Enterprise Refit Fun

[Southern OR]

Well, she's 99% assembled. Body filling is another story. I think I'll forgo bring the saucer drop in window sections to flush. Good news is I got her around 96% flush (I'm my own worst critic). Bad news is that this kit fits so poorly together that I'm going to have to fill in a lot of the joints since a lot of it isn't flush. I think I'll try the plumber's putty since I've used a lot of it in the past when I worked maintenance.

To make it all square I had to adjust the fitting on a nacelle (1/2" gap now) and the saucer section (1/4" gap). I already filled the neck to secondary hull along with the pylons, but that's not counting the rest of the seams. From the multiple threads I've seen the PL doesn't seem to have this bad of a fitting issue-but so far I'm glad I did it. assembly wise (minus yet to do fill and body work) she looks much better then the one hanging in the hobby shop. Thanks for all your help and hopefully we'll have our paint and sealer soon and someday we'll get our "I have a airbrush you can just have." Nothing beats free, but apparently free takes time.

 

[Southern OR]

I keep finding references that the Enterprise 'A' had aft torpedo launchers. Does anyone know where they are? Its one of those things that they make reference of, but doesn't correlate since the same studio model was used in all of the movies. I'd imagine they are behind the fore ones, but thats where the torp vents are.

 

[division 6]

That came up recently in a thread, they where on the original paperwork.
Don't think they where ever found.

 

[Southern OR]

Yeah, 'Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise' makes reference to it but no pics to help (sudo canon but the author had exceptional access to the studio so it still makes a good reference), as do both Memory alpha and beta but the Owners' Workshop Manual basically covers the original refit only and skims over the A. All the openings on the secondary hull are accounted for as vents or purge openings.

If The Enterprise D and Voyager are good references for how SF builds ships with aft and fore torpedo launchers, It would stand to reason that they'd be right behind the fore ones or somewhere on the neck. Kit bash perhaps?

 

[Southern OR]

I might have found them. They might be just above the shuttle bay and just below the phaser array. It's a little iffy since this structure was the same on the original refit, but the 'A' could have had that section redesigned since it does have a much smaller shuttle bay and it would go along with the "Enterprise" Mirror episode with the Constitution variation Defiant firing aft torpedoes.

 

[division 6]

I would be more inclined to think that the corrugated piece on the back of the neck is a door hiding the launcher allowing it to use the same magazine as the 2 forward launchers.

 

[Southern OR]

I was thinking about that at first, but the sheer quantity of torpedoes, the width and length of the neck, and the airlocks wouldn't allow for it. Undiscovered Country gave us a good look at the 'A''s Torpedo system. Besides, the D had a torp launcher dead center in the rear of the secondary hull. Not that much of this matters since the CG guys sometimes didn't pay full attention to the model builder's designs-like the Enterprise E firing torps out of the bottom of the captain's yacht and the Reliant seems to be able to shoot through itself.

Plus it would seem that the "A"s secondary hull got a complete redesign from the original including a TNG like main engineering.

 

[Southern OR]

Well it's somewhat assembled finally. I punctured and trimmed the hull breach and I'm going to have to remove and clean a pylon. For some reason every time I remove the "scaffolding" the pylon droops after a few hours despite having a week to cure. In all the years I've built models this has never happened to me except when I used to much glue. I think it might have something to do with the filler. Other then that it looks good. The breach will look better after it gets some matte black paint.

 

[Southern OR]

Thanks for the heads up on the Apoxie Sculpt. Stuff works great and the pylon isn't moving anymore.

 

[Southern OR]

I figured I would up load my pics of the torpedo damage. It still needs paint but this is it so far. Top and bottom pic.