W.I.P. ---1/1000 TOS Enterprise by Polar Lights
- Thread starter trekriffic
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Glorfindel
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Love your approach to such a small kit. Very nice.
fumblethumbs
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Yeah, some really great techniques here trek! Thanks for sharing.
trekriffic
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Here she is after being dirtied up with pastel chalk last night. I know, I know, it's ugly, but remember, this will be covered over with the final thinned down spray of the basecoat. The effect will be much more subtle than this when I'm done. I just had to give her some staining to look like she did on screen. I just can't seem to make one of these without weathering of some kind...
I should be able to give her her final shot of the basecoat this weekend and them I'll paint the darker grey bits.
I should be able to give her her final shot of the basecoat this weekend and them I'll paint the darker grey bits.
NecronautDrummer
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Very cool and informative build!
trekriffic
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Thanks igard!
Thanks NecronautDrummer (cool name BTW).
Progress from today after overspraying with thinned down basecoat.
The staining/weathering is pretty subtle now for the most part.
Some areas a little too much so.
After it dries I'll probably give it a once over with 600 grit sanding film to restore some of the weathering in certain areas.
Alternatively I've had real good luck with subtle weathering using water-based gel ink pens.
By and large, I'm satisfied with the upper saucer and warp nacelles.
The secondary hull and under the saucer need just a little more weathering added back; although not too much.
I'll also need to go back and repaint the accent tones on the front of the dorsal and behind and underneath the bussards-the overspray really washed those areas out.
This time though I'lll add a little SAC Bomber Green in addition to Azure Blue to the mix with the hull color and go lighter.
Now I need to give it a day before handling it; that's the downside of enamels of course-DRYING TIME!
That and the smell!
My wife is super sensitive to odors and wouldn't let me in the house until I changed out of the flannel shirt I was wearing in the garage.
Me it doesn't bother, but, then again, I can't smell much of anything now after years of model painting! :
Anyway, here are the pics:
Thanks NecronautDrummer (cool name BTW).
Progress from today after overspraying with thinned down basecoat.
The staining/weathering is pretty subtle now for the most part.
Some areas a little too much so.
After it dries I'll probably give it a once over with 600 grit sanding film to restore some of the weathering in certain areas.
Alternatively I've had real good luck with subtle weathering using water-based gel ink pens.
By and large, I'm satisfied with the upper saucer and warp nacelles.
The secondary hull and under the saucer need just a little more weathering added back; although not too much.
I'll also need to go back and repaint the accent tones on the front of the dorsal and behind and underneath the bussards-the overspray really washed those areas out.
This time though I'lll add a little SAC Bomber Green in addition to Azure Blue to the mix with the hull color and go lighter.
Now I need to give it a day before handling it; that's the downside of enamels of course-DRYING TIME!
That and the smell!
My wife is super sensitive to odors and wouldn't let me in the house until I changed out of the flannel shirt I was wearing in the garage.
Me it doesn't bother, but, then again, I can't smell much of anything now after years of model painting! :
Anyway, here are the pics:
smusno
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- Sep 11, 2011
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- 319
I love these grass roots builds.
Its interesting for the experienced guys, as it provokes questions and makes you re assess your own work.
And for noobs like me, it's almost a "how too" for trek buff's.
love love love.
I might emulate this when I do my Revell TOS E
Its interesting for the experienced guys, as it provokes questions and makes you re assess your own work.
And for noobs like me, it's almost a "how too" for trek buff's.
love love love.
I might emulate this when I do my Revell TOS E
ModelMakerMike
"It's Slobberin' time""
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- May 28, 2011
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She's looking real good. A lot of work for such a small model.
trekriffic
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ModelMakerMike said:She's looking real good. A lot of work for such a small model.
I find that these small models can take as much or more effort than their larger cousins.
At least, if you want to try and create the illusion of them being much larger than they really are.
That's where weathering and preshading comes into play obviously.
trekriffic
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Having finished the weathering with black gel ink, attention turned to the small lights that were overlooked by Polar lights when they designed the kit.
I have seen many fine builds of this model kit that do not include these lights; nevertheless, they were there on the original Enterprise.
Photos of the studio model support their existence and Alan Sinclair even shows them on his blueprints.
These are incredibly tiny "bits" (as the Brits would say) in this scale and the work involved drilling tiny mounting holes with a pinvise and turning red, green, and clear acrylic rod on the dremel to the smallest of diameters using a scribing tool, needle files, and sanding sticks.
In the case of the tiny lights on the upper saucer rim located outboard of the main flashing formation lights, the plastic was filed and sanded to a teardrop shape before being cut from the rod with an Xacto knife and glued in place with CA.
Anyway, here are the pics...
Bridge dome lights:
These tiny lights are actually conical in shape and they light up very well on my model.
Spine lights over the hangar bay:
The outer tinier lights are greenish yellow and the center red light sticks up higher than you would expect.
Port and starboard saucer lights next to the rim:
These are teardrop shaped.
Once in place a tiny brush was used to apply Testors Neon Red and Green enamel.
Outer rim lights on the saucer rim itself:
These don't light up so I'll paint them white.
b]Nacelle bussard collar lights:[/b]
Without a doubt the most overlooked lights on the Enterprise. Apparently not even lit on the studio model; mine, however, are lit.
So, purists could say my build is not 100% accurate to the original, but... I don't listen to rivet counters much...
This sequence of photos shows how I installed the stern hangar bay warning strobe lights which I made from acrylic rod and brass tubing some weeks back prior to painting the hull...
Soft wax adhesive is smeared on the tip of a flat toothpick and used to hold the strobe:
A round toothpick is used to insert Testors styrene cement into the hole on each side of the hull:
The strobe light is placed into the mounting hole:
Strobes installed:
These are not lit on my model, in fact, none of the lights in the engineering hull are lit; however, on my next build of this kit (the Defiant) I'll be using a 9 volt external battery which will give me more room (and a larger power budget) to play with lighting for the secondary hull. It would be great if I could have these light flash.
So that's it for the tiny lights. The next thing I did was finish the spike on the deflector dish which had been replaced at the start of this build with brass rod.
I had glued the tiny plastic tip from the kit spike (it's shaped like the mouth of a bugle with a ball in it's throat) to the end of the brass wire with CA.
This was extremely delicate work as you can imagine and not something I would look forward to doing twice so... of course, the tip broke off when I was in the midst of painting and weathering the hull and flew off into the garage never to be found again.
I was prepared to scavenge a new tip form one of my other 3 unbuilt 1/1000 kits but, after some thought, I decided a better fix would be to make the new tip from brass which i did using my dremal and brass tubing.
So using my scribing tool I shaped a conical collar which fit right over the brass wire and stayed put with CA.
I just need to make the little ball for the tip now.
I'll probably make it from Tamiya epoxy putty and stick it onto the spike followed by some thin CA for added strength after it dries.:
Here are some pics of her as she is right now...ready for glossocte and decals...
Lit up!
Before I spray the glosscote though I'm seriously considering giving her a rubdown with model wax.
Most car modellers will know what I'm talking about as it's used primarily to give shine to car model finshes.
It gives an ultra smooth (slippery in fact) finish and also deepens the color a shade.
I used it on the 18 incher and really liked the results.
I have seen many fine builds of this model kit that do not include these lights; nevertheless, they were there on the original Enterprise.
Photos of the studio model support their existence and Alan Sinclair even shows them on his blueprints.
These are incredibly tiny "bits" (as the Brits would say) in this scale and the work involved drilling tiny mounting holes with a pinvise and turning red, green, and clear acrylic rod on the dremel to the smallest of diameters using a scribing tool, needle files, and sanding sticks.
In the case of the tiny lights on the upper saucer rim located outboard of the main flashing formation lights, the plastic was filed and sanded to a teardrop shape before being cut from the rod with an Xacto knife and glued in place with CA.
Anyway, here are the pics...
Bridge dome lights:
These tiny lights are actually conical in shape and they light up very well on my model.
Spine lights over the hangar bay:
The outer tinier lights are greenish yellow and the center red light sticks up higher than you would expect.
Port and starboard saucer lights next to the rim:
These are teardrop shaped.
Once in place a tiny brush was used to apply Testors Neon Red and Green enamel.
Outer rim lights on the saucer rim itself:
These don't light up so I'll paint them white.
b]Nacelle bussard collar lights:[/b]
Without a doubt the most overlooked lights on the Enterprise. Apparently not even lit on the studio model; mine, however, are lit.
So, purists could say my build is not 100% accurate to the original, but... I don't listen to rivet counters much...
This sequence of photos shows how I installed the stern hangar bay warning strobe lights which I made from acrylic rod and brass tubing some weeks back prior to painting the hull...
Soft wax adhesive is smeared on the tip of a flat toothpick and used to hold the strobe:
A round toothpick is used to insert Testors styrene cement into the hole on each side of the hull:
The strobe light is placed into the mounting hole:
Strobes installed:
These are not lit on my model, in fact, none of the lights in the engineering hull are lit; however, on my next build of this kit (the Defiant) I'll be using a 9 volt external battery which will give me more room (and a larger power budget) to play with lighting for the secondary hull. It would be great if I could have these light flash.
So that's it for the tiny lights. The next thing I did was finish the spike on the deflector dish which had been replaced at the start of this build with brass rod.
I had glued the tiny plastic tip from the kit spike (it's shaped like the mouth of a bugle with a ball in it's throat) to the end of the brass wire with CA.
This was extremely delicate work as you can imagine and not something I would look forward to doing twice so... of course, the tip broke off when I was in the midst of painting and weathering the hull and flew off into the garage never to be found again.
I was prepared to scavenge a new tip form one of my other 3 unbuilt 1/1000 kits but, after some thought, I decided a better fix would be to make the new tip from brass which i did using my dremal and brass tubing.
So using my scribing tool I shaped a conical collar which fit right over the brass wire and stayed put with CA.
I just need to make the little ball for the tip now.
I'll probably make it from Tamiya epoxy putty and stick it onto the spike followed by some thin CA for added strength after it dries.:
Here are some pics of her as she is right now...ready for glossocte and decals...
Lit up!
Before I spray the glosscote though I'm seriously considering giving her a rubdown with model wax.
Most car modellers will know what I'm talking about as it's used primarily to give shine to car model finshes.
It gives an ultra smooth (slippery in fact) finish and also deepens the color a shade.
I used it on the 18 incher and really liked the results.
ModelMakerMike
"It's Slobberin' time""
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- May 28, 2011
- Messages
- 1,838
Looks great!
trekriffic
Well-Known Member
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- Jan 6, 2012
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- 996
Thanks Igard! Thanks Mike!
I like how the weathering adds a sense of scale to the model making it seem much larger than it actually is. When I'm done I'll take some pics of her against my space backdrop.
I can hardly wait to see how those shots look!
Anyway, I gave her a rub down and polish with Model Wax last night.
She came out nice and slick to the touch and maybe a tiny bit darker but not much.
It also seems that the weathering is a bit more muted than before which is fine too.
I should spray her with Glosscote tonight and then I'll apply decals over the weekend.
First I'm going to mask the engine domes again. I want the domes to stay clean.
I'll also put the masking tape "hat" back over the deflector dish array. I like the metallic sheen it has.
I figure if there's on thing on the ship that would stay clean it would be the deflector dish since it should always be on unless the ship was stationary.
Being on, there should be no dust or grime getting thru the deflector field to stain it.
My theory on the stains you see on the hull are they are mostly caused by heat from the few ocassions when the ship has entered a planet's atmosphere. My opinion, but, I doubt the deflector dish would have any ability to block heat from reaching the hull since heat is not a particle.
I like how the weathering adds a sense of scale to the model making it seem much larger than it actually is. When I'm done I'll take some pics of her against my space backdrop.
I can hardly wait to see how those shots look!
Anyway, I gave her a rub down and polish with Model Wax last night.
She came out nice and slick to the touch and maybe a tiny bit darker but not much.
It also seems that the weathering is a bit more muted than before which is fine too.
I should spray her with Glosscote tonight and then I'll apply decals over the weekend.
First I'm going to mask the engine domes again. I want the domes to stay clean.
I'll also put the masking tape "hat" back over the deflector dish array. I like the metallic sheen it has.
I figure if there's on thing on the ship that would stay clean it would be the deflector dish since it should always be on unless the ship was stationary.
Being on, there should be no dust or grime getting thru the deflector field to stain it.
My theory on the stains you see on the hull are they are mostly caused by heat from the few ocassions when the ship has entered a planet's atmosphere. My opinion, but, I doubt the deflector dish would have any ability to block heat from reaching the hull since heat is not a particle.
trekriffic
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2012
- Messages
- 996
She's done! Finished pics here:
http://www.scalemodeladdict.com/index.php/topic,5311.msg81950.html#msg81950
http://www.scalemodeladdict.com/index.php/topic,5311.msg81950.html#msg81950
