# USS Pioneer 1/1000 Conversion



## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

I saw a drawing of this design somewhere online, can't remember where and didn't bookmark it (d'oh!) but I immediately liked it and wanted to build it. I've got an album going: 








USS Pioneer







www.hobbytalk.com





Rather than post pics in the thread ( I don't have a photobucket account yet) I invite any and all to view the gallery and rate, comment, etc.

Suggestions and comments welcome! What do you think?


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Gee, 67 views and no replies... guess it must not be that great of a model! Oh well.


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## publiusr (Jul 27, 2006)

I like that layered look.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Thanks, Publiusr! I went for something slightly different looking than the standard 'enterprise cut & paste' jobs I see a lot of.


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## beeblebrox (Jul 30, 2003)

I'm not a big fan of TOS conversions, but I like this one so far. Just don't make it too busy with little greeblie details. It'll start to look like a Millenium Falcon with a big cannon.


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## TIEbomber1967 (May 21, 2012)

whiskeyrat said:


> Gee, 67 views and no replies... guess it must not be that great of a model! Oh well.


What are you talking about, it's really good. Reminds me of that design by Atolm
http://brstarship.deviantart.com/art/Eventide-Class-284832912
I was planning on making a version of it someday using one of the Playmates JJprise toys that I got when they heavily discounted them. I think that the shapes of the JJprise will go well with this wonderfully funky design.
Looking forward to seeing how you decide to paint her.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

TIEbomber1967 said:


> What are you talking about, it's really good. Reminds me of that design by Atolm
> http://brstarship.deviantart.com/art/Eventide-Class-284832912
> I was planning on making a version of it someday using one of the Playmates JJprise toys that I got when they heavily discounted them. I think that the shapes of the JJprise will go well with this wonderfully funky design.
> Looking forward to seeing how you decide to paint her.


THATS where I saw it! Thanks Tiebomber for finding that! I have the short term memory of a goldfish... 

I really liked the idea of the nacelle pylon being attached to the front of the saucer. Would never have thought of it myself...

I'm pretty much done with the greeblies, I didn't wanna go overboard. I'm gonna try some penciled on grid lines and maybe a couple more bits of paint here and there, but then its decals and weathering. I'm thinking of chalks/pastels but have never tried them. Suggestions?


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## DCH10664 (Jul 16, 2012)

Some top quality work there :thumbsup: I like it.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Hmmmm... Veddy eeenteresting!


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Started decals... This is what really makes the ship start to 'pop'. The white glue/water trick is really helping a lot.


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

whiskeyrat said:


> I'm pretty much done with the greeblies, I didn't wanna go overboard. I'm gonna try some penciled on grid lines and maybe a couple more bits of paint here and there, but then its decals and weathering. I'm thinking of chalks/pastels but have never tried them. Suggestions?


Seal your decals with a clear gloss coat followed by a flat coat. Or better yet give it a pearl gloss clearcoat for a metallic finish if you are so inclined. For my Leif Ericsson build I did the pearl over the grey base oat followed by a flat coat. Then I rubbed Tamiya pastel chalks into the finish using a moist foam applicator. I went with the gunmetal powder and after rubbing in with foam applicator I used a moistened t-shirt rag to remove some of the chalk and give me a nice even finish. The end result was a hull that looked like steel. You may want your ship to look more like the grey base oat in which case you may only want to do some streaking with black chalk or stain the hull alongside the nacelle joins the connecting pylon and where the saucer mates with the connector. The nice thing about chalks are you can remove them with water if you feel you went a little overboard. The keys for me are a flat finish and using moistened applicators to make the chalk stick. When you're done seal with a clear flat or semi-gloss coat


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Trekkriffic said:


> Seal your decals with a clear gloss coat followed by a flat coat. Or better yet give it a pearl gloss clearcoat for a metallic finish if you are so inclined. For my Leif Ericsson build I did the pearl over the grey base oat followed by a flat coat. Then I rubbed Tamiya pastel chalks into the finish using a moist foam applicator. I went with the gunmetal powder and after rubbing in with foam applicator I used a moistened t-shirt rag to remove some of the chalk and give me a nice even finish. The end result was a hull that looked like steel. You may want your ship to look more like the grey base oat in which case you may only want to do some streaking with black chalk or stain the hull alongside the nacelle joins the connecting pylon and where the saucer mates with the connector. The nice thing about chalks are you can remove them with water if you feel you went a little overboard. The keys for me are a flat finish and using moistened applicators to make the chalk stick. When you're done seal with a clear flat or semi-gloss coat


That Tamiya pastel method sounds pretty good, Trekkriffic, I actually had a very similar idea in mind except using the chalks thinned in alcohol. What do you think? Painting (and weathering especially) are a couple of areas for improvement for me, so I'm being brave and trying new techniques. I've already learned a lot from everyone here, you guys make it look easy!


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## StarshipClass (Aug 13, 2003)

You might get some replies quicker if you make it easier on folks to at least get a peek right off the bat at what you're doing by going ahead and posting your pics on the thread. 



>




Interesting design--never have seen anything like this. Great job on your build! Definitely pushing the envelope for TOS kitbash starships--but nothing wrong with that!

I can see the deflector dish being mounted right where the nacelle support joins the front of the primary hull. Is that the plan?


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Perfesser Coffee:

1) Thanks for the feedback!
2) I think I'll leave a deflector dish out of it, on the Pioneer, it's internal!:tongue:
3) I am a complete buffoon who has no idea about how the intorwebs works. How do I post the pics as you did? I thought you could only post links or attach thumbnails...


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

whiskeyrat said:


> That Tamiya pastel method sounds pretty good, Trekkriffic, I actually had a very similar idea in mind except using the chalks thinned in alcohol. What do you think? Painting (and weathering especially) are a couple of areas for improvement for me, so I'm being brave and trying new techniques. I've already learned a lot from everyone here, you guys make it look easy!


I'd stay away from alcohol. It's a solvent and can strip away your underlying paint layers toot sweet. The only time I use it is when I want to clean a models surface before final clearcoats and decaling when I want to remove grime and any oils from the surface.


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

whiskeyrat said:


> I am a complete buffoon who has no idea about how the intorwebs works. How do I post the pics as you did? I thought you could only post links or attach thumbnails...


Have you tried using image hosting sites like PhotoBucket before? You can set up a free account and start creating picture albums. Once the photo is uploaded to your album on the hosting site you can post them as image files







right in the thread. 

Like this:


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Thanks for the advice Trekkriffic, I'm sort of into terra incognita with the chalks so I really appreciate the expert advice.

I'm going to try and sign up a photobucket account today...


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Nope. Still haven't figured it out. I feel quite dumb...


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

*Help!*









Can anyone please give me a step by step of how to upload pics dirctly into the thread post, like Perfesser Coffee did or Trekkriffic did above? I must be doing something very wrong. I opened a photobucket account but can't figure out how to make the image appear directly in the thread post, instead of as a clickable attachment. Any help is appreciated!


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Bingo! After much screaming kicking and crying I stumbled on the solution! I'm an idiot...


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Good show ! I knew you could do it!


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Well, progress takes a step backward... most of the damn decals silvered upon drying so I had to scrape and sand them off, all except the name and registry number on the saucer, and the one pennant on the starboard side of her nacelle. Sanded down a lot of the paint as well, musta been too grainy to make the decals happy. I contacted Round2, and was told the decals aren't sold separately. So I've got another kit I found cheap on ebay on the way, which will give me enough numbers to re-do the under-saucer numbers. One of these days I'll get my old scanner back on line and get some decal paper to print my own. Ugh what a headache. Seems I'm still learning, or have forgotten some things! At least this first kit was a gift...


