1/2 Studio Scale Refit Enterprise

Underdog

...... Of course there's still this....

Movie One shows the ship being built in the computer....

One Half Studio Scale Refit Project-1.wmv - YouTube

Movie II shows the ship going from the CG model to actual parts....

Refit Movie 2 - YouTube

Movie III shows the ship as it came back in a box, after 2+ years and allegedly three professionals had their hands in it and my reconstruction, there's much more to show...

One Half Studio Scale Refit Reconstruction.wmv - YouTube

So that is essentially the synopsis, after moderators and admin shut me down on the 1/350th TOS and after "Big Jim Slade" was ignored when he asked for references. We worked together and this is what we came up with.

It's amazing what you can do when you are not part of a collective and can think for yourself and work together with each other as a Team.!

Underdog

In the link below you will see recent photos of the final clean-up of some of the parts as well as some scale shots comparing various previous Refit models. This was done by request of one of the members and a persepctive client. Additionally you will see some photos of the other various builds going into the forced perspective fleet. All of these models will be shown together in screen tests and a new movie to promote the kit as soon as it's done. There is no narrative, just photos.

Warning: If you read any of the previous pages of the blog, you may be offended. I have taken the narrative, in past posts, revealing what has been the problems with getting the ship to this point.

Studio Scale Refit: Random Progress Photos..... Temp

JPolacchi

Holy C*&%^#! I want one!

Underdog

Thank you Sir, we sincerely appreciate it...... "It could be yours..."

charonjr

Underdog, this Refit is surely worthy of the name Enterprise! What you two have done to create her, with the accuracy that I see here, is astonishing work! I'm, frankly, impressed. And I don't impress easily. This is museum quality work that I'm seeing here. The detail is spot on. I could go on and on, but I've made my point, I'm sure. I'm looking forward to seeing more, and I agree with JPolacchi: "I WANT ONE!"

Underdog

Thank you, I'm humbled by such sentiments and I don't humble easily.
I will pass this on. I wanted to do another update, but was throwing fiberglass all day, perhaps before Christmas.....????

Underdog

After a very long day, I did come up with an update..... Three layers of glass and a propanes heater to run the glass hot. Tomorrow I finish the 2nd half, pour the silicone and cast the first part of the main engineering hull..... BooYa!

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Underdog

I wanted to DL an update today, but it's still a little premature, so instead I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.....

MOV03148.AVI - YouTube

Underdog

While making molds, casting new parts and working on the forced perspective display I took a couple more scale photos today and decided to focus on some more of the detail that may not have come through some of the previous shots.

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Underdog

I was a busy beaver over the Holiday.... I recieved my last order of laser parts and demolded the engineering hull from the fiberglass glove mold.
You can see clearly in the first photo the parts that are going to be used to add the fine detail to the nacelles, this was made from the brass etch pattern and both will be available to the modeler as well as prcise directions on placement. With regards to the glove mold.... I finished up the second half of it a week, or so ago, but got bogged down by the Holiday... At any rate, I drilled alignment holes through the two parts and through the clay and into the wood that I'm going to be using as the base, so that when I assemble everything to pour the silicone, I'll have a nice airtight mold, with a vent naturally. I carefully demolded that hull, removed most of the clay and ran warm water through the inside to soften the existing clay. I then removed all of the last remnants of the clay and set it out to dry. As soon as it's dry I'm going to clean it further, hit it with several coats of primer, sand, primer again and paint it with a coat of gloss to make it easy to remove the silicone from the mold so that there's no tearing. I know it looks like hell now, but when it's cleaned up and painted I'm sure it will be much more pleasing to the eye. After getting booged down for three with with other stuff I'm glad to see things moving forward again.... Not to mention the "Forced Perspective" models...

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Underdog

I have a big update coming, but I finally got back the laser cut masks for the 350th Refit that I'm building in the Forced Perspective thread and I wanted to show them here, because these patterns are germaine to the 50" Refit as these are the same types of masks that will be available for this ship. I worked with my laser guy to get them at just the right depth so that they can be easily removed and cleaned up for masking, without turning the styrene into a molten heap of styrano-slag.

I'll show how to use these in the FP thread. This is a great item if you do several builds of the same ship / vehical. They're easy to wash clean and reuse again and again. Woot!

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Underdog

Time for a little update.... Loads of photos to get off of the camera and a lot to show. If you go back one page, you'll see how I layed all of this out. I layed things out the way I did to make it possible to create the glove mold in the way I did and to make sure that I could key the master to the workboard and the glove mold and keep everything in alignment with the separate components. Glove mold to master, master to board and board to mold. This will allow me to pour a silicone glove mold, vent it and compensate for the undervut on the model that has to be there as a land for alignment of the spine.

Essentially, I cleaned up the mold and sprayed it with several coats of a brown gloss paint to seal it, then cleaned up a scrap sheet of styrene as a smooth base and covered the OSB with the styrene, drilled all of the holes for 1/4 20 machine screws and realigned all of the parts one to another to be able to place everything in its original positin to pour silicone in the cavity to create a glove mold. I'll use these alignment points in later photos to create an inner blank for back filling the multiple layers of fiberglass with resin, to build the support into the cast.

