USS Enterprise E from Star Trek Nemesis

[trekriffic]

That looks pretty close Urumomo..,

Carrying on...

Components for powering the display base for lighting:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Base Wiring Up by Steve J, on Flickr

After drilling a hole thru the wooden base, wires from the aluminum display tube are fed into a slot routed out in the underside of the base for soldering to the power jack:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Display Base by Steve J, on Flickr

12V DC power is plugged in and the ship lights up as it should. She's fully masked. One more going over with the alcohol wipe and she gets primed:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Light Check with Base by Steve J, on Flickr

Before final alcohol cleanup I have her a close inspection with the magnifier headset. I was glad I did as I found a few small spots that needed carving or more cleanup, mostly dried putty in the margins. Stuff a digItal camera would notice:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Pointing Her Up by Steve J, on Flickr

Got these at Michaels craft store years ago and forgot about them. Found them and they worked great! I could not have done some of the smaller parts and detail work without them:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Magnifying Headset by Steve J, on Flickr

Parts with detail I don't want getting buried under the primer coat are brushed with liquid mask.
Looking at all the crap still on the surface before final cleanup... it's truly amazing how many sins a good coat of primer will cover up:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Liquid Masking by Steve J, on Flickr

I don't want the primer coat to cover up all the detailing on the stern spine Photorp launcher so I gave it a coat of liquid mask. It will probably be brushed with the final color at the end just before decaling begins:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Liquid Masking by Steve J, on Flickr

Next... reworking the aft ends of the nacelles. Looks like I spoke too soon about being finished with correcting hull details and inaccuracies.

 

[trekriffic]

I finished reworking the aft ends of the nacelles. Now have to look at the framing around the bussard collectors and decide if I need to do any rework there (sigh).

Reworking the aft ends of the nacelles...

So this what I'm shooting for:


Nemesis E - CGI Image - Aft Upper Nacelle Detail by Steve J, on Flickr

This is how rough they looked AFTER cleanup. This will get the same rebuild treatment as the other side...


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Reworking the Aft Nacelles by Steve J, on Flickr

Scribed plastic sheet will replace the grills on the aft ends of each nacelle. I'll build a new frame around and on top of the new grill sections:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Reworking the Aft Nacelles by Steve J, on Flickr

After removal of old grills and gluing in a new grooved styrene grill piece. I'll lay styrene strips around the edge of the grill section to complete the rework:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Reworking the Aft Nacelles by Steve J, on Flickr

After laying on styrene strips the framing of the port grills is complete. Note that the sides of the nacelles gently slope upward so the grill openings are not straight sided trapezoids either. I noticed this in the CGI images:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Accurize and Cleanup Fore and Aft Nacelles by Steve J, on Flickr

 

[Quaralane]

Yoiks

 

[trekriffic]

The raised center strip underneath runs across the slanted aft end and across the top:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Accurize and Cleanup Fore and Aft Nacelles by Steve J, on Flickr

Forward nacelle panels and around the main deflection crystal are cleaned up.
I'll do the same for the starboard side:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Accurize and Cleanup Fore and Aft Nacelles by Steve J, on Flickr

You can see the sloping profile of the aft upper nacelle end in this photo. I had to file and sand the hull to get the gentle curve I wanted:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Accurize and Cleanup Fore and Aft Nacelles by Steve J, on Flickr

After final cleanup with alcohol wipes and a few shots of Krylon Dark Grey primer:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- In Primer by Steve J, on Flickr

After airbrushing the first basecoat:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- First Basecoat by Steve J, on Flickr

This time a few drops of Model Master medium grey was added to the airbrush mixture:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Second Basecoat by Steve J, on Flickr

 

[Quaralane]

Starting to really looks like a starship now

 

[trekriffic]

Second basecoat...


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Second Basecoat by Steve J, on Flickr

Masking...

The secondary hull and warp,engines are slightly darker aft of the saucer separation arc. There is an even darker set of panels flanking the aft end of the strongback oval which has been masked off for painting:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Panel Masking by Steve J, on Flickr

Test look with grill...

