curiouslysophie
Active Member
I see! I was thinking of using COB strips, so if you don't mind I may come up with something similar? It is a fantastic idea and will work really well with the Spaceways Parts room images on slide film
1/350 Polar Lights Enterprise Refit - Build log
- Thread starter JNordgren42
- Start date
JNordgren42
Sr Member
I don't mind at all! Please feel free to use and improve the idea.
curiouslysophie
Active Member
Awesome! Thank you!
JNordgren42
Sr Member
Now that we're past the holidays, I can turn my attention back to my build. I have managed to get some small stuff done recently.
I bit the bullet and bought the Paragrafix photo etch set for the arboretum and officer's lounge window frames and a few other parts. Comparing the sheets side by side, the PG brass is about twice as thick as the GS (about 0.2mm vs. 0.1mm). I like the GS shuttle bay parts better, the railings have some etched detail and are finer than the PG, it has some additional clean up pieces, and I like the one piece shuttle/cargo bay divider (even though it's a pain to fit when assembling). The arboretum fore and aft wall details are far better on the PG set, although the GS does come with some TINY park benches. And then of course there is the missing window frames, if you can only buy one set, I'd definitely get the PG.
Paragrafix PE
Greenstrawberry PE
I got the extremely horrible kit decals applied in the cargo bay. I've honestly never worked with worse, but I managed to get them all in, except for one cargo container that curled beyond saving. I'll probably just paint that cubby black and call it an "empty".
I masked one of the 3D printed turbolift shafts, and threw some primer on it. It's nice to be able to see the detail on them. There are some voxel lines visible under magnification, but it's difficult to see them with the naked eye.
I started assembling the extremely tiny park benches for the arboretum. That's sitting on the tip of a toothpick. One down and only six more to go.
Finally I spent some time working on refining the lighting install. I light blocked one of the saucer rim parts, sanded the light guides and wrapped them with Bare Metal Foil Ultrabright Chrome for light blocking and to help amplify the light from the LEDs. I temporarily put it all together with tape and blue tack and hooked it up to the Arduino. I still need to tweak the guide geometry for more even dispersion of the light, but I'm very pleased with how it's working. I even played with animating the lighting, just for fun.
Normal white lighting:
From the top:
RED ALERT!
Disco party on the Big E!
New video by Jason Nordgren
I bit the bullet and bought the Paragrafix photo etch set for the arboretum and officer's lounge window frames and a few other parts. Comparing the sheets side by side, the PG brass is about twice as thick as the GS (about 0.2mm vs. 0.1mm). I like the GS shuttle bay parts better, the railings have some etched detail and are finer than the PG, it has some additional clean up pieces, and I like the one piece shuttle/cargo bay divider (even though it's a pain to fit when assembling). The arboretum fore and aft wall details are far better on the PG set, although the GS does come with some TINY park benches. And then of course there is the missing window frames, if you can only buy one set, I'd definitely get the PG.
Paragrafix PE
Greenstrawberry PE
I got the extremely horrible kit decals applied in the cargo bay. I've honestly never worked with worse, but I managed to get them all in, except for one cargo container that curled beyond saving. I'll probably just paint that cubby black and call it an "empty".
I masked one of the 3D printed turbolift shafts, and threw some primer on it. It's nice to be able to see the detail on them. There are some voxel lines visible under magnification, but it's difficult to see them with the naked eye.
I started assembling the extremely tiny park benches for the arboretum. That's sitting on the tip of a toothpick. One down and only six more to go.
Finally I spent some time working on refining the lighting install. I light blocked one of the saucer rim parts, sanded the light guides and wrapped them with Bare Metal Foil Ultrabright Chrome for light blocking and to help amplify the light from the LEDs. I temporarily put it all together with tape and blue tack and hooked it up to the Arduino. I still need to tweak the guide geometry for more even dispersion of the light, but I'm very pleased with how it's working. I even played with animating the lighting, just for fun.
Normal white lighting:
From the top:
RED ALERT!
Disco party on the Big E!
New video by Jason Nordgren
JNordgren42
Sr Member
I'm moving along on the interiors. I got the decals sealed and did the detail painting in the shuttle bay and threw everything together with a very quick and dirty light test. I also finished painting the test 3D printed turbolift shaft and did a quick light test on it, I'm really happy with how it looks. With some very minor tweaks to the file and supports and detail painting on the next batch, they'll be ready for prime-time.
I did some surgery on the arboretum, grinding the bridges over the stream flat, and ground the stream itself into an actual channel so I can fill it with clear resin. I also built up the grass areas with some putty. It's looking really good with a coat of primer, just a little finessing, and it will be ready for actual paint and landscaping.
