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The switch was wired up with the "N" wiring harness and connected to an LED for testing with power from the PC board. It worked quite well:


IMG_4633 by trekriffic, on Flickr

A shaft was cut from Evergreen rod with a black tip cut from some scrap kit window smoked plastic to fit in the hole between the vents. It was then glued with epoxy to the switch button:


IMG_4637 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The switch was the perfect size to fit inside the back of the impulse deck directly behind the hole in the center between the exhaust vents which I drilled out. I also cut new clear plastic for the exhaust vents as the original kit part had gotten scratched and clouded while I mucked about positioning the switch:


IMG_4642 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The switch was glued in with CA and the new vent covers were glued in with Krystal Klear. The kit impulse vent decals were also applied from the inside:


IMG_4644 by trekriffic, on Flickr

A light box was constructed for each vent with an amber LED glued to the back wall. The LEDs were also painted with Tamiya transparent orange acylic. The insides of the boxes were painted black except for the rear wall which was covered in reflective foil:


IMG_4645 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Here are the impulse engines in their dark mode more like what we saw in the original episodes:


IMG_4652 by trekriffic, on Flickr

And here thay are with the pushbutton switch pushed in and lit up like the remastered episodes:


IMG_4650 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I was able to spread out the light using a few layers of .030 styrene sheet pressed in just behind the clear vent covers. The styrene sheet came with a semi-opaque protective film on both sides to prevent scratching; I left the film in place and it did a great job as a diffuser.


----------



## Trekkriffic

The impulse engines were then glued into the lower saucer hull:


IMG_4653 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The next thing I need to figure out is if I want to do something similar with the nacelle screens or just leave them dark. It might be possible to have a pushbutton in each warp engine, perhaps accessible through a small hole in the recessed ring just in front of the endcaps. I'd need to remove some of the foam tubing to wire up the SMD LEDs though.

Decisions.... decisions...

Anyway, thanks for sticking with me while I was preoccupied with chores. 

More to come!


----------



## Proper2

Trekkriffic said:


> Stuff to do with the impusle engines...
> 
> I'm pretty old school when it comes to the original series Enterprise so at first I thought I'd just leave the impulse engines dark. But then I got to thinking how neat they looked lit up in the remastered episodes so... I came up with an idea for having it both ways.


I think I agree. Lighted they look very cool, AND they look "right." I'm old school, too, but I mostly feel that remastered is pretty much legit if not "Canon." One thing I don't like RE remastered is the aztec look, even though it's subtle.



Trekkriffic said:


> The next thing I need to figure out is if I want to do something similar with the nacelle screens or just leave them dark. It might be possible to have a pushbutton in each warp engine, perhaps accessible through a small hole in the recessed ring just in front of the endcaps. I'd need to remove some of the foam tubing to wire up the SMD LEDs though.
> 
> Decisions.... decisions...


Here I would not go the lighted route; these screens always appeared to me like they shouldn't light up; not sure I can 'splain why. Just my personal vote. But it's your build, of course.

Keep up the exceptional work! It's amazing to watch!


----------



## Chrisisall

I am amazed here.


----------



## harristotle

You Sir, are inspirational! I love following your builds. Your attention to detail combined with shear skills never ceases to amaze me. :thumbsup:


----------



## Paulbo

Proper2 said:


> These are fantastic! I've wanted something like this for my MR Enterprise but could not find anything on the market...


Starlighting Projects make cool little spots - I saw their booth at Wonderfest this year: http://www.starlightingprojects.com/frightlight_foot.html


----------



## Trekkriffic

Paulbo said:


> Starlighting Projects make cool little spots - I saw their booth at Wonderfest this year: http://www.starlightingprojects.com/frightlight_foot.html


Neat site Paul! Those Phantom Footlights look pretty close to what I made. And the price is reasonable.


----------



## Proper2

Paulbo said:


> Starlighting Projects make cool little spots - I saw their booth at Wonderfest this year: http://www.starlightingprojects.com/frightlight_foot.html


Wow, thanks, will definitely look into these!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Got my order yesterday from Modeler's Brand. Got 20 more of the lighthouse style LED's, 10 of the mini 2-wire electrical couplers, and a 12V 2A power supply. The 2A should give me plenty of juice to run everything in this model.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Minor update for today...

So I was doing a light test yesterday using the amber LEDs for the impulse engines and plugging in all the other saucer lights onto the PC board to make sure using the amber LEDs didn't cause the other lights to go flaky on me when I noticed the SMD in the bridge dome not lighting up. WTF??!!!
I pried off the dome and found the problem- one of the copper contacts inside A deck along the upper rim had broken loose causing loss of contact with it's mate in the dome above. CA just wasn't strong enough over time to withstand the minimal pressure exerted when the dome was pressed in and the contacts on the underside of the dome ceiling pressed down onto the matching contacts along the rim of the bridge soffit. 
So I could have tried to re-glue the copper contact but I had a hunch it woudl just fail again at some later stardate so I finally gave up on the idea of having the dome be removeable and went back to my original wired approach. This meant removing what was left of the copper contacts in A deck and redoing the wiring in the dome. Removing the old junk led to breakage of what was left of the original 30 AWG wires sticking out of the rim of A deck which was a blessing actually as it forced me to redrill holes for new wires which I did using a pinvise all the way down from the rim of A deck into B-C deck at an angle. Once done I could insert new wires and splice them into the N harness underneath where the old wires connected. That done, I demolished the (overly) elaborate ceiling array I'd glued to the underside of the dome ceiling and desoldered the SMD LED from the copper strips I was using before re-soldering the SMD to the new wire leads. This was delicate work and I was frankly quite surprised I didn't destroy the SMD LED in the process but a light check showed it was still operational. Once the LED was re-wired I glued it and the wires onto a new ceiling disc with 5-minute epoxy. The disc was made of very thin white styrene sheet. I glued it into the underside of the dome with CA. When lit the light shines thru the thin white plastic with no problem. 
Today I went back and cut another disc from grey styrene strip with a hole in the center over which I placed a bevelled frame cut and sanded from Evergreen tubing with a clear disc mounted in it's the center. The clear disc was cut from thin clear styrene sheet and sanded to diffuse the light which shone thru the white plastic ceiling from the SMD LED inside the dome. 

Here are a few pics...

Prior arrangement with contacts (they look a lot like ceiling speakers don't they?):


IMG_4302 by trekriffic, on Flickr


Old ceiling array:


IMG_4303 by trekriffic, on Flickr

New wired ceiling:


IMG_4656 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Lit up:


IMG_4660 by trekriffic, on Flickr

All in all I'm really pleased with the final result-it's much simpler and cleaner than the copper strips mounted to the rim were.


----------



## harristotle

Now that's cool! 

Is the bridge included in the kit or did you scratch build that?


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> Now that's cool!
> 
> Is the bridge included in the kit or did you scratch build that?


The bridge is included although I used the clear bridge that came with the Round 2 lighting kit instead. 
I did add the ceiling soffit though. 
The crew figures are photo-etch brass from ParaGrafix. 
You can see Yoeman Rand standing next to Kirk in that last pic. 
I deliberately left the fret tab attached to the top of her head and painted it blonde to create her beehive hairdo.


----------



## Paulbo

What a cool idea! You've blended (and quite well) the "clear dome seen in the first pilot" with the "it ain't a clear dome 'cuz we never see it again" ethos. Plus, it's just flipping well done.

Love Yeoman Rand


----------



## Trekkriffic

Thanks Paul!

Update for this morning...

Last night I glued the lower saucer to the neck. Will need to fill the joint gap with AVES next:


IMG_4673 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I also sprayed the upper saucer with another shot of the custom hull color. This morning I wet sanded with sanding films before giving it the third and last coat of paint:


IMG_4665 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The rust ring is sufficiently muted now I think. If I had to I could go back and rub in some Tamiya rust pastel chalks which I might do when I add the weathering streaks using the gunmetal chalk. Oh, and the gridlines are veeeery subtle too.


----------



## crowe-t

The work on the bridge's ceiling and the the painted saucer looks fantastic!

Can you take a few close up pictures of the saucer? I'd like to see how the subtle grid lines look.


----------



## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> The work on the bridge's ceiling and the the painted saucer looks fantastic!
> 
> Can you take a few close up pictures of the saucer? I'd like to see how the subtle grid lines look.


Thanks! You know I tried taking some closeups of the saucer but the camera didn't want to focus with all that gray background. I'll have to play around with the settings some more and see if I can get something that shows the gridlines. You can see them in person if you look closely.


----------



## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> The work on the bridge's ceiling and the the painted saucer looks fantastic!
> 
> Can you take a few close up pictures of the saucer? I'd like to see how the subtle grid lines look.


*Here are some closeups which demonstrate just how subtle the gridlines are. I took this out on my driveway in the sun.*

From this distance they are barely noticeable if you really concentrate and look hard:


IMG_4677 by trekriffic, on Flickr

In the following shots you can just see them:


IMG_4676 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4675 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4674 by trekriffic, on Flickr

*The top will get one more wet sanding before being glued to the lower saucer. This will probably make the gridlines a little more visible but not much. 
By the way, regarding the whole "Is there a lit window on the front or is it a hatch?" debate, I went with the latter. What I show is a recessed hatch.*


----------



## crowe-t

Trek, The grid looks perfect! That's how the studio model's grid looks.


----------



## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> Trek, The grid looks perfect! That's how the studio model's grid looks.


Yeah. It's pretty close. May even be a little subtler:


kg_star-trek_tos_1701_studio_model-048-sized by trekriffic, on Flickr

For one thing, I think I got the thickness of the lines just about right. The studio model really looks rusty on top doesn't it? Nicotine stains for sure. One reason why I'll go back and rub in some pastel chalks before applying the final seal coat. I'll understate it though since when I hit it with the flat lacquer the chalk stains will darken a bit.


----------



## PixelMagic

Those gridlines look great. I'm still working to get rid of mine. I was stupid and wetsanded the PPP, which is a big no no. It will dissolve it. I ran out of PPP, and now I have to wait on Horizon to stock some more. I guess I can work on other parts of the ship in the mean time.


----------



## Trekkriffic

PixelMagic said:


> Those gridlines look great. I'm still working to get rid of mine. I was stupid and wetsanded the PPP, which is a big no no. It will dissolve it. I ran out of PPP, and now I have to wait on Horizon to stock some more. I guess I can work on other parts of the ship in the mean time.


A good alternative to PPP would be Tamiya Basic Type polyester putty. 
It's messier and stinkier but it doesn't shrink, has good adhesion, and sands really well. It's also dark grey in color so it might leave a nice looking grid pattern behind after sanding. It might show up enough to eliminate the need to draw the lines in with pencil if you wanted to have them still show although you wouldn't get the lines as thin as you can with a sharp pencil. All the talk about how you can't get the line thickness thin enough to stay in scale using a pencil didn't really deter me. Most of the arguments against pencil seemed to assume you'd be using a mechanical pencil which use standard lead diameters which are too large and use softer leads. I think the key to doing it convincingly is to use a wooden pencil with a harder lead (2H was what I used) sharpened to a very fine point using a sanding board.


----------



## harristotle

2 questions for you good Sir... 

First, and forgive my ignorance, but what is the hatch/window thing that you're talking about? 

Second, I've been thinking about snagging some chalks for aging processes, but haven't the slightest how you actually use them. 

Looking awesome!


----------



## PixelMagic

Trekkriffic said:


> I think the key to doing it convincingly is to use a wooden pencil with a harder lead (2H was what I used) sharpened to a very fine point using a sanding board.


While I do like the grids on yours, I don't think I'm going to go to that trouble. I'm just going to get rid of them completely.


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> 2 questions for you good Sir...



First, and forgive my ignorance, but what is the hatch/window thing that you're talking about? 

_It's the round port located at the front of the saucer directly behind the row of 3 round "windows" on the rim of the saucer. In some of the original series scenes it appears to be painted over and dimly lit from underneath; no doubt from the bulb located beneath. Some contend that it was merely an access hole for changing the light bulb that lit the 3 round ports on the bow and was not intended to be lit which would explain why they tried to paint it over. Some scenes you can't see it at all but that may be because of the angle of the shot more than anything else; or the fact that it is recessed making it harder to see any illumination from a low angle. I chose to think of it as an access or maintenance hatch so I made it recessed and unlit. _

Second, I've been thinking about snagging some chalks for aging processes, but haven't the slightest how you actually use them. 

_Get some of the Tamiya Weathering Master chalks if you can get them. Starship Modeler carries then in their store but they have been out-of-stock for awhile now:_

http://starshipmodeler.biz/shop/ind...-master-set-c-orange-rust-gunmetal-silver.cfm

_I have the Weathering Master Set C myself with orange rust, gunmetal, and silver pastel chalks. I've been using the same set for years so you don't need much to get the weathered look that suits you. It comes with a sponge applicator for rubbing the chalk on to your model but you can find the same applicators for applying makeup in the ladies beauty supply section at any department store. What I do is spray the model with a flat matte coating (I use Testors Dullcote), wait for it to dry, then scrape the surface of the pastel chalk with an exacto knife so you get some crumbly bits going. Then moisten the tip of your applicator, dip it into the chalk, and transfer it to the model. Rub it onto the model with the applicator. You can also use cotton swabs, microbrushes, a rag or your fingertip. You can smudge it and drag it out to make streaks using a moistened applicator or a swab or lick your finger or a rag. So long as you don't really grind it into the finish you have the ability to wipe it off with a moistened rag if you go too heavy. I recommend holding it with an elastic glove on one hand while you work the chalks with your free hand; wearing the glove prevents leaving fingerprints behind in the chalk. 
Once you're finished weathering apply a clear sealer like Testors Dullcote, Glosscote, or Satin for a semi-gloss finish. Personally I like my ships to have a flat matte look to them, makes them appear less toylike. Whatever you get, make sure they are oil based pastels. Regular dry chalk pastels like they sell at craft stores wont stick. Go to an art supply store.
I used Tamiya chalks on my Leif Ericson model rubbing the gunmetal chalk all over the model with a moist rag before rubbing it in with a polishing motion. Then I wiped most of it off with a dry rag leaving behind a metallic patina. The model was painted with Tamiya bare metal silver so it gave the whole model a metallic steel, weatherbeaten look you can see here in this photo:_


IMG_2700 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## harristotle

That's really helpful, thank you!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Update for today...

Today was airbrush Saturday with temops around 80 degrees and low humidity.

Nacelles...
These were actually airbrushed yesterday. They are about 95% dry but still just a little bit sticky. I almost had a heart attack Friday evening when one of them took a header off my workbench. I'd stood them straight up on end to dry and after about a half hour I closed the garage door. That caused enough vibration to cause one nacelle to take a swan dive headfirst making a half rotation before bouncing off the cement floor. All I could do was stand transfixed from about 10 feet away with my mouth agape.
I imagined it landing on the bussard dome and cracking. Fortunately it landed on the open end where I will eventually attach the endcap; then it bounced up at an angle and hit the side of my workbench before landing flat on the floor. Heart in my throat I picked it up by the masked over bussard and the pylon wiring and inspected the damage. Thankfully I had just swept the floor so there wasn't any dust or debris to stick to the paint. 
There was a tiny smudge on one flux constrictor at the front and one on the rear. It was dry enough that I was able to smooth over the divots with a moistened fingertip; I'll still need to touch it up with a little more hull color but it could have been so much worse.
Removing the tape from the dome showed no damage. I hooked up the power and the motor and lights operated fine. 
Maybe it was dumb luck or maybe the modelling gods took pity on me; whatever it was, I had just escaped disaster. 
After that I got smart and leaned them against my hanging drawer cabinet to finish drying:


IMG_4679 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Nacelle trench screens were sprayed with Tamiya Bare Metal Silver:


IMG_4684 by trekriffic, on Flickr

End caps, Impulse engine accelerator, Trench insert, and Pylon screens were sprayed with MM Medium Gray mixed with a little Voodoo Gray to lighten it up a little. I'd already gone with a lighter hull color than the kit recommends so I needed to lighten up the acccent color too or the contrast would be too much for my taste:


IMG_4685 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The Bridge/B-C deck module was sprayed hull color:


IMG_4682 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The reactor control loops were sprayed hull color followed by a brushing of Voodoo Gray at the ends of the loops. I'll probably go back with the airbrush and recoat the Voodoo Gray. I also need to mask the intercoolers on top of the nacelles and paint the ends with the same color.