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## StarshipClass (Aug 13, 2003)

Okay, sorry I didn't help you out on the pics--real simple as you found out. I was suffering from an attack of appendicitis and then the after effects of the appendectomy. 

I really like the design. Still would like to see you put a deflector on it but . . . 

Gloss coat/decals/gloss coat is the only way I've been able to consistently get good results. I've heard some folks use Future clear acrylic for the gloss coats but I haven't taken that step yet though it looks promising from the results I've seen.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

PerfesserCoffee said:


> Okay, sorry I didn't help you out on the pics--real simple as you found out. I was suffering from an attack of appendicitis and then the after effects of the appendectomy.
> 
> I really like the design. Still would like to see you put a deflector on it but . . .
> 
> Gloss coat/decals/gloss coat is the only way I've been able to consistently get good results. I've heard some folks use Future clear acrylic for the gloss coats but I haven't taken that step yet though it looks promising from the results I've seen.


Thanks Perfesser... Sorry to hear about the appendicitis  Glad to hear you're better!

I understand the benefits of multiple gloss coats, but doesn't that soften up the detail somewhat? I usually like my starships pretty flat, for the most part, and I've always though flatcoating over a gloss (or many layers) would look less than flat, somehow...


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## StarshipClass (Aug 13, 2003)

whiskeyrat said:


> Thanks Perfesser... Sorry to hear about the appendicitis  Glad to hear you're better!


Thanks! Still on some pain pills but much better now.



whiskeyrat said:


> I understand the benefits of multiple gloss coats, but doesn't that soften up the detail somewhat? I usually like my starships pretty flat, for the most part, and I've always though flatcoating over a gloss (or many layers) would look less than flat, somehow...


I've found that as long as the last coat(s) are flat, that's all that matters. The gloss coats are no thicker than the decal coating (I think) and I've never noticed it softening details. 

There's really not a better way to do it. You could use rub-on decals but that's another can of worms. If you don't want silvering, you have to have a smooth coating underneath the decals and locking them in with another layer of gloss coat on top makes them last a lot longer than without sealing.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Thanks again, Perfesser. Looks like Pioneer will be the guinea-pig for developing my process. I already have the gloss and flat clear acrylics; I wanna airbrush them instead of shoot from a rattle can, I feel better about being able to control paint flow more readily. 

Once this ship is successful then I might do another bash/scratch with the second one that's on its way, and apply the lessons learned on Pioneer so I can get it right the _first_ time!


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Second attempt at decaling. Took the good advice i got from Trekkriffic and Perfesser Coffee and did the gloss-gloss-flat coat combo that yielded markedly better results. Still got a little silvering but... the whole point of building this ship was for badly needed practice!






















Almost done with this one. I have to pencil the gridlines back in again but that won't take long. Once that's done I'll do any touch up needed, add the (non-functioning) running lights, then get the weathering underway. Hopefully not more than another week on the bench.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Started weathering the old girl, using a mixture of charcoal and Tamiya weathering pastels. I'm sort of a newbie with these so Pioneer gets to be my practice platform. It's not as easy as I thought it was! Practice makes perfect, I guess.


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## StarshipClass (Aug 13, 2003)

Wow!  Looking really good so far! The grid lines rock!


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

PerfesserCoffee said:


> Wow!  Looking really good so far! The grid lines rock!


Thanks Perfesser! I may have overdone it a little but, the nice thing about the charcoal as I have found (and was told) is that any excess CAN be wiped off with a moist towel. Same goes for the Tamiya pastels. Image of the set I used on Pioneer attached to this post. Different colors are available, this set seemed to suit 'space dirt' the best.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Another angle. I think I went a little overboard (nyuk nyuk nyuk) with the charcoal so I'll probably end up wiping off a good portion of what's on the hull. Like an idiot I forgot the B/C deck portholes.


