1/350 PL Refit - Joined the Club

[jwood314]

I have a much more complete build log on another site, but wanted to post some of it here. The build is 99.98% complete, working to do some video on it now. I started the build near the end of last year, gathering parts and doing research on it. I have been keeping all of my posts about this model in a Word file, which is up to 117 pages now!?! One of the goals I had of doing the blog was to figure out, what it costs to build one of these, to, I hope, a high level of finish and detail. So, I kept track of all my expenditures on this model. It might sound odd, but I didn't want to post my first build here, in case it flamed out. Well it didn't flame out, and I am pretty happy with the build, but, there are a lot of details about that in a few posts. So, I will select some of my blog and repost it. Hope you like it. This is a set of forums I love reading, a lot of knowledge here, and some amazing artists.

Cheers,
James

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30 January 2014 Post 1

This will be my first official model build in about 2 decades. I was surfing through YouTube, and had a video recommended to me, by YouTube, curse YouTube, concerning a 1/350 Enterprise refit video. I had no clue what the video was about, and I watched it.

My
Jaw
Dropped
to
the
Floor!

The video was the Polar Lights 1/350 Scale Enterprise Refit Buildup - The Finale. I was floored by what Boyd had accomplished and t the fit and finish of not one, but all three Enterprises was amazing. I immediately ran and got my wife and made her watch the video with me. I am very lucky in my wife, I am nerdy, and my wife is also nerdy, don't tell her I said that though. She said that the models were very good, and I said, well, I am going to build the refit, and I need you to help me sand. My wife worked at Boss Studios a long time ago, and knows some of the people who worked on this model, we get Christmas cards from one of them every year, the only card I really look forward to. She also did a lot of sanding on several different movie models, so she is an expert sander, and hates doing that, oh well. I am just happy to have positive wife approval factor going into this and maybe some sanding help.

Some background about me. I am in the military, so move a lot. So whatever I build will have to be able to withstand being move by some not so gentle folk. I am an electrical engineer, so the light side has me smiling. I have not done low voltage work since joining the AF, about 10 years ago. More on that in a bit. I paint 40K minis and models, so I have experience doing basic model work, and I am a fairly good painter, at least on a space marine, not sure on an Enterprise. Also, much of the enjoyment I get out of the hobby is the research and doing. So on to the research bit.

I will list every dime I have spent on this project, along with information on where and why I chose what I did. Hopefully someone finds this useful, or at least lets me know if there was a better way. Be kind I already own a lot of miniature tools, an airbrush and Vallejo paints, but of course, most won't translate over to this scale of model, or the wrong color of paint. So many new tools, paint, glue, acrylic, etc were purchased. Plus, I had no idea how much after market stuff is available for models in general. It is almost like I am back in the 90s modifying my Honda!

Here is the list. I have spent just shy of 1K, but there are a lot of tools in there, and I will explain the rhyme and reason behind the list. One thing I have noticed in my research is people don't really ever list where they went, they just say go get XYZ, even if it is some odd stuff. Also, the cost includes shipping and tax, if applicable.

Stuff	Vendor	Cost
Painting Guide	trekmodeler.com	$ 40.10
Polar Lights 1/350 Enterprise Kit x 2 - Reliant!	Active Power Sports	$ 71.22
Photo Etch kit	paragrafix.biz	$ 41.95
Iridescent paint 4 colors	http://www.mckenziesp.com/1-ounce-c5689.aspx	$ 17.40
Orbital Drydock Masking Kit	ebay orbital_drydock	$ 58.05
Empty Paint Bottles	ebay hoard_*_bits	$ 14.85
Vallejo Paints/mask for set	thewarstore	$ 76.15
Deflector/Drive Control/RCS Thrustors	starling-tech.com	$ 79.00
Photon board and nav lights	starling-tech.com	$ 95.00
Landing Bay Strobe board - 10 LED Chaser!!!	starling-tech.com	$ 45.00
L'Arsenal 1/350 figures - 50 of em, resin AC 350 25	larsenal.com	$ 22.16
Hookupwire 28 AWG 100M red and black	ebay wakawakayang	$ 27.98
Fiberoptic Cable - 1.5mm .75mm .5mm EGP48	fiberopticproducts.com	$ 24.40
Window - Nail Acrylic - EzFlow System	nailsupplies.com	$ 44.96
Hobbylinc	Hobbylinc.com	$ 158.56
Painters tape/aluminum tape/lacquer thinner	Home Depot	$ 29.39
Upgraded shuttles	Federationmodels.com	$ 24.34
Upgraded Bess/Pods/Cargo	dlmparts.com	$ 24.00
Digikey Work
AC-DC Converter 9V@4.5A	PSA409-ND	$ 29.00
Power Cord	993-1039-ND	$ 3.18
Power connector, screw down, blade connector	Q207-ND	$ 0.77
Fuse Holder - 1/4" Dia x 1-1/4" L (6.35mm x 31.8mm)	F1499-ND	$ 2.26
Fuses - 1 A	507-1526-ND	$ 3.34
Switch - Rocker SPST - DC	CH755-ND	$ 5.70
Switch - Rocker SPST - AC	360-1721-ND	$ 2.02
Heatshrink black	EPS2018-ND	$ 9.90
Heatshrink black	A012B-4-ND	$ 2.05
Protoyping board and box 7.7x4.3x2.9 Black	438-1100-ND	$ 29.16
.1 inch spacing header 32 positions Female	609-3006-ND	$ 6.72
.1 inch male header to plug into female header	952-1770-ND	$ 3.00
Molex connector kit	WM8382-ND	$ 3.09
Molex connector kit	WM8383-ND	$ 3.09

