Star Trek DS9 Runabout scratch-build WIP

Sadly the CF card in my good camera is completly gone, and not readable anymore, so all early stage WIP photos are gone.

It's my second model build since I was a boy, so it goes along a bit slowly, but I had two weeks off work at the start of this month, so I got quite a bit done.

I started building this model by doing a rough 3d model from which i made a pepakura file. It's about 33cm long (that would be about 13 inches?). Starting with a paper model I continued using paper and cardboard (and a few styrene pieces). It's about 95% percent cardboard and paper (not counting the nacelles, which will be cast in resin) plus about two cans of primer so far

Right now it's about 80-90% finished, i still have to cast the nacelles, which I intend to cast in clear resin for lighting purposes. I have allready put some blinking LEDs in as nav. lights. The cockpit and the orange glowy things between the nacelles and main body are lit too.
The paintjob needs some touching up too, but nothing to serious.
I am trying to add some pictures, let's see what I can find on my backup camera (which is not that good, quality whise).
I know, it's not really screen accurate, I made some mistakes in the 3d model, which i detected too late but it just looks a bit more streamlined, so nothing too bad.

Just finished the first two parts for the nacelle molds, the bottom part came out really good, but, the top half, lets say, not that much, but considering the silikon ist about half old shredded molds, it's not too bad, and nothing i can't fix later.

i hope, that i can do the molds for the front of the nacelles, tomorrow evening after work. so long ^^

Man that looks great. I think its much better the screen version. It seems to have a lot less panels, which IMHO looks so much better. Very nice!

Beautiful work! Great build of a really awesome craft. I've been watching Ds9 again and realizing just how awesome it really is!

thank you very much for your kind words!

just a small update for now:
I filled the gap around the cockpit windows and repainted it
and the molds for the nacelles finished. Now I just have to buy some clear resin.

(and I'm looking very much forward to threading all the wiring and the fiber optics for the nav. lights through these tight spaces )

Very good work, do you know the size difference to the amt kit?

oh, I don't know how big the amt kit was/is.
But google tells me that the dimensions of the amt kit are:

Length = 32 cm
Width = 19 cm
Height = 7.7 cm

so mine is a bit longer, but not as wide (just a tiny bit under 19cm) and height wise about the same.

why do you ask? ^^

Looking great!

PoDo said:

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oh, I don't know how big the amt kit was/is.
But google tells me that the dimensions of the amt kit are:

Length = 32 cm
Width = 19 cm
Height = 7.7 cm

so mine is a bit longer, but not as wide (just a tiny bit under 19cm) and height wise about the same.

why do you ask? ^^

Just curious mate to understand the size of your version

I thougt you needed a replacment nacelle or something like that ^^

I just made up a reasonable size, wich wasn't too big and would take up to much shelf space, and still allow for good details, and told the pepakura designer how big I wanted it printed ^^

First clear part pulled. I got some, or rather a lot of bubbles, but luckily none in the parts that will be left transparent, just in those parts, that will be light blocked, so i can just fix them with some filler.

I think, once i cleared the seems, it will be ok to use, but overall I'm not too unhappy with this as a first pull ^^

well, after half my clear resin gone, I had to realise that I'm not able to rotocast the nacelles, so that they would be hollow (the clear resin wouldn't form a even coat, it just cured in lumps). So I build complete new nacelles. I decided to only made small clear parts for the sides, the rest i built with cardboard and styrene. The bussards i already roughly paintet, so that i can only mask them of once they're glued to the nacelle bodies.
Well I learned something new, clear resin does behave very different from the "normal" one I normally use.

Tomorrow I will cast the other two clear parts I need (one is done, and another is curing right now), and I'll try to come up with a nice lighting solution for the blue glowing parts.

soo. I think the new nacelles will turn out great. I temporarly attached one to the shuttle (nothing glued on, it's just held on by its wires ) it still needs more lightblocking but the first one ist essentially done. The second one needs some filler, and I have to glue the bottom details on. but I think, I get them done this weekend. Then I just have to finnish the wiring and build a nice stand.

thanks for looking and so log

nearly there!

I need to do some paint touch up and build a nice base. Unfortunatly the cockpit light doesn't work as planed, the led's burned out, I guess i forgot to wire in some resistors, but the rest of the leds do work