Finally, I started painting the Greenstrawberry officer's lounge, it's very difficult to get in to some of the spots with even my smallest brush, but it is looking pretty good. I did a quick test with light in place and it will look great when done.
It's just a shame that most of this hard work will be very hard to see in the final product.
I did some surgery on the arboretum, grinding the bridges over the stream flat, and ground the stream itself into an actual channel so I can fill it with clear resin. I also built up the grass areas with some putty. It's looking really good with a coat of primer, just a little finessing, and it will be ready for actual paint and landscaping.
Finally, I started painting the Greenstrawberry officer's lounge, it's very difficult to get in to some of the spots with even my smallest brush, but it is looking pretty good. I did a quick test with light in place and it will look great when done.
It's just a shame that most of this hard work will be very hard to see in the final product.
Last edited:
RevelationSpace
New Member
This is looking really special, looking forward to seeing more progress shots.
I've wanted to build this model for years but have always been put off by stories of it being notoriously difficult to fit together (never mind the paint job...). I'm sure you won't have that issue since you obviously know what you're doing.
I've wanted to build this model for years but have always been put off by stories of it being notoriously difficult to fit together (never mind the paint job...). I'm sure you won't have that issue since you obviously know what you're doing.
Last edited:
JNordgren42
Sr Member
I'm almost done with the arboretum, I just need to whip up the bridges for the paths and make some transparencies for the screens.
I almost had a disaster when I filled the stream with resin. It was much more viscous than I thought it was going to be and started creeping up the turf on the banks. Thankfully just applying some more turf after I cured the resin fixed the issue. After that I applied the foliage, assembled and painted the PE benches from the Greenstrawberry set, and painted and glued in the PE bulkheads from the Paragrafix set. Finally I masked off the ceiling and got it light blocked and painted, and put the cloud decals on the outer panels.
Almost a disaster. The UV resin crept up on the turf through capillary action. Thankfully another application of turf fixed the issue.
First application of sawdust on the paths and turf on the grass.
I almost had a disaster when I filled the stream with resin. It was much more viscous than I thought it was going to be and started creeping up the turf on the banks. Thankfully just applying some more turf after I cured the resin fixed the issue. After that I applied the foliage, assembled and painted the PE benches from the Greenstrawberry set, and painted and glued in the PE bulkheads from the Paragrafix set. Finally I masked off the ceiling and got it light blocked and painted, and put the cloud decals on the outer panels.
Almost a disaster. The UV resin crept up on the turf through capillary action. Thankfully another application of turf fixed the issue.
First application of sawdust on the paths and turf on the grass.
division 6
Master Member
Well done.
Those PE benches are a nice addition.
Are you going to put any figures in there?
Those PE benches are a nice addition.
Are you going to put any figures in there?
JNordgren42
Sr Member
Thanks! And yeah, I plan on putting a few figures in there. Even though I'm doing the TMP paint scheme I'm probably going to do them in the monster maroons. I figure there had to be a point where they transitioned uniforms but hadn't dulled down the exterior (especially since that was done to the filming model for purely technical reasons when they were doing the additional VFX for TWOK).
division 6
Master Member
If you put work bee's in the shuttle bay make sure they are white.
You can see them in the flyby scene.
Yellow and green where part of the spacedock work force.
You can see them in the flyby scene.
Yellow and green where part of the spacedock work force.
JNordgren42
Sr Member
I saw someone who put magnets under the deck and in the Workbees and Shuttles so that they could move them around and swap them out. I'm probably going to do that. Also I've seen magnets behind the airlocks and in the travel pods. I'm considering trying to combine that with a small induction coil and inductive LEDs so that the shuttles/workbees/travel pods can be lit without any visible wiring. But I have so much going on in the interior that there may not be room. I also have to make sure the induction coil doesn't interfere with the RGB LEDs I'm using for most of the window lighting.
JNordgren42
Sr Member
The arboretum is essentially finished. I need to sort out what type of crew figures I'm going to use and get them in there, do a few minor paint touch ups, and make a decision on the main light banks (I'm currently using some COB strip, but I'm probably going to switch to the DotStar RGB LED strip I'm using for most of the other lighting).
View screens and bridges added:
Close up of the bridges. They were just cut out from Evergreen sheet, scribed, and sanded.
Test fit in the secondary hull.
Still a lot of spaghetti going on and I need to finalize the main light banks.
I added a couple of SMDs in the middle of the ceiling to throw some light in the center, it was very dark without them. I drilled the holes and glued the LEDs in with some clear UV cure resin.
View screen build up. First a little scrap of clear lexan with a very rough approximation of the Federation seal painted on the inner surface. Then a bit of scrap blue vinyl mask for color, and finally a scrap of ping pong ball for diffusion.
