The One I Have Been Waiting for

trekriffic said:
I thought I could light the upper dome using just the ambient light from the ring but it just wasn't bright enough which is why I lit the dome up with its own LED. Now if you were to use the clear dome instead of the translucent doe to be able to see the bridge underneath you wouldn't be lighting the dome anyway,
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Btw, can those leds for the bridge be added onto the lighting kit? Or would that only work with a custom lighting rig?
 
So watching Trekworks revised build of this kit, and found out a couple things I could do right now before I have everything together. He cuts down the rear of the ring inside the lower saucer and the support prongs for the dorsal, as he says they interfere with the fit when sealing the saucer. He showed what he did, and he just cuts them down by 1/2 in. Or less.

Also could start spraying the interiors with flat black and then either white or silver.

EDIT: Just tested the fit of the saucer halves. Mine seem to fit perfectly. As of now I see no need to cut the support structure down around the dorsal connection area.
 
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Thereal9thdoctor said:
So watching Trekworks revised build of this kit, and found out a couple things I could do right now before I have everything together. He cuts down the rear of the ring inside the lower saucer and the support prongs for the dorsal, as he says they interfere with the fit when sealing the saucer. He showed what he did, and he just cuts them down by 1/2 in. Or less.

Also could start spraying the interiors with flat black and then either white or silver.

EDIT: Just tested the fit of the saucer halves. Mine seem to fit perfectly. As of now I see no need to cut the support structure down around the dorsal connection area.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I didn'thave any fit issues either. regarding white or silver I like gloss white myself although flat will dry faster.

Regarding adding additional LEDs to those provided in the lighting kit you should be able to get away with a few. I myself added enough LEDs to merit going with a 12v wall adapter rated at 1 AMP (1000 milliamps). Each section of LED strip uses 20 Milliamps ( the LEDs are in series) while each LED in a parallel circuit takes 20 milliamps. So I'd recommend doing a count of strips and single LEDs to calculate your overall amperage requirements in order to determine if the kit power supply is sufficient or if you need to beef up the amperage of your power supply.
 
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trekriffic said:
Yeah, I didn'thave any fit issues either. regarding white or silver I like gloss white myself although flat will dry faster.
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Gotcha. I am leaning towards flat white.

The area he cuts down is not even remotely a problem for me, in fact that area may need more gluing to keep it from rattling stuff around when assembled.

So about those bridge LEDS... Can I wire them into the lighting kit or is that for a custom setup?
 
Thereal9thdoctor said:
Gotcha. I am leaning towards flat white.

The area he cuts down is not even remotely a problem for me, in fact that area may need more gluing to keep it from rattling stuff around when assembled.

So about those bridge LEDS... Can I wire them into the lighting kit or is that for a custom setup?
Click to expand...
I addressed the LED question above after editing the post.
 
Soo... decided to try painting that bridge.20210731_101225.jpg

Its far from done, of course. But I am not exactly happy. At all. It can be saved, I'm sure. But I should've waited and had my GF paint it, as this is her sort of thing.

But I will say while I am not happy with it so far, its better even now than I expected. I assumed I'd ruin it.
 
After we got back from my friend Sam's today, my GF decided to have a crack at the bridge. Of course I let her.20210731_222158.jpg
It's definitely looking better. She wants me to seal it once the paint dries and she is gonna have another go on it.
 
So decided to start prepping parts and lightblocking, even though it may be a month or more before any real work can happen.

Just couldn't stand staring at the box sitting in the workroom.:p

The saucer parts are just about ready to lightblock. Cut the sprue from the openings and lightly reamed out the round windows and squared up the square ones as needed.

Also got the chance to finally use a gadget I had made a few months back. I made a home made Sand It. Just some MDF glued together, with a 1 pound metal block epoxied to that. Some scrap MDF makes the platform. The design intends for using the metal block as the sanding surface, though in this case, sanding the mold line off the Impulse exhaust unit, I am using the platform instead.

First with 600 grit:20210801_105835.jpg

Then 1000 grit wetsanded. Complete elimination of seam.20210801_105951.jpg
20210801_110923.jpg

Will post more later today.
 
Annd I just screwed up.:( Nothing affecting the kit itself, but I was gonna pencil in the gridlines on the top of the saucer... and for ease of lightblocking glued in the A-B deck part and only NOW, after getting the upper saucer lightblocked, did I realize what I did.


GAAAAHHHHH!!!