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## StarshipClass (Aug 13, 2003)

whiskeyrat said:


> Thanks Perfesser! I may have overdone it a little but, the nice thing about the charcoal as I have found (and was told) is that any excess CAN be wiped off with a moist towel. Same goes for the Tamiya pastels. Image of the set I used on Pioneer attached to this post. Different colors are available, this set seemed to suit 'space dirt' the best.





whiskeyrat said:


> Another angle. I think I went a little overboard (nyuk nyuk nyuk) with the charcoal so I'll probably end up wiping off a good portion of what's on the hull. Like an idiot I forgot the B/C deck portholes.


Excellent technique! I don't think you need to pull back at all. It looks really good--makes the ship look a lot more "real.":thumbsup:


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## Landru (May 25, 2009)

Nice wee model!!


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## charonjr (Mar 27, 2000)

How did you do the gridlines, Whiskeyrat? I would be afraid of digging a hole into the bridge dome using a compass....


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

charonjr said:


> How did you do the gridlines, Whiskeyrat? I would be afraid of digging a hole into the bridge dome using a compass....


Ultimately, that's exactly what I had to do! My plan is to simply use a drop of CA glue to fill the tiny pinhole on the bridge dome made by the compass point, then a drop of paint to cover it after the glue dries. It's the only way I know how to do the gridlines accurately, but the results are well worth the effort of having to fill the pinhole afterwards, IMHO.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Landru said:


> Nice wee model!!


Thanks Landru! Peace and contentment be with you, Brother! I am of The Body!


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## Landru (May 25, 2009)

The wear and tear on the NCC decals really look cool!


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## Landru (May 25, 2009)

whiskeyrat said:


> Thanks Landru! Peace and contentment be with you, Brother! I am of The Body!


Haha! Love that episode, it's paradise my friend...paradise..

A good idea for avoiding a pin hole in your bridge is to get a scrap bridge (hey, the kit comes with two!) and make a big ol' hole in that one. That way you can slot that one in, draw your lines and put the real one in after - snap together kits have their advantages!

Thaaat, or you could stick a couple of layers of masking tape over your real bridge, mark a dot with a pen, draw, then remove the tape. Both will work fine.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Landru said:


> Haha! Love that episode, it's paradise my friend...paradise..
> 
> A good idea for avoiding a pin hole in your bridge is to get a scrap bridge (hey, the kit comes with two!) and make a big ol' hole in that one. That way you can slot that one in, draw your lines and put the real one in after - snap together kits have their advantages!
> 
> Thaaat, or you could stick a couple of layers of masking tape over your real bridge, mark a dot with a pen, draw, then remove the tape. Both will work fine.


AH! You're a genius! I forgot all about the fact that the kit comes with two bridge domes... oh well, the pinhole that is there is very small and easy to fix, but I wish I had thought about the other bridge dome! The 'NCC' decal on top of the saucer was lightly sanded to look like paint scratched off by space dust. I think I was a bit too eager to get her painted and moved along, this was supposed to be a quickie build but she's turning into a two month project here... Thanks for the compliments!


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

A couple more shots. I'm thinking one more pass of MM Flat clear acrylic to seal her up and then she'll be pretty much done. She was a fun build and good exercise to try and iron out my weak points before I tackle anything larger (and more expensive!). I have a few more kits to go through before I tackle both my 1/350 TOS Enterprise and my 1/350 refit. _quakes in boots_


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

OK, so I finally 'finished' Pioneer, or at least I got as far as I could before having had enough of wrestling with the durn thing. The setback with the decals really hurt this one, I think, so lesson learned there. I think the paint grain was just too coarse so the decals just couldn't really stay down, no matter how much Micro-Sol or Micro-Set I daubed on them. Still, the ones that did stick well look pretty good, and the experience I got with this attempt will be invaluable on my next one. Both of my 1/350 Big E kits are waiting for me in the closet, and I really want to get as much practice as I can before lifting the lid on either. Hence, poor Pioneer was the guinea pig for a few new techniques. Some worked, others didn't as much as I would have liked, but overall she turned out semi-decent. NEXT!