IMG_4686 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The secondary hull was sprayed with hull color. I also sprayed the joints between the secondary hull and neck and between the neck and the lower saucer. I masked the leading edge with it's Hellblau color first though:


IMG_4681 by trekriffic, on Flickr

That's it for now. It will probably take a few days to finish drying enough for me to do the next thing which is to attach the upper saucer and bridge module to the lower saucer. Then I'll be ready to attach the nacelles. 

Tomorrow I plan to spend some time working on the base wiring and paint.

Thanks for reading.


----------



## Proper2

Steve, I bet that nacelle-somersault without a net looked in slow-mo! Would have given me a heart attack! Quick, thank the modelling Gods by sacrificing a small animal...


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> Steve, I bet that nacelle-somersault without a net looked in slow-mo! Would have given me a heart attack! Quick, thank the modelling Gods by sacrificing a small animal...


Good idea! I did burn some sprue on the altar of Styrene, God of Plastic.


----------



## Chrisisall

Trekkriffic said:


> Good idea! I did burn some sprue on the altar of Styrene, God of Plastic.


I have burned so many sprue as a kid (luscious black dribble flame!) that I am blessed, I guess!:lol:


----------



## harristotle

Trekkriffic said:


> Update for today...
> That's it for now. It will probably take a few days to finish drying enough for me to do the next thing which is to attach the upper saucer and bridge module to the lower saucer. Then I'll be ready to attach the nacelles.
> 
> Tomorrow I plan to spend some time working on the base wiring and paint.
> 
> Thanks for reading.


The crash hurts, my heart sank as I was reading. Glad you escaped mostly unscathed! 

I hate waiting for paint to dry lol that's where I'm at as well with my much tinier Enterprise.


----------



## Trekkriffic

*Sunday update...*

Not a lot accomplished I'm afraid. Got involved in another project at my neighbor's-this time with her car.

Anyway, today was dome day...

I took some thin adhesive-backed foil strips and laid them on the inside of the lower saucer dome lined up where the external engraved lines are. 
I also laid a disc in the center to block light from hitting the "ion pod" or whatever they called that little nipple in the center of the dome:


IMG_4696 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Holding the dome under my worklight made for a nice subtle pie slice effect:


IMG_4706 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Speaking of the "ion pod" I took some thin brass rod and drilled a small hole into some Evergreen plastic rod to make the sensor shaft:


IMG_4689 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The finished pod. A hole was drilled into the clear kit part then the sensor shaft was glued in with CA. 
Being made of brass the shaft is quite strong and should never snap off:


IMG_4695 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The pod has gotten a coat of hull color. After it dries, the shaft will be painted silver with a red tip.

The other dome I worked on was the one over the shuttle bay. I taped off off most of the dome leaving a narrow band around the bottom rim. 
I brushed on some Mr Surfacer 500 followed by the hull color:


IMG_4709 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Nothing was done on the stand but my neighbor's car is running fine now! Oh and I got some yardwork done in the backyard.

Thanks again for any comments!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Glued the upper saucer to the lower today at lunch using Testors cement. Clamped up to dry:


IMG_4710 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After an hour clamps were removed and I found some areas on the rim where the Testors cement didn't hold. I was afraid of this as by the time I finished coating the mating surfaces some of the glue had partially dried. I used Ambroid ProWeld liquid cement to seal the breaches injecting it between the saucer halves using a disposable hypodermic syringe my father-in-law had given me. It did the trick. Then I clamped it up and left to dry again:


IMG_4713 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Chrisisall

Too fancy. I just glue & tape it. Let God sort out the mess.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Chrisisall said:


> Too fancy. I just glue & tape it. Let God sort out the mess.


Faith-based model building eh?


----------



## harristotle

It's about time for an update!  

Funny seeing those clips. I've wanted clips like that for a while, and the other day my wife comes home with a couple packages of those clips. I proceeded to explain to her why I needed a package of them lol


----------



## Chrisisall

Trekkriffic said:


> Faith-based model building eh?


"Spirits" are involved...'hic'

:drunk:

Good work BTW.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Chrisisall said:


> "Spirits" are involved...'hic'
> 
> :drunk:


:jest::jest:

Very clever!


----------



## Trekkriffic

So last night I masked off aroud the rim just under the seam and over the windows. Then I spatula'd on some PPP:


IMG_4714 by trekriffic, on Flickr

This morning I sanded off the PPP:


IMG_4715 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4717 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Since taking these pics I've given the rim a brushing of Mr Surfacer 1000 which pointed out a few tiny divots. These were filled with more PPP before another sanding. I then brushed on some of the basecoat. I don't see any divots now and the seam is gone. I'll hold off airbrushing until I get the nacelles attached and the last of the puttying is done. Then I need to wire up the base and plug the model into the stand and check for light leaks. Any leaks will get a brushing of Mr Surfacer which should do the trick as thick as it is. Then she'll get a once over with the airbrush with the hull color and any touchups on the accent colors especially the impulse engines. There are some small areas I need to touch up on the secondary hull too.


----------



## Proper2

Wow, lots o' work! She's gonna be real pretty, though!



Paulbo said:


> Starlighting Projects make cool little spots - I saw their booth at Wonderfest this year: http://www.starlightingprojects.com/frightlight_foot.html



So, I've been in contact with Matt at starlightingprojects and he suggests that a number of their footlights/spotlights are insufficient to light up a large subject like the 32" MR E along with the 1:350 Botany Bay in the foreground. The spotlights are really designed to work with scale figure models. He recommends 'flood' or area lighting which would be a custom project that starts at a min. of $100. I have a feeling that that project would start adding up $$ quickly. I wish I was an electronics wiz.... :drunk:


----------



## Chrisisall

Very unseamly. Good work!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> So, I've been in contact with Matt at starlightingprojects and he suggests that a number of their footlights/spotlights are insufficient to light up a large subject like the 32" MR E along with the 1:350 Botany Bay in the foreground. The spotlights are really designed to work with scale figure models. He recommends 'flood' or area lighting which would be a custom project that starts at a min. of $100. I have a feeling that that project would start adding up $$ quickly. I wish I was an electronics wiz.... :drunk:


Yeah. My lights are not intended to light up the whole model but I think they will light up a good deal of the underside since I can twist and turn them in any direction.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Lunchtime progress...

The wires to the nacelles were trimmed, soldered, and sealed with heatshrink. Then I glued the nacelles to the pylons and set upside on a selection of mostly Star Trek (original series) books and TV Guides to dry per the kit instructions:


IMG_4718 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4719 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## harristotle

Do the instructions specify Star Trek books?..


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> Do the instructions specify Star Trek books?..


No. I consider it an oversight of insignificant proportions.


----------



## Spockr

Trekkriffic said:


> No. I consider it an oversight of insignificant proportions.


Since the books aren't 'canon' its probably best to disregard them. Good call.


----------



## SteveR

harristotle said:


> Do the instructions specify Star Trek books?..


I thought it specified VHS cassettes? Or maybe 8-tracks?


----------



## Chrisisall

*Tom Cruise voice*
_Watch the allignment, watch the allignment, watch the allignment!!_
(Why does he always exclaim stuff three times?)

Ahh, you're no doubt doing that meticulously anyway.


----------



## Spockr

Chrisisall said:


> *Tom Cruise voice*
> _Watch the allignment, watch the allignment, watch the allignment!!_
> (Why does he always exclaim stuff three times?)
> 
> Cause he's a Scientologist


----------



## Chrisisall

Spockr said:


> Cause he's a Scientologist


That explains it.


----------



## Trekkriffic

SteveR said:


> I thought it specified VHS cassettes? Or maybe 8-tracks?


You know I've got a ton of VHS cassettes laying around too. I think one's got Top Gun on it.


----------



## Chrisisall

Trekkriffic said:


> You know I've got a ton of VHS cassettes laying around too. I think one's got Top Gun on it.


Back on topic:
A question: are you savouring this? Are you enjoying every moment of this one-time build? Or are you just having fun knowing you'll do another later?


----------



## Trekkriffic

Chrisisall said:


> Back on topic:
> A question: are you savouring this? Are you enjoying every moment of this one-time build? Or are you just having fun knowing you'll do another later?


Definitely! I'm having a blast. Don't want it to end. If I had the room I'd build a pilot version.


----------



## DCH10664

Trekkriffic said:


> Definitely! I'm having a blast. Don't want it to end. If I had the room I'd build a pilot version.


Oh come on now ! I know you got an empty corner somewhere. And that pilot version is just calling your name, and begging to be built.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Playing around with the base some more...


In an homage to the original filming stand...


Original Filming Stand by trekriffic, on Flickr

... and in an effort to increase strength and rigidity I cut some aluminum tubes and epoxied them to the base of the stand for some additional bracing:


IMG_4723 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Test with the model mounted to the stand. Ah yes, the perfect balance point just like the original:


IMG_4724 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Now I have to decide if I should paint the support tube with it's new bracing black like I had originally intended or a shade of blue like the filming stand. I've already decided to paint the base of the stand and it's framing silver. There will be some black showing thru inside the frames on the front and back sides and the top to simulate open space around the light panel decals from the refit kit.


----------



## Chrisisall

Blue!!
Man that's looking good.


----------



## Proper2

Very, very nice, Steve!! I like the homage to the original stand very much! One time I was considering making a scale replica of that as a separate piece to include inside my MR display! On yours I think I would want to see the rod and bracing a shade of blue in order to make the connection with the original filming stand clearly and boldly! Very sweet!


----------



## Trekkriffic

OK guys you've convinced me! Blue it is! 
I suppose though, if I wanted it to look even more like the original, it would need a bend in it!


----------



## Chrisisall

Trekkriffic said:


> I suppose though, if I wanted it to look even more like the original, it would need a bend in it!


Do IT!!:thumbsup:


----------



## Trekkriffic

I wonder why it's bent like that. Does anybody know if it was straight during filming and somehow got bent after the show wrapped?


----------



## Proper2

Trekkriffic said:


> I wonder why it's bent like that. Does anybody know if it was straight during filming and somehow got bent after the show wrapped?


Looks pretty straight in this shot... and pretty blue:


----------



## robn1

It was straight originally, I don't know how or when it became bent. But there are pics of the ship on stage showing the stand as straight.

The build is looking great!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> Looks pretty straight in this shot... and pretty blue:


Yep. Definitely looks bluesceen blue.


----------



## Trekkriffic

robn1 said:


> It was straight originally, I don't know how or when it became bent. But there are pics of the ship on stage showing the stand as straight.
> 
> The build is looking great!


Thanks! Just gotta get this base done so I can test the lights!


----------



## Trekkriffic

You know, I think I've decided against using a bright blue like "bluescreen blue". I just think it might be too distracting and detract from the model. Also I'm worried it might creat a blue bias with the camera giving the model a bluish gray tint which I don't want even though it would be screen accurate, at least as seen in some of the original series shots. So I may compromise and paint the stand tube dark blue.


----------



## crowe-t

Steve, I really like your homage to the 11 footer's stand! It's an excellent idea and well executed on the Refit's base.

I vote for dark blue as well. Dark blue will capture the original stand's feel and not take anything away from the refit's base or distract from the model.

Again, well done!

Mike.


----------



## Proper2

Steve, I think a "bluescreen" -colored stand would work if your display background was the same color. Just a thought. 

I was actually considering doing something similar by slipping a blue tube/sleeve over the black rod of my Master Replicas Enterprise base and then draping a blue cloth (or perhaps a paper maché "mound") around the base to simulate the filming model canvas one as seen in any classic studio snapshot. Then have some sort of blue background to simulate the filming model's blue-screen.

Whatever you decide to go with, I'm sure it will be done well and look great.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> I was actually considering doing something similar by slipping a blue tube/sleeve over the black rod of my Master Replicas Enterprise base and then draping a blue cloth (or perhaps a paper maché "mound") around the base to simulate the filming model canvas one as seen in any classic studio snapshot. Then have some sort of blue background to simulate the filming model's blue-screen.


I was thinking the same thing. If I can find a plastic sleeve large enough to slip over the existing tube I could paint it bright blue and drape a blue cloth over the base like you mention doing. I'd need two sizes of tubing since I'd need 4 short angled pieces to slip over the 4 legs too. Then if I could come up with a 1/350 scale Botany Bay and some bare-chested skinny old dude holding a clapper board I could do a diorama.


----------



## Proper2

Trekkriffic said:


> I was thinking the same thing. If I can find a plastic sleeve large enough to slip over the existing tube I could paint it bright blue and drape a blue cloth over the base like you mention doing. I'd need two sizes of tubing since I'd need 4 short angled pieces to slip over the 4 legs too. Then if I could come up with a 1/350 scale Botany Bay and some bare-chested skinny old dude holding a clapper board I could do a diorama.


LOL!!

I think the 4 legs were typically covered. At least for the Botany Bay sequences.


----------



## robn1

Proper2 said:


> LOL!!
> 
> I think the 4 legs were typically covered. At least for the Botany Bay sequences.


I think that was because the Botany Bay had to pass in front of the stand in a few shots. But the stand and the gear head it's attached to was often uncovered.

That would make a cool diorama piece, the stand and the gear head.


----------



## Proper2

Actual Chroma Key Blue fabric is available but it normally has about a 1/8"-thick foam padding backing which would make it less than ideal for "draping" to simulate a miniature version of the E filming model. But they also sell the paper which would work better. You can get yourself a big roll to play with for about $31 plus another $12 +/- for shipping. Not cheap, but if you're serious about setting up your display that way, probably worth getting the extra material:

http://www.filmtools.com/sss-11h.html


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> Actual Chroma Key Blue fabric is available but it normally has about a 1/8"-thick foam padding backing which would make it less than ideal for "draping" to simulate a miniature version of the E filming model. But they also sell the paper which would work better. You can get yourself a big roll to play with for about $31 plus another $12 +/- for shipping. Not cheap, but if you're serious about setting up your display that way, probably worth getting the extra material:
> 
> http://www.filmtools.com/sss-11h.html


Thanks for the information. This wouldn't be part of a permanent display so I don't think I want to spend in excess of 40 bucks for one or two pics when I can go and just airbrush a piece of old T shirt with some bright blue paint.

Update...

Yesterday I plugged all the remaining wire harneses into the main PC board and hooked it up to the wires from the power jack in the underbelly. 

Then I poked the wires back inside the secondary hul so the the board coudl slide into the new brackets I had made. It slid in just fine. 

Then for the moment of truth; I tested the light and motor circuits using my just acquired 12V X 2A power adapter from Modeman Tom's store and... 

OMG! Horrors!

The board started to smoke! 

Yikes!





Just kidding...

Everything worked perfectly as planned. 

Today I'll finish painting the sanded saucer rim with "concrete". 
Yesterday I finished touching up the nacelles where I had filled in the small sinkholes next to the inboard trench-two on top and two on the bottom side of each trench. They were so minor I had considered just living with them but "they tasked me" so I filled them with PPP before sanding smooth; or what I thought was smooth. The hull color went on nice but you could still see the border of the putty just barely on two of the sinkholes so I had to sand again and respray at about 9 PM last night after getting home from a family BBQ. Call me anal but I wanted to finish the nacelle paint touch ups yesterday so they would be dry by this morning. I also hit a few spots on the secondary hull where the paint had gotten marred by my efforts to remove some dried stray bits of AVES putty. 
All sinkoles are now gone and the nacelles and secondary hull are nice and smooth.

Oh... and I also sprayed the deflector dish and rings with Alclad copper, painted the base with Krylon Stainless Steel, glued the "warp balls" into the rear endcaps, glued the screens into the nacelle trench covers. and finished painting the "ion pod" for the lower saucer dome. 


Here are some pics...


IMG_4732 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4731 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4736 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4737 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4733 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4739 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4740 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Thanks for reading!


----------



## PixelMagic

Those dark accent colors are really blue.


