# Moebius Discovery XD-1



## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Starting on the Moebius 2001 Discovery XD-1 model. All those cargo pods along the spine are going to make for a lot of repetitive work.

Photo etch command deck hasn't come in yet so the top of the front sphere is not glued in yet.









Fore and aft sections.









Front.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Got one of these a while back... glad to see someone put up a build thread, looking forward to this one!


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Same here, Glad to see a build thread going!

I'll be following your build!


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

So far there are a few seams that are proving to be a challenge. Hardest to deal with is the gap between the hull and the pod bay door inserts. It's a tiny gap but quite noticeable, and the fine detail that runs into the seam makes it very hard to deal with while retaining that detail.









Pod Bay Door Seams.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

The antenna dishes are another challenge, had to break out the magnifying headband to put the tiny bits on the small dishes. Also the cross member on the large dish has so many sprue attachment points for such a thin part. Got it off the sprue intact but it broke while trying to clean it up. Hopefully my repair efforts will not be noticeable in the end. I'll take some picts this evening when the glue is fully dried.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

The surface of the parts looks pretty rough, or is that an effect from the camera?


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

electric indigo said:


> The surface of the parts looks pretty rough, or is that an effect from the camera?


That is mostly jpeg noise from the camera, but the parts are not glossy smooth, not matte either, so smooth but dull.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Can't tell where the spider for the big dish broke so that fix was a success, the scale is way off on the spiders for the smaller dishes, it's also a bit off for the larger one as well. Not sure I can make anything better out of plastic, I could probably carve some out of basswood, or use copper wire... I'll think about it during the long process of building the dozens of cargo pods.









Antenna dishes.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

I've built 4 of the cargo pod holders and found a problem with the tabs that are supposed to line up the holders with the ends. The antenna dish section lines up correctly but the spine tilts to one side if you attach it to the ends. The tab on the end piece should be moved about half the width of the tab to the right when looking at the tab. And it is the same on both ends (because the cargo pod supports flip around when you pass the antenna dishes so the ends are mirrored).

I'll be cutting the tab thinner until the spine is aligned correctly.









Tab error.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Got all 10 pod supports done, time for a dry fit.

Pictures really don't prepare you for how long this thing is when put together, and I haven't built the thruster pods yet...









Dry fit front.









Dry fit back.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Been thinking about ways to keep all the cargo pods on the spine aligned as well as keeping the spine aligned with the ends. The tabs between the 10 holders have a little play so the cumulative errors could build up if trying to align them from the ends and then put 2 halves together.

I think the best way would be to epoxy the rods into the antenna dish section first, then build out from there. That should give a spine with all the pods aligned properly, then it's just a matter of attaching the drive and command ends properly. Doing it that way will also create 3 pieces at a more manageable size for painting.

FYI: The antenna dish section has a steel sleeve inside it, and there are 2 steel tubes that make up the spine. And the support stand rods are the same size steel tubing, those are very useful while building small sections that go on the spine.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Used a piece of scrap wood to hold the steel tubes straight while the epoxy cured.

And now have started on the long process of building the cargo pods, the small ones are quite annoying to put together, and there are 18 of the smallest ones to make.

Made a few of all of them just to get the spine started and see how things are going to go together, making all of one type at a time should go slightly faster.









Spine tubing epoxied together.









Starting on the cargo pods.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

My photo etch came in so took a break from making cargo pods to mess around with that.

The stuff for the airlock door looks great:









Photo etch door.

I was toying with the idea of lighting the cockpit, but very little can be seen through the window, and I will end up hanging this from the window frame of a bay window in my house so that will limit the view inside even more.

Idea now is to do a simple paint job of white with the computer areas black, and then a light coat of red to simulate red lighting. 









Photo etch cockpit.