Well, guess I'll have to rely on Trekworks' theory that at this scale the gridlines would be basically invisible anyhow.

Still sucks. :mad:
 
Well, after somewhat getting over the fact that I screwed myself on gridlines... I decided to continue lightblocking parts. I unfortunately ran out of black, and am broke till payday Friday, so the rest will just have to wait. But I got the saucer and dorsal done.20210801_165552.jpg20210801_165612.jpg

Also been doing some minor details that I think would be problematic to try to do later, such as:20210801_165632.jpg

The heat vents on the forward secondary hull

20210801_165637.jpg

The rear nacelles(the balls will be painted silver. Not screen accurate I know but I did that on my 3d model of the Condor and loved the look)

20210801_165648.jpg

And the Impulse linear accelerator and painting the back and needle of the Nav Deflector.

My GF thinks I am stressing way too much over goofing the upper saucer. She may be right, but still irks me. But I am slowly getting over it.
 
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So I dunno how much more I can do for the time being. I glued the Linear Accelerator to the upper saucer...20210801_192416.jpg

And got the shuttlebay doors set up as Mr. Trekriffic has his. 20210801_192323.jpg

20210801_192317.jpg

I started by using my mini hacksaw, but I realized in seconds the curvature of the doors would be an issue, so switched to a hobby knife. Then I remembered I had a Tamiya scriber knife, and used that for the bulk of the cutting. Then I carefully snapped the edges once I was almost through, and filed and sanded the edges smooth.

It doesn't fit perfectly, but I'm hoping the areas where the pie wedges looks crappier will be hidden by the upper fantail when the wedge is in place.
 
Ok, last post for the day and likely for a few days on this sucka. So glued the can for the bottom sensor dome in, after I covered it with highly reflective chrome sticker material left over from my Super Minipla and Transformer decals. The LED is a micro flashlight/ bottle opener the management here at the complex gave me when I moved in.20210801_224830.jpg20210801_224833.jpg20210801_224855.jpg

And I also glued in the reinforcement parts for the pylons into the secondary hull, as well as the bottom piece of said hull that the base rod goes into.20210801_224516.jpg20210801_224518.jpg

And I took my moto tool(FIRST USE!!) and ground down the area of the fantail part where the landing bay guidelights are so they will light better through the bare plastic. Then I brushed black on for lightblocking. Will need another coat at least.20210801_224526.jpg20210801_224633.jpg

And finally, took more paint and the chrome decals and have mostly got the bridge lightblocked. The light in the helm console is for the nav screen.20210801_224658.jpg
 
So decided to put together and paint the deflector assembly.20210802_122828.jpg20210802_122834.jpg

And started to cover the bussard innards with reflective tape.
20210802_122841.jpg

Will finish the reflecting application tonight after work. Then I dunno what else I can do till I get more stuff in.
 
So been continuing to clearcoat the deflector, as the gloss is taking many coats to properly cover. Anyhow, got the endcaps done.20210802_151926.jpg

And I decided to test the Tamiya AS-26 that I planned as the main hull color on the Enterprise from the old 3 ship kit set that I've been tinkering with on the side. Didn't like the results20210802_191458.jpg

Too dark and blue for me. So will go with what I usually use on Enterprise models, Light Gull grey. Its practically the hull color, just without the green tint.
 
Well... so I clearcoated the deflector. The first two coats were fine, but it started getting an orange peel texture in one area of the dish.
20210803_131927.jpg
After conferring with Urumomo privately we decided it was either the clearcoat being an alkyd resin attacked the acrylic paint, or I wasn't waiting long enough between coats.

So the decision was made to strip it and repaint... BUT! I am broke till Friday, and I wanted to fix my screwup NOW. So....

I took my moto tool's buffing bit and some agressive wetsanding for a while, and got this.
20210804_093739.jpg

Not pretty, but worlds better than before.

Continued sanding till I got it as smooth as I could with the tools at hand. Then found I had some Testors glosscoat I didn't know I had.
So we now have this:20210804_101528.jpg
I will wetsand after its fully dry. Then recoat.

Will decide for certain after that, but I think I saved it.
 
urumomo said:
It didn't interact with the base acrylic .
That stuff needs a longer cure time before you can build heavier coats . That's why the first 2 coats were OK .
Click to expand...
That is my belief. I got too anxious. Also think the coats were heavier than I intended, especially the last couple.
 
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