The medium dark grey I used for the trim on top of the nacelles looks almost the same color as the dark grey primer I used on the photo-etch grills. A good match:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP-Nacelle Upper Grill Test Look by Steve J, on Flickr

Colors used on this build so far...

The large bottles are...
On the left, the secondary hull, nacelle pylons, nacelles, and ventral saucer light grey enamel;
and the slightly lighter upper saucer and nacelle accent, very light grey.
The small plastic containers (pots) are, from left to right...
Two pots of the upper nacelle trim (around the blue glowing grill) medium dark grey, the second pot is just thinned down.
The pot on the right is the color I used for the medium grey panels on the strongback.
There will be more shades to come I'm pretty sure.


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Shades of Grey by Steve J, on Flickr

Accent colors...

I decided to brush paint the various greys using thinned enamels using Tamiya tape and a liner brush:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Nacelle Accent Painting by Steve J, on Flickr

A darker grey variant of the secondary and nacelle hull color was used on these panels. I may lighten them a bit once I can see the contrast with the secondary hull lighter grey after de-masking:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Strongback Accent Painting by Steve J, on Flickr

Light test after unmasking. I like how the fiber optic "porch" lights turned out:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Saucer Shuttlebay Unmasked by Steve J, on Flickr

The lower saucer flood masking tape is removed and cleaned up:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Lower Floodlight Unmasked by Steve J, on Flickr

A few spots to clean up in the corners but otherwise this turned out pretty well:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Lower Flood after Unmasking by Steve J, on Flickr

 

[trekriffic]

The upper floodlight masking tape is removed and cleanup begun on the edges. It will be interesting to see how this looks once the aztec decals are on:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Unmasking by Steve J, on Flickr

Did a little sanding around the edges to eliminate any paint ridges. An aztec decal will cover the whole area including the floodlight:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Unmasking and Cleanup by Steve J, on Flickr

Video!

The model is partially unmasked. Still have to unmask three bussards, the tops of the nacelles, impulse engines, the deflector dish, and some of the running lights. The floodlights on he saucer will be mostly covered by aztec decals.The aztec wallpaper decals mean I could have been sloppier with the paint but I can't work that way so... I have spent hours pointing up and fixing very small imperfections; mostly cleaning up small bits of putty that must have stuck to my fingers then stuck to the model unnoticed until later or reshaping some of the window ports.
Seems like overkill maybe but the camera will show up any mistakes; mistakes which could spoil the illusion of a real starship that you are trying to create:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- In the Dark Video by Steve J, on Flickr

Stand by for more exciting transmissions!

 

[Quaralane]

Looking VERY good here.
Your work is paying off

 

[trekriffic]

More reveals...

I scribed around the edges of the bussard masks with a #11 exacto blade before peeling off the tape:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- All Bussards Unmasked by Steve J, on Flickr

Deflector dish unmasked...

The tape was really stuck down tight but I eventually got the edge to come free to peel it off.
Then I cleaned the face of the dish with alcohol.
I'll try wrapping the rim of the dish (which protrudes from the hull about 1/32") with copper tape before I attach the photo-etch brass grill to the clear plastic face of the dish:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Deflector Dish Unmasked by Steve J, on Flickr

The brightness of the deflector dish will be toned down quite a bit once I glue the photo-etch grills in place.
Should still be bright enough though:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- More Unmasking by Steve J, on Flickr

I'll leave the tape around the saucer rim until I start decaling the upper saucer. Keeps the edge clean while I work on the rest of the ship decals:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- More Unmasking by Steve J, on Flickr

I do like the look of the bussards, reminds me of lave churning although the effect is static for this model:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- More Unmasking by Steve J, on Flickr

Sort of looks like the model box cover:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- More Unmasking by Steve J, on Flickr

Here's a quick video:

USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Unmasking by Steve J, on Flickr

Unmasking continues. Still need to uncover the impulse engines and upper nacelles.