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## Xenodyssey (Aug 27, 2008)

Love your build up so far.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

39 pods made, 26 to go. 13 of those are the smallest ones that are much harder than the larger ones to hold together while the glue dries without collapsing them. And to get the seams to go away you need to have all 5 pieces together while the plastic is still a bit soft from the glue so you can press all the seams together tightly.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Got the spine done.

As expected the smallest pods took as long as 3 groups of the larger ones.

Here's the parts for the last 13 pods:









Pod "E" parts.

And those get turned into these:









Pod "E" done.

Bags full of pods:









Pods A, B, C, D, E.

I used one of the steel tubes for on of the stands to help with pressing the pods onto the supports.









Building a spine section.

And here's the spine completed:









Spine is done.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Some pictures of dry fitting the ends on the completed spine:


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## Hobby Dude (Aug 7, 2019)

Nice kit, HAL would be pleased...:wink2:


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Got the photo etch cockpit painted, the limited view through the window makes it hard to see much of what is in there.









Cockpit done.








Cockpit detail.

This would look great with lighting, but you can't see it because the window for the cockpit is recessed so far in that the angles you can see into the cockpit are very narrow, basically you can only see the center of the walls of the cockpit, not the floor or ceiling.








Cockpit detail.









Cockpit detail.


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

We'll know though! :thumbsup:


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Slowly trying to fix up scratches and indents in the sphere caused by working on seams and installing the photoetch airlock door.

Also been considering what to do about the engine vent grills. The photoetch grills look much more like what was on screen than the molded plastic. But the molded plastic and the photoetch don't line up, the plastic ribs are between the photoetch ribs. I could carefully cut out the plastic ribs leaving a small circle of them to hold the photoetch, or remove the plastic completely and somehow carefully glue in the photoetch the same way on all 6 ports....

Either option leaves the possibility of seeing the "raw" inside of the model, so, now I'm thinking I'll 3D print some inserts to replace the molded plastic ribs. First I think I'll try fully 3D printing the inserts with ribs and see if they can be made better than the photoetch, the width of the ribs is around the minimum size I can print. If that doesn't work I'll make something that will support the photoetch and also hide the internals of the model. It's all overkill, since it will all be painted black behind the grills, but when taking pictures with a flash stuff back there will show up.


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## robn1 (Nov 17, 2012)

I'd close off the engine openings from behind with sheet styrene painted black, then glue the etch in place. This will leave a shallow black space behind the grills.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

I've already glued the parts together, so what ever I end up doing will have to be done from the outside. Just wasn't thinking ahead on those parts, and I was leaning towards not using the photoetch there.

The only detail missing from the kit part is a ring around the grills, just occurred to me that I could 3D print just the ring and see how that looks, there are extra grills on the photoetch sheet but I'd rather not sacrifice one of those just to test the look.


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## Phillip1 (Jul 24, 2009)

MartyS,

You are making really good progress here. I too have this kit and will one day build it. I am looking forward to seeing how you handle the exterior paint scheme, as I have seen a lot of different interpretations.

Thanks

Phillip1


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

In case anyone is curious about where a battery pack could be installed for lighting, I think the sphere would be the place for it. The top half of the sphere stays on very nicely with 3 small pieces of tape, I'm guessing 3 magnets on some little brackets would hold it on perfectly.


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

MartyS said:


> I've already glued the parts together, so what ever I end up doing will have to be done from the outside. Just wasn't thinking ahead on those parts, and I was leaning towards not using the photoetch there.
> 
> The only detail missing from the kit part is a ring around the grills, just occurred to me that I could 3D print just the ring and see how that looks, there are extra grills on the photoetch sheet but I'd rather not sacrifice one of those just to test the look.


How would black poster board or construction paper cut into circles small enough to fit through but big enough to cover the opening work?


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

I liked the look of the 3D printed rings so that's what I'm going with, avoiding all the scary cutting out perfectly round hole issues. :wink2:

Rings are 8.4mm OD, 6.4mm ID, 0.25mm thick. Sanded lightly so even thinner now.









Engine grill rings.