So the model kit is sort of self explanatory, turned out to be one of the cheaper aspects of this! A must buy.

Painting guide from Trekmodeler - This was sort of a shot in the dark. I got the guide in 2 days, we are both in Florida, and I thumbed through it. I was blown away. It is a fantastic resource for how to paint this. The hardest part of the build for me will be the paint job, and this book was worth every penny. My hat is off to Boyd again. I won't publish anything out of this guide, you owe it to yourself to go get it if you want to paint up an E. I have not been paid or otherwise compensated for my statements. This is a must buy.

Photo etch from Paragrafix - Seems to be a requirement for this kit. I have seen that there was another kit made for the E, but is no longer made. I am amazed at the extra detail and accuracy this will bring to the model. A must buy.

Orbital Dry-dock Masking Kit - I am planning to do the Aztecs, and it seems I have good timing. I have further musing about this later in this post. Since I am doing a 5 color Aztec, this is A must buy.

Iridescent paint - I used the link provided in the painting guide. A must buy.

Empty paint bottles - I currently use Vallejo paint, and I love it. So I found the same bottles on Ebay that will allow me to mix my own colors and keep them nice and liquid. The painting guide requires you to mix several of your own colors, and I don't want to have to try and match a color 3 months later. I have been using the dropper bottles for a long time and I have never had a color dry out, or change consistency over the life of the paint. A must buy.

Vallejo paints/masking - I converted all of the model master colors over to Vallejo. I order most of my wargaming stuff through TheWarStore, so went back there. They have good prices and great customer service. A must buy.

Pre-Made Electronics

Deflector/Drive Control/RCS Thruster board. Photon board and navigation lights. Landing bay strobe lights. I looked at a couple of different vendors, mainly starling tech and tenacontrols. Both offer great products, I just decided that Starling tech better met my thoughts on how the lights should work. I love the chaser effect on the landing bay strobe, and will using fiber optics there. I think the photon torpedo board has the best sound effects. At first I was like that doesn't sound right, so I put in Star Trek 1-3 and listened to the sounds, and they nailed them. I plan on attaching the sound output to some relatively cheap PC speakers that I want to build into the display stand. I also like how the drive control is automated. Just press a button and it does it's thing. What sold me though, was the random blinking of the RCS thrusters. I think this will bring the model to life, just a bit more. I have some other thoughts on electronics, but will save for the Digikey section. There are cheaper ways to do the electronics, so this is not a must buy. You can light the kit without this, but, I wanted to max this out. I don't plan on ever building another one of these.

L'Arsenal 1/350 sailor figures. I really wanted some 3d peeps to populate my E. I plan on replacing the foggy styrene windows with glass, so you will be able to see these guys quite easily, and I think this will add a lot to the model. Looking forward to placing them everywhere. These are not a must buy, a personal preference on how I think the crew should look.

Hookup wire - cheap, hopefully not toxic. I have worked with lots of different wire, hopefully it will be decent, won't know until I get it. There were many vendors on Ebay, seemed to be cheaper than other online vendors. A must buy.

Fiber optic Cable - this was a great idea I found somewhere, buy a single cable that comes prepopulated with several different diameter fiber optics. I look forward to playing around with this to figure out which is the best diameter for the landing bay, and other effects. This isn't a must buy, but I need it to fully utilize the landing bay board I purchased.