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Two more for posterity...


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## BOXIE (Apr 5, 2011)

Nice build.Looking forward to your future enterprises.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

BOXIE said:


> Nice build.Looking forward to your future enterprises.


Thanks, Boxie! here's hoping they turn out better than this one!


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## StarshipClass (Aug 13, 2003)

I'm in awe! Looks really, really great! :thumbsup:


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Thanks Perfesser! How's the ol' appendix behavin?


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## Landru (May 25, 2009)

Again, I love this model. Great looking weathering and some real cool scratch parts. And seriously, the sanded decals reaaaly add to the look of her. Great Stuff! Look forward to seeing more of your work


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Landru said:


> Again, I love this model. Great looking weathering and some real cool scratch parts. And seriously, the sanded decals reaaaly add to the look of her. Great Stuff! Look forward to seeing more of your work


Thanks a million Landru! Just trying to keep up with all the great builds I see all the time in this forum. Again, I didn't come up with the design myself, just interpreted the picture I found online (see earlier post in this thread). The sanded decals were a last minute idea that turned out well, but could easily have gone bad quickly! I got lucky with that process. I've got another 1/1000 Enterprise kit that I'm thinking about scratchbashing into another new ship so hopefully within a few weeks I'll come up with something different. In the meantime I've started a car (still sci fi) that I'll begin a thread on in the next couple days, just getting pics organized and edited.


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

whiskeyrat said:


> I saw a drawing of this design somewhere online, can't remember where and didn't bookmark it (d'oh!) but I immediately liked it and wanted to build it. I've got an album going: http://photos.hobbytalk.com/showgallery.php?cat=781
> 
> Rather than post pics in the thread ( I don't have a photobucket account yet) I invite any and all to view the gallery and rate, comment, etc.
> 
> Suggestions and comments welcome! What do you think?


Hey @whiskeyrat 

Is this one of the posts you have been trying to edit. Are you able to see that image at HobbyTalk still in your personal gallery? If it is rather than trying to copy the link - just click on the image itself and copy it and the paste it into the post you want to update.

The primary reason I see for it not being able to be processed is that it begins with http and not https. This was part of the security upgrades made during their transition plans to stabilize the site and is probably part of the previous site corruptions that occurred decades ago. And before VS-Admins time with us. Meaning they cannot be salvaged or redone without bringing back the previous site issues as well.

Is this the error message you have been receiving?


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

No, it was only the particular instance of trying to upload an image directly to one of my albums. Simply copying and pasting the image directly into the posting from my desktop folder now seems to work just fine. In my "You Can Shut The Door On This One Max!" thread I am now able to replace the watermarked Photobucket images. In this thread I was struggling because I was very new to the process of creating a thread and getting images into it, and in the confusion just got totally lost. I'm an idiot. I am going to try and rebuild this thread too, but unfortunately the links showing which image went where are totally wiped clean. In my other threads where the images were moved, the links were still readable and contained the image names, so I could simply search for the image by name in my folder, then re-post the image using a different process. I can live with not being able to add images to my albums as long as I can simply copy paste when I add a new image to a post in any of my threads. When I rebuild this thread I will have to guess at which images go in which posts by the context of each individual post. Many, many thanks MFR. I'll try to be not-so-stupid in the future.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Actually, if I click on the "sorry, this image is no longer available" icon in this thread and open it in a new tab, the image name is still available, so I don't have to guess which image I used in each post.


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

Glad you have found a solution. And dont feel stupid or like an idiot. We made a huge technological upgrade from a bunch of cobbled together very early web forum platforms into a fully functional 21st Century fully supported (and somewhat optionally complicated to us ol' timers) media server with VS-Admins help. 

I like to think of it as going from a covered wagon system with various way stations to TOS Transporter Bay - were we just beam an image from one place to the other now!