Rings installed.

In case anyone is wondering, here's what the inside of the sphere looks like before I glued it together:









Inside of the sphere.


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

They wouldnt necessarly have to be perfect circles. 

So how about stuffing the cavity with black tissue paper like you would use in wrapping up gifts? May not look as clean as a flat surface in the hole but it would fill the opening. :cheers2:

black panty house, leggings or other scrape material may also work....


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Filling the holes was never an issue, the scary part for me would be slipping and damaging some of the surface detail.

Here's a better picture of the little 3D printed rings installed, doesn't look that different from the photo etch. If I was lighting it the photo etch would be a necessity, but all I really wanted were the missing rings.

Remember those holes are only about 1/4 inch in diameter, the weird proportions of this spaceship make you think the parts must be big, it's a 40+ inch long model, but the individual parts are small. To the naked eye those plastic rings look even closer to the photo etch.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Coming along very nicely!


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

I made new rings, just a tiny bit smaller, and this time I sanded them while they were stuck to the print bed so they came out more flat this time.

Spent the evening painting the drive section, so that end of the ship is almost done:









Drive section almost done.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

For painting the spine I first thought of building supports on the ends and spinning it like a rotisserie. But ended up doing it vertically, easier to manage that way:









Painting the spine.

Not sure if this is done yet, after the paint dries for a day I'll decide if it needs more coats:








Spine painted white.

Airbrushing things white sure shows every little seam, and there are many of them buried in surface detail I didn't want to mess up with putty and attempting to sand it. So went with white craft paint, that stuff is so thick it worked like latex caulk, and worked perfectly on the tiny seams. Basically applied it with a toothpick and then wiped it off the surface with a towel, let dry and then went over the area with one last coat of white, now the drive section is done:









Seams filled.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Got the sphere painted white and then put on the grey, masking the grey will take a while, then more white to cover the grey over spray, then masking comes off to put a layer of white over the grey...

After all the time spend spraying the model black and then white, my airbrush developed some control and spitting issues, so had to do a complete tear down, clean, lube, and rebuild it, now it's back to normal Iwata goodness.

Also epoxied the spine to the drive section.

Maybe in a week it will be done. 










Painting the sphere 1.









Drive and spine epoxied.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Masking went way faster than I was expecting, so this thing might be done by the end of the weekend...









Ready for final white layers.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

I think the sphere is done now, may have put a little too much white over the grey but I'll see tomorrow when it's more dry.

The camera flash washes things out a bit so the grey areas are a bit darker than they appear in the photo:









Sphere done.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

I'm calling it done at this point, if I find a flat clear coat I may add that at some point, but the closest thing I have is mirco-satin and that is still too glossy a finish.

Lots of big pictures:


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Well done! It's a beautiful ship and a beautiful kit. Can't wait to lift the lid on mine. Thanks for the write up!


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Just changed the rear hang location, the drive section was making the spine bow up just slightly where it was, now it's flat or just a hair low at the dishes.

Just shot a video flyby while playing the soundtrack:


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## Xenodyssey (Aug 27, 2008)

Lovely work and a good solution to displaying it. Dusting will be a problem though.


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## Alien (Sep 5, 2001)

Love your work. Fantastic!

But did I notice something in the video???? Looks like the AE35 unit may fail in the near future.:wink2:


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Alien said:


> Love your work. Fantastic!
> 
> But did I notice something in the video???? Looks like the AE35 unit may fail in the near future.:wink2:


Thanks.

Well, I better go out and check that AE35 unit....

Open the pod bay doors please Hal.

Dave?

Yes Hal, it's Dave, open the pod bay doors please Hal.

Dave?

YES HAL, it's Dave, open the pod bay doors!

Dave's not here.

No Hal, I am Dave, open the pod bay doors!

Dave?