Nail salon type clear acrylic - EzFlow System - I really like good looking windows. After watching several well known Youtuber's go over their builds, I realized how important good looking windows are to the illusion we are trying to create. I have no idea how well this will work. I plan on doing some experiments with it, before I put it in the model, more on that below. I will also post the results, so hopefully, other folks can get something out of it. For me, a must buy.

Hobbylinc order - this was a lot of tools, bulk styrene, flock, underbrush, glues, epoxy, milliput etc. This entire order will be used on the E, but also really builds the industrial base for modeling. Will be used after the E, in both modeling and gaming. For me, a must buy. If you want details, I will gladly share what I purchased.

Home Depot - painters taper, orange type, aluminum tape and lacquer thinner. I plan on running some experiments with the painters tape, more on that below. The orange painters tape cost more than the basic tape, so I want to make sure that it is really needed. A must buy.

Upgraded shuttles - I love the look of these. I plan on putting 1 in the shuttle bay, and 1 somewhere else, not sure where. This is not required, but I think it will add to the model.

Upgraded Bees/Pods/Cargo - same as the shuttle, not needed, but helps improve the illusion of the model. Will help improve the overall model. Plus, who doesn't want to see Kirk and Scotty docking on the side of the ship? I plan on running fiber into them.

Digikey order - I have not seen too much detail on how other people have lit their models. Seems most people go after a prebuilt kit. Well, I wanted a different approach. I don't know where I will be living in the next few years, so I wanted a power supply that would take any voltage and frequency, a wall wart type supply wouldn't really get me there. I purchased an AC/DC converter that is in an open frame. This will sit inside the display stand, when I figure out what that is, a PC style power cable will connect it to power. The upside is that there is a PC cable made for ever national plug type out there, so easy to get a different cable if I end up in Germany, Turkey or Outer Mongolia. Since I don't know what my final display stand is going to look like, I need to enclose all of the circuitry in box, to keep my little ones from getting hit by 120V AC, not fun. So this also drove me to make the main circuit board portable, will show some pics when I get to that point. I will also put up my circuit drawings for everything I come up with. I won't publish the Starling Tech stuff. This type of stuff is a must buy, not necessarily what I am getting, but you need the infrastructure to light the E. Also, I have purchased a bunch of different mcd output and color LEDs, plan on doing some testing to figure out which way to go and which LEDs to use.

So that is the background on all of the $s I have spent and some of the reasons I choose to go with that item. Your mileage will vary.

Off to some considerations on the model itself.

So here are the major decisions that really need to be addressed to build this model.

Exterior finish - painting or decals - I choose to paint, a higher risk/more work solution, but I believe that it will look the best in the long run.

Will the model be lit - Yes, the E looks magnificent with all her lights on. This decision, however, drives a LOT of cost. It can be done much cheaper than what I went with, but going for maximum effort. I want to press a button and see some torpedoes fire, and hear them go off!

The biggest lighting issue is how to address the spot light effect seen in TMP. I have seen a couple of versions on line, the don't mask the area and let light bleed through, to 100% masking and do your best with exterior lighting. So after a lot of thought, and seeing several build, with this probably being a great example of how to do it, I think I am going to do a hybrid.

http://www.ianlawrencemodels.com/wipplentcom23.html

I will add spotlighting effects everywhere, but the main saucer, and they will be on their own power circuit and completely masked from the surrounding areas. So I can have a drydock look and a cruising look. I plan on doing some experiments with high output LEDs with some lenses or shrouding, but I don't hold out much hope for that, and think I will end up going this way. However, my mind is not really set, and I don't have to make a decision on this for a while. More research. I can waffle on this decision for a while yet.


Open or closed shuttle bay - Open, so you can see in.
Rework arboretum/O lounge/rec deck completely - yes
1701 or 1701 A - 1701, I want the iridescent paint job, it is gorgeous. Again, more work, but hopefully more pay off.

I think these are the big decisions required. Hopefully I can execute the model and make it look half as good as what I have seen with some of the expert builders.

