USS Columbia NX-02, 1/1000 Polar Lights

[YOULI]

The Polar lights Star Trek model kit line is marvellous. It's easy, full of details, and cheap.
I bought several on Starship Modeler years ago and planned to do a lot of converted ones.

Here is the X-02 COlumbia. Since I failed to reproduce here the metallic color of the hull, to silver in my taste, I choose to make the sistership of the Enterprise. The Aztec paneling was done with the Gundam marker, not good enough though even If it appears to give a "panel" look... It's a quick and easy way to make it. The built took one week end only.




some pictures...

 

[Quaralane]

Looks good.
Reminds me that I still have one of these in my stash to do something with

 

[ModelMakerMike]

Looks good,
mine is currently on display in a hobby shop 50 miles away.

 

[Solander]

Great job as always, YOULI!
I really like how the hull looks with all those aztec panels You've added (thumbs up for making them by hand, I know what a hard work that is) and how it is different a bit from the NX-Ent: it immediately gives the feeling of another ship, but still same class.
P.S: this beauty You've created is so cool, makes me even sad it had to die on it's first mission :-[

 

[YOULI]

Thanks...

In fact it was easy, and very low time consuming. With Gundam markers some "paint" phase are just a walk in the wood.

You take the REAL TOUCH MARKER from GUNDAM MARKERS, the grey or black ones arte the one you want to draw the panel lines. Do one at a time since you need to wipe the panel with a tissue paper, leaving only a trace of the pigments there. Do H letters, L or U, in order to give your panels the aztec look from a distance. It's very effective on metallic painted surfaces. And it's beautifully rendered on my ISS Enterprise more than on this Columbia.

 

[fumblethumbs]

Really nice job on this YOULI!!

 

[Igard]

Great job here, Youli!

 

[dazed1]

That's a great job on the Columbia! The Gundam paint pens technique you describe is really interesting. Will have to keep it in mind.

 

[YOULI]

Please, give it a try
The only thing to do is not waiting too long to wipe the ink, the more you wait, the more dark and "drawn" looking you'll have on the mettalic surface.

I'm sorry to not have better picture to show you guys. It was done almost 5 years ago with a very nasty APN.
And take a look at my ISS Enterprise. The improvement is "visible" and it's the same technic only with finest "H" or "U" letters. But definitly quick and easy, since I did the two kits, each one, in 2 days.
The clear parts were not painted, the red, the blue and the green were done with simple markers you can find in every shop.
http://www.scalemodeladdict.com/forum/index.php/topic,4464.0.html