I will close out the conversation thread but leave it open in case your experience any more difficulties.


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## StarshipClass (Aug 13, 2003)

Looking back now, the design of this ship makes me think of the Raging Queen Excelsior variant. Shocking at first in a "cart before the horse" manner but you get used to it after a while.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

StarshipClass said:


> Looking back now, the design of this ship makes me think of the Raging Queen Excelsior variant. Shocking at first in a "cart before the horse" manner but you get used to it after a while.


Yeah I remember being sorta shocked too when I first clapped eyes on this arrangement, but at the same time was intrigued. While I love the traditional saucer/secondary hull/twin engine standard approach for most Trek style ships, it's the oddball ones that really appeal to me now. A distinct departure from the standard design (and various iterations thereof) is good for the aesthetics, once in a while. Heck, I'm even taking a second look at Archer's Enterprise with a more appreciative eye, even though I actually hated it for many years.


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## StarshipClass (Aug 13, 2003)

whiskeyrat said:


> . . . A distinct departure from the standard design (and various iterations thereof) is good for the aesthetics, once in a while. Heck, I'm even taking a second look at Archer's Enterprise with a more appreciative eye, even though I actually hated it for many years.


Yeah, great point. It's good to be reminded that these ships are built primarily for function--aesthetics have to come second when you get right down to it. Especially during a time of war, ships could get really ugly, I'd say.

I can't make up my mind on NX-01. Sometimes I think it's canon, other times, nah. I really don't like the fact they had Romulans with cloaking tech already but that's a whole other can of worms.


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## jkirk (Feb 19, 2020)

Why are the pics unavailable?


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u644/feelixcat/USS%20Pioneer/Pioneer47_zpsd019f3cf.jpg



They were either moved or edited but only @whiskeyrat will know....


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Images will be forthcoming as I find time to rebuild this thread. Or, alternatively, the album is here, if folks want to see them out of the thread context. @StarshipClass I wobbled back and forth on Archer's Enterprise for many years, but eventually decided that it was my unwillingness to let go of accepted norms within the Trek canon that was stopping me from appreciating that particular variant. Once I did that, it was almost like a whole new world of designs opened up to my eyes, and my aesthetics are the better for it. I've found a couple of other very unique Trek scratchbuild possibilities that I am eager to cobble together in the coming year, I may post up those images just to see what folks around here think of them. Really, at this point the only designs I have any distaste for are ships like the DS9 Defiant, the Runabout, and pretty much anything with nacelles slung below the saucer/primary hull line... with one or two exceptions, of course...


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

StarshipClass said:


> Yeah, great point. It's good to be reminded that these ships are built primarily for function--aesthetics have to come second when you get right down to it. Especially during a time of war, ships could get really ugly, I'd say.
> 
> I can't make up my mind on NX-01. Sometimes I think it's canon, other times, nah. I really don't like the fact they had Romulans with cloaking tech already but that's a whole other can of worms.


100% agreed on all counts.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Three images from just before decals and weathering, when I had the saucer grid lines penciled in:


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## jkirk (Feb 19, 2020)

I like that! I've been on a mono nacell interest lately.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

jkirk said:


> I like that! I've been on a mono nacell interest lately.


There are plenty of single nacelle Trek ships out there on the intorwebs. If you spend about a half hour browsing you can come up with at least five or six different configurations that are very interesting designs in their own right. Here are a few I found:

































































That last one is a really hard departure from standard Trek design, but still very original and interesting IMHO.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Found a pretty neat 3D printed one on Ebay, not sure what those big 'wing' looking thingies are on either side under the saucer, but it looks cool regardless:


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## jkirk (Feb 19, 2020)

Here's what I got from Modelwerx

__
https://flic.kr/p/2m7uQXa


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## jkirk (Feb 19, 2020)

I built this last year

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https://flic.kr/p/2nvsj2q


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