 

[jwood314]

I received my Hobby Linc order today, yeah! So I have been busy getting my two test sheets of polystyrene ready. I am shooting three-ish coats of primer onto either sheet. The sheets are 0.060 thick polystyrene, white. I washed both sheet with Dawn Ultra dish detergent, then dried them with a towel that was not exposed to a dryer sheet. Don't have a clue if that matters. I am using a Vallejo acrylic-polyurethane white primer on one sheet, and a lacquer based Polytranspar primer to the other sheet. After they have both dried for at least 24 hours, I will go in and sand them to a fine finish. After that I will lay down the iridescence colors on both sheets. I will be testing 3 or 4 different masking tapes, Frog Tape, the Orange M3 painters tape, Tamiya 6mm edge tape and I will also use some of the Orbital Drydock's masking material. I will lay down multiple layers of each of the 4 iridescence colors. So I hope to have room for 1/2/3 layers of 4 colors and several pieces of the masking tape. After all of that is painted, I will let it dry for at least 24 hours before I do the first test pulls. I will do a rough pull on each of the 4 types of masking tape, basically rip it off and see what happens, and then I plan on doing a slow controlled pull. Hopefully I will have enough tape to do this at 1 and 2 week intervals. I want to see if leaving the tape on longer makes a difference. While this isn't totally scientific, at least it is better than the anecdotal information I have been able to glean from the various posts. Whichever primer gives me the better results with the iridescence colors is what I will go with on the final paint scheme.

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Some obligatory shots of interior parts, which are really hard to see in the completed model.

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Here are some of the lighting references I used. Some I made, some I found elsewhere, I don't remember where, I would love to give credit to the originator of the light layout.

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I did a lot of work trying to find a window filler I liked.

Got some good work done today on the saucer section. Removed material to allow for lighting the perimeter, I went too far on the first one, so my first creation of extra work happened. Oh well, I got a lot better with the dremel, a newly purchased one, so, the material removal was much more precise as time went on. I didn't do any damage to the saucer, only the perimeter pieces. I did light blocking on the perimeter, and I am about to bite the bullet and pour the windows in. I don't care for the PVA glue method, and I am going to use a resin casting material that is used in jewelry casting. The material is called EasyCast. It made the clearest windows, but, is also very runny, so it will be slow going, won't be able to cast the whole piece at once, probably have to break them into thirds, so 3-4 days to put all of the windows in place, not counting if any require re-work.

Of the canopy type glues I used, they rank in the following order for clearness
1) Micro Kristal Klear
2) Formula 560
3) Testers Clear Parts Cement

All of the clear type epoxies were the same for me, not very clear. They are full of little bubbles and imperfections, I couldn't figure out how to get them out. The vigorous stirring required to get the mix to mix, gets a lot of little bubbles and other issues into the epoxy, couldn't figure out how to get them out.

The nail salon acrylic also suffered from being very translucent as opposed to being clear, like they call it. I did order some super cheap stuff from Hong Kong, when it gets here I will try it, but I am not putting any more $s into windowing. I almost could have bought the Lane dental stuff, my loss your gain though.

I would love to have seen some close up of other people windows. I have not seen a close up of that.

Success, sort of. I am not extremely happy with the windows, but am I not unhappy. Without forking out a bunch more $s, to try the Lane dental acrylic, I am going with the Easy Cast for all of my windows. I have all of the saucer pieces done, and actually got most of them glued in today.

 

[jwood314]

I used aluminium tape for light blocking on the inside of the model. A lot more work, but it works perfectly. One draw back though, it added a lot of weight to the model. I will have to think on using it in the future.

 

[jwood314]

I went super glossy in the shuttle bay. I like to think that the decks would be cleaned so often that Kirk could use the floor as a mirror.

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I found the files I used to complete my lighting, hope these help.

 

[jwood314]

Here are some more shots of assembly.

 

[jwood314]

And, some more shots of assembly, and wire routing.

 

[jwood314]

Some shots of painting.

 

[jwood314]

A few more shots of painting.


Having problems uploading, is there a limit to the amount of storage space you can use?

 

[jwood314]

Before some final shots, some of my thoughts on the build, and dollar cost

Final Analysis of the Enterprise Model Building Experience, and a look at cost, time and was it worth it.

Well, I am writing this a little earlier than expected, I thought I would have been complete on the model before I wrote this, but the base won't be ready for a few weeks, and I have done just about everything I can do until I mount the model on the base. I have some soldering work to complete on the voltage control boards, but not tonight. Next week or two will be focused on stuff other than the model, which will be strange.

You may not have known, but I kept pretty good track of what I have spent on the model. I will go through all of the costs, and where I could have saved some money.

Drum roll...

The total I have spent on the model, minus the following:

1. The Base - it was in the hundreds of dollar range, but you need to get a quote from Laserfire if you are interested, the base is awesome.