:jest:


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## pob63 (Jan 2, 2008)

You did an awesome job and your excellent results inspired me to tackle this kit. I appreciate all the effort you put into documenting your build. It was extremely helpful. 

https://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/275-moebius-models/595303-discovery-xd-1-moebius.html


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

The first few months I had the model hanging up I was noticing some bending of the spine, played around with different hang points and this seems to be the 2 points that seem to put the least stress on the spine.

So if anyone is hanging this thing these seem to be the best hang locations, it's been this way for a couple months and the spine is still straight:


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

You may want to check back on the curvature when it warms. Surprising how much the temparature varies around windows and near our celling while we still feel comfortable.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

That is a north side window with a porch on the other side, so it doesn't heat up like the windows on the south side of the house. And it's not close to the ceiling, it's about 6 1/2 feet off the floor.

Hadn't thought of it before but that metal tube running through the model might be an issue if there were large temperature swings, this model might be long enough that the difference in expantion rates between the metal and plastic could do damage? Hopefully not...




Milton Fox Racing said:


> You may want to check back on the curvature when it warms. Surprising how much the temparature varies around windows and near our celling while we still feel comfortable.


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## Tiberious (Nov 20, 2001)

Great write up and end product! You have convinced me that I am not going to build this beast! Just too much repetitive work and room for error for my poi’s skills!


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Tiberious said:


> Great write up and end product! You have convinced me that I am not going to build this beast! Just too much repetitive work and room for error for my poi’s skills!


It's not that bad if you spread the work out over several days, do one set of pods a night, in a week you'd have them all done and ready to glue onto the spine. This model is not something you could easily knock out in a weekend... It's also a pricey model, so that kind of makes you want to take your time with it.


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## SteveR (Aug 7, 2005)

As for the pods, I did them while watching TV with my wife. You get through it.


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## Tiberious (Nov 20, 2001)

Marty,
Thanks, it's still on my list of maybe-dos. My wife isn't fond of me leaving projects out so I'm stuck putting everything away (I don't have a work bench or dedicated area) after each session. My poor 1/350 K'tinga is so neglected it's no wonder the Klingons have bad tempers!


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## taneal1 (Jul 27, 2014)

MartyS said:


> I think the best way would be to epoxy the rods into the antenna dish section first, then build out from there. That should give a spine with all the pods aligned properly, then it's just a matter of attaching the drive and command ends properly. Doing it that way will also create 3 pieces at a more manageable size for painting.


Hello Marty,

I like your idea stated above. Are the rods hollow steel? 

Tom


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## f1steph (Jan 9, 2003)

Holy fragile spaceship...... that would be dangerous to bring it to a model show..... Yeah, it would look pretty cool to have lights in it, in total darkness like in space....


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## StarshipClass (Aug 13, 2003)

Tiberious said:


> Great write up and end product! You have convinced me that I am not going to build this beast! Just too much repetitive work and room for error for my poi’s skills!


Same here. I might pick up the smaller version some day--mighty tempted--but that big one is just too much for me.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

The rod provided in the kit is hollow, I don't think I ever tested it with a magnet to see if it was stainless so can't say what kind of steel it is.

Even though it's hollow the way it goes through the back of the model into the middle engine module prevents it from being used easily for electrical wires. If planning on lighting the command deck the best way would be to use magnets to hold the front sphere together.

As for it being fragile, the metal rod makes it fairly sturdy, it's the size and shape that makes it a bit hazardous to move around, you have to be careful not to smack either end into a door jamb, but I never felt like it was going to break when handling it.

Sorry for the delay, I don't stop by this site very often these days.


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## taneal1 (Jul 27, 2014)

MartyS said:


> The rod provided in the kit is hollow, I don't think I ever tested it with a magnet to see if it was stainless so can't say what kind of steel it is.
> 
> Even though it's hollow the way it goes through the back of the model into the middle engine module prevents it from being used easily for electrical wires. If planning on lighting the command deck the best way would be to use magnets to hold the front sphere together.


Thanks for the info, Marty!


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