AMT Enterprise D Build
- Thread starter PHArchivist
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PHArchivist
Master Member
Progressing...
PHArchivist
Master Member
Thanks bro...!
I'd read somewhere that the original paint work for the series was done in a blue grey and light green aztec, to more or less allow the eye to "blend" the two colors and emulate the grey-green of the TOS ship.
In less than perfect lighting, with the colors of my model, you cannot distinguish the two colors; they do indeed homogenize. Where as when brightly lit, they do separate.
PHArchivist
Master Member
Man I gotta clean up that "B" Deck...
That is dust and grime ground into the paint. Hopefully some 6000 or 1000 wet sanding will clean it off without eating at the paint.
That is dust and grime ground into the paint. Hopefully some 6000 or 1000 wet sanding will clean it off without eating at the paint.
The inaccuracies of the AMT kit are frustrating, and, ironically, also canon, thanks to those kits being used for onscreen vessels. I have been toying with a corrected lower saucer that could be dropped in after the existing one was cut out. Probably just do that for my Galaxy models -- keep the shallower one for the earlier classes that spun out of the same development project. But that's a couple years off yet.
To the matter of colors... One thing that has bothered me for years has been the wild changes from era to era. TOS saw the greenish-bluish-gray thanks to the warm pearl gray of the model reflecting bluescreen light.. TMP gave us the stark whiteness of the refit, with much colorful contrasting marking paint and the famous "aztec" hull-plate patterning and the iridescent inks airbrushed onto the hull to deliver even more complex light kicks. The Reliant, Grissom, and Excelsior were also white, but less complex in execution. For TNG, Andy wanted to go back to the tones the TOS ship appeared to be on TV screens (and then was frustrated when it got washed out in the lighting and filtering to "just another gray spaceship").
I don't like the in-universe lack of consistency there. I don't buy that Starfleet's metallurgical science swung that wildly all over the place. I've tried to come up with something more internally consistent, while still allowing for evolution. One of the things I have come to actually came from a parallel project.
So I'm elbow-deep in a stupidly ambitious series that reflects the Star Trek universe's history of Human spaceflight, from Vostok I up to late-24th-century Starfleet ships. As I've been working on that, I also decided to indulge my ongoing love of Romulan stuff -- especially the better designs FASA came up with. I have one of Polar Lights' newish 1:1000 TSFS Birds-of-Prey. I have a couple of their 1:1000 TOS Birds-of-Prey. I have one of their 1:1000 Stormbirds (the slightly reworked Klingon battlecruiser). I have a 1:1000 "Bright One" Destroyer. I have a 1:1000 "Winged Defender" Cruiser. I am still working on the same for the "Gallant Wing" and "Whitewind", and a 1:1400 "Nova" battlecruiser and D'Deridex. Some remember the "Klingon" ship in TSFS was supposed to be a stolen Romulan Bird-of-Prey -- hence the name and feathering. It was green. The D'Deridex in TNG was green. The Romulan scout ship and science vessel and shuttle and the new ships from Nemesis were all green. So I decided to do the earlier ships in green, too, and cast a sidelong look at the TOS ships -- the BoP and the Stormbird.
The Stormbird was an easy choice -- green like the rest. But the TOS BoP was a very distinctive white. Then, one day, I was doing paint workups to figure out how to get the