Stay tuned for the next episode...

Disaster Strikes!

 

[Wolf Star]

She's looking fantastic!

 

[urumomo]

Dang , bro .

 

[lancerunolfsson]

Wow, I'm impress just by the sheer number and complexity of the decals you are going to wind up placing.

 

[trekriffic]

She's looking fantastic!

Thanks! Got a ways to go but she's coming along.

 

[trekriffic]

Dang , bro .

Thanks!

 

[trekriffic]

Had one of the worst things in electrified modeling happen when I messed up and broke the DC power jack in the underside of the secondary hull loose from inside the model when I pressed down too hard on the coaxial DC plug.
There must have been a slight misalignment between the tubing rings that connected the jack to the mounting
hole where the coaxial plug display tube plugged in.
My heart sank.

I would now have to cut open the underside and re-attach the polypropylene (or whatever that black plastic is) jack to the inside of the hull plug hole.
Using a razor saw and scribing tool I cut out a rectangular opening around the jack socket in the underside of the model.

Thank god this happened before I applied the aztec panel decals!



There it was... the power jack... ripped from its moorings and pushed down into the wiring.
The ease with which the jack broke free confirmed that I needed to come up with a better, stronger mounting point for the model.
Luckily I left enough slack in the wires to be able to pry the jack up
and out of the opening I had cut without having to remove it and re-solder the wires.

I suppose it was a good thing this happened when it did though.
The joint was weak as it turned out and, I think, would have broken at some point down the road anyway:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Power Jack Disaster and Rework by Steve J, on Flickr

Spacer test fit for proper insertion depth using the DC power plug from the base and a spare DC power jack from my stash.
A box will be constructed around the black plastic jack for the jack in the model to glue into:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Power Jack Disaster and Rework by Steve J, on Flickr

Rather than just gluing the old jack back to the mounting hole
like before, I decided to improve the entire power/mounting point assembly by building a box to fit around the sides of the jack.
Here is a spare jack I used to build the new super strong jack with L brackets
that will be glued to the sides of the black power jack inside the model using Plastic Surgery glue and epoxy:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Power Jack Disaster and Rework by Steve J, on Flickr

New DC power jack mount checked for levelness on base. I also held up the model behind it and it will sit nice and level when the hull piece is glued back into the underside of the model:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Power Jack Disaster and Rework by Steve J, on Flickr

The mounting box is completed for the power jack using styrene sheet, tubing, and AVES Apoxy Sculpt.
It will be glued up and plugged onto the power jack which is still soldered in place inside the model:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Power Jack Disaster and Rework by Steve J, on Flickr

Muuuuch better mounting point after replacing the flimsy jack glue attachment method that broke under stress. Just a few light leaks to fill in around the hull piece I'd had to slice out to make the repair:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Improved Mounting Point by Steve J, on Flickr

The new display mount is much sturdier. No wobble at all on the stand. Here are the unmasked impulse engines:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Impulse Engines Unmasked by Steve J, on Flickr

So... I will need to putty and touch up paint around the seams then I will get back to the detail painting.

 

[Quaralane]

Very nice recovery from potential disaster

 

[trekriffic]

I filled in around the hull part I had had to cut out to effect repair of the DC Power jack mounting point with putty.
The first putty was water based PPP mixed with black watercolor pushed into the seams to eliminate a few light leaks from inside the model.
After this dried I filled the seams with AVES Apoxy sculpt To smoothness.
Next morning I brushed the whole area with more hull color, about 3 coats did the trick.
It didn't have to be perfect since the entire thing is covered by an aztec decal but it still looks pretty good I think.
A much improved stronger mounting point now:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Repair Complete by Steve J, on Flickr

After removing the Tamiya tape and cleaning up any primer flakes I placed the PE grills on top and lit 'em up! Love the even glow I got using the diffuser materials:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Upper Nacelle Blue Panels Unmasked by Steve J, on Flickr

I removed the tiny piece of Tamiya tape masking the quantum torpedo port located just under the front of the Captain's yacht. There was some dried liquid mask as well. After that I touched up around the opening using a fine tipped brush and some of the thinned lower hull color:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Quantum Torpedo Cleanup by Steve J, on Flickr

The quantum torpedo port lit up with its blue LED:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Quantum Torpedo Port Lit After Unmasking by Steve J, on Flickr

Tailoring the detail painting to match the decal sheet:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Decal Sheet Comparison by Steve J, on Flickr

Masked and painted around recessed window ports and photorp launcher. The captain's yacht was painted with metallic black and a mix of light grey enamel and black decal film trimmed to fit the yacht's warp pylons:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- More Masking by Steve J, on Flickr

Still finishing up detail painting on the Cousteau captain's yacht. Removed masking after painting the forward secondary hull dual photon torpedo launcher and the window recesses:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Unmasking by Steve J, on Flickr

New Decals for the front of the nacelle and RCS thrusters. Courtesy of meatloafr over on All Scale Trek. Meatloafr printed the decals in two sizes and provided plenty of spares. He also printed several iterations of a Nemesis base decal:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Meatloafr Decals by Steve J, on Flickr

 

[Hagoth]

Fantastic job on this. Thanks for sharing the setbacks and recovery processes as it will come in as a handy guide to future travelers following behind.

 

[trekriffic]

I filled in around the hull part I had had to cut out to effect repair of the DC Power jack mounting point with putty.
The first putty was water based PPP mixed with black watercolor pushed into the seams to eliminate a few light leaks from inside the model.
After this dried I filled the seams with AVES Apoxy sculpt To smoothness.
Next morning I brushed the whole area with more hull color, about 3 coats did the trick.
It didn't have to be perfect since the entire thing is covered by an aztec decal but it still looks pretty good I think:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Repair Complete by Steve J, on Flickr

After removing the Tamiya tape and cleaning up any primer flakes I placed the PE grills on top and lit 'em up! Love the even glow I got using the diffuser materials:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Upper Nacelle Blue Panels Unmasked by Steve J, on Flickr

I removed the tiny piece of Tamiya tape masking the quantum torpedo port located just under the front of the Captain's yacht.
There was some dried liquid mask as well. After that I touched up around the opening using a fine tipped brush and some
of the thinned lower hull color:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Quantum Torpedo Cleanup by Steve J, on Flickr

The quantum torpedo port lit up with its blue LED:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Quantum Torpedo Port Lit After Unmasking by Steve J, on Flickr

The blue LED shining thru a thin layer of hull color inside the quantum torpedo port.
I had planned to clean it up but I may just leave it as is; it serves to mute the brightness which is better I think.
If you look even closer you can see shallow grooves I scribed inside the hole with a pointy scribing tool:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Quantum Torpedo Port Lit - Closeup by Steve J, on Flickr

Tailoring the detail painting to match the decal sheet:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Decal Sheet Comparison by Steve J, on Flickr

Masked and painted around recessed window ports and photorp launcher. The captain's yacht was painted with metallic black and a mix of light grey enamel and black decal film trimmed to fit the yacht's warp pylons:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- More Masking by Steve J, on Flickr

Still finishing up detail painting on the Cousteau captain's yacht. Removed masking after painting the forward secondary hull dual photon torpedo launcher and the window recesses:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Unmasking by Steve J, on Flickr

New decals for the front of the nacelle and RCS thrusters. Courtesy of meatloafr over on All Scale Trek. Meatloafr printed the decals in two sizes and provided plenty of spares. He also printed several iterations of a Nemesis base decal:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Meatloafr Decals by Steve J, on Flickr

After two days of hell I finished the yacht. The gloss will be cut down to satin flatness after the final clear coat:


USS Enterprise E - Nemesis-WIP- Captain's Yacht Gloss by Steve J, on Flickr

 

[Bouq]

great job!
Thanks a lot for the explanations. It's as real lesson.