USS Enterprise (2009) (Revell) review and build

[thorst]

Hello,

it's very warm weather here in germany, not the best environment for building models! But I got some more things done. The windows of the saucer are cast completely, I'm satisfied, although it's far from perfect. I wanted to complete the saucer parts by adding the smaller bits, but I discovered another minor inaccuracy I wanted to correct: The small dome on the aft end of the saucer should be surrounded by a recessed circular area which is not present on the kit part. So I widened the hole through which the clear part should be plugged to the diameter of the recessed circle and glued plastic card behind. Here's the result:



I've also ordered some LED strips in warm and cold white for the window lighting and drilled all holes for fiber optics in the saucer. I'll now glue the remaining parts together and add the fiber optics, so that the saucer is completed. A brass tube (14.29 mm dia) is ordered for the stand, and I have already a matching pug for electronics that will fit snuggly inside the tube. When this arrives I will wirk on the secondary hull.

Thorsten

 

[thorst]

The last opaque plastic parts are glued to the saucer now, and I'm experimenting with the plastic windows and light strips. I'll use the cold white (3528) versions.

I also found another build report (Revell Star Trek Into Darkness Enterprise Build) of the kit which points out another small missing detail, a raised strip going along the saucer spine sides, which I now added to my model as well:


The next step is to finalize the window lighting, I'll post an update when I can show some pictures then

Thorsten

 

[Archive&Future]

Keep it up Thorst! I'm eagerly awaiting the final result, but until then I'll marvel at the care you're putting into the build

 

[DanielB]

Excellent. Looks great.

 

[tanis73]

Thank's a lot for the link, it will be very hepful with your one

 

[Creative Models]

We are almost finished with the 1701A Enterprise by polar lights. We purchased the after market light kit from Trek Modeler which transforms the kit into a whole new dimension. They also have great reference material. STAR TREK USS ENTERPRISE NCC-1701 REFIT PAINT EFFECTS By Trekmodeler - YouTube

 

[thorst]

Guys, I have a question.

I've wired up the basic window lighting of the saucer now. It's built up from 8 sets of 3 LEDs on a strip each, with a resistor for use with 12V. I use 9V. When I connect them to the 9V battery, they are really bright, but when I add the wires of the spotlights (with resistors for 9V use), the window lights dim down a bit. I really could live with this, but I'd like to understand what happens there. And if it will get worse if I add even more lights.

Here are three pictures of the disc in my not fully dark room with everything connected as above:




I think the windows resemble what you see in the movie, they are not as bright as some modelers would do, but I'm not a fan of window lights as bright as the sun anyways. As the spotlights are not focused down to the hull they look brighter as on the CGI model, but I can't change that. Dimming them down means losing the light cone effect on the hull.
And BTW, the CGI models has some lightcones with no light source visible... just look at the spots at the Starfleet logo at the secondary hull's sides to see what I mean. I have the impression that...

They cheat!

Thorsten

 

[Captain April]

They cheated the lighting on the 10 ft. Refit model from "Star Trek The Motion Picture", 90% of the hull lights were spot lights pointed at dentist mirrors just outside of camera range. It's a lot easier to cheat with CGI lighting. That said your lighting looks fantastic, the real thing still looks better than CGI, and I am a 3d artist.

 

[Archive&Future]

I squealed!!

 

[DanielB]

The windows are good. I hate supernova lit windows on models.

 

[NakedMoleRat]

Before you put that all together, would you mind pouring some rubber over it and making a copy to sell me? I live in the US, I'll send my address. :lol

 

[thorst]

Thanks guys! Any ideas about the brightness issue? Is it overloading the battery?

Haven't been able to work on the model today, but will update probably tomorrow. I've put in some diffusion plastic (from a packing box of a tasty cake , sanded on both sides) behind the domes and the spine windows yesterday, what's missing is the impulse engine lighting and the nav lights.

NakedMoleRat, apart from my unableness to cast the electronics with the resin, I guess you would end up cheaper if you just order the Revell kit ;-)

 

[thorst]

I did some testing and thinking about the brightness drop issue today.
It turns out that the reason is a mixture of using an old 9V battery and the
window light strips being designed for 12V.

When the spotlight circuits are plugged to the battery, they cause a small
drop of the battery's output voltage, which is even higher as the battery
I used is old.

As the resistor on the light strips are designed for 12V use, the individual
LEDs on the strips get voltages which are near the threshold of conduction
when used with 9V. Above this threshold, even small differences in voltage
will result in strong variations in current.

The small drop in voltage caused by the load of the spotlights brings the
single LED's effective voltage even more to the threshold of conduction.
Thre resulting current variation is high enough to dim the light noticeable.

To solve the problem, I could now either redesign the circuit to 12V, or try
to get rid of the voltage drop. I don't like the first option, so I'll try to
connect several 9V batteries in parallel. And I'll include an optional connection
to a power supply.

Cheers,
Thorsten

 

[thorst]

Now it was time to install the impulse engine lights. I wanted them not to be bright at all, the ship is thought to be leaving the dock or whatever with the impulse engines being on minimum energy. So I just used two 3mm red LEDs with a resistor being 1.5 times the number one would take for a nice bright shine. They sit about 1cm behind the engine plastic part, with a sanded piece of transparent plastic between to diffuse the light. Here's the result:




I'll add another strip of white LEDs just in front of the impulse engine assembly for the sternmost windows of the spine, which are a bit too dark still.

Time to go to bed now ;-)

Cheers,
Thorsten

 

[moonlightdrive2]

Great info and great kit !

 

[gymaddict94]

View attachment 207308
I found that once the pylons were properly glued, the nacelles lined up just fine with no special jig needed. Now I did put some 5 min epoxy up there and let it cure, but that was it

Aztek Dummy, I'm new to the modeling world and all. Really admire the paint job on the ship. Could you do me a favor and list what paints you used ? Quite low on cash so I wanna know which colors I need a lot of especially for the base coat and the aztec paint patterns :/. Thanks.

- - - Updated - - -

View attachment 207308
I found that once the pylons were properly glued, the nacelles lined up just fine with no special jig needed. Now I did put some 5 min epoxy up there and let it cure, but that was it

Aztek Dummy, I'm new to the modeling world and all. Really admire the paint job on the ship. Could you do me a favor and list what paints you used ? Quite low on cash so I wanna know which colors I need a lot of especially for the base coat and the aztec paint patterns :/. Thanks.

- - - Updated - - -

View attachment 207308
I found that once the pylons were properly glued, the nacelles lined up just fine with no special jig needed. Now I did put some 5 min epoxy up there and let it cure, but that was it

Aztek Dummy, I'm new to the modeling world and all. Really admire the paint job on the ship. Could you do me a favor and list what paints you used ? Quite low on cash so I wanna know which colors I need a lot of especially for the base coat and the aztec paint patterns :/. Thanks.

- - - Updated - - -

View attachment 207308
I found that once the pylons were properly glued, the nacelles lined up just fine with no special jig needed. Now I did put some 5 min epoxy up there and let it cure, but that was it

Aztek Dummy, I'm new to the modeling world and all. Really admire the paint job on the ship. Could you do me a favor and list what paints you used ? Quite low on cash so I wanna know which colors I need a lot of especially for the base coat and the aztec paint patterns :/. Thanks.

- - - Updated - - -

View attachment 207308
I found that once the pylons were properly glued, the nacelles lined up just fine with no special jig needed. Now I did put some 5 min epoxy up there and let it cure, but that was it

Aztek Dummy, I'm new to the modeling world and all. Really admire the paint job on the ship. Could you do me a favor and list what paints you used ? Quite low on cash so I wanna know which colors I need a lot of especially for the base coat and the aztec paint patterns :/. Thanks.

- - - Updated - - -

View attachment 207308
I found that once the pylons were properly glued, the nacelles lined up just fine with no special jig needed. Now I did put some 5 min epoxy up there and let it cure, but that was it

Aztek Dummy, I'm new to the modeling world and all. Really admire the paint job on the ship. Could you do me a favor and list what paints you used ? Quite low on cash so I wanna know which colors I need a lot of especially for the base coat and the aztec paint patterns :/. Thanks.

- - - Updated - - -

View attachment 207308
I found that once the pylons were properly glued, the nacelles lined up just fine with no special jig needed. Now I did put some 5 min epoxy up there and let it cure, but that was it

Aztek Dummy, I'm new to the modeling world and all. Really admire the paint job on the ship. Could you do me a favor and list what paints you used ? Quite low on cash so I wanna know which colors I need a lot of especially for the base coat and the aztec paint patterns :/. Thanks.

 

[Aztek Dummy]

apparently new to the board as well?
I used polyscale brand paint and the majority of it was done from only two colors of paint.
the base color was 100% undercoat light gray. I then mixed a color that was half undercoat light gray and half reefer white and sprayed that on using my aztek template masks. when I removed those I did a light blending coat of 100% reefer white

 

[Aztek Dummy]

sorry, double post

 

[thorst]

Today was shopping time again. I got a new 8-pin plug on which I will mount the ship on,
some IC connectors and most important: IC L7805 voltage regulators. They have an output
voltage of 5V, so I can run the electric motors with them directly. And it will allow me to use the
transistors of the strobe circuit without a resistor on the base (as Orbital Drydock pointed
out, they can handle only 5V there). But I may have to adjust the resistor values of the
circuit a bit therefore. I'll post an updated shematic when it's done.

 

[gymaddict94]

apparently new to the board as well?
I used polyscale brand paint and the majority of it was done from only two colors of paint.
the base color was 100% undercoat light gray. I then mixed a color that was half undercoat light gray and half reefer white and sprayed that on using my aztek template masks. when I removed those I did a light blending coat of 100% reefer white

Thanks man. How much of the paint did you need ? Need loads of advice as this will be my first kit and my first venture into airbrushing. :/