Much more to come.

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vaderman1701

Time to pour some silicone dude. **** luck.

Underdog

Trust me, I'm on it. I've done what we talked about, but haven't taken the time to keep uploading and editing the photos. I'll have more tomorrow.
WOOT!

Underdog

Staff, I just got a PM that was dated for earlier... Please check that out. Especially after the recent hack.

Shizman

How's this goin?

Underdog

It's going quite well, thanks for asking. I just sat down to take a break from molding and casting. I'll have new updates soon and a new movie, the first one with actual narrative. I have a boat load of photos, I just haven't stopped to update the thread. Sorry, I'm in the zone and want to keep going.

Underdog

Picking up right where I left off.... At the point of the first picture I was looking over everything that I had done to that point and considering what changes I needed to make, The fiberglass glove mold was not as good as it could have been, but that was due to working conditions at the time. I was working in the warmest day we had had in a couple weeks, but that isn't saying much, I still had to fire up the heater and wait for the garage to warm up enough to be able to work. I learned early on the fiberglass reson, polyester resin, enamel paint and so on didn't react to well to cold, heat, or humidity. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way. After the garage got warm I had worked inlayers on the fiberglass glove mold, but should have taken more time and worked more slowly, I'm going to keep that in the front of my memory, so that I don't make the same mistakes next time. As a result of the weather and the time constraints at the time the mold was in such a fashion that I wasn't to happy with it and knew that it needed more work before it could be a viable, working mold. I knew I needed to key the mold for the silicone I was going to pour in the recess between the master and the fiberglass glove, but before that could happen I had to smooth the innersurface out. I also needed a vent at the highest point of the mold, to vent the air, or any bubbles that might have gotten in with the mixxing process. So, essentially I used binary epoxy resin to fill in the places where the mesh was not smooth, used a hole saw to cut a vent, coated the mold with several layers of gloss enamel white and keyed both sides of the mold.
After cutting the vent out, I used a piece of old PVC to create a chimney, but I had to clean it up for so I soaked it in 91% alcohol to remove in contamination, impurities, and some of the sctoch tape that had been on it. I then epoxied the chimney into the mold. I went back to the earlier photos for reference and aligned all of the parts and superglued, or expoxied them back into the proper position, to maintain the original alignment of all of the components. I used the balsa wood to lift the part off of the main baseplate, so that I could clay around it and give myself a clean cut line. I used used pencil erasers left over from old pencils I had bought back in college as keys.

More to come......

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Underdog

Moving forward.... At this point, I started doing the final work neccesary to pour the silicone. I placed a bead of clay around the perimeter of the mold base plate where it met up with the glove mold and used clay to fill in any of the areas there were left where the silicone might be hung up in the glove mold during demolding. I then attached on part of the glove mold at a time and loosely tightend the machine screws in a criss cross pattern, I then went back and forth in the same pattern to slowly compress the clay and provide for an airtight seal. I thought that I was kind over doing it with the number of screws, but found that when I had a little seepage, that I had chosen correctly. Besides the screws, I packed clay in around every where, where there might be a leak. As you can see, I also key the clay under the undercut, to be used to vreate the third part of the glove mold, less the base plate etc.

More to come.....

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kahn1701

Awsome man.

Underdog

Thanks Paul, I can't wait to get caught up with all of the photos, show the movie and get this thing in the box. I appreciate your comments and support.

Keep on Trekkin Brother! =/\=

Underdog

After the silicone had cured to my satisfaction, I removed the backing / base-plate from the glove mold. I knew that I had some seepage, but I thought it was a lot worse than what it turned out to be. The clay that I had packed in around the glove mold really did help and ring around the perimeter worked well too. The outer clay was dried out, but I expected that, I knew that the silicone would cure faster than the clay dried out, even though I had the whole thing sitting in front of an electric heater to speed up the curing process. The inner clay that was keyed to the silicone and attached the master itself was still moist and maleable. I wanted to pour the silicone into the recess between the master and the glove, to set up the fourth part of the mold to compensate for the undercut. It looks like everyting that I planned out is going to work, just fine. Considering I've never done anything like this, I'm a little impressed with myself right now and I don't mind admitting it.
The balsa wood strip worked great, to lift the part off of the base plate and give me a good cut line. Additionally, it worked well to keep the master from floating up into the recess and causing me to have to start over.

Besides the master, I've cast up a rather nice deflector dish, it's a perfect match for the master, all I have to do is finih the sanding and hit it with some clear transparent blue..... Finally, a friend if mine worked up a new impulse grill pattern for the decals, brass etch and or laser cutting. Unfortunately, he wishes to remain anonymous to avoid any hassle.

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kahn1701

Looking great..

Underdog

Thanks Paul, I worked on it more today, but I'm wiped out and am not up to playing with pictures right now, Maybe in a couple of days.

EvanW

Sweet looking job there!