# Polar lights 1/1000 refit Enterprise



## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

I pulled this out of the stash for a lockdown build. I'm normally a TOS guy, but this looked fun.










It's a small kit, but the instructions are huge!



















As are the decals:










3 large sheets! It has the aztec pattern on it. I think the whole ship will have decal on it.

The parts are very well molded and the fit looks great. Almost Tamiya like.
The one issue I have is the grid lines, they are WAY too big.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

I built one of these in 2016, I remember the decals for the pylons giving me problems, and the grooves being way too large of course, so lots of work with decal softeners and various tools to get the saucer to look good. But once the decals were cut and softened and pushed into the groves the groves are way less noticable and don't seem so out of scale.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Thanks, I was hoping that would be the case.

I'm planing on the decals taking a whole night.

The saucer section fit is excellent! I'm using glue even though this is a snap kit. 










The design of the pylon mount is ingenious. It anchors solid and in perfectly in place.










the neck looked like it would be trouble, but went together fine.










the rest went together well, The saucer/neck almost gave me an issue, but then it slid in fine. 

I left the clear parts off until after I get paint on it.




























The impulse engines might be trouble getting in.

I plan getting some primer on her tomorrow.


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

fantastic!
love the step by step you are providing.


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

I built mine some years ago. It builds into a nice model:


USS Enterprise Refit by Steve J, on Flickr

I gave mine an overall shot of Testors pearl gloss clearcoat followed by flat clear to give it a satin finish over the aztecs before applying the registry decals. 
If I had it to do over again though I think I would fill in the gridlines with some Perfect Plastic Putty. They are way out of scale.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Thanks! Your build is excellent! 
Yah, the grid trenches kind of bother me, the rest of the kit is top notch and then there are the trenches. With the decals they could have just printed the lines there. Just like the Moebius 2001 Orion. The surface texture is better represented as decal.

I got a coat of Tamiya white primer on her today. My first impression is that it looks good. I'll check again after it dries.
My plan is to paint it with Tamiya gloss white, decal, then hit it with Tamiya pearl clear.


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

I’m pretty sure I used the Tamiya white primer for my basecoat too.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

The Tamiya white primer gets used on most of my white ships. With a gloss coat it works well. I do plan on putting a light coat of Tamiya pure white. Unfortunately I didn't get any work done on her today.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

There has been progress, but not enough. Detail painting,










I hope to get a clear coat on for decaling soon.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Progress, slow but sure.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Disaster! 

I'm starting to put the clear parts on and I can't find the impulse engine. 
I pulled the kit plastic bags out of the trash to look for it, checked the box, and even cleaned my work desk!
No luck.
Luckily I bought it from Cult TVman so I could get a copy of my receipt online. I have requested a replacement part from R2.
They have always had good customer service in the past, I hope I can get it soon. The build is waiting on it.


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

WOW! bummer!
looking at the pictures of all the parts on the sprues in an earlier post, does it appear to be there?


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

Is it part 103? 👂


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

part # 103 that is off the sprue and shown in the upper left corner in the picture of the clear parts bag?


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Yah, I went back and looked at that photo. It's there but off the tree. I've ripped my worktable apart and I can't find it. I pulled the bag out of the trash and It's not there anymore. I was under my table on the floor, I even looked into the boxes of other kits I'm working on, no joy.


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## StarCruiser (Sep 28, 1999)

Bloody carpet monster!


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Cult had the Refit on sale for $17 so I bought one for the impulse engine.

It's painted and on now.



















I hope to get a gloss coat on tomorrow.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

I did get the gloss coat on. 

Maybe tomorrow I'll work up the courage to star the decals.


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## Dr. Brad (Oct 5, 1999)

Hey, for what it's worth, I toned down the Aztec decals with a light mist of the base coat. This was the result:

Refit 1:1000 1701-A-02 by Brad


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

That looks very nice!
I like your idea.


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## Dr. Brad (Oct 5, 1999)

I plan to do it again if I ever get to that stage on my Reliant model. Maybe I'll go a little lighter....


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## Gregatron (Mar 29, 2008)

Dr. Brad said:


> Hey, for what it's worth, I toned down the Aztec decals with a light mist of the base coat. This was the result:
> 
> Refit 1:1000 1701-A-02 by Brad


Ditto.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

I like the toned down look!

My plan is to hit it with pearl clear to knock it down after decals.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

I was decaling today for about 4 hours. I almost finished the saucer.
Just about the entire model is covered with a decal! There are over 120 decals!
The top is done, the bottom still needs the registration markings,


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

#67 looks like its upside down....


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Milton Fox Racing said:


> #67 looks like its upside down....