"Light module" made by gluing an SMD to another scrap of ping pong ball for some additional diffusion. This is then affixed to the outside of the cavity with more UV resin and light blocked with Bare Metal Foil.
View screens and bridges added:
Close up of the bridges. They were just cut out from Evergreen sheet, scribed, and sanded.
Test fit in the secondary hull.
Still a lot of spaghetti going on and I need to finalize the main light banks.
I added a couple of SMDs in the middle of the ceiling to throw some light in the center, it was very dark without them. I drilled the holes and glued the LEDs in with some clear UV cure resin.
View screen build up. First a little scrap of clear lexan with a very rough approximation of the Federation seal painted on the inner surface. Then a bit of scrap blue vinyl mask for color, and finally a scrap of ping pong ball for diffusion.
"Light module" made by gluing an SMD to another scrap of ping pong ball for some additional diffusion. This is then affixed to the outside of the cavity with more UV resin and light blocked with Bare Metal Foil.
Ryker606
New Member
I lightly frosted the top (clear part) of the arboretum and that was enough make it a bit dim when placed in secondary hull. Easy to see why you needed to make those 4 lights in the ceiling to brighten up the center of it. Overall, looks good. What I found was that the "denser" the vegetation and stuff in there the more you block the "view" when looking thru the windows. Looks great when outside the model, but diff perspective when in the hull, closed up and peering in thru the windows. Speaking of windows, any plans yet on what you will make the windows from? UV resin, canopy glue, kit glass, acrylic?
Ryker606
New Member
Forgot to mention, will be interesting to see how you fit the light tunnels into the saucer. Looks like they have to butted against the rim over the window openings. In several places I suspect you will have to cut out the pin and clip alignment points for rim pieces and saucer top. Problem is you need those points to properly align the rim pieces to the saucer so you would likely have to do that after they are in place and glue has dried. With those removed, you might have to reinforce the rim pieces in some places since some of the structural integrity is compromised.
JNordgren42
Sr Member
Yeah, I had to clip the inner points, but it requires very little surgery overall. Thankfully the rim parts on mine are all in really good shape, virtually no warping and very good in a dry fit. With care during assembly, it shouldn't be a problem.
JNordgren42
Sr Member
I'm using Paragrafix PE window frames, so I plan on putting some thin Lexan or other clear flexible plastic behind them.
JNordgren42
Sr Member
Prep is underway on the secondary hull parts. I don't like the way the thick plastic looks with the portholes, so I am thinning the walls behind them and in some cases filling them in and redrilling them for a better profile. After some experimentation on the extra 1701-A bottom hull part, I found that filling the portholes with sprue goo gives the best results when drilling. It welds to the original part so there is no chance of the filled area breaking away later (a problem I had with Milliput in my tests). I got the actual bottom hull thinned, filled, and portholes drilled out. Additionally, I knocked down most of the raised detail (including the erroneously raised phaser banks) on the rest of the main secondary hull shells and sanded them all nice and smooth from 400 grit down to 1000 grit in 200 grit increments. For the phasers, before I sanded them down, I drilled 1mm holes at the center of the turrets, so I can easily and accurately replace them when the time comes. I'll also add any raised detail that should actually be there back again later with Evergreen strip.
Secondary hull parts sanded nice and smooth. Like the proverbial baby's bottom.
Bottom hull after redrilling the portholes and sanding.
I hogged out the inner walls around the portholes.
Ventral phaser banks drilled to mark position and sanded smooth.
The redrilled bottom portholes match up nicely with the side portholes. I won't need to drill most of the side ones (with the possible exception of the top row aft portholes. I will thin the walls down though, it gives a much better look.
Bottom hull portholes filled with sprue goo.
Smoothed down and ready to drill.
Secondary hull parts sanded nice and smooth. Like the proverbial baby's bottom.
Bottom hull after redrilling the portholes and sanding.
I hogged out the inner walls around the portholes.
Ventral phaser banks drilled to mark position and sanded smooth.
The redrilled bottom portholes match up nicely with the side portholes. I won't need to drill most of the side ones (with the possible exception of the top row aft portholes. I will thin the walls down though, it gives a much better look.
Bottom hull portholes filled with sprue goo.
Smoothed down and ready to drill.
JNordgren42
Sr Member
Thanks! I'm building on a lot of those that came before, especially the greatly missed Ian Laurence. I'm definitely hoping this improves the look of the windows. Checking my references more closely, I may actually bite the bullet and downsize them, they are TINY on the filming model. Because it's in a smaller scale, I probably can't match them exactly, but I think smaller will be better. I just have to decide if it's worth the extra work of thinning the hull, filling, sanding down and then redrilling. I'm also concerned about getting that many windows placed "just right" and making the long ones straight. Even a slight misalignment of the pilot holes will skew them.
Compare the filming model vs the PL:
