Sensible advice. That’s what I’m leaning toward.
1/1000 PHASE II Enterprise
- Thread starter Gregatron
- Start date
Sensible advice. That’s what I’m leaning toward.
Well, the nacelle endcap blends need a little more puttywork, I think. No rush. I'd rather be happy with it before I clearcoat and move forward. In retrospect, I should have cast and attached the endcaps FIRST, then blended them in, then masked, primed and painted. Ah, well, live and learn.
As it stands, I'm very pleased with how the model is shaping up. Due to my own laziness and procrastination, the strip-down and rebuild has taken longer than I expected (nearly a year, now), but it's proven worthwhile to go slowly.
Is it perfect? No. If I was starting from scratch, with the raw UGH! kit, this would be a lot easier, and I would have done things differently. Having to modify some of the UGH! kit's inaccuracies has made the model a little rougher than it would otherwise be.
But, for what it is, I'm very pleased. I'm almost tempted to try 3D-modeling and printing/molding/casting the whole thing from scratch, but that seems a bit unnecessary, at this stage.
Still, I really wish that Round 2 would put out this design as a styrene kit in 1/1000 or even 1/350. That would be awesome. But it's likely never gonna happen. Maybe better garage kits will come down the pipe, someday. The UGH! kit is about 80% there. Just some shape and detail issues (the nacelles/pylons, upper and lower saucer bridge/domes, etc.) which prevent it from being a very accurate representation of the PHASE II design.
As it stands, I'm very pleased with how the model is shaping up. Due to my own laziness and procrastination, the strip-down and rebuild has taken longer than I expected (nearly a year, now), but it's proven worthwhile to go slowly.
Is it perfect? No. If I was starting from scratch, with the raw UGH! kit, this would be a lot easier, and I would have done things differently. Having to modify some of the UGH! kit's inaccuracies has made the model a little rougher than it would otherwise be.
But, for what it is, I'm very pleased. I'm almost tempted to try 3D-modeling and printing/molding/casting the whole thing from scratch, but that seems a bit unnecessary, at this stage.
Still, I really wish that Round 2 would put out this design as a styrene kit in 1/1000 or even 1/350. That would be awesome. But it's likely never gonna happen. Maybe better garage kits will come down the pipe, someday. The UGH! kit is about 80% there. Just some shape and detail issues (the nacelles/pylons, upper and lower saucer bridge/domes, etc.) which prevent it from being a very accurate representation of the PHASE II design.
After giving the glosscoat a few days to dry, I’ve finally moved on to decaling. About halfway done.
I printed the art (as before, scaled down from Shaw’s to 1/1000) onto two sheets of decal paper—one clear, and one white. I’m going the extra step of carefully trimming out the colored decals right up to the edge so that the white acts as an undercoat and gives them more pop and vibrancy. The clear sheet is for windows and other markings small enough to require transparent carrier film.
I printed the art (as before, scaled down from Shaw’s to 1/1000) onto two sheets of decal paper—one clear, and one white. I’m going the extra step of carefully trimming out the colored decals right up to the edge so that the white acts as an undercoat and gives them more pop and vibrancy. The clear sheet is for windows and other markings small enough to require transparent carrier film.
Decaling is essentially complete. Some close calls, here and there—homemade decals tend to be fragile. Still have a few more to apply. Some windows and the red striping running across the spine of the secondary hull, which will require another clearcoat, beforehand, since that striping decal sits on top of the square hatch decal I just laid down.
A few touch ups are needed in places where the ink ran thin, as well as the thin strips of white inside the pennants. I didn’t dare cut those very tiny areas out, so I’ll have to carefully mask and paint them with the hull color after they’re dry and the next clearcoat seals them in.
A few touch ups are needed in places where the ink ran thin, as well as the thin strips of white inside the pennants. I didn’t dare cut those very tiny areas out, so I’ll have to carefully mask and paint them with the hull color after they’re dry and the next clearcoat seals them in.
Just for funzies, while the decals dry, here’s a preview image:
Gonna wait at least 24 hours for the decals and Micro Sol to properly cure. Then a coat of two of Future, and the spine stripe decal for the secondary hull. Then touch-ups with the hull color. Then dullcoat. We’ll see how it all goes.
Gonna wait at least 24 hours for the decals and Micro Sol to properly cure. Then a coat of two of Future, and the spine stripe decal for the secondary hull. Then touch-ups with the hull color. Then dullcoat. We’ll see how it all goes.
That already looks incredible!
One setback—I noticed that the “N” in “Enterprise” had a bit of runny printer ink. You can even see it in the image above. I’ve printed off a few more copies of that one decal, and will likely strip and replace the current decal before I clearcoat everything. I could try and touch it up by hand via paint, but why go to that level of trouble?
Due to the nature of this model, there are a few wonky bits, but ya kinda want the name and registry to look nice and crisp, y’know?
Due to the nature of this model, there are a few wonky bits, but ya kinda want the name and registry to look nice and crisp, y’know?
Would it be possible to just replace the "N"?
Too much risk in regards to getting the carrier film edges to lay down and blend in. Homemade decals are far more finicky. One big decal is easier to work with than a splice job.
Either way, the transplant is already complete, and the patient will live.
Ah, understood. At that scale, it would be a major pain! With the detailing and how well you built this one, it appears larger than 1:1000!
Thanks! Like I said, this would be a lot easier if the base kit was more accurate, and if I was starting from scratch. As it is, lots of mods and homemade decals can be tricky.
Are you going to be doing any washes or other weathering (aside from wha you may have already done)?
I don’t think so. Again, it’s hard to know what the studio model would have ended up looking like. On the one hand, this was still supposed to be the Enterprise, but upgraded, which would indicate that weathering would have remained (unless those hard-working engineers scrubbed the ‘ol girl down during her refit). On the other hand, this was supposed to be the big relaunch of STAR TREK, and the ship was supposed to look sleek and new and awesome, so maybe they wouldn’t have included weathering on the model.
Shaw’s quite logical theory was that they were using the 33-inch model for reference, since it was handy (unlike the 11-footer, which was already in the Smithsonian). His study model therefore used the three-footer’s detailing to fill in some of the gaps. And he added details like the rust ring, which probably wouldn’t have ended up on the PHASE II model, since it wasn’t on the three-footer.
In my case, I’ve done minimal weathering, omitted the rust ring, and omitted the frame marker numbers alongside the secondary hull (since they were apparently a mistake, originally, with Richard Datin misreading measurements on Jefferies’ TOS construction blueprints and adding them to the models as technical markings). I think that’ll suffice.
Also, I just finished those paint touchups. The trickiest of them being the white areas in-between the secondary hull pennant stripes. As noted, the decals were printed on white decal paper instead of clear, so as to make the colors pop properly. As a result, trimming them closely around the edges to minimize that white carrier film was very tricky, and I’ve now had to hide the remaining white areas with a few smidges of paint. The results look quite good, though.
So ends the refit of the refit. It’s been a fun ride. She’s a little rough in spots, but I’m very pleased with what an improvement this is from my first attempt.
PHASE II has long fascinated me. Perhaps the most compelling “What If?” in the history of the franchise. Would it have been a success? Would it have been a horrible disaster, and ended the franchise? Who can say? Either way, STAR TREK transcending television to become a hugely successful movie series forever altered the course of the franchise. But the DNA of Matt Jefferies’ PHASE II redesign remained intact in the TMP Refit that we know and love, so we can at least be grateful for that.
Still the PHASE II design is quite brilliant on its own terms, and it’s a shame we never got to see it onscreen.
PHASE II has long fascinated me. Perhaps the most compelling “What If?” in the history of the franchise. Would it have been a success? Would it have been a horrible disaster, and ended the franchise? Who can say? Either way, STAR TREK transcending television to become a hugely successful movie series forever altered the course of the franchise. But the DNA of Matt Jefferies’ PHASE II redesign remained intact in the TMP Refit that we know and love, so we can at least be grateful for that.
Still the PHASE II design is quite brilliant on its own terms, and it’s a shame we never got to see it onscreen.
stevielewis
Sr Member
Fantastic build and finish. Love it!