Oh, you are EVIL! ;-)


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Another few hours of decaling. The saucer decals were perfect but the neck and front of the secondary hull had issues. First a lot of the larger decals shattered while applying them, the 2 large neck ones very badly. 
Second the decals did not want to settle down well. I ended up trimming many after they were put on with a new #11 blade. Delicate work. I have done up to about half of the secondary hull.










They do look very nice once down, but boy is it time consuming.


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

I hate when decals won't conform to small variations in surfsces.


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## Gregatron (Mar 29, 2008)

A good rule of thumb is to give the decals a coat of liquid decal film before applying them. Round 2 kits have had some fragile decals, from time to time.


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)




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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Gregatron said:


> A good rule of thumb is to give the decals a coat of liquid decal film before applying them. Round 2 kits have had some fragile decals, from time to time.


Yah, But I've never seen them this bad. 
I got greedy when the saucer went so easy. 
Dealing with 1 or 2 large breaks is no problem, but when both neck decals shattered it took things to a new level.
You can bet that I'll be coating the pylon decals.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

The secondary hull is done and the decals are settling with the micro-sol.



















Tomorrow the pylons and hopefully the warp nacelles.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

mach7 said:


> Tomorrow the pylons and hopefully the warp nacelles.


Been a few days, did the pylons break you? I remember I gave up, got them mostly positioned OK, and then mixed up some paint to match the decal colors on the large colored areas and painted those in.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

No not yet, but these decals are odd. It's a fine line between getting the decal thin enough to settle into a 1/1000 starship and still strong enough to be useable.
I coated the pylon decals with decal liquid to prevent them shattering, but now they don't settle well and started curling up while drying. 










The port side is curling in this photo, but both side curled. I had to keep soaking each of them with micro-sol for about 30 min. I'll have to mix some paint to fix some areas,

The engines are next.


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

mach7 said:


> I coated the pylon decals with decal liquid to prevent them shattering, but now they don't settle well and started curling up while drying.
> The port side is curling in this photo, but both side curled.


I’ve had issues with curl too. The best fix I found was mixing a little white glue with warm water and brushing it under the edge of the decal, waiting 30 seconds for the glue to get tacky then tamping the decal down with a cotton swab or micro brush. Never fails.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Looking at mine I see I had to paint the areas where the pylons attach to the secondary hull, and the triangles up near the nacelles.

Mach7: I read your question about the 22 inch eagle in the other thread, on mine I cut loops off the springs and then stretched them out, one loop at a time until it sat correctly and still extended when "flying". If you just cut off loops until it sits correctly they get too short to fully extend the pads.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

MartyS said:


> Mach7: I read your question about the 22 inch eagle in the other thread, on mine I cut loops off the springs and then stretched them out, one loop at a time until it sat correctly and still extended when "flying". If you just cut off loops until it sits correctly they get too short to fully extend the pads.


Thanks, do you remember how many loops you cut. krlee says 2 but he does not mention stretching them.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

mach7 said:


> Thanks, do you remember how many loops you cut. krlee says 2 but he does not mention stretching them.


No, looking back at my build thread here I only mention cutting a few loops off and stretching and compressing the springs with pliers to weaken them further.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

All the decals are finally on!!!!!




























They are still drying. A LOT of Micro-sol and set was used!

If all is well I'll trim a few decals if needed and clear coat it.


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

shaping up nicely


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

I'll call this done. There is still some touch up painting I could do, but I think I'm done with it.























































It looks impressive with all the surface detail. I would say it was a fun build, but the decals got to be tedious.


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

well done


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Wrangling those decals is a chore that's for sure. Looks great.


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## FlyingBrickyard (Dec 21, 2011)

Looks good.

At least on the 1/350 scale, painting all of that detail by hand doesn't intimidate me too much, but somehow the thought of decaling the entire surface (even on the 1/1000) does.

Hats off to you!


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

superb rendition


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Thanks everyone. 

I'm glad to have this behind me!


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## StarshipClass (Aug 13, 2003)

Not sure why I thought of it, but it would have been neat if you'd named this model, "USS Bounty."

Seriously, it looks really great.  I like the way the paint job and decals go together for the overall effect.

I don't know why


mach7 said:


> All the decals are finally on!!!!!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## StarshipClass (Aug 13, 2003)

Trekkriffic said:


> I’ve had issues with curl too. The best fix I found was mixing a little white glue with warm water and brushing it under the edge of the decal, waiting 30 seconds for the glue to get tacky then tamping the decal down with a cotton swab or micro brush. Never fails.


Excellent tip! Thanks


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

cool.
tips like that can be used in many applications
thank you


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

If anyone cares I got the replacement impulse engine from R2 today. They said it would be 8 weeks, and it was. I consider that very good service with all the craziness going on and the fact that I lost the part. 

Thanks R2!

BTW does anyone want to buy my donor kit now that it is complete? It will be a long time before I'm ready to do those decals again! ;-)


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