----------



## harristotle

Man, that is just beautiful! Love watching this thing progress :thumbsup:


----------



## crowe-t

Trek, You had me going there for a moment when you said the board started to smoke. 

I'm glad you were kidding.

Everything looks beautiful so far. I can't wait to see it finished on the stand.


----------



## Trekkriffic

PixelMagic said:


> Those dark accent colors are really blue.


Yeah. That's Model Master Medium Gray per the box instructions. Looks about right from screen grabs I've seen.


----------



## harristotle

Trekkriffic said:


> Yeah. That's Model Master Medium Gray per the box instructions. Looks about right from screen grabs I've seen.


Are you spray painting it or do you put it in an air brush?


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> Are you spray painting it or do you put it in an air brush?


Well... I spray it using my Paasche VL airbrush. I adjusted the brightness to darken the photo a little as the sun was shining on the parts pretty good. Looking at the parts in person they aren't as blue as they look in the photo. And I forgot that this is actually a mix of Medium Gray and a touch of Voodoo Gray to lighten it a little. 
Man this thing is heavy; must weigh about 10 lbs or so. Must be why it's classed as a Heavy Cruiser lol.


----------



## harristotle

Trekkriffic said:


> Well... I spray it using my Paasche VL airbrush. I adjusted the brightness to darken the photo a little as the sun was shining on the parts pretty good. Looking at the parts in person they aren't as blue as they look in the photo. And I forgot that this is actually a mix of Medium Gray and a touch of Voodoo Gray to lighten it a little.
> Man this thing is heavy; must weigh about 10 lbs or so. Must be why it's classed as a Heavy Cruiser lol.


Yeah, that's what I was looking for. I'm hoping to go the airbrush route soon, do you just spray the rattle can paint into the reservoir for the airbrush?


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> Yeah, that's what I was looking for. I'm hoping to go the airbrush route soon, do you just spray the rattle can paint into the reservoir for the airbrush?


No man. I pour it from the paint bottle (or bottles if i'm doing a mix of colors) into the airbrush bottle then add an equal amount of airbrush thinner so it's the consistency of milk. You can also decant paint from a spray can if you want better control of the spray. The VL is dual action so I can control airflow and paint volume with one trigger. Takes some practice but you can get a nice even coat with it.


----------



## harristotle

Trekkriffic said:


> No man. I pour it from the paint bottle (or bottles if i'm doing a mix of colors) into the airbrush bottle then add an equal amount of airbrush thinner so it's the consistency of milk. You can also decant paint from a spray can if you want better control of the spray. The VL is dual action so I can control airflow and paint volume with one trigger. Takes some practice but you can get a nice even coat with it.


I guess it didn't occur to me that I could get stuff not in rattle cans. Been using rattle cans for probably a decade now lol. I plan on getting a dual action. I was going to get a Paasche, but I think I'm going to get an Iwata now instead. Heard great things and seen great products from both brushes.


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> I guess it didn't occur to me that I could get stuff not in rattle cans. Been using rattle cans for probably a decade now lol. I plan on getting a dual action. I was going to get a Paasche, but I think I'm going to get an Iwata now instead. Heard great things and seen great products from both brushes.


I've heard good things about the Iwata. Would like to get one someday but my Paasche just keeps going and going and I don't need two.


----------



## PixelMagic

Really all airbrushes are pretty much the same. They are all made about the same way, so the quality between the two will not be drastic. Any good solid dual-action airbrush will do the job. That said, I have a Passche, and it does the job quite nicely.

I have heard that gravity feed airbrushes are better, but I'm not sure why.


----------



## Gregatron

Been doing a lot of thinking about my own eventual build.

My Iwata HP-CS does a nice job, but it produces a very fine line (about 1/2" spray width, max), and so it would take a very, very long time to paint such a big model.

Heck, it probably takes me 45 minutes or so to properly prime or basecoat a 1/1000 model! Very tedious.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Gregatron said:


> Been doing a lot of thinking about my own eventual build.
> 
> My Iwata HP-CS does a nice job, but it produces a very fine line (about 1/2" spray width, max), and so it would take a very, very long time to paint such a big model.
> 
> Heck, it probably takes me 45 minutes or so to properly prime or basecoat a 1/1000 model! Very tedious.


I use rattle cans for priming myself. As far as airbrushing this model, the first coats for the nacelles and secondary hull went on with the Paasche spraying about 1/2" wide. I think the paint was a hair too thick. Took me about 20 minutes per nacelle working sloooowly over the surface. The good thing was there were no drips! After the sinkhole fill and sand I mixed up a little thinner batch of paint and it gave me a much wider spray. I went over the whole nacelle on both sides and also the secondary hull got a second coat. Took about 5 minutes per nacelle this time. The model looks even better after getting a second coat; I think it deepened the olive gray tonality just a bit. 

Interesting side note- the color of the leading edge of the dorsal seems to have taken on a more greenish tone as opposed to blue after I applied a second coat of the "concrete" hull color adjacent to it. I think the olive cast to the gray hull may have something to do with it. 

By the way, prior to gluing the dorsal to the secondary hull and saucer I planned ahead and traced the shape of the leadig edge on sections of masking tape with an HB pencil to cover both the leading edge itself and the bottom of the saucer and top of the secondary hull around the front of the dorsal. After positioning two long pieces of tape at the correct angle over the windows on each side I'd just let the two sections of tape overlap in the center and hang over the top and bottom edges. Then I'd rub the tape along the top and bottom front of the part with the side of the pencil lead before sticking the tape down on a cutting matt and slicing it along the pencil lines with my exacto knife. I did the same thing with some tape on the top and bottom surfaces of the leading edge and rubbed along the oval contours where it connects to the saucer and secondary hull with the pencil. That way I could protect either the dorsal color when spraying the hull color or the hull color when spraying the dorsal color in case I needed to retouch it. It was much easier to cut the masks to the exact shape with those sharp angles while the part was loose than trying to trace lines and cut masks after the dorsal was in place.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Slow progress..

I modified the stand by adding a thick rubber washer with a thinner nylon washer underneath it to top of the neck right up against the bottom of the hull. I glued them in place using Devcon 5-minute epoxy and they are sure on there for good. The model doesn't rock back and forth so much now on the narrow neck:


IMG_4741 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The base after I removed the masking tape and retouched some of the
black areas with a brush. I sprayed with Testors Gloss Black and for brushing I decanted it from the spray can. I had no significant bleed under the tape
onto the stainless steel areas luckily. 


IMG_4742 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Finally finished touching up the saucer rim:


IMG_4744 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Look Spock! No seams!


IMG_4745 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4746 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The stand was re-masked and the display tube and legs were airbrushed with Testors Dark Blue enamel:


IMG_4748 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I layed it on pretty thick so it will take a few days to dry. 

More later!


----------



## Chrisisall

Flawlessly logical.


----------



## harristotle

I've never been a huge fan of TOS Enterprise, but after watching your build and doing my own 1/2500 I've really developed a love for this elegant starship.


----------



## Trekkriffic

So with the stand having dried overnight I spent my lunch hour soldering the wires leading up the neck to the Enterprise's lights and motors. I still need to finish wiring up the spotlights on each corner of the stand but couldn't resist posting a few pics of the ship on the stand with lights on. 

The stand has two lit rocker switches and one other non-lit switch in the center for the spots. The switch on the left is for lights, the one on the right is for the motors. Everything runs off a 2 amp power adapter so there's plenty of juice.


IMG_4771 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The impulse engines in their original series mode:


IMG_4758 by trekriffic, on Flickr

And lit up like the remastered version:


IMG_4757 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The Enterprise with lights on. Still have a lot to do of course:


IMG_4752 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4764 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Thanks for any comments!


----------



## Chrisisall

How much for it *as is right now*???

:freak:
Sorry, I tend to impulse-buy...


----------



## Proper2

I really like the way this is looking! I like the fore "porthole" on the top saucer not lit, as it ought to be!


----------



## Wattanasiri

That stand is a wonderful creation! I wonder if that had been thought of before.


----------



## harristotle

Mind blowing! I love your work, thanks for the progress update.


----------



## Prowler901

Beautiful! :thumbsup: Really coming along nicely.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Wattanasiri said:


> That stand is a wonderful creation! I wonder if that had been thought of before.


I actually got that idea from one of the "Steve Neill's Garage" vids. He built a 1/650 scale Reliant model for a client and they requested he use the original display stand from the 1/350 Refit kit. It looked so good I had to try it with this build. He didn't add any spotlights to it though.


----------



## crowe-t

This is just plain beautiful!!! The dark blue color of the display tube and legs is perfect. It stands out just enough without distracting from the rest of the display. Very well done. 

BTW, I'm loving the smooth saucer with the subtle hint of the grid lines.


----------



## Trekkriffic

So hooked up the spotlights on the base yesterday and they lit up fine. Installed the dome over the hangar bay (it glows with a greenish tint), the nacelle trenches and screens, the inboard pylon screens (they got a wash of black enamel and thinner to bring out their recesses) the accelerator on top rear of the saucer, and the lower saucer sensor dome. One thing about the lower saucer dome, make sure your LED is perfectly vertical so the spot it casts is centered in the dome. Mine wasn't so the spot was off center. I couldn't live with that but I'd glued the dome in with CA prior to the light test so I had to pry it off with an exacto blade, luckily after slicing partway thru the edge of the dome I was able to pop it off. Then I painted the LED with acrylic white fluorescent paint before inserting some of the thin foam wrapping sheet from the kit box into the reflecting tunnel. I made sure it stayed up in the tunnel near the LED and didn't touch the dome by using two strips of Magic tape to hold it in. It acted as a diffuser and I ended up with a nice even glow once I glued the dome back on-this time I used ELmer's clear glue instead of CA just in case. 

I'll post some pics later today once the paint dries from some retouching I did with the hull color around the hangar and sensor domes.


----------



## PixelMagic

The bussards in the last pictures just look awesome.


----------



## Liquid Electron

The whole thing looks awesome! I might have to start thinking about picking one up...


----------



## Proper2

Trekkriffic said:


> Then if I could come up with a 1/350 scale Botany Bay and some bare-chested skinny old dude holding a clapper board I could do a diorama.


Dunno about no skinny old dude but are you thinking of building the 1/350 Fantastic plastic Botany Bay next to go with this fine lady?


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> Dunno about no skinny old dude but are you thinking of building the 1/350 Fantastic plastic Botany Bay next to go with this fine lady?


Ooohhh... 75 bucks plus shipping. May have to save up my pennies for a while but I think I will.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Today's pics...

Here are a few pics from the stuff I mentioned in my post this morning.

The hangar bay dome. It has this sort of blue-greenish glow to it. Very much like the on screen look I think:


IMG_4786 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The lower sensor dome. I think the ribbing looks about right. Visible but not too dark. I still need to attach the "nipple" or "ion pod" in the center:


IMG_4782 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Nothing new but just had to show a couple of up close shots of the bussard dome. The first one is stationary and the second is a still of it in motion:


IMG_4790 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4793 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## harristotle

Simply beautiful! Now, if I recall correctly, doesn't this have an opening shuttle bay?


----------



## Captain Han Solo

Excellent.


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> Simply beautiful! Now, if I recall correctly, doesn't this have an opening shuttle bay?


Yes. The middle section of doors lifts out. The fit is so tight there are no light leaks between the doors. In fact, there are no light leaks anywhere on this ship; well, a few tiny ones in the corners of the hangar bay but they are barely noticeable.

I'll take a pic of it and the bridge as well with the dome lifted back to show Kirk and crew.


----------



## Chrisisall

This is most fascinating.


----------



## harristotle

Trekkriffic said:


> Yes. The middle section of doors lifts out. The fit is so tight there are no light leaks between the doors. In fact, there are no light leaks anywhere on this ship; well, a few tiny ones in the corners of the hangar bay but they are barely noticeable.
> 
> I'll take a pic of it and the bridge as well with the dome lifted back to show Kirk and crew.


Awesome, I look forward to seeing that!


----------



## crowe-t

Trekkriffic said:


> Yes. The middle section of doors lifts out. The fit is so tight there are no light leaks between the doors. In fact, there are no light leaks anywhere on this ship; well, a few tiny ones in the corners of the hangar bay but they are barely noticeable.
> 
> I'll take a pic of it and the bridge as well with the dome lifted back to show Kirk and crew.


I forgot you made the middle section of the hanger doors removable! The fit is very good. It'll look great either way you display it, with the doors open or closed.

It all looks so good in the new pictures you posted.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Before I went to bed last night I took these pics with the spotlights on. I like the effect...



IMG_4801 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4799 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4800 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The hangar bay sans Galileo:


IMG_4818 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4817 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Today I'll decal the stand and mount it to it's beachwood base. 
Then I'll mount the deflector rings and dish and the endcaps to the Enterprise.


----------



## Griffworks

Beautiful! The spotlights really make her "shine", so to speak.


----------



## harristotle

Love the spotlights, and love the hanger bay details!


----------



## Proper2

That is so sweet!! Now all you need is additional overhead lighting and you're there! My suggestion is to put this fine lady under acrylic or glass, Steve, when all's said and done. She's a museum piece! And don't forget the Botany Bay! ;-)

"Botany Bay... Botany Bay?! We hef to get out of here! Herry!" Sorry, I can't help thinking of that line when the BB in mentioned.


----------



## modelnut

How did you get the different colored lights on the fantail or that area below the hangar opening? Do you have the PE set and have them masked off with brass? Or did you simply paint it grey and scratch out the areas where the light shows through?

- Leelan


----------



## Trekkriffic

modelnut said:


> How did you get the different colored lights on the fantail or that area below the hangar opening? Do you have the PE set and have them masked off with brass? Or did you simply paint it grey and scratch out the areas where the light shows through?
> 
> - Leelan


I used the PE set from ParaGrafix. For the shuttle bay control room window over the doors I had the clear lighting kit part; the PE blocks light around the edges but not on the bottom so I lined the inside of the clear part with adhesive backed aluminum foil leaving the rectangular window uncovered. To diffuse the light from the LED under the dome I backed the clear window with leftover white decal film. Then I painted the bottom exterior of the control room part black before painting with the hull color. Before painting the hull color though I first puttied any gaps around the control room, the door frame and the fantail PE with AVES; then I turned on the interior bay lights and lighblocked with black enamel wherever light shone thru. For the lights under the doors on the fantail I painted the red, green, and yellow amber colors with MM enamels before attaching the PE then I masked the slots before painting. It was a bear to remove the masking tape after so many coats of paint though so I need to go back and retouch some of the colors now.


----------



## modelnut

Thanks, TR,

I will keep that in mind. But I am not getting the PE set. My bridge and shuttle will be closed so I don't need any of those extra bits.

- Leelan


----------



## Griffworks

I hate you. 

In the good way....


----------



## Trekkriffic

Griffworks said:


> I hate you.
> 
> In the good way....


Thanks Griiffy but sometimes I hate myself... in a bad way!

Here's why... 

I had purchased a wooden base to attach to the bottom of the stand and stained it with a mohagany oil based stain. Yesterday I sealed it with 2 coats of Varathane clear satin liquid plastic brushed on. The first two coats went on fine but before applying the third coat it said I had to sand the second coat as by that time it was morning and it had been more than 12 hours drying time between coats. So I sanded the base this morning after rinsing the sandpaper to wash off some old residue from previous sandings. After sanding I wiped the base off to dry it (Varathane must go on over a dry surface) but it must have still had enough moisture on it to wrinkle the second coat when I brushed on the third coat. Or maybe it was third coat that wrinkled. Regardless, it was a mess. After the third coat dried I had to sand off all the Varathane down to bare wood. My orbital sander got quite the workout. 
Afterward I brushed it with Varathane mahogany stain. I'll give it 3 coats of that before brushing on more of the clear satin tomorrow. 
No more sanding needed! 

Live and learn...


----------



## Trekkriffic

*Update...*

Here's where I'm at with the base...

I glued styrene sheet to the underside of the stand with Testors liquid cement. Holes were drilled and slots carved out for the screws that will hold it to the wooden base yet allow it to be removeable:


IMG_4820 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The wooden base after 4 coats of Varathane mahogany stain and 2 coats of Varathane liquid plastic coat. It will get one more plastic coat before it's done:


IMG_4842 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Next... windows...

Yipee! 
I came up with an idea that will help me prolong this build since it's been such a blast so far! 
I have noticed that several of the windows-almost all, in fact, are recessed and don't sit quite flush with the hull after gluing from the backside. 
I think this is due to the curvature of the window backplate not exactly matching the curvature of the hull. 
It is not an issue where I cut the windows off the backplate; such as the windows flanking the shuttle bay where the fit was so tight the backplate thickness prevented me from closing up the hull. 
Anyway, what I did was to cut small rectangular window panes from thin clear styrene sheet:


IMG_4836 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Using tweezers I inserted the clear window panes into the openings on top of the existing window inserts. I glued the new panes in using Krystal Klear for the white windows and Elmer's Clear Glue for the black ones. For round ports I merely filled them flush with the hull using Krystal Klear:


IMG_4834 by trekriffic, on Flickr

You can see the difference in this photo. The new window pane is installed in the window to the far left. The others have not been dealt with yet. The glue is still wet in this pic:


IMG_4825 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Here is a completed row of illuminated windows. 
I think it's a significant improvement from before with the windows in their deep recesses:


IMG_4846 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I estimate it should only take me another week to finish the rest of the windows which should be about when I have funding and can order my set of painting masks from Orbital Drydock.


----------



## Chrisisall

God bless you, you'll need it.


----------



## jgoldsack

Yeah with knowing that the windows won't be flush, I think i will go with filling them before I put it all together...

Looks great though!


----------



## harristotle

The windows on my 1/2500 refit are driving me mad... I can't imagine messing with it to the level that you are at 1/350. You're a modeling saint.


----------



## Nova Designs

Wow.... just, wow. :thumbsup:


----------



## Prowler901

Now, That's dedication to the craft. :thumbsup:


----------



## modelnut

Masks? What masks?

- Leelan


----------



## Trekkriffic

modelnut said:


> Masks? What masks?
> 
> - Leelan


Ships registry and pennant masks. No decals except for some of the smaller ones like the numbers on the side of the secondary hull and the hatch signage on the underside of the saucer.


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> The windows on my 1/2500 refit are driving me mad... I can't imagine messing with it to the level that you are at 1/350. You're a modeling saint.


Saint...or martyr!

Compared to what are doing with the windows on your 1/2500
ships this is a breeze! Smaller scales present their own challenges.


----------



## Trekkriffic

jgoldsack said:


> Yeah with knowing that the windows won't be flush, I think i will go with filling them before I put it all together...
> 
> Looks great though!


Yes. I might have done the same but resins can be so messy and then there are air bubbles and such to deal with and with the curvature of the hull it would have been a biotch to do more than a few windows at a time which would have taken forever. Anyway, it's too late for that now.


----------



## Chrisisall

I painted each window onto my Art Asylum TOS E- it took a few days. What you're doing is infinitely more involved. I salute you.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Chrisisall said:


> I painted each window onto my Art Asylum TOS E- it took a few days. What you're doing is infinitely more involved. I salute you.


Actually trimming the clear windows and gluing them in is going faster than I thought. Should be done in a day or two. I've also found I can use the ParaGrafix shadow casters behind the new panes. The little crew silhouettes show up great with the lights on.


----------



## Chrisisall

Trekkriffic said:


> The little crew silhouettes show up great with the lights on.


:thumbsup::thumbsup: cool


----------



## Trekkriffic

Found out something interesting... when I turn the impulse engines on using the pushbutton switch the light in the saucer dome over the bridge flickers and goes out. When I turn the impulse engines off the dome light comes back on. I surmise that there is only enough amperage available for the two N ports on the saucer PC board to power 2 LEDs as the N ports were intended to only power 1 impulse engine LED each per port. So I have 2 LEDs for the impulse engines running off one N port and 1 for the dome light running off the other N port for a total of 3 LEDs on the N ports. So I have to choose having the impulse engines off with the dome lit or the impulse engines on with the dome dark. But not both lit. This is a bit confusing since the impulse LEDs are wired in series and should only be using 20 mA between them. So if the board is supplying 20 mA per port we should be fine but perhaps that's not enough current so somehow the N port tied into the impulse engines is stealing current from the other N port...whatever...at this stage I'm not about to try prying the B-C deck off the saucer (it's glued on with CA) to rewire the dome light so I'll just live with it. At least the dome light isn't burned out as I initially feared.


----------



## Proper2

Well that sucks. But since the impulse engines were never lit in TOS, that may not be such a terrible thing. I know that's frustrating after having gone through the work to light the impulses, though.


----------



## Fernando Mureb

After stopping reading the HT since early July due to professional problems, I got back and I do not cease to amaze myself with its high degree of professionalism, both in the construction of the kit, as in the thread. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:


----------



## Trekkriffic

Fernando Mureb said:


> After stopping reading the HT since early July due to professional problems, I got back and I do not cease to amaze myself with its high degree of professionalism, both in the construction of the kit, as in the thread.


Thanks man!

Saturday update...

Finally finished the base:


IMG_4885 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Finally finished adding extra thickness to the windows. The shadowcasters are pretty cool thanks to PargGrafix. I love Paulbo's stuff:


IMG_4847 by trekriffic, on Flickr
IMG_4853 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4854 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4860 by trekriffic, on Flickr

More shuttlebay pics. This tiime using a tripod. More shadowcasters in the back observation gallery:


IMG_4881 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4880 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4878 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Trekkriffic

Intercoolers were masked with liquid mask and painted Canadian Voodoo Grey
on the front and back. Still need to peel the dried masking film off:


IMG_4884 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Impulse engines ala the remastered version:


IMG_4883 by trekriffic, on Flickr

More bridge pics...


IMG_4907 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4915 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Hard to tell in this image but that's Balok's puppet from "The Corboomite Maneuver" oj nthe main viewscreen:


IMG_4913 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Some low light pics:


IMG_4863 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4892 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Nice shot of the engines:


IMG_4906 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Tomorrow I start on some weathering. Once I've finished weathering I'll install the deflector rings and dish and the "nipple" on the lower sensor dome...


----------



## RossW

Beautiful ...


----------



## Proper2

Fantasmagorical!!! For lack of words............

Are those crew members peeking out the top dorsal window on IMG 4854 or is it the ol' Rorschach effect?


----------



## Chrisisall

My precioussss....


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> Fantasmagorical!!! For lack of words............
> 
> Are those crew members peeking out the top dorsal window on IMG 4854 or is it the ol' Rorschach effect?


Close... those are crewmen _Horshack_ and Barbarino.

:jest:


----------



## Proper2

Trekkriffic said:


> Close... those are crewmen _Horshack_ and Barbarino.
> 
> :jest:


:lol: I can just hear that laugh now..... "Oh, Mr. Kotter-r-r!", that was ver-ry impressive!"


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> :lol: I can just hear that laugh now..... "Oh, Mr. Kotter-r-r!", that was ver-ry impressive!"


Ensign Horshack:
"OOOOH! OOOH! Just look at all those stars just flyin' by. How beeYOUtiful!"

Swats Barbarino on the shoulder as he checks out a passing female yoeman...

Ensign Barbarino (startled):
"What? Where?"

Ensign Horshack:
"Out there! This is called a ... W-I-N-D-O-W. Those are called... S-T-A-R-S."

Ensign Barbarino:
"Up your nose with a rubber hose."


----------



## harristotle

A work of art! :thumbsup:


----------



## Trekkriffic

Gave her a couple of coats of Dullcote at lunch. Now time for some artistry with the weathering pastels.


----------



## Proper2

Trekkriffic said:


> Gave her a couple of coats of Dullcote at lunch. Now time for some artistry with the weathering pastels.


What kind of pastels do you use and how do you apply them exactly? Do you rub them on with a dry-brush technique like eye-shadow (not that I would know about that...)?


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> What kind of pastels do you use and how do you apply them exactly? Do you rub them on with a dry-brush technique like eye-shadow (not that I would know about that...)?


I have the B and C weathering sets from Tamiya:


TAM87085m by trekriffic, on Flickr


Tamiya-Weathering-Master-Pastel-Set-B-13549866-7 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I've had the C set for years. Just got the B set. I now have two flavors of rust: "orange rust" and "rust". I also have "soot", "gunmetal", "silver", and "snow". They'll go on with a brush and sponge applicator. I'll also employ cotton swabs, rags, and microbrushes for tight spots. And I'll probably use some saliva too.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Finished weathering the upper saucer yesterday. Went with rust, orange rust, and soot. It's fairly subtle; more so than the studio model I think. Used the photo of the original as a guide with the exception of the green. I don't plan on adding any green to the weathering on my model. 


IMG_4924 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4931 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4927 by trekriffic, on Flickr\


----------



## jgoldsack

weathering.... the bane of my existence.... you make it looks so good and easy...lol


----------



## Trekkriffic

jgoldsack said:


> weathering.... the bane of my existence.... you make it looks so good and easy...lol


It's nothing a little spit and rubbing around with your finger and a cotton swab can't take care of. That and some rubbing with an old T-shirt followed up with a once-over with the 44 micron dark grey sanding film as needed. I found you have to be careful with the soot pastel and not put it on too heavy. Tamiya pastels make it pretty easy though; the key is applying them over a dead flat finish and thinking of the model surface as a canvas.


----------



## crowe-t

This is amazing! I know I said it before but the smooth saucer really sells it with the subtle panel lines. I really like the base too especially with the blue mount. It captures the feel of the studio model without calling too much attention to itself.

The weathering looks spot on too. Well done.


----------



## SteveR

It looks good 'n' dirty, _not_ over-weathered. :thumbsup:


----------



## harristotle

That is outstanding. I didn't realize how much weathering was on the original model.


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> That is outstanding. I didn't realize how much weathering was on the original model.


From everything I've read the only part of the original studio model's weathering that was untouched during the renovations by the Smithsonian was the top of the saucer. The rest of the model was repainted at least twice and the current over-weathered look on the rest of the ship is a product of the last restorer's imagination in my opinion.


----------



## jgoldsack

harristotle said:


> That is outstanding. I didn't realize how much weathering was on the original model.


How much of the weathering on the top is a product of simply age?


----------



## Proper2

jgoldsack said:


> How much of the weathering on the top is a product of simply age?


I wouldn't think much of that is from actual model age--maybe some slight overall yellowing--unless it was stored outdoors. Hopefully not.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> I wouldn't think much of that is from actual model age--maybe some slight overall yellowing--unless it was stored outdoors. Hopefully not.


Oh, the yellowing? That's from the nicotine-stained fingers of the studio technicians back in the day.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Lower saucer and rim finisjed:


IMG_4940 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4941 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4933 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4932 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Proper2

Steve, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, I mean it constructively, but for my taste the weathering appears too yellow, and too prevalent on the underside of the saucer. At least in the pics it appears so. The other thing that bothers me is the hard edge of the rust ring. Don't know if it would be possible to "soften" it with pastels. This is just my personal preference.


----------



## Wattanasiri

The weathering is great!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> Steve, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, I mean it constructively, but for my taste the weathering appears too yellow, and too prevalent on the underside of the saucer. At least in the pics it appears so. The other thing that bothers me is the hard edge of the rust ring. Don't know if it would be possible to "soften" it with pastels. This is just my personal preference.


I appreciate the critique Proper and I agree. The saucer underside was too evenly yellow. I went back and wet sanded it with the 44 micron sanding film and it is much more randomized and subtle than before. I left most of it near the front rim where the other streaks are. Even so, it's so muted now I doubt it will even be noticeable in the final photos. 

Here's a pic of how it looks now:


IMG_4945 by trekriffic, on Flickr

As far as the rust ring, I like it the way it is. From the images I have of the upper saucer it appears the edges of the ring were well defined by the circular gridines and not fuzzy. The ends of the ring were not so well defined so I did make them fade out a bit-more fuzzy so to speak, although you can still barely see where the ends terminate in photos of the studio model. I don't want to start a whole debate on this topic in this thread though so, for those who disagree, just chock it up to being my personal preference and leave it at that please. 

Thanks again for the constructive criticism!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Yesterday I was thinking about the weathering on the nacelles...

I realized I needed to apply the pastels over the top of the darker grey area located underneath and just back of the three rectangular flux constrictors at the front of each nacelle. Looking at the kit decals, I realized they were too large to fit; they were also a shade of grey lighter than my hull color and they needed to be a darker shade of grey. 

So I resolved to paint these areas instead. Using the decals as a guide (at least the rear portions where the scallops are) I cut masks out of Tamiya tape and applied them:


IMG_4943 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After more masking of surrounding areas with blue painter's tape and wax paper to prevent overspray I airbrushed a mix of Imperial Japanese Navy Sky Grey, Shady Cove, Insignia White and some of the Medium Grey mix I'd used for the end caps and impulse engines. It's sort of an intermediate color. 
Here are the grey areas after unmasking and a little wetsanding to remove paint ridges at the edges:


IMG_4944 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Here's the decal showing what I meant about being oversized. Unless the intent was to cover the sides of the flux constrictors with the decal they would have needed to be trimmed to fit at the front. But that wouldn't have solved the issue with the color being too light so I think my decision to paint them on was correct:


IMG_4948 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I also did the weathering on the dorsal. You can barely see the two grey streaks between upper and lower rows of windows. The orange rust is very subtle too:


IMG_4946 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I'm really trying to keep the weathering subdued, for a model this size it's really important not to overdo it.


----------



## harristotle

Seriously, this is amazing. I wish I had taken it a little slower on my little TOS E, I could have learned a lot from watching your build. I guess I'll just have to go back and do another one...


----------



## jgoldsack

Love the subtle weathering.

I have always been a fan of making a clean TOS E... but I am very tempted to give it a bit of weathering when I make mine. You really should make a short tutorial on how you weather yours, since it is such a large scale and it is a bit different than smaller scale models...


----------



## Trekkriffic

jgoldsack said:


> Love the subtle weathering.
> 
> I have always been a fan of making a clean TOS E... but I am very tempted to give it a bit of weathering when I make mine. You really should make a short tutorial on how you weather yours, since it is such a large scale and it is a bit different than smaller scale models...


Tutorial eh? OK. I've taken some step-by-step pics which I'll post when I finish the secondary hull which is half done now.


----------



## Trekkriffic

My camera battery needs recharging or I'd download the pics and post them now. 
I'm really gettin' into the swing of things with the weathering. 
Man, I feel that high that I imagine Star Wars modellers must feel on EVERY one of their builds. :lol:
In my opinion, weathering is what makes your ship unique from any other modeller's.


----------



## Proper2

Trekkriffic said:


> I'm really gettin' into the swing of things with the weathering.
> Man, I feel that high that I imagine Star Wars modellers must feel on EVERY one of their builds. :lol:
> In my opinion, weathering is what makes your ship unique from any other modeller's.


I can feel your excitement. Yay, brother! We reach! :thumbsup:

_"No more trouble in my body or my mind. Gonna live like a king on whatever I find, Eat all the fruit and throw away the rind. Yea, brother. Yea."_


----------



## Chrisisall

Trekkriffic said:


> Ensign Barbarino:
> "Up your nose with a rubber hose."


Captain Kotter: 
"Off my case, potato face!"


----------



## Trekkriffic

Trekkriffic said:


> Tutorial eh? OK. I've taken some step-by-step pics which I'll post when I finish the secondary hull which is half done now.


Here's a brief captioned pictorial describing how I applied black gel pen ink to the port side of the dorsal to accentuate the streaks...

A microbrush is dipped into the gel ink scribbled on a card:


IMG_4951 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The ink is applied to the model:


IMG_4952 by trekriffic, on Flickr

A cotton swab is used to smudge the ink before it dries:


IMG_4953 by trekriffic, on Flickr

More smudging is done using a finger and swab:


IMG_4954 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4955 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Lastly a rag is rubbed over the surface:


IMG_4957 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The final result:


IMG_4960 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Trekkriffic

Gel ink streaks on the upper and lower saucer:


IMG_4961 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4964 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Mt weathering supplies and tools:


IMG_4965 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Applying pastels to the front of the secondary hull:


IMG_4966 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Microbrushes come in very handy for narrow spots:


IMG_4967 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4968 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The secondary hull after pastel weathering:


IMG_4970 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4973 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The pastels have been sealed with Dullcote. Tomorrow I'll go back and go over some of the streaks with black gel ink like I did with the dorsal.


----------



## crowe-t

Trek, Outstanding work on the weathering!


----------



## PixelMagic

I am personally a fan of clean starships, but as far as the weathering you are trying to replicate on the original studio model, you've done a fine job.


----------



## harristotle

She's looking awesome! And thank you for the pictures and write-up on how to accomplish weathering. I'd like to get into trying this, but it's intimidating to do this to a nearly finished model lol


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> She's looking awesome! And thank you for the pictures and write-up on how to accomplish weathering. I'd like to get into trying this, but it's intimidating to do this to a nearly finished model lol


What's required is a feat of weathering legerdemain and a degree of intrepidity.

You may want to spray a coat of your basecoat on some scrap styrene sheet and practice a bit before attempting to weather the model. One nice thing about the gel inks is they can easily be rubbed off with water if you don't like the effect. Pastels on a flat basecoat are less forgiving but can be toned down with water and a good rubdown with a soft cloth and if you really don't like the look you can remove pastels with light sanding using sanding films. 
Of course, you can always overpspray the pastels with more of the basecoat if you really screw up.


----------



## harristotle

Trekkriffic said:


> What's required is a feat of weathering legerdemain and a degree of intrepidity.
> 
> You may want to spray a coat of your basecoat on some scrap styrene sheet and practice a bit before attempting to weather the model. One nice thing about the gel inks is they can easily be rubbed off with water if you don't like the effect. Pastels on a flat basecoat are less forgiving but can be toned down with water and a good rubdown with a soft cloth and if you really don't like the look you can remove pastels with light sanding using sanding films.
> Of course, you can always overpspray the pastels with more of the basecoat if you really screw up.


I've seen you mention these sanding films before. Where do you get them? I've checked my Lowe's and local hardware store for even just really fine grit sandpaper and I can't find any.


----------



## MartinHatfield

harristotle said:


> I've seen you mention these sanding films before. Where do you get them? I've checked my Lowe's and local hardware store for even just really fine grit sandpaper and I can't find any.


The sanding films that he mentions are available at hobby shops and through online retailers. Testors makes a small set and Flex-File makes some better ones with multiple grades and grits.

http://www.flex-i-file.com/flex-i-file.php


----------



## harristotle

MartinHatfield said:


> The sanding films that he mentions are available at hobby shops and through online retailers. Testors makes a small set and Flex-File makes some better ones with multiple grades and grits.
> 
> http://www.flex-i-file.com/flex-i-file.php


Awesome, thank you! I've got a model car that's waiting a real fine wet sanding on the final coat for me to move on. It's been in that state for probably almost a year... lol


----------



## Chrisisall

Trekkriffic said:


> What's required is a feat of weathering legerdemain and a degree of intrepidity.


I truly do love it when that line gets quoted (or para-quoted).:thumbsup:


----------



## Proper2

Trekkriffic said:


> IMG_4964 by trekriffic, on Flickr


Very sweet!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Thanks for all the kind words guys!

Spent Saturday working on the starboard nacelle and the other half of the secondary hull. Spent about 4 hours on it then had to break off early for dinner and cards at the in-laws. 

Sunday was spent on the port nacelle and the pylons...

Firstly I applied soot to the grooves behind the bussard collar:


IMG_4976 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Then I removed most of it rubbing with a rag:


IMG_4981 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4982 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The port side of the secondary hull:


IMG_4984 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Nacelles and pylons:


IMG_4985 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The whole ship after sealing with Dullcote:


IMG_4993 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4994 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4999 by trekriffic, on Flickr

So what you see here took me about 9 hours to complete. I could have bought the weathering decals and spent about 5-6 ous applying them but I think the extra time it took to weather using pastels gave the ship a more subtle weathered look than the decals would have; pardon me for saying this, those of you who went the decal route, but, to me, the decals just looked to stark for my taste. 

I'll go back tomorrow with the gel ink pen and accentuate certain streaks on the rest of the ship the way I did on the saucer. 

Then I have to attach the deflector dish assembly, and all the colored dome lights to the upper saucer flashers and the bussard collar tops. And the wee "nipple" to the lower sensor dome of course. 

I also need to see about ordering vinyl masks for the ship's registry and pennants. 

Stay tuned!


----------



## kdaracal

Trekkriffic said:


> Thanks for all the kind words guys!
> 
> Spent Saturday working on the starboard nacelle and the other half of the secondary hull. Spent about 4 hours on it then had to break off early for dinner and cards at the in-laws.
> 
> Sunday was spent on the port nacelle and the pylons...
> 
> Firstly I applied soot to the grooves behind the bussard collar:
> 
> 
> IMG_4976 by trekriffic, on Flickr
> 
> Then I removed most of it rubbing with a rag:
> 
> 
> IMG_4981 by trekriffic, on Flickr
> 
> 
> IMG_4982 by trekriffic, on Flickr
> 
> The port side of the secondary hull:
> 
> 
> IMG_4984 by trekriffic, on Flickr
> 
> Nacelles and pylons:
> 
> 
> IMG_4985 by trekriffic, on Flickr
> 
> The whole ship after sealing with Dullcote:
> 
> 
> IMG_4993 by trekriffic, on Flickr
> 
> 
> IMG_4994 by trekriffic, on Flickr
> 
> 
> IMG_4999 by trekriffic, on Flickr
> 
> So what you see here took me about 9 hours to complete. I could have bought the weathering decals and spent about 5-6 ous applying them but I think the extra time it took to weather using pastels gave the ship a more subtle weathered look than the decals would have; pardon me for saying this, those of you who went the decal route, but, to me, the decals just looked to stark for my taste.
> 
> I'll go back tomorrow with the gel ink pen and accentuate certain streaks on the rest of the ship the way I did on the saucer.
> 
> Then I have to attach the deflector dish assembly, and all the colored dome lights to the upper saucer flashers and the bussard collar tops. And the wee "nipple" to the lower sensor dome of course.
> 
> I also need to see about ordering vinyl masks for the ship's registry and pennants.
> 
> Stay tuned!





> _*There She Is! There She Is!*_


Beautiful and inspiring!


----------



## Nova Mike

The Grand Lady in all her beauty, thanks for sharing


----------



## harristotle

Beautiful work! I love that from a distance the weathering is not overpowering.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Thanks guys! I find it interesting that in bright light the weathering really tends to fade out which somewhat bolsters Ed Miarecki's argument justifying his heavy weathering scheme on the last restoration of the studio model stating that the weathering would wash out under bright studio lights. I say "somewhat" since I still think he went overboard with it; especially on the lower saucer. 
As proof of that I present my own 18 incher which is almost as heavily weathered as the current studio moel and still shows most of the weathering even under bright lights. 
Of course, this may not be entirely fair to Mr Miarecki since my photos were taken with a digital camera and the images seen on old 60's era TV sets of the 11 footer woudl have been nowhere near as clear and sharp.


1701 TOS profile engine detail by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Proper2

Trekkriffic said:


> Thanks guys! I find it interesting that in bright light the weathering really tends to fade out which somewhat bolsters Ed Miarecki's argument justifying his heavy weathering scheme on the last restoration of the studio model stating that the weathering would wash out under bright studio lights. I say "somewhat" since I still think he went overboard with it; especially on the lower saucer.
> As proof of that I present my own 18 incher which is almost as heavily weathered as the current studio moel and still shows most of the weathering even under bright lights.
> Of course, this may not be entirely fair to Mr Miarecki since my photos were taken with a digital camera and the images seen on old 60's era TV sets of the 11 footer woudl have been nowhere near as clear and sharp.


Also, I think studio lights do considerably more "washing out" than you typical digital camera imaging.


----------



## crowe-t

Steve, This looks amazing! It really pays off when time is taken to do all the small details.

BTW, Orbital Drydock also has a set of masks for this ship that seem to be very good quality. The set includes masks for the registry, pennants... I haven't seen the masks in person but did see a review on Youtube by Trekworks.


----------



## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> Steve, This looks amazing! It really pays off when time is taken to do all the small details.
> 
> BTW, Orbital Drydock also has a set of masks for this ship that seem to be very good quality. The set includes masks for the registry, pennants... I haven't seen the masks in person but did see a review on Youtube by Trekworks.


Thanks crowe-t. As a matter of fact I just placed an order for the Orbital Drydock masks today. From everything I've heard, the quality is excellent 
and he uses an adhesive that has just the right amount of adhesion so you don't risk pulling up the underlying paint.

Anyway, moving along, after the last round of weathering using the black gel pen ink I realized I had gone a little overboard and it was a little darker and dirtier than I wanted so, to tone it down and clean it up a bit, I went back in with some of the hull color over the top of the weathering. I had to mix up a new batch of paint though as I had used up the original hull color mix. After some experimentation and mixing of ModelMaster with ACE Shady Cove I was abe to make up a new batch that blended with the original hull color so closely I was amazed at myself. Anyway, I chose not to airbrush it though as I have better control with a brush and I'm very good with a brush. Using a fairly wide, stiff, wedge-shaped brush I dry-brushed the dorsal, secondary hull, pylons, and nacelles. Took about 2 hours but she turned out very nice, much more interesting textures than you'd get with a single shade of unweathered grey. 
Here are the final weathered pics. I suppose you coudl say this is the Grey Lady at the end of her last 5 year mission:


IMG_5011 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5010 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5008 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5004 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5002 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5001 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5000 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Her finish is extremely flat right now but, unless I'm mistaken, the paint masks adhere best to a glossy surface so I have a can of Glosscote standing by. Will need a glossy finish anyway for the decals that I will be using.

Have I said this before? I LOVE THIS SHIP!!!


----------



## Chrisisall

Outstanding. That seems to give it scale...


----------



## crowe-t

Steve, All I can say is WOW!!! It looks terrific. What a difference with the penciled on grid over the smooth saucer. I know I keep saying it but it really looks like the studio model this way. I'm just not a fan of the engraved grid. When I build mine I'll do the same and fill it in.

The hull color, the weathering and the blue support rod fit perfectly together. Very well done so far!

I can't wait to see the registry and pennants painted on. It'll be the first one I've seen done without decals.

Mike.


----------



## SteveR

Lovely weathering, just lovely.


----------



## harristotle

Spectacular job! Can't wait to see the 100% finished product.


----------



## Proper2

Looks beautiful from here! I'm really glad you will be painting rather than decal-ing the rest.


----------



## Trekkriffic

In a hurry up and wait mode at the moment. Sent payment via PayPal for the Orbital Drydock masks a few days ago. No word yet from Brett on when they'll ship. Just chillin'... did find a tiny light leak above the shuttle bay doors last night. Touched up with some paint and it's fixed. I don't think there's anything more I'd want to do on the weathering... ah yes, that blissful state when it meets expectations and one can finally say it's properly weathered....


----------



## Trekkriffic

So yesterda and this morning I worked on the bussards some more...

You can see in this image where the outer bussard dome didn't sit quite flush with the collar:


IMG_4982 by trekriffic, on Flickr

This was due to a couple of factors involving the modifications I'd made to the lighting kit parts resulting in the the spinner domes sitting higher above the floor of the LED lighting tower floor than originally designed. This meant the domes had to sit higher to avoid rubbing up against the inner spinners. So I had a small 1/32" or so gap between the slanted front of the collar and the recessed rim of the outer bussard domes. This also meant the three small "sensors" on the perimeter of each dome were not flush up against the slanted collar either. 

So this bothered me for a long time until finally I did something about it involving AVES Apoxy Sculpt. I mixed up some and packed it into the gaps, smoothing it with my fingers and various sculpting tools while also filling in the tops, backs and sides of the sensors to square them off. Overall I'm really happy with the bussards now. Just need to wait 'til the AVES dries and do a little finish sanding, although the putty is almost smooth enough as is, before touching up with paint and adding back a little of the weathering. 
Here's a pic:


IMG_5012 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Don't mind those putty crumbs in the grooves; I've since picked them out with a dental probe.


----------



## Chrisisall

Trekkriffic said:


> Don't mind those putty crumbs in the grooves; I've since picked them out with a dental probe.


It helps to have surgerical talents in this line of work!:thumbsup:


----------



## Trekkriffic

Almost done touching up the bussards. Still no word from Orbital Drydocks regarding my order for the masks. Have sent 2 emails for status but gotten no reply yet. I realize he may be busy but a simple "Yes. I have your order in process" response would be nice.


----------



## Jafo

you Sir, are an inspiration!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Jafo said:


> you Sir, are an inspiration!


Thanks Jafo!

Heard back from Brett at Orbital Drydrocks. I figured his lack of response before was either from his being ill or on vacation; turns out the poor guy underwent a double root canal last week. He's a bit behind right now but says the masks will ship this week. I'm stoked to say the least!


----------



## Proper2

Trekkriffic said:


> Heard back from Brett at Orbital Drydrocks. I figured his lack of response before was either from his being ill or on vacation; turns out the poor guy underwent a double root canal last week. He's a bit behind right now but says the masks will ship this week. I'm stoked to say the least!


Glad you were able to get to the root of the issue. Badda-ching!


----------



## jgoldsack

Proper2 said:


> Glad you were able to get to the root of the issue. Badda-ching!


That was painful.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> Glad you were able to get to the root of the issue. Badda-ching!


 Ouch!

Poor Brett. 

Kind of ironic though... The mask man meets the masked man...


Dentist in surgical mask and gloves adjusting surgical light, low angle view, close-up, portrait by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Trekkriffic

Went out to the garage this morning and was shocked to see the deflector housing had fallen off the front of the hull and snapped the deflector dish off the support arm bracket! I only had it pressed into place as I plan on gluing it in only after I've done the registry, pennant, etc painting and whatever decaling remains to be done. Fortunately it only fell about a foot or so; I figure it had to have hit the edge of the plastic display base first before landing on the beach towel draped across my workbench. Thank god for the towel as it probably kept the housing from bouncing off the table onto the concrete floor or I'm sure there would have been more damage. As it was, there was no damage done to the lacquer Alclad paint on either part. Lucky! And the break was clean where the vertical part of the bracket met the back of the dish. So I drilled holes into the support arm and the back of the deflector dish and inserted a 5/8" long metal pin (snipped from a length of piano wire) to align them and add strength to the joint. Then I glued the pin and parts together with CA (the thicker Gorilla Glue brand) and set aside to dry. You can't even tell a mishap had occurred and the whole assembly is stronger now than ever. Whew!


----------



## Chrisisall

Great save. Whew is right.


----------



## Fozzie

Trekkriffic said:


> Went out to the garage this morning and was shocked to see the deflector housing had fallen off the front of the hull and snapped the deflector dish off the support arm bracket!


Same thing happened on my build. :-\


----------



## Trekkriffic

Fozzie said:


> Same thing happened on my build. :-


Really? Makes me wonder how many times this has happened to other modellers with this kit.


----------



## Proper2

Trekkriffic said:


> Really? Makes me wonder how many times this has happened to other modellers with this kit.


But you didn't have it glued on, though, right?


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> But you didn't have it glued on, though, right?


No. But I've heard others say they were going to leave it loose with just a press fit so they could access the circuit board in case of any problems with it. I suppose I could rig up something using magnets but I think I'll probably just glue it in using a few drops of CA here and there around the edge. That way, I should still be able to pop it loose if the need ever arose.

If I were to ever build another one on commission that would be one of the questions I'd ask the client, do you want the deflector housing to be left removeable or not? Along with, do you want weathering or not?


----------



## John F

I didn't glue mine in, after 6 months it's never fallen out.


----------



## Trekkriffic

John F said:


> I didn't glue mine in, after 6 months it's never fallen out.


Funny. Mine was snugger to begin with but I've removed and inserted it so many times it's loosened up I guess.

oh... wait.... that doesn't sound right...


----------



## jgoldsack

Trekkriffic said:


> Funny. Mine was snugger to begin with but I've removed and inserted it so many times it's loosened up.


The more you play with it....


----------



## Trekkriffic

jgoldsack said:


> The more you play with it....


Well now that I stuck a metal rod in it it's really stiffened up!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Finished repainting and weathering the bussards where I'd puttied:


IMG_5015 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Oh where, oh where, have my painting masks gone...


IMG_5029 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Oh where, oh where, can they be ?


IMG_5032 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Help me Orbital Drydocks! The Grey Lady is naked without her registration markings!


----------



## RossW

Looks terrific!


----------



## RossW

Trekkriffic said:


> Thanks!
> 
> After posting the photo of my shuttle bay dome I went onto a site with photos taken during the 1991 restoration and found this shot of the disassembled dome:
> 
> 
> Hangar dome by trekriffic, on Flickr
> 
> I noticed something right off and that was the insert was made of what appears to be translucent dark green plastic with three rods of red, amber, and yelow projecting up from it at different heights. Of particular interest to me was the dark green plastic. The Polar Lights kit makes no reference to painting the kit insert dark green on it's face yet I think it's critical to giving the lit dome the greenish tint we saw on the screen. Since I've already jammed the insert in so tight it cannot be pried loose from the dome, I've gone ahead and painted the underside dark green being careful not to paint over the other colors. Once it dries I'll do another light test and we'll see how it looks.


Is it safe to say that the green tinge in the dome is from the green floor being lit from underneath? In other words, we should use clear green on the top surface of the insert?

Should the 'rods' glow red, yellow & amber (i.e. painted with clear colours)?

I think I'll frost the outer dome as you did, Trekkriffic. It might also help to hide the sprue connections which I need to sand a lot to hide.


----------



## Trekkriffic

RossW said:


> Is it safe to say that the green tinge in the dome is from the green floor being lit from underneath? In other words, we should use clear green on the top surface of the insert?
> 
> Should the 'rods' glow red, yellow & amber (i.e. painted with clear colours)?
> 
> I think I'll frost the outer dome as you did, Trekkriffic. It might also help to hide the sprue connections which I need to sand a lot to hide.


Yes. I painted the floor of the insert with clear green. And I painted the rod tips clear red, yellow, and amber. I split the kit's white plastic dome in half due to the insert being too wide and trying to force it but ended up getting a replacement from Round 2 instead of having to use the frosted clear dome seen in this photo:


IMG_4459 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I think the color you see on screen came primarily from the green of the dome insert's floor. 

In my dome it is an aqua green color with the tip of the red rod faintly visible in one corner of the dome. It was the tallest of the three rods; even so, I ended up cutting a little off the tip as I didn't want the red rod butting up hard against the inside of the dome:


IMG_5058 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## RossW

So, did you end up using the white part for the outer dome?


----------



## Trekkriffic

RossW said:


> So, did you end up using the white part for the outer dome?


Yes. Round 2 sent me a replacement for the translucent white shuttle bay dome so I did not need to use the clear dome that I had frosted with Floquil Flat Base before realizing I could order a replacement dome for free. 

Speaking of white domes, if I were to make one recommendation to Round 2, it would have been to include options for clear or translucent white outer bussard domes. White domes would have eliminated the need to frost them and I think they would have looked awesome with the LEDs glowing behind them.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Well I got a notification with a tracking number from the USPS that my Orbital Drydock paint masks shipped today second day delivery so, hopefully, I'll have them on Saturday! :woohoo:


----------



## orbital drydock

Trekkriffic said:


> Well I got a notification with a tracking number from the USPS that my Orbital Drydock paint masks shipped today second day delivery so, hopefully, I'll have them on Saturday! :woohoo:


Confirmed, they are on the way!


----------



## Trekkriffic

orbital drydock said:


> Confirmed, they are on the way!


Man I can hardly wait! But I guess you knew that already eh Brett?


----------



## goose814

I have to say as good as your ship looks, and it does look incredible, it looks so plain and dull without it's markings. It's amazing just how much the numbers and all that red and yellow trim really make the ship sparkle and pop. I can't wait to see her after you've applied all the markings.


----------



## Trekkriffic

goose814 said:


> I have to say as good as your ship looks, and it does look incredible, it looks so plain and dull without it's markings. It's amazing just how much the numbers and all that red and yellow trim really make the ship sparkle and pop. I can't wait to see her after you've applied all the markings.


I totally agree. She looks kinda naked and plain without her markings. Like those ambush pics you see sometimes of beautiful actresses in sweatpants without their makeup. Still pretty but not as glamorous.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Got my paint masks today. They look wonderful! There are even these narrow pinstripe masks for the grooves in the nacelle stern vents, the ones on both sides just in front of the ring in front of the end caps. Now I can mask the grooves and drybrush the ridges with hull color leaving the grooves the darker grey just like the eleven footer.


----------



## Chrisisall

Someone's happy!


----------



## Scotty K

Trekkriffic said:


> Got my paint masks today. They look wonderful! There are even these narrow pinstripe masks for the grooves in the nacelle stern vents, the ones on both sides just in front of the ring in front of the end caps. Now I can mask the grooves and drybrush the ridges with hull color leaving the grooves the darker grey just like the eleven footer.


Well, get busy, man!

Can't wait to see the final product...


----------



## Trekkriffic

Aye Scotty I wouldna wanna disappoint ya so... here goes...

The vinyl masks:


IMG_5067 by trekriffic, on Flickr 

Window masks:


IMG_5068 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Laid out next to the Enterprise on my worktable:


IMG_5086 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The backing was peeled away and the masks rubbed down onto the model which I'd given a shot of Glosscote the night before to help with adhesion. The adhesive Orbital Drydock uses is just right-not too sticky so you can reposition the mask as many times as you need to before burnishing it down with the spudger tool Brett provided. After removijg the transfer film I brushed the edges of the mask with Future to seal the edge and eliminate any chance of paint bleeding under the mask. Probably overkill on my part but it's worked well for me in the past so I figure better safe than sorry:


IMG_5087 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After applying all the ventral masks I finished masking off the rest of the ship using tape and wax paper:


IMG_5088 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I painted using Model Master enamels-Insignia Red, Insignia Yellow, Flat White, Flat Black, and a mix of Gunship Grey and Flat White.

The lower secondary hull after airbrushing the first layer of colors. Brett has provided secondary masks that will go on over the main colored paint in the center for airbrurshing the borders later:


IMG_5096 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The lower saucer after airbrushing:


IMG_5097 by trekriffic, on Flickr

That's it for now. Tomorrow I'll spray the borders around the secondary hull markings then apply the upper saucer masks and the ones on the sides of the nacelles and secondary hull.

This is gonna look sweet! I highly recommend the Orbital Drydock mask set!


----------



## Chrisisall

Too sweet.


----------



## Fernando Mureb

Those masks are *SO* sensational that I just order one from Orbital Drydock on eBay.  :tongue:


----------



## crowe-t

These masks are so sweet! When I get around to building mine this is the way I'll go.

I can't wait to see this one finished with all her registry markings.


----------



## RossW

Not to take anything away from the Orbital Drydock masks, but has anyone tried Lou's (Aztec Dummy)? I got his latest set for painting the registry markings/ship names but I'm a looonnnngggg way from being ready to paint my model.


----------



## Trekkriffic

RossW said:


> Not to take anything away from the Orbital Drydock masks, but has anyone tried Lou's (Aztec Dummy)? I got his latest set for painting the registry markings/ship names but I'm a looonnnngggg way from being ready to paint my model.


I have some of his masks for aztecing a 1/1000 TOS Enterprise but haven't tried them yet. I bought them some years ago. I'd heard that sometimes they stuck to the paint too hard. I've also heard that he recently went with a different adhesive to reduce the chance of sticking and pulling up paint.


----------



## harristotle

Seriously beautiful work, as always! I can't wait to see the results with the masks off. 

Doesn't using the blue painters tape make you nervous? I used that on a model years ago, and it pulled up a bunch of paint. Haven't used it since. To be fair though, that was back before I did washing, priming, and multiple layers of clear coats.


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> Doesn't using the blue painters tape make you nervous? I used that on a model years ago, and it pulled up a bunch of paint. Haven't used it since. To be fair though, that was back before I did washing, priming, and multiple layers of clear coats.


Yes. Out of fear of same I stropped the tape across my bluejeans before applying it to remove some of the tackiness. This model has so many layers of paint and clearcoats I don't think it would be a problem though. Conversely, I think if I had painted her with acrylics, I would have been much more cautious about using blue painter's tape stropped or not. 
Good call though.


----------



## Chrisisall

Trekkriffic said:


> Yes. Out of fear of same I stropped the tape across my bluejeans before applying it to remove some of the tackiness.


Ahhh, the time-honoured pants-trick!:thumbsup:


----------



## jgoldsack

That is awesome. Love those masks. I definitely will have to get me a set when I do mine.

The lady is no longer naked!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Pulled the masks off. Wow! 

The edges were very clean; just a few tiny spots here and there where the border paint flaked off but nothing major and certainly no fault of the masks. There was no issue with vinyl adhesive pulling up the paint where the masks were applied. Best of all- NO PAINT BLEED! 
Gave everythingg a quick going over with 1000-2000 grit sanding films. 
Then did a little touchup in some spots with a fine liner brush.

I used the decals for the "landing gear" triangles on the saucer rather than the masks. The way the lighter grey in the center fades into the darker grey around the border would be hard to do as well in paint I figured so on they went. 
Looking at them afterward, they seemed a tad too light a shade of gray so, as they were dry from being applied last night, I gave them a quick shot of Dullcote and went in with a little of the "soot" pastel chalks. I worked it around inside the triangles with a cotton swab and microbrush then rubbed with a rag. Then I sealed the pastel with Dullcote. The shade looks just right to my eye now-they even have a little weathered texture to them to match the rest of the ship. 

I'll finish weathering the markings on the lower secondary hull (they got a shot of Dullcote too) and post some pics at lunch. 

I'm very pleased with how the markings have turned out so far. 

Cudos to Orbital Drydock! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

P.S. Of course, it helps to know what you're doing. 
Luckily I read the illustrated instructions Brett provided and watched all his videos beforehand so I was pretty clear on the concept. Still, this was my first time using vinyl masks and I have to say no one should have a problem if they go slow and follow the directions.


----------



## jgoldsack

suspense is killin!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Pics...

Yesterday evening after applying the secondary masks and airbrushing the border colors:


IMG_5098 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Unveiling the Grey Lady's bottom side:


IMG_5102 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5101 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5100 by trekriffic, on Flickr

On to the upper surfaces and sides!


----------



## jgoldsack

wow.

That looks great


----------



## Chrisisall

*THAT'S* what I'm talkin' 'bout, baby!


----------



## harristotle

WOW! Love it, everything is coming out awesome :thumbsup:


----------



## barrydancer

Looks great. I'd love a set of registry/marking masks for the Refit, if you're into extra work, Brett. lol


----------



## harristotle

So, one question just came to mind. Why did you weather before you painted the markings on it?


----------



## Trekkriffic

barrydancer said:


> Looks great. I'd love a set of registry/marking masks for the Refit, if you're into extra work, Brett. lol


He has those! He has everything-registry/markings and aztec masks.


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> So, one question just came to mind. Why did you weather before you painted the markings on it?


No reason really. Most of the markings are dark red or black so weathering doesn't show up much. I'm actually going back now and adding weathering to some of the markings like the ones on the underside of the secondary hull. Just a light bit of weathering to spice things up so to speak.


----------



## barrydancer

Trekkriffic said:


> He has those! He has everything-registry/markings and aztec masks.


MUST FIND! There's one set for the registry number on the upper saucer included in the full aztec set I got from him for the refit. I would love to be able to paint on the registry for the nacelles, lower saucer, etc.


----------



## Trekkriffic

barrydancer said:


> MUST FIND! There's one set for the registry number on the upper saucer included in the full aztec set I got from him for the refit. I would love to be able to paint on the registry for the nacelles, lower saucer, etc.


I have the same set.i don't think there's one with all those tiny registries. The letters would be awfully small.


----------



## Gregatron

Gorgeous.


We all owe ya one, Trekriffic--this thread and this model are shaping up as an excellent "how-to" for the kit. One of the best builds I've seen, thus far!


So, how do you feel about the results of the paint masks? Any paint bleed? Are the markings crisp? How do they compare to the decals?


----------



## Trekkriffic

Gregatron said:


> Gorgeous.
> 
> 
> We all owe ya one, Trekriffic--this thread and this model are shaping up as an excellent "how-to" for the kit. One of the best builds I've seen, thus far!
> 
> 
> So, how do you feel about the results of the paint masks? Any paint bleed? Are the markings crisp? How do they compare to the decals?


No bleed so long as you make sure they are pressed down firmly. The edges are crisp and clean. Best of al, no silvering issues.

Almost done with the starboard nacelle pennant. Just need to paint the little boomerang shaped thingy. I underpainted it with flat white before I apply the yellow. Have to wait for the white to dry now.


----------



## RossW

Can you please point us to the YouTube instructional videos? I'm using Aztec Dummy's masks for the registries but I've never used vinyl before.


----------



## Trekkriffic

RossW said:


> Can you please point us to the YouTube instructional videos? I'm using Aztec Dummy's masks for the registries but I've never used vinyl before.


Here you go. This is the Orbital Drydock video he did for applying the Refit aztec masks. 






And here's one by Trekworks about what not to do with Aztec Dummy masks:






The Orbital Drydocks set I received already had the transfer film attached so all I needed to do was peel away the backing, position the masks, burnish using the tool provided, then peel away the transfer film. The Orbital Drydock masks seem to have just the right amount and strength of adhesive. I placed them on lightly at first to position them before really burnishing them down. You can reposition them as many times as you need with the adhesives Brett uses before burnishing. After pulling off the transfer film I inspected the vinyl for any loose spots along the edges to be sure it was tamped down nice and tight and gently burnish any remaining suspicious areas down with the edge of my fingernail. One thing he doesn't mention is surface preparation other than stating the surface should be clean. For my build, I sprayed the surface with Glosscote before masking as it just seems to me adhesives stick better to a glossy rather than a flat finish. I also brushed on some Future which flows under any loose spots to prevent bleed but there really weren't any of those I was concerned about. Using Future was more of a safety blanket thing for me I think.

Regarding the Aztec Dummy masks, Trekworks advises not to leave them on for very long or you risk the masks bonding so tight to the underlying paint that the paint pulls up when the masks are removed. I also saw this occur on a video Steve Neill posted on his Flying Sub build when he had left the masks on overnight. To be fair, since this and Steve's video were made I have heard that Aztec Dummy is using a new, less powerful adhesive (possibly to address this issue) so you may not have to worry about this problem if you have a new set of masks.


----------



## orbital drydock

Trekkriffic said:


> Here you go. This is the Orbital Drydock video he did for applying the Refit aztec masks.
> 
> 
> Regarding the Aztec Dummy masks, Trekworks advises not to leave them on for very long or you risk the masks bonding so tight to the underlying paint that the paint pulls up when the masks are removed. I also saw this occur on a video Steve Neill posted on his Flying Sub build when he had left the masks on overnight. To be fair, since this and Steve's video were made I have heard that Aztec Dummy is using a new, less powerful adhesive (possibly to address this issue) so you may not have to worry about this problem if you have a new set of masks.


Be careful, if you use transfer tape & my method on another set beside mine, you may have some issues. My method is tailored for the low tack material I use.

Man, Steve this looks awesome!


----------



## Griffworks

If I say "I hate you!", I'd like you to realize that it's only 'cause I'm jealous. 




Awesome work!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Griffworks said:


> If I say "I hate you!", I'd like you to realize that it's only 'cause I'm jealous.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Awesome work!


Dude, I feel the same way when I look at your Battlestar Galactica models.


----------



## RossW

Trekkriffic said:


> Here you go. This is the Orbital Drydock video he did for applying the Refit aztec masks.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z5pbyGM8w4
> 
> And here's one by Trekworks about what not to do with Aztec Dummy masks:
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J6GXa5Yfxk
> 
> The Orbital Drydocks set I received already had the transfer film attached so all I needed to do was peel away the backing, position the masks, burnish using the tool provided, then peel away the transfer film. The Orbital Drydock masks seem to have just the right amount and strength of adhesive. I placed them on lightly at first to position them before really burnishing them down. You can reposition them as many times as you need with the adhesives Brett uses before burnishing. After pulling off the transfer film I inspected the vinyl for any loose spots along the edges to be sure it was tamped down nice and tight and gently burnish any remaining suspicious areas down with the edge of my fingernail. One thing he doesn't mention is surface preparation other than stating the surface should be clean. For my build, I sprayed the surface with Glosscote before masking as it just seems to me adhesives stick better to a glossy rather than a flat finish. I also brushed on some Future which flows under any loose spots to prevent bleed but there really weren't any of those I was concerned about. Using Future was more of a safety blanket thing for me I think.
> 
> Regarding the Aztec Dummy masks, Trekworks advises not to leave them on for very long or you risk the masks bonding so tight to the underlying paint that the paint pulls up when the masks are removed. I also saw this occur on a video Steve Neill posted on his Flying Sub build when he had left the masks on overnight. To be fair, since this and Steve's video were made I have heard that Aztec Dummy is using a new, less powerful adhesive (possibly to address this issue) so you may not have to worry about this problem if you have a new set of masks.


Thanks!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Starboard nacelle pennant masked:


IMG_5105 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After secondary mask for the yellow thingy was applied and painted:


IMG_5106 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Mask removed:


IMG_5107 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Secondary hull pennant masked and painted red using a brush:


IMG_5108 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Proper2

Trekkriffic said:


> Mask removed:
> 
> 
> IMG_5107 by trekriffic, on Flickr
> w.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/9682843772/]IMG_5108[/url] by trekriffic, on Flickr


Beautiful! 

Curious as to why you airbrushed for nacelle graphics but used an old-fashioned brush for the hull....


----------



## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> Beautiful!
> 
> Curious as to why you airbrushed for nacelle graphics but used an old-fashioned brush for the hull....


Got tired of all that wax paper masking!

Seriously I'll go back now and do a light pass with the airbrush. I thought it would work using a brush with thinned paint but you can still see faint brushstrokes which won't do.


----------



## Chrisisall

Trekkriffic said:


> Best of al, no silvering issues.


I will walk through molten magma to avoid silvering.:tongue:


----------



## Trekkriffic

Chrisisall said:


> I will walk through molten magma to avoid silvering.:tongue:


Yes. I have silver in my hair but I can't take it on a model.

Proper, you'll be glad to know I airbrushed the secondary hull pennant. 5 minutes to mask, 5 seconds to airbrush, and 5 minutes to clean up afterwards. God I love it though!


----------



## Gregatron

That looks slick, man! Glad I have a set of the Orbital Drydock masks already stashed away.


I get the feeling you're doing what I do--whenever I'm decaling, I save the big name/number on the top saucer for last.


----------



## MLCrisis32

WOW this is looking FANTASTIC! The painted details looks so much more natural than decals. Great job.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Gregatron said:


> That looks slick, man! Glad I have a set of the Orbital Drydock masks already stashed away.
> 
> 
> I get the feeling you're doing what I do--whenever I'm decaling, I save the big name/number on the top saucer for last.


Yeah... I didn't plan to do the top of the saucer name/number last but that's kind of the way it's looking I guess. That's the biggie to get lined up right although I'm quite pleased with the alignment and straightness I achieved with the nacelle pennants. Thankfully there's just enough of the gridlines showing to assist me with positioning the masks correctly.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Today's progress...

Tamiya tape is applied over the seams between the secondary masks and the the primary masks on each side of the "boomerang" thingy on the nacelle and secondary hull pennants to prevent bleed. This is covered in Brett's instructions:


IMG_5109 by trekriffic, on Flickr

White enamel is brushed on as an undercoat prior to airbrushing with insignia yellow:


IMG_5110 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Portside pennants finished and unmasked:


IMG_5112 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Moving onto the spine pinstripes I cut out the kit decal, which was the same length as the mask, and used it as a template to mark the locations of the three lights:


IMG_5113 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Here the hole locations have been transferred from the decal to the mask film using an ink pen:


IMG_5114 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I used a sharp exacto knife to cut cross-hatches over the hole locations and applied the mask to the spine using my old spudger tool to tamp it down. Then I brushed on some Future, waited a few minutes, and tamped it down some more. A little of the Future flowed under the edges to seal the mask and help stick it down tighter:


IMG_5116 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5117 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After painting the mask was removed. The stripes were clean and uniform. I was very pleased to say the least:


IMG_5120 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Chrisisall

Tally Ho!


----------



## Trekkriffic

The other pinstripes on the saucer were masked and painted. This was a bit tricky as you need to trim the mask to fit around the accelerator in the back and the base of B-C deck in front. Some re-masking with Tamiya tape and touchup with a brush was required but in the end I was happy with the results:


IMG_5119 by trekriffic, on Flickr

That's it for now. Tomorrow I hope to finish the upper saucer and that should do it for the painting masks. Then I'll work on the remaining small decals. 

Thank you my fellow modellers and modelling enthusiasts for all your support and comments!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Chrisisall said:


> Tally Ho!


*Oh now that's just MARVELOUS! I couldn't have said it better myself!*


Trelane by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Chrisisall

That put a big ole' smile on my face!:thumbsup:


----------



## crowe-t

Trek, This is awesome! The painted registries and markings look perfect.

BTW, did Orbital Drydock's mask set have suggestions for the paint colors or did you just match them to pictures and the kit's decals?


----------



## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> Trek, This is awesome! The painted registries and markings look perfect.
> 
> BTW, did Orbital Drydock's mask set have suggestions for the paint colors or did you just match them to pictures and the kit's decals?


I took a shot on insignia red and insignia yellow being the right colors and they appeared to be a good match to the decals. I went with flat black and flat white which was a no brainer really. The interior color of the underside marking behind the yellow circle is light ghost grey with a mix of black and neutral grey for the border; I referred to the decal colors to match the colors as close as possible. I have to paint the borders of the access panels on the rear of the saucer if that's what those are. They look to be a greenish grey color so will be a custom mix. 

On another note, I just noticed if you expand the last photo of the saucer rear area like I did on my iTouch just now you can make out the faint grid lines. How cool is that ?!


----------



## orbital drydock

Trekkriffic said:


> I took a shot on insignia red and insignia yellow being the right colors and they appeared to be a good match to the decals. I went with flat black and flat white which was a no brainer really. The interior color of the underside marking behind the yellow circle is light ghost grey with a mix of black and neutral grey for the border; I referred to the decal colors to match the colors as close as possible. I have to paint the borders of the access panels on the rear of the saucer if that's what those are. They look to be a greenish grey color so will be a custom mix.
> 
> On another note, I just noticed if you expand the last photo of the saucer rear area like I did on my iTouch just now you can make out the faint grid lines. How cool is that ?!



Insignia Red & Yellow is what I used as well, with desaturated & darkened neutral gray.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Now for the upper saucer... today's progress...

Was gonna be about 90 degrees out in the garage with a hot car next to me later so I was movin' and shakin' in the mornin'... 

I decided to work on the big name and registry first so laid down the masks for both. The bottom of the name needed to align with the top corner of the N and 1 below them. I aligned them with a soft ruler:


IMG_5122 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I had one corner on the N that tore a little so I covered it with Tamiya tape. The first 1 was strangely fatter towards the top than the bottom, maybe I streched it out with all the positioning and re-positioning I did to get it aligned properly with the almost invisible gridlines. Regardless, after failing to fix it by peeling up and repositioning the vinyl I laid a narrow strip of scrap vinyl mask down and covered the seam with Tamiya tape:


IMG_5123 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Name and registry masked off:


IMG_5124 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After a shot of flat black I pulled up the masks. Some of the paint pulled away in places and I needed to fix the letters with a brush. Here you see where I masked the spots to be retouched:


IMG_5125 by trekriffic, on Flickr

After retouching. Not bad...


IMG_5126 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I mixed some olive drab, white, yellow, and pale green to paint the panels on either side of the accelerator. I got a pretty close match to the decal I think:


IMG_5127 by trekriffic, on Flickr

All I have left to mask and paint at this point is the red border around the yellow panel on top of B-C Deck. That will have to wait until tomorrow when the yellow paint will be fully dry.


----------



## Chrisisall

Great....


----------



## harristotle

How many times can I say this is amazing without sounding like a broken record? lol but seriously, it just keeps getting better.


----------



## jgoldsack

That is looking awesome.


----------



## crowe-t

Fantastic!


----------



## MartinHatfield

Your fantastic build has convinced me of many things in tackling my build! And now I am convinced to purchase the masking set for the registries and such as well. I will be ordering my set this coming week!!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Thanks guys! These masks are fantastic! 

Here are some bright sunlight garage pics to hold you guys over until I can get set up and take the better ones with my backdrops and "studio" lights...


Look Spock... no silvering with mask-o-mania!


IMG_5128 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5131 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5132 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5133 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5134 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5135 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5136 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Oh and did I mention there will be some pics at a later date with the 1/350 Botany Bay alongside? My client bought me one as part of my fee for building him one! I "Khan" hardly wait to show them both together. :thumbsup:


----------



## Chrisisall

Awesome... just... amazing...


----------



## Proper2

Just fantabulous! I particularly like IMG 5135! Looks like the real gal! All that's missing is that "twinkling" type music when they come back from a commercial break and they show her coming at ya!


----------



## Gregatron

"Glorious...Glorious!"

- "Now, we go home."


----------



## Gregatron

Proper2 said:


> Just fantabulous! I particularly like IMG 5135! Looks like the real gal! All that's missing is that "twinkling" type music when they come back from a commercial break and they show her coming at ya!



That's what I'm planning for mine!


----------



## crowe-t

WOW, This is freakin' BEAUTIFUL!!!


----------



## RossW

For the markings with borders, how hard was it to position the other colour mask and get everything lined up?


----------



## J_Indy

Somebody didn't bring his "A Game" to this build......











He brought his "A+ Game"....


----------



## Trekkriffic

RossW said:


> For the markings with borders, how hard was it to position the other colour mask and get everything lined up?


Not particularly hard. The primary mask is sized so the secondary mask, which is comprised of separate border and center section masks, fits inside it. So, as an example, for the yellow circle with red border on the bottom you rub down the primary mask, spray the yellow color, let dry, lay the secondary mask on the transfer film inside the borders of the primary mask, rub it down, peel off the transfer film, then peel off the narrow border strip leaving the center mask behind, then spray (or brush) the red border.


----------



## MLCrisis32

Abso-freaking-loutly beautiful work! If people made stencils for every Trek ship on the market I'd buy them from what I'm seeing in your final results.


----------



## orbital drydock

MLCrisis32 said:


> Abso-freaking-loutly beautiful work! If people made stencils for every Trek ship on the market I'd buy them from what I'm seeing in your final results.


Keep your eyes open, I'm barely getting started!

Gorgeous Steve, simply gorgeous!


----------



## Prowler901

That's just so beautiful, man! :thumbsup:


----------



## Gary7

Awesome. What I also now see is that the original molded grid lines stick out like a sore thumb.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Gary7 said:


> Awesome. What I also now see is that the original molded grid lines stick out like a sore thumb.


To me, whether or not to keep the molded incised gridlines is a matter of personal taste. If however, your goal is to replicate the on screen look of the studio model, then, I think, they have to go. The thing I'm especially pleased with on this model is the subtlety you can get using a hard 2H pencil. From a distance they are invisible yet you can just make them out if you increase the resolution of the photos. As far as being out of scale they are still fine enough that they look very much like the pencil lines on the original.


----------



## RossW

Where did you get the Orbital Drydock vinyl masks?


----------



## MartinHatfield

RossW said:


> Where did you get the Orbital Drydock vinyl masks?


Check ebay

http://www.ebay.com/sch/orbital_drydock/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=


----------



## Trekkriffic

MartinHatfield said:


> Check ebay
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/sch/orbital_drydock/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=


Yes. You can use eBay or contact Brett directly. He said he actually prefers taking driect orders since then he doesn't have to pay a middle man. 

Here's the email address: 

*ADDRESS REMOVED BY REQUEST*

The complete set with aztec masks for doing the remastered version is $59.00. The set without the aztecs, the one I got, is $29.00. 

He only takes payments from PayPal. If you want to order direct from him send him an email with your address and the set you want and he'll send you an invoice for the masks (with shipping) from PayPal for you to process your payment.


----------



## jgoldsack

Trekkriffic said:


> Yes. You can use eBay or contact Brett directly. He said he actually prefers taking driect orders since then he doesn't have to pay a middle man.
> 
> Here's the email address:
> 
> *ADDRESS REMOVED BY REQUEST*
> 
> The complete set with aztec masks for doing the remastered version is $59.00. The set without the aztecs, the one I got, is $29.00.
> 
> He only takes payments from PayPal. If you want to order direct from him send him an email with your address and the set you want and he'll send you an invoice for the masks (with shipping) from PayPal for you to process your payment.


That is so affordable... and seeing the results ... I must have.. (plus 2x the refit versions)


----------



## RossW

Trekkriffic said:


> Yes. You can use eBay or contact Brett directly. He said he actually prefers taking driect orders since then he doesn't have to pay a middle man.
> 
> Here's the email address:
> 
> *ADDRESS REMOVED BY REQUEST*
> 
> The complete set with aztec masks for doing the remastered version is $59.00. The set without the aztecs, the one I got, is $29.00.
> 
> He only takes payments from PayPal. If you want to order direct from him send him an email with your address and the set you want and he'll send you an invoice for the masks (with shipping) from PayPal for you to process your payment.


Thanks!


----------



## orbital drydock

Trekkriffic said:


> Yes. You can use eBay or contact Brett directly. He said he actually prefers taking driect orders since then he doesn't have to pay a middle man.
> 
> Here's the email address:
> 
> *ADDRESS REMOVED BY REQUEST*
> 
> The complete set with aztec masks for doing the remastered version is $59.00. The set without the aztecs, the one I got, is $29.00.
> 
> He only takes payments from PayPal. If you want to order direct from him send him an email with your address and the set you want and he'll send you an invoice for the masks (with shipping) from PayPal for you to process your payment.


Hi folks,
I'm only taking orders through ebay right now. It's getting to be a bit much keeping track of orders across 5 forums.
Here's my ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/orbital_drydock/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=


----------



## Trekkriffic

orbital drydock said:


> Hi folks,
> I'm only taking orders through ebay right now. It's getting to be a bit much keeping track of orders across 5 forums.
> Here's my ebay:
> http://www.ebay.com/sch/orbital_drydock/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=


Oops! Sorry man!


----------



## orbital drydock

Trekkriffic said:


> Oops! Sorry man!


No worries, I just changed that recently.


----------



## Trekkriffic

One of the members over on the RPF made this image. Pretty cool I thought ...


Enterprise Beauty Shot by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## RossW

orbital drydock said:


> Hi folks,
> I'm only taking orders through ebay right now. It's getting to be a bit much keeping track of orders across 5 forums.
> Here's my ebay:
> http://www.ebay.com/sch/orbital_drydock/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=


Please ignore my email request from earlier this afternoon - I just ordered your set from eBay.


----------



## crowe-t

Trekkriffic said:


> One of the members over on the RPF made this image. Pretty cool I thought ...
> 
> 
> Enterprise Beauty Shot by trekriffic, on Flickr


It looks just like it's from an episode!!! :thumbsup:

Your build is the first one I've seen completed with the saucer grid removed and the registries painted on. This has been a pleasure to follow and is now a pleasure looking at the completed pictures.

This is the best I've seen this kit built.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Thanks crowe-t! 

Here's another image my friend did of the Enterprise over a terraformed Mars. This time he added lights!


Vist to New Mars by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Prowler901

Freakin' beautiful work, Steve. One of my favorite builds so far. :thumbsup:


----------



## SteveR

I like how it has MASS!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Prowler901 said:


> Freakin' beautiful work, Steve. One of my favorite builds so far. :thumbsup:


Oh man... you guys make me blush... thanks a lot!


----------



## Trekkriffic

SteveR said:


> I like how it has MASS!


Yeah, it does doesn't it? 

Wait'll you see the next round of pics with the lights on. I also want to make a short video. Maybe make two and have one set to music if I can figure out how to edit it.


----------



## jgoldsack

Seeing this build really makes me want to get to mine... but must finish my "D" first... desire to rush it overwhelming... must.. not.. give... in...


----------



## Nova Mike

Beautiful just beautiful, thanks for taking us along your trek :thumbsup:


----------



## kdaracal

Ditto on all these comments!


----------



## Wattanasiri

orbital drydock said:


> Hi folks,
> I'm only taking orders through ebay right now. It's getting to be a bit much keeping track of orders across 5 forums.
> Here's my ebay:
> http://www.ebay.com/sch/orbital_drydock/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=


I have ordered Orbital Drydock products from ebay. The service was excellent and my orders were shipped to me very quickly.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Here she is... here she IS!


IMG_5193 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5188 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5225 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5203 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5206 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5211 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The Trouble with Tribbles...


The Trouble with Tribbles by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Chrisisall

I will have her!

Or my own. I hope it's as good.

Awesome, Trek.


----------



## crowe-t

Excellent!!! :thumbsup:

This keeps getting better and better. You should be very proud of this one.


----------



## Fernando Mureb

And at the end of an epic like this, how do you feel about have finished the job?  Just curious.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Fernando Mureb said:


> And at the end of an epic like this, how do you feel about have finished the job?  Just curious.


I'm pretty happy construction is done actually. I still have some more pics to take of it, some green screens, some more space pics, maybe a few in black and white. I want to do a video with some TOS music dubbed in. I'm also working on the 1/350 Botany Bay right now and when that's done I'll take some pics of it posed next to the Enterprise. So the adventure continues awhile longer.


----------



## Prowler901

WOW!!! Super job, Steve! :thumbsup:

I must get the painting masks. They just complete the model to perfection.


----------



## Nova Designs

I'm... in love!


----------



## harristotle

So beautiful! You inspire me good Sir! 

Have you built a 350th refit yet?


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> So beautiful! You inspire me good Sir!
> 
> Have you built a 350th refit yet?


Not yet but I have one. I can't decide whether to use the aztec decals I got from Acreation models (they are quite beautiful) or do the aztec in paint since I now have the refit aztec paint masks from Orbital Drydock too.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Here are a few low light pics I took yesterday...


IMG_5233 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5231 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Even lower light...


IMG_5235 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5236 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5240 by trekriffic, on Flickr

The neighbor girl next door has a boyfriend who is apparently a big Star Trek fan. He's a photography buff too and has a wide angle lens among others. She asked if he could see my collection of models and I said sure but only if he brings his camera. I want to get that famous bow on shot with the saucer in wide angle.


----------



## WEAPON X

Simply Beautiful! :thumbsup:

~Ben G. :wave:


----------



## harristotle

Trekkriffic said:


> Not yet but I have one. I can't decide whether to use the aztec decals I got from Acreation models (they are quite beautiful) or do the aztec in paint since I now have the refit aztec paint masks from Orbital Drydock too.


You've gotta paint that! I can't wait to watch that build, one of my all time favorite Trek ships :thumbsup:


----------



## Fernando Mureb

I am very envy, but it is a good envy, you know. :wave:


----------



## Trekkriffic

I really like this image. Mainly because I caught the running lights flashing...


IMG_5224 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## Chrisisall

So pretty.


----------



## crowe-t

Pretty freakin' awesome! :thumbsup:


----------



## whiskeyrat

4th image from the top, first set of images...my favorite. Hope mine turns out half as good!


----------



## J_Indy

This is a great build, but I had an odd feeling when looking at the classic wide-angle 3/4 front image of the big E, so I had to go look at my own 1/350 to check.

The saucer edge near the top should have 4 square windows and a round window at the far right.

When looking at my saucer, the right-most round port that is supposed to be there is almost obscured from some plastic running into it. I would have to drill out the hole to restore it.

I think you can just drill it and use some micro-crystal-clear if you wanted to.


----------



## jgoldsack

J_Indy said:


> This is a great build, but I had an odd feeling when looking at the classic wide-angle 3/4 front image of the big E, so I had to go look at my own 1/350 to check.
> 
> The saucer edge near the top should have 4 square windows and a round window at the far right.
> 
> When looking at my saucer, the right-most round port that is supposed to be there is almost obscured from some plastic running into it. I would have to drill out the hole to restore it.
> 
> I think you can just drill it and use some micro-crystal-clear if you wanted to.


http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/The-Enterprise-star-trek-540356_1000_807.jpg

You are correct!

it also looks like (on the kit) it is not alights exactly correct either, which is why it is messed up.


----------



## Prologic9

The window is there, it's just not getting much light.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Prologic9 said:


> The window is there, it's just not getting much light.


The window is shown here on the studio model:


image47 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I'm at work but when I get home I'll take a closer look to see what's going on. I have a hunch the window is there but not getting much light. I so, I may drill it out and insert a length of clear acrylic rod long enough to catch the light better.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Actually, looking at some of my earlier pics confirmed the window is there. In my case, it looks like I may have puttied over it with PPP, at least that's the way it looks in one of the pics where I was working on the saucer rim seam. If so I may just need to carefully pick out the putty to expose the window.


----------



## Trekkriffic

I fixed those two round windows on both sides of the saucer. They were there but lit very dimly so I drilled 1/16" diameter holes and inserted two 2 inch clear acrylic rods with ends polished with a fine grit sanding stick. I also enlarged the holes around the other two round windows in the lower row of the same set of widows to match the diameter of the new windows. Micro Krystal Klear was used to glue them in. They light up nice now. Once I've finished the Botany Bay build I'll be taking some new pics.

Thanks J Indy for catching this!


----------



## Chrisisall

Wow, I actually got that bit correct when I repainted my Diamond Select TOS E!
*pats self on back*


----------



## crowe-t

That was a great catch by J Indy! I'm looking forward to the new pictures.


----------



## J_Indy

Trekkriffic said:


> I fixed those two round windows on both sides of the saucer. They were there but lit very dimly so I drilled 1/16" diameter holes and inserted two 2 inch clear acrylic rods with ends polished with a fine grit sanding stick. I also enlarged the holes around the other two round windows in the lower row of the same set of widows to match the diameter of the new windows. Micro Krystal Klear was used to glue them in. They light up nice now. Once I've finished the Botany Bay build I'll be taking some new pics.
> 
> Thanks J Indy for catching this!


You built a phenomenal Big E - so accurate (and with extras) that it is a great standard to use for comparison on my own eventual build.


----------



## Trekkriffic

J_Indy said:


> You built a phenomenal Big E - so accurate (and with extras) that it is a great standard to use for comparison on my own eventual build.


Well thank you for helping me make it a little bit better! :thumbsup:


IMG_5415 by trekriffic, on Flickr


----------



## crowe-t

Now it's perfect!:thumbsup: And I didn't think this one could get any better.

Steve, you did an exceptional job on this. It's the best I've seen.


----------



## Trekkriffic

crowe-t said:


> Now it's perfect!:thumbsup: And I didn't think this one could get any better.
> 
> Steve, you did an exceptional job on this. It's the best I've seen.


Thank you sir. Once the BB is finished I'll be making some videos.


----------



## Chrisisall

IMG_5415 by trekriffic, on Flickr
Awesomely awesome.


----------



## starmanmm

The work you have done here is unbelievable!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Thanks a lot guys! I just realized I never did take any pics against a neutral backdrop with my lights set up. Might do that at lunch today.


----------



## stowe

What a fantastic build and thread! Your thread has given me the "Kick-in-the-rear" I needed to start my own build. I'm normally a Model Railroader, but I've wanted to build a "Good" kit of the Big "E" for almost 30 years! I plan on having the Production model (at the end of the 5 year mission) and place it next to the Refit.

Thanks again for sharing and providing the Kick needed!


----------



## 1966TVBATMOBILE




----------



## Trekkriffic

1966TVBATMOBILE said:


>


Cool! Glad you guys like my build!


----------



## Chuck_P.R.

Trekkriffic said:


> . . .
> 
> I wanted the blades to be more visible underneath the translucent domes so I used adhesive backed foil strips to cover the PE blades I'd painted with Testors aluminum previously. I also used foil on the center hub:
> 
> 
> IMG_4540 by trekriffic, on Flickr
> [/url]



Where did you get the adhesive backed foil, Trekkriffic?

Inquiring minds wanna know!


----------



## Chuck_P.R.

Chuck_P.R. said:


> Where did you get the adhesive backed foil, Trekkriffic?
> 
> Inquiring minds wanna know!


Oh, and where did you get the PEtched strips too, please?


----------



## harristotle

Chuck_P.R. said:


> Oh, and where did you get the PEtched strips too, please?


I don't know if this is what Trekkriffic used, but there's stuff out there called bare metal foil. Model car guys use it to do chrome work, but it has lots of uses in the model realm.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Chuck_P.R. said:


> Where did you get the adhesive backed foil, Trekkriffic?
> 
> Inquiring minds wanna know!


My local hobby store carries it. He sells it in long sheets 5 inches wide and 3 feet long. I called the store just now and he said it's called Monokote Trim Sheet. 

I googled it and found it on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Top-Flite-Mon...&qid=1384208241&sr=8-3&keywords=monokote+trim


----------



## Trekkriffic

Chuck_P.R. said:


> Oh, and where did you get the PEtched strips too, please?


Those were included in the ParaGrafix PE set.


----------



## Trekkriffic

harristotle said:


> I don't know if this is what Trekkriffic used, but there's stuff out there called bare metal foil. Model car guys use it to do chrome work, but it has lots of uses in the model realm.


It's much like that except it comes with an adhesive. You just trim to size, peel it off the backing paper, and stick it down.


----------



## 1966TVBATMOBILE

Trekkriffic said:


> Cool! Glad you guys like my build!


I do. Can you tell? LoL


----------



## Trekkriffic

Took some new pics from different angles for you guys...


IMG_5802 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5762 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5799 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5790 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5782 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I've got more to post tomorrow.


----------



## Dr. Brad

This is just .... stunning (no pun intended). Absolutely gorgeous!


----------



## Chuck_P.R.

Chuck_P.R. said:


> Where did you get the adhesive backed foil, Trekkriffic?
> 
> Inquiring minds wanna know!






Trekkriffic said:


> My local hobby store carries it. He sells it in long sheets 5 inches wide and 3 feet long. I called the store just now and he said it's called Monokote Trim Sheet.
> 
> I googled it and found it on Amazon:
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Top-Flite-Mon...&qid=1384208241&sr=8-3&keywords=monokote+trim





Chuck_P.R. said:


> Oh, and where did you get the PEtched strips too, please?







Trekkriffic said:


> Those were included in the ParaGrafix PE set.


Cool!

Thanks a million once again Trekkriffic! :thumbsup:

I'm guessing they are just done as strips on the 1/350th Paragrafix set?

I was researching parts to improve the Revell Germany 1/600th TOS Enterprise, and saw Paulbo's great PEtch set for that:

http://www.paragrafix.biz/product_detail.asp?PPartNum=PGX157

and it was configured in one piece and easily recognizable, but of 
course it is a way smaller scale and not designed to be placed on
a spinning piece I don't believe(though I'm sure it could be cut for
that purpose if one wanted to place a motor in the Revell 1/600th).


----------



## 1966TVBATMOBILE

The end result is very very nice.


----------



## Trekkriffic

Thanks a lot!


----------



## Trekkriffic

Chuck_P.R. said:


> I'm guessing they are just done as strips on the 1/350th Paragrafix set?





The blades are separate strips on the ParaGrafix sheet:


IMG_4068 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I heated them up to soften them so they lost their springiness then painted them with Testors aluminum before gluing them into the slots on the spinner with CA:


IMG_4079 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4080 by trekriffic, on Flickr

I coated the outside of the spinner with Future acrylic floorwax to seal everything. Probably not really necessary but I also wanted the blades to be a bit shinier:


IMG_4082 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_4084 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Adding the aluminum tape was a decision I arrived at only after gluing on the PE strips and seeing how the bussards looked with the spinner behind the outer dome after having used Floquil Flat Base to frost the inside of the outer dome. The blades just painted aluminum were a little too dark when backlit and lacked the reflectance I was looking for. The PE discs in the center were added later once I located them-I'd tossed them aside after trimming some other parts off the fret but found them in the trash can after a long search! 

Final result after adding Monokote trim sheet strips with the bussard lit and in motion:


IMG_4793 by trekriffic, on Flickr

Although I like the effect I achieved if I were to not have purchased the ParaGrafix set I think you could achieve much the same effect using just the Monokote tape. In fact, that might work even better for achieving a really studio model accurate spoke. As one can see in the photo of the current studio model bussard, the blades are tapered towards the center of the hub which would be much easier to do with scissors or an exacto blade with tape as opposed to having to file the edges of the brass strips. There is some conjecture; however, concerning the tapering of the spokes being accurate to the original studio model back inthe 60's as the original spinner cage (it was a spoked cage not a tinted dome with spokes) and outer domes were lost before the model arrived at the Smithsonian so, who knows, maybe they were straight to begin with:


image3 by trekriffic, on Flickr


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## Chuck_P.R.

^^^ Paulbo has a tapered one piece version
in his Revell Germany TOS Enterprise 1/600th scale PEtch set. It can be seen here:

http://www.paragrafix.biz/product_detail.asp?PPartNum=PGX157

Maybe if we twist his arm he might make a set in 1/350th scale that
we can buy in addition to his existing 1/350th set?

Maybe?

Pretty please Paulbo?

BTWay Trekkriffic, you've got mail! - or a PM, actually . . .


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## Trekkriffic

More of those pics I mentioned...



IMG_5761 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5783 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5789 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5814 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5800 by trekriffic, on Flickr


IMG_5777 by trekriffic, on Flickr


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## Chrisisall

I'm a kid again!


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## harristotle

You Sir, are a god among modelers!


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## Trekkriffic

One of the members here was highly impressed with my weathering of the upper saucer; he asked for some high resolution photos of the primary hull top for reference when he weathers his own model. So I took several detail shots today of the primary hull top and bottom as well as the secondary hull and nacelles in natural sunlight. Anyone else interested in getting these photos (they are 4752x3168 resolution) send me a PM (or email me at [email protected]) and I'll send them to you as they are too large to post in the forum.


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## jgoldsack

Trekkriffic said:


> Last night I soldered 30 AWG Kynar wire to two tiny SMD LEDs and taped them into the trench over the center of the shuttle bay using transparent tape:
> 
> 
> IMG_4393 by trekriffic, on Flickr


Do you happen to recall the size of those LEDs you used? I have some but they are bright white, not warm white, and are REALLY small...lol


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## Trekkriffic

jgoldsack said:


> Do you happen to recall the size of those LEDs you used? I have some but they are bright white, not warm white, and are REALLY small...lol


Lighthouse LEDs
Part # 100004124 
Description: 0805 SMD Warm/Soft White- Ultra Bright LED
Viewing Angle:120 Degree
Forwarding Voltage: 3.0-3.2V
Current: 20mA


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## jgoldsack

Trekkriffic said:


> Lighthouse LEDs
> Part # 100004124
> Description: 0805 SMD Warm/Soft White- Ultra Bright LED
> Viewing Angle:120 Degree
> Forwarding Voltage: 3.0-3.2V
> Current: 20mA




Thank you good sir!


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## Trekkriffic

You're very welcome j!

By the way, I don't recall if I shared this yet but you can see hi-res pics of the finished model on imgur here:

http://imgur.com/a/8IUIU

Included in thee album are some images of the ship posed in front of my "space" backdrop of black foamcor panels speckled with white paint for "stars". Part of my "Garage FX" photo setup.


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## Proper2

Trekkriffic said:


> You're very welcome j!
> 
> By the way, I don't recall if I shared this yet but you can see hi-res pics of the finished model on imgur here:
> 
> http://imgur.com/a/8IUIU
> 
> Included in thee album are some images of the ship posed in front of my "space" backdrop of black foamcor panels speckled with white paint for "stars". Part of my "Garage FX" photo setup.


She's so gorgeous, so goshdarn gorgeous so gorgeous, gorgeous so...!


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## Trekkriffic

Proper2 said:


> She's so gorgeous, so goshdarn gorgeous so gorgeous, gorgeous so...!


Calm done now... you're hyperventilating... take deep, even breaths... yah... that's better....


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