Goon's 1/350 USS Enterprise (Refit) by Polar Lights

Maguhn

New Member
Hello Everyone!

Thanks for stopping by this thread! I've started this section to track the progress on my Polar Lights Enterprise (Refit) model. I've spent a number of months following the work of others in this field (both here on the RPF and on Youtube). I know I really enjoyed seeing the progress pictures people have posted and thought this might be an interesting way to track my own process. I've done many different smaller starship models in the past, but this Enterprise by Polar Lights is undoubtedly the most massive undertaking that I've ever "engaged" in. This project actually started a couple of months ago for me, but I've been waiting on a number of small (but essential) logistical issues before being able to make any real progress. Chiefly among these were the arrival of my trekmodeler lighting kit and some adapter bushings for my new airbrush/air compressor.

I promise to update with pictures as things move forward, and look forward to your comments! Hopefully you find this entertaining!

So without any further ado, here we go!

"Second star to the right, and straight on till morning"
 
Here are some of the pics of the initial work done before my lighting kit or bushings came in. Arboretum 1.jpgArboretum 2.jpg..


Both of the above are my initial work on the Arboretum; I used some elementary model railroading materials to help the build.
 
Hi Maguhn, Welcome to the RPF!

Congratulations on entering the 1:350 Refit endeavour.

This kit is quite a beast, and can seem intimidating at times, however it can all come together if you take your time and do your research.

The first thing you should be doing, as div. 6 suggested is light blocking.

Here is an example:


and a discussion on light blocking.

Light Blocking Techniques - Techniques - Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials - Finescale Modeler Community

and here's a great 1:350 Refit how-to series by trekworks:



Good luck, and don't be afraid to ask for help.

Brandon
 
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Thanks for the input so far guys, I've started light blocking some of the parts (primarily Shuttle Bay); and I will be light blocking everything else fairly soon. I'm just getting some primary cutting done first in order to accommodate the lighting kit from TrekModeller. I'll post some pictures fairly quickly! Cheers!
 
Hey Everyone,

Sorry it's been a few weeks since my last post... I've been making some progress with some boring stuff (light blocking, etc.); however I made some progress with the Shuttle Bay, Officer's Lounge and the Arboretum....

Arboretum Lighting Test 1.jpg

Here's some basic lighting tests on the Arboretum, unfortunately I found myself the victim of the Arboretum wanting to curve upwards (towards the roof) I had to apply some light heat and pressure to the sides in order to get the roof on. Not completely happy with it, but then again; it's not the worst either...

Arboretum Lighting Test 2.jpg

I did some working with the Officer's Lounge. You can see where I added in a couple of Starfleet Officers from Paragraphix's kit. Another slight modification I employed was to use a heated model railway spike (as I did not have a microdrill available) to create some pinpoint lights along the back wall and floor for spotlight work. The lighting test is a little sketchy because of the lamp I used (it sort of gives off a JJ Abrams effect) I still have some minor touches to finish up/ clean up...

Officers Lounge Unlit.jpg

Officers Lounge Lighting Test 1.jpg

Lastly are some of the initial lighting tests of the Shuttle Bay and Cargo Bay. There are some small light leaks that I'll fix up with foil tape for blocking, but other than that I am generally happy with how it turned out. It's actually kind of silly how much work goes into this part considering how little you can see.

Shuttle Bay Lighting Test 1.jpg

Shuttle Bay Lighting Test 2.jpg
 
Thanks a lot for the kind comments! There should be more to come next week as my AC Adapter for the Lighting Kit is scheduled to arrive.
 
Beautiful work!! I love all the interior detail you've done! I just finished one of these myself. I got the Paragraphix photo-etch kit and it comes with little 1/350 people. one of those "people" is in the shape of a male crewmen with his arm around a female crewman. I put this "pair" in the arborium facing out towards the stars. They are my wife and I haha. My wife supports myobession.. um i mean, hobby, thats her only stipulation. that i include US in every build. looks great!!
 
Alright!!! Well I've got four more pics for everyone today. The first couple aren't terribly exciting...just the tremendous work that I am pouring into light blocking. The second two are more exciting (for myself anyway)...I finally got my power adapter for the Trekmodeler lighting kit in (I had to order it in from The Source). So yesterday was def. exciting because I got to see what all the positive chatter was about reg. the lighting kit first hand. (COMPLETELY WORTH IT). Oh I also decided to go with the Trekmodeler Painting Guide for the Enterprise (I've also heard wonderful things about that particular item!)

Presenting the exciting world of LIGHT BLOCKING!!!

photo 1.JPG

photo 2.JPG

The guts of the lighting system all stretched out...

Standby mode...

photo 4.JPG

Warp Mode

photo 3.JPG

I've been checking and double checking light blocking as much as possible, but I think we are slowly coming to the end (for now); I know I will have to do more once everything is all sealed up and I am priming the hull. I believe my next step is to the exterior hull cleaned up; put in some minor supports and start thinking about installing the lighting... I'm going to have a look through the other build outs (on here and youtube) first; just to make sure I'm not overlooking any major issues.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Goon

- - - Updated - - -

OH! I completely forgot... My way of finalizing the light blocking is going to be to spray a couple of coats of white paint on the inside and then finish it up with aluminum foil tape. I used this on the outside of the shuttle bay/cargo bay (as seen in the light blocking photo above; lower right hand corner).
 
Great work!!! Make sure you scrape off any paint where the seams go together ESPECIALLY on the engineering hull. If you dont, it will not seal up properly and, be weak and cause the warp nacelles to droop even WITH a structure intregity frame. I lightblocked my E hull on the outside after i had glued on both sides. you might think you cant get the shuttle bay in doing it that way, but trust me, you can. its a tight fit, but it fits. You put the Arborium in first then slide in the shuttlebay. Thats just the way I did it. I also trimmed the guide pins where the pylons go into the E hull about 1/8 of an inch. I did this so that the gap between the E hull panels where the pylons go in minimizes and also striethens the structure of the pylon support to minimize "droopage" for lack of better term haha. everything looks amazing! I havent used the Trekmodler kit before. I used the Delfector/engine control board, and weapons board from Starling-tech, and used the shuttlebay chasers circuit and strobe/running circuits from Tennacontrols. for my interior lamps and running lamps(spots) I used two different circuit boards. This gave me multiple modes. main switch turns on the Window lamps ONLY( like you saw in space dock of TMP and TWOK) all strobs, engines, navi lights, deflector, thrusters, weapons, and spots are off unless you activate those circuits. I have the spots, and strobe/navi on one switch, then press the momentary switch to turn on the deflector to orange (stand by mode) which has alternating flickering RCS thrusters, press again goes to impulse and blue deflector and again for warp. I have three modes for torpedos, off, armed( red leds on) and fire, ( red led ramps up then white led "fires torp) also have auto modes for both engine circuit as well as weapons. and have another switch that turns on the shuttle bay landing chasers. I made it this way to best represent the different ways we saw the ship. also all modes come on and go off with a "fade" effect. no ON/OFF. (except for the spot lamps witch just wink on as we saw in the movie) great progress so far!! If you get stuck or need any tips give a shout. most of the Spot lamps can be aimed to give the similar effect from the movie. just takes a little patience. :D
 

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Thanks for the info Miketastic! That was a ton of great info, its completely appreciated! Thanks for the pics too, you have an amazing build out! I cant believe how much time I've spent just watching the vids and pics on different builds and methods by people. Cheers!!!!
 
Thanks for the info Miketastic! That was a ton of great info, its completely appreciated! Thanks for the pics too, you have an amazing build out! I cant believe how much time I've spent just watching the vids and pics on different builds and methods by people. Cheers!!!!

i know the feeling, and i dont even own the kit yet! Soon though.
 
Okay Guys! Sorry it's been a week or so, but I was away at a convention for work. The good news thought is that while I was gone I was able to hit up a Hobby Store (we don't have any here in my home town); and I was able to get some 1/16 inch wide masking tape for the Warp Chiller Flux Grills. WINNING!!! I had run a couple of (BLOODY UGLY EXPERIMENTS) in trying to mask them with masking tape I had cut to size myself...word to the wise here...don't bother. It was a total exercise in futility. So I masked up the grills last night and gave them a spray for light blocking; and then later used a purple I mixed up myself based on the actual Enterprise Refit filming model pics.

Here are the Flux Grills Masked with the teeny tape...

Masked Grills.JPG

Here after some coats of black for light blocking
Masked Grills Lightblocked.JPG

Some of the sprays of purple...
Dark Purple Grill Spray.JPG
Close Up Masked Grills.JPG


And with the masking tape pulled off...it generally went well...just a few spots to touch up
Pulled Masking Tape.JPG

Warp Chiller Flux Grill.JPG

Lastly here are a few lighting tests I ran...just because I was ridiculously excited and wanted to sit and stare....

Warp Nacelle Lighting Test A.JPG

Warp Nacelle Spot Light A.JPG
Warp Nacelle Spot Light B.JPG

I'm really hoping for the weather to get warm enough here to spray bomb the inside of the hull with white for reflection. I guess barring that I could always break down and move into the ever painstaking foil tape mode....

Cheers!!!
Goon
 
More progress last night, I used some glass frosting spray and frosted the backs of the Warp Chiller Flux Grills and the Deflector Array...
 
It looks like you are using LED tape to light up your nacelles, thats what i used, and i frosted the backs of my flux grilles too. but if i can offer a tip, to minimize "hot spoting" you might try to mount your LED tape on the "lit" side of the nacell (the inboard) just above the flux grille. That way the light will bounce off the "outboard wall" of the nacelle and then diffuse enough to recreate that solid bar of light instead of hot spotting. also it will tone down the brightness of the grilles as they can be TOO bright as ive seen on some builds. Up to you, and I dont mean to hyjack, haha, just offering something i figured out by accident. you can use black insulation or foam tape to light block in front of and behind the flux grilles so that you get no blue "light bleed" into the spots on the front and side of the outboard. great work sofar!!! :D
 
This is one of two major updates I'm posting today...so let's begin by talking about the most frustrating thing in the world...Warp...Chiller...Flux....Grills

These dreaded four words have brought much angst to my life. The last update I gave showed them painted up with a dark purple similar to the Studio Model; however...what you did not see was the paint that wanted to peel and flake for a number of reasons. So I had another go using the 1/16 inch paint masking tape I bought, and I came to the realization that even that stuff was too thick.

So in an incredible act of desperation I thought about the following...what if I air brushed the whole piece with a dark black/grey from testors and then used an exacto knife to scrape off the thin lines (recessed) on the grill; and like Thomas Edison; I tried a thousand different ways, but found my one way to make a light bulb.


Etching Grills.JPG

The final result looks great...much better than my original attempts.

More to come today.
 
Jolan Tru!

Sorry for the delay, I had hoped to post this last night...but I was busy with work. This next update shows the work I've been doing with installing the electronics from the Trekmodeler Kit into the Secondary Hull. The only pieces that have been cemented in place are the Shuttle Bay and the Arboretum; everything else is a dry fit with masking tape.

Prior to the base electronics installation I coated the inside of the light-blocked hull with white paint. Even thought it was over-kill I also used foil tape as a reflective interior surface; I simply thought it would work better

image.jpg

This is the installation of the four pin connector port on the ventral side of the secondary hull; and to corresponding wires to it
And
The main circuit board is installed in addition to the arboretum
image.jpg
The Shuttle Bay is installed over some of the existing wiring and circuits. Much wrangling of wire ensued...

image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg

So I hooked up the wiring connector to the base electronic switches; unceremoniously placed the Big E on top of a Mountain Dew Box as a makeshift stand....crossed my fingers that I didn't wreck any components in the installation and flicked the switch...here are some of the light test images..

image.jpgimage.jpg
image.jpgimage.jpg
image.jpgimage.jpg
 
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