2. Several rolls of paper towels, at least 6!

3. 3 boxes of Q-tips

4. I might have missed a few small items, but I don't think so. I really wanted to create an accurate economic impact from the model.

Oh the total...$2,239.23, OUCH. I need to break that down, a lot of that cost went in to creating capability, a buzz word from the military, that I did not have before.

So, costs that were directly poured into the model, items such as the model, electronics, masking kits and improvement items. Also, there is no real residue left over for me to use elsewhere from a lot of these expenses.

So that cost was $917.90, and even some of that should/could have been avoided. The upgrade L'ARsenal figures, shuttles, work bees, I am not sure if I would purchase them in the future. I have a better understanding of what they add. They are amazing models in their own right, I and am very happy to have Kirk and Scotty docking on the side of the E, just not sure their overall worth. Most of this detail is in very hard to see places or you can't see them at all I also bought 2 mask sets, the 2 and 5 color masks. I bought the 5 color masks before I found out about the upgrade kit. No big deal. What was the rest of the money spent on?!?!? Well, I had to buy 2 soldering irons, 2 extra air brushes, I am no longer going to but the Master brand, will upgrade to an Iwata or Badger at some point in the future. I have a tone of model making 'stuff' plastic, wider range of paint, lots of new tools, wire, lots of spare LEDs, lots of different glues, acrylic nail polish stuff, etc. I have built the infrastructure to keep building models, which is a good thing, I think

I want to go through some of the items and give some feedback on them.

Polar Lights Kit - I have as a frame of reference of only Games Workshop model kits. I have not built a model outside of GW, in a LONG time. For the most part, the kit is very nice. There are accuracy issues, but those don't really bother me. I didn't spend a lot of time correcting them, and I am not sure if I would in the future. There were modifications that had to be done to get the secondary hull to fit together properly. I won't detail them here, there are several awesome builds out there showing what needs to be done. I am also not very happy with the sensor bands, but that is an assembly issue, I think. More experience on my part would have alleviated much of the trauma I experienced on that.


Photo Etch Kit - Well worth the money, I really like all of the added detail that this little sheet provides. I will investigate PE for all future model builds. I highly recommend getting this. the detail added to the deflector dish housing alone is worth the cost.


Orbital Drydock Masking kits - I can't say enough GREAT things about these. There is no model build without all of the work Brett put into these. Whether you build a 2 or 5 color Enterprise, you must use these kits. I have not used any other masks out there, but this kit was very complete, fairly accurate, and made my life much better. I would not have come close to the level of detail I did without these. MUST BUY these.

Need to add masks for all of the registry markings on the saucer, looks so much better in paint vice decal.


McKenzie iridescent paints - I have a love hate relationship with these guys. First up, I used 20 fl oz of white, and still going, so I bought a pint and 8 oz bottle. I also bought 3 1 oz bottles of blue and gold. I should have just bought the 4 oz of each color. The bottles used to contain the paint SUCK. You have to be really careful to get them sealed up, or the next time you use them, you will say, "Where the heck did the paint go?" It will evaporate out of the little glass bottle. I am not sure what the 4oz container looks like, but hopefully it has a flip locking cap like the 8oz bottle. Also, make sure you buy their lacquer thinner to use with this paint. It worked better than the stuff I bought at Home Depot, better flow and it went down on the model better. I spent a good chunk of change here, and could have saved a lot going with 4oz colors and a pint of white super hide.


Electronics - There are a lot of board makers out there. I used three boards from Starling Tech. I used their sequenced lights for the landing bay, their photon board/nav lights with sound effects and their deflector/drive/RCS control board. Throughout the process, I received EXTREMELY AMAZING support from Stan. I can't recommend him and his boards enough. However, having said that, go research what is out there. There are lots of great solutions, his just happened to fit what I was looking for. In the future, I plan on using an Adruino and my own code to create the same effects. For my first effort, I only wanted to worry about modeling issues, so I opted for prebuilt and programmed boards. Switching over to my own code and an Adruino will save a good amount of money. However on this, not everyone is going to want to spend the effort to program and build your own electronics. I will also most likely still use some prebuilt boards, will need to look at that on a case by case basis.


Fiber Optics - First time I have used this stuff, in this way. Easy to do, found a lot of how tos on You Tube. I bought a bundled cable from Fiber Optic Products and it did what I needed it to do. The cool thing about fiber is that you can get lights into really small spaces. I look forward to using fiber to create cool new effects on future models.


L'Arsenal figures - the 1/350 figures are cool, but really small. They do add some to the model, but, this is one thing that I probably wouldn't do in the future, or if I did, would need to approach a few things differently. More on that later.


Window filler - I went through several types of nail acrylic to fill the windows. I was very unhappy with all of them. I ended up using Easy Cast to do the windows. I would use this stuff again, just do a better job of getting the bubbles out of the windows. I left some of them in under the assumption that you would be hard pressed to see them, BUT you see them. Next time, will drill out and redo and windows I need to. If this takes several days, so be it. The windows that are perfect are AMAZING. The level of effort required is high but the effect is very nice.

Upgraded Shuttles from Federation Models are very nice, not sure if I would use again. Very superior to the ones that come with the kit, just not sure if needed.

Upgraded Bees/Pods/Cargo from DLM parts. Same as the shuttles, they are very much superior to the ones in the kit, but another $24 bucks that I am not sure I got my money's worth out of them, except for Kirk and Scotty on the side.


Regulated 9V power supply. I bought this from DigiKey and while much more expensive than your typical wall wart, I don't need a large power supply at the wall, only a standard PC power cable, this thing puts out 4.5A, which is probably twice the current I need, and it is regulated. So there will be no fluctuation while lights come on and off. Not sure why people spend big bucks on a lit model, then get the cheapest power source possible, you should spend a few more dollars on this. My two cents.


I bought a ton of modeling supplies and kit to put this thing together. A few pieces stand out as critical to me in all future builds:
Sanding sponges
Polishing Kit
Multi step hole tap drill bits - kit of 4
Liquidtex Airbrush medium
Milliput - fantastic stuff
White putty in the red tube - kicking myself for not having this through most of the building portion of the model.
Pipettes and plastic mixing cups - these were CRITICAL to my success, can't believe how much they helped me. Having a clean mixing bowl for every epox pout, and the pipettes to move paint around was fantastic.


Well, the above are the big rocks of what I spent $s on. I could have saved a lot in shipping if I had done a better job of ordering parts from DigiKey, paints, masks, and maybe not have gone crazy on the upgraded parts for the model. Still, with electronics and masks alone, this is not a cheap endeavor.

So, what are some of my lessons learned? Well, I am glad you asked that question. Will list them out and some thoughts on each.

1) Windows - already talked a bit about these guys. When they are done perfectly, they look like clear aluminum, well, what I think it would look like. I will do all my future windows in this stuff, it is amazing. Just make sure the bubbles are gone. You can also color the glass. I used some Vallejo transparent paint to make some red and blue windows that are in the back of the Enterprise, on the fan tail, they also look pretty darn good, better than painting paint over clear plastic.

2) Secondary hull. Lots has been said on how to put this together properly. Make sure you go read those builds, sorry, don't have a link here. Also, if you want to run a hollow tube, you can't use the original hole, too small. You are forced to pick basically what I picked as a location. just make sure you don't remove too much of the internal reinforcement, or it will sag over time, I hope mine doesn't! I got the shuttle bay and a TON of wires in the thing, so I know you can also, it just takes a lot of patience and pre-planning to route all of the wires. I am happy with how this turned out.

I had a lot of issues getting the spot lights to work correctly and line up properly. I had to mock everything up to make sure that they were pointed in the correct direction. I also filled in the hole with the clear cast, and I think it looks pretty good that way, smooth hull and all.

SCRIBING I HATE it, there will be a section on Scribing.

Unhappy with the arboretum.

3) Pylons. I had to hollow these out big time to get all of the wires through, in hind site, maybe not such a good idea. I burned through the plastic in my hollowing out part, which required some surgery to get it repaired. I also ended up filling the bottom half with epoxy, not so much to hold the halves together, but to add some strength. This seems to have worked quite well. They are super stiff, with just a little flex, so as hopefully not crack anything.

4) Nacelles. These were troublesome. I went through a few iterations to get the light in the engines correct, settling on lighting from the ends, provided the smoothest light. I like the Raytheon effect on the back of the nacelles, I am putting them on their own power circuit though, so if it looks bad over all, can leave it off. Not sure on that yet. The spots on the nacelle were the hardest to get to work. Also had to build a tube type lens to focus them on the saucer and neck. I saw a pic recently of someone who used SMDs to get a better effect. I will experiment with them on the next E I build. I am also unhappy with the crystal on the top of the nacelle. Next time I do this, I plan on casting the part, look forward to learning how to do that, and then mix some blue transparent paint with clear cast, and cast up two new crystals. I think this will look a heck of a lot better than a painted crystal. The other option would be to use a blue LED, but I think a blue cast part would look the best. The paint job was also very tough for me on here, it was the first part I worked on. Very steep learning curve, I was saved by the complexity of the paint job, hard to see issues, when there is stuff going everywhere.

5) Neck. Not much issue here with the build. Only issue was on the painting, and ultimately corrected that when I ruined it removing the decals from the neck and replacing with chart tape.

6) Saucer. I loved building this part. Biggest problem I had are with bubbles in the window and the sensor bands, which I ruined. I like doing all of the little light blocking areas instead of painting the whole thing. It is a lot more work, but much greater control. I plan on doing this for future builds. Little pockets of light. Got some ideas though, more below. The spot lights were cool, stole some ideas from Garbaron, and was able to come out with some nice looking bottom spot lights. The spots on the top had 2 SMD LEDs, but one is now dead, so the registry markings are not as well lit as they could be. I am happy I sanded down the phaser banks, but I need to go find some bead to paint and glue in there.

Really enjoyed painting the saucer. I couldn't get the striping down for the registry markings so only black numbers and letters for me. It still looks much better than any decal could. I also really like the Alclad II black primer, it is super flat, looks fantastic. I would like to have gotten masking for all of the registry markings on the saucer. Need to give that feedback to Brett. I am unhappy with the officer lounge though.

SCRIBING I HATE it, there will be a section on Scribing.

7) Scribing. SCRIBING I HATE it, this is the section on Scribing. I need to practice, ALOT. I watch the videos of the pros scribing a line, and it looks amazing, mine looks like JUNK. Arggg, the only thing I am embarrassed about on this model is my horrible scribing. I used and UMM tool, dental scriber and the Tamiya scriber. I liked the Tamiya the best, as long as there was some sort of line there. I had problems controlling all three tools, the lines wiggled, too deep, too shallow, too everything but straight and nice. I guess I need to just sit down and practice doing lines on some scrap styrene. What a shame. With all of the paint and decals on the model it is hard to see the super CRAPPY scribe lines, but seems to be the first thing I see, oh well. This is something I must improve on.

8) Sensor bands - I destroyed them, need to get better at joint gluing and lining stuff up so as not to destroy them! This could have been fixed if I had better SCRIBING skill, LOL, the pain.......

9) Super Small Detail. What I mean by this is the officer lounge, arboretum and the shuttle bay. At least the shuttle bay you can see in there pretty well, you will see the landing lights. I should have glued the fantail to the shuttle bay to get the deck paint better, BUT that would have messed up all of the seams on the secondary hull, so not sure which way would have looked better. I am ok with the outcome, but, hopefully will improve on it in the future. With shuttles in the bay, it is hard to see all of the work that went into the detail, plus loosing one of the Jeffries tubes due to stupidity makes me sad. I was drilling a hole through a transparent piece of plastic to let light through, I don't know what I was thinking, it was early in the build process though. I like the lighting in the bay, and one of the docking pods is lit up, so that is cool. Maybe on a bigger model, something more could be done with it. If I had it to do over, would be better.

Arboretum was a pain. I did all of this work, and you can see jack squat of it.

Officer's Lounge was a pain. I did all of this work, and you can see jack squat of it.

See a pattern!??! Thinking about this, the big take away is not to use clear styrene to act like a window. Either leave it glass free, which would look odd, or use real glass. Shocking I know. My wife has done a lot of stained glass in the past, and she says the small size is very doable. Will find some stained glass artisans and request some small pieces of glass to put in there. I also debate about not using the PE back there, and just put styrene on the glass instead? Don't know how that would look. With glass vice styrene windows, the detail would be soo much better. This is something for sure I will do one the next one.

10) Paint. I love the lacquer. I love my Vallejo acrylics, just not on this model. I am not happy at all with the acrylics and how they turned out. They look ok, but they had a hard time with the masks, and require more depth to cover as well as the lacquer. If I do a DeBoers hull, I will take the time to get custom lacquer paint mixed for all of the stuff on the model.

4 grey/greens for the strong back and pylon
4 greys for the neck and bottom of the saucer
3 blue greys for the detailing elsewhere
Dark grey/black
Copper
Mustard for the phasers and RCS thrusters

So what, 14 additional colors, plus I can get them mixed exactly to the color spec I want, and they would be perfectly consistent throughout the model. Better interaction with the masks, and lower build height when laying down the paint. I just need to figure out where to get the paint mixed. I know I can get the colors chits I need from Home Depot or Lowes. So, should be a problem getting the color families I need. Just need a manufacturer. Heck, there could be a business opportunity in here for someone. If Brett can make $ on masks, then I am sure people would buy a paint set.

11) Electronics. I really like the Stan's board from Starling Tech. However, I knew going in that #2 would be different. I have been thinking of what is needed and what would be really cool to have. So here is the list.

Needed and what I get with Stan's awesome boards
Spot lights - built by me
Main lighting - built by me
Navigation lights - Starling Tech
Strobe lights - Starling Tech
main dish - Starling Tech
impulse crystal - Starling Tech
warp nacelles - Starling Tech
photon torpedoes - Starling Tech with sound effect
RCS thrusters - Starling Tech with twinkle effect
Shuttle bay effects


So that looks like everything is covered right? Well, pretty much, but I want to add on.

Navigation and strobe lights no change.
RCS thrusters no change, I like the twinkle effect.

Impulse crystal - it is currently one color, in the movie though it was a few different colors, so I need to add an RGB LED to it.
Warp Nacelles - I would like to add 4 RGB LEDs to each, so I could change from a dark purple to blue, sort of both looks seen in the movie
Main dish - I like the current look, but I want better control over the color in the dish

There are digitial potentiometers out there so you can control the light output of stuff. So thinking of that I want to:
1) have variable output spot lights, think of them coming on, I know the movie was bam on, but a gradual turn on would be cool
2) I want every section of main lighting in the entire model to be controlled. So I could do a power up sequence with both intensity and on/off control. Sort of booting up the starship. That would be AMAZING a lot of work, but hey, it is entertainment
3) I want to add phaser lighting at each of the phaser pods with sound effects. Not sure how, probably fiber, but this would be really cool.
4) I want several different modes, say each one runs for a minute or two, and then it swtiches between them. Maybe a power up, RCS drive for a while, impulse for a while, warp for while then power down. I want sound effects for each of these modes. Need to go capture the sound effects, but I know they are there. I would also love some sound where you here Sulu counting out the Warp and the engines are getting louder. Warp 9.2, Warp 9.3 etc... goose bumps! My inner nerd is escaping!
5) I want control over all of the shuttle bay lighting, with sound effects. I want the lights to come on and off for a landing and take of sequence. I would love to have some sort of moving shuttle in there, not sure how to do it, but I know it can be done. That would be amazing also.
6) I would love an inspection sequence like in the movie, with the last bit where the shuttle docks. Not sure what this would look like.
7) Some sort of combat mode with lots of sound effects. You need Kirk yelling RED ALERT, the alarm klaxon in the back ground, the shields being raised, I would add the LED effect in the base, then photon and phasers being fired off with Kirk giving commands.
8) Music

Wow, just brain storming, so many COOL ideas. I need to get cracking on my Adruino work. I would want the whole thing to be controlled by remote control or a keypad. That would be AWESOME. All of this is very doable.

Would take a crap load of wires, and I would most definitely have to do it in a bigger ship, so DeBoers it would have to be. Already thinking about the coolness.



So the big question is would I do this again, and I am pretty sure I would. I would do it smarted, but it is not the end of the world to spend $s to gain experience. I have learned a lot about how to do some of this stuff, and look forward to doing more. Now to convince the wife to get a DeBoers hull. The only issue with that is that I can get a Star Destroyer and a Battlestar for the cost of the DeBoers and have $s left over. The choices................

Cheers,
James

- - - Updated - - -

Here are a few of the finished shots. I have been doing touch ups today, which you wouldn't see, even in high def, but they bothered me none the less.

- - - Updated - - -

Will add a few more pics when I figure out how, and I am shooting the video this afternoon.

Cheers,
James

 

[o2b4wln]

Thanks for posting this. Your build is impressive and the by chronicling your build you've made a lot of people's lives that much easier when they attempt this.

I was thinking of tackling this project and your descriptive post has made it a lot easier for me to make that decision.

Great work and thanks for the post.

 

[kirkman]

Fantastic post Sir, I really enjoyed your comments on building her. I'm glad others share the same hopes for this ship that I do. Of course I don't have the skills you have but where there's a will .....

 

[chris_s]

Awesome post! I've watched countless videos and read countless pages on PL refit builds but yours has been the most succinct and detailed.
Thank you for all that!
...copying and pasting for my own future build...

 

[PHArchivist]

Great thread!