Star Trek Into Darkness U.S.S. Enterprise Model Kit

T

Trekwars fan 82

New Member
Hey this is trekwars and I'll be documenting my build of the 1:500 enterprise kit from Revell of Germany. I'm fairly new to the RPF and I've been sitting back and admiring all the work that other modelers have done, especially on their own Enterprise kits. Now I've already put together a kit (actually in the final stages of completion) of the enterprise from the new movie, using the light kit from Evan's Lighting. But this time I've been encouraged to do a more detailed and documented build since I was going to make another one anyway. However, this time I'll be using the light kit from Evan's Lighting and the photoetch from Paragrafix, along with tweaking details they missed or left out when Revell produced the model.

My first step in documenting my progress was research all the light areas of the ship, which were far too many. For a ship design that I like, It's actually one of the things I hate about it------far too many lights. They should have kept the lighting comparatively simple, like the TOS movies. I think so far I've counted within a ballpark figure of 50 or so lit areas. If I'm mistaken please let me know. Anyway, to start the process I'll be borrowing stills of the enterprise from the blu ray inspection tour of Star Trek(2009).


First up, lighting on the top saucer section:
IMG_00612.jpg
 
Thanks, guys. Sorry it took me so long to get back to the updates. I'm in the middle of moving and still doing research with reference photos and collecting supplies like CA glue and strip styrene. But here is the rest of the lighting references.

The top saucer consists of five (2x blinking) strobes: 1 forward, 1 port, 1 starboard, and 2 aft on either side of the impulse deck. Five sets of spotlights: 3 highlighting the registry and 2 highlighting the port and starboard phaser banks.(Note: there are also two spotlights on both sides of the port and starboard strobe lights.) And last is a nav beacon(1x blinking) on top of the bridge.

top saucer.jpg


2) Bottom Saucer:
Again a repeat of the 5 strobe lights(2x blinking) in the same sections, with the aft strobes spaced further out. And spotlights coming from the navigational dome, highlighting the 3 phaser banks and the neck.

bottom saucer.jpg



3) Spine: There is lighting along the spine, most of which is internal, with 4 small spotlights along the spine.

spine.jpg


4) Neck: Two spotlights located in the grooves of the neck.

neck.jpg



5) Pylons: There are two sets of lights located at the top of the pylons connected to the warp nacelles.

pylons.jpg


6) Nav beacon near aft torpedo: 1x blinking

nav beacon.jpg


7) Deflector dish: There are several lit areas along this section. 2 lit sections along the bottom of the dish, a tapered section of the hull just behind the top side the dish, and on the sides by the Starfleet decals.

deflector dish.jpg


8) Shuttlebay: Several lit areas that are gonna be tricky but I’ll try it. Plus there are nav lights on the top and bottom of this area.

shuttlebay.jpg


And last is the 9) Warp nacelles: There are two nav beacons in the back at the top and bottom of the warp nacelles.

warp nacelle.jpg



That’s the extent of the nav, strobe and spotlighting. Everything else is internal.
 
Trekwars fan 82, nice work on the light placement charts. But I doubt that the two beacons on the nacelles really existed on the original CGI model. At least I could not find a sequence in the 2009 movie nor the virtual inspection tour that shows them blink.

I've already done a lot of work on accurizing and lighting this kit, perhaps it may help you a bit:

http://www.therpf.com/f11/uss-enterprise-2009-revell-review-build-184688/

Cheers,
Thorsten
 
Hey Thorsten, you're right. The nav beacons on the top and bottom section of the warp nacelles aren't on the 2009 cg model or the blu ray inspection. They are, however, in the new ST movie. You see them blink a few times just before the Vengeance drops out of warp while they're in klingon space. I bought it on blu ray a week ago and I had to stop and rewind just to make sure I knew what I was looking at. But it would't hurt to check again. I also subscribed to your thread as well. Excellent build so far! Your build acctually inspired me to another more accurate build. I'll see if I can get a screen grab and post the navs.
 
Thorsten, thank god for your info... i was watching 'into darkness' last night and thinking 'there's a lot of lights that don't add up'..
 
NakedMoleRat said:
SIGH!.....

I just wish we could get these kits in America.....you know, the HOME of Star Trek!
Click to expand...
Round 2 Models had one in the works, but they cancelled it without giving any specific reasons other than to say other kits that were also in the works had priority. This was about a year or so after the 2009 movie was released, and the merchandising for that movie didn't sell particularly well, so that might have had something to do with it.
 
I went back to the Into Darkness blu ray and took a couple of shot with my phone. There is a bit of a delay in the navs flashing on the nacelles. I think the strobes on the saucer flash at least two or three times before the nacelle navs flash but its there. Here are the pics.

nacellenav1.jpgnacellenav2.jpg
 
just a couple of quick questions, do you guys plan on 'frosting' all the clear window parts in this kit...

in my opinion, when Led's are lit behind them they look way to bright, almost 'sun like' ..

would a light rub with sandpaper be enough to diffuse the brightness...


also whats the best way to light the nav deflector ?.....would this also benefit from 'frosting'

thanks in advance
 
Hey Langy. Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you. Been busy with work and doing small alterations on the model. I will be posting pics soon. In regards to frosting and sanding the clear parts, I will be frosting most of the clear parts with Rust-oleum frosted glass spray with a light dusting. I've used sandpaper in the past to do it, but I just prefer to use the spray. The only clear part I will not be frosting is the rear photon torpedo launcher and the spotlight section below it, and the middle bridge window for the photoetch bridge part. I'm not quite sure about the best way to light the deflector. I've seen videos of Lou(Aztek Dummy) build-up for this ship on Youtube. I like what he did with his deflector. You might want to check it out.
 
While I was prepping the ship, I decided to start work on the photoetch pieces which includes the nacelle spinners, shuttlebay and bridge pieces. I managed to put them together with little effort. However, it does leave me wishing that the model were bigger so that i could include more detail on the photoetch pieces.

Photoetch.JPGBridge.JPGShuttlebay.JPGSpinners.JPG
 
Those photoetch pieces look awesome, especially the shuttle bay! These parts will add nice level of detail when you look closely at the finished model

Any pictures of the progress on the rest of the ship? Any plans to light the shuttle bay and maybe a shuttle?
 
Hello Thestig. Yes I do plan on lighting the shuttlebay. The challenge I am currently facing is that of fitting the shuttlebay and nav lights above and beneath it into such a tight space. I hope to use a mix of LEDs and fiber optics. The photoetch kit actually includes shuttles, but they are so small they may not be worth including. I'll probably post a view pics of the finished details of the bridge, shuttlebay and nacelle spinners today.
 
Here is a teaser for the first photoetch part I completed, which were the nacelle spinners. I also wired up the board for the nacelles because I was anxious to see how they would look. So far I'm pleased with the results. image.jpg
 
Really great work you're doing there! I've got 2 of these still waiting for attention.....i fully intend to convert one into a JJ Reliant! (surprise, surprise...)

Looking forward to more!

Rich
 
Thanks, clancampbell. I made the last post with my iPhone and I was trying to post a video of the nacelles spinning and it wouldn't let me so I had to do the pic at least. I'll post video later. I'll also post pics of the bridge and shuttlebay once I'm done with a few details, then I'll move on to the rest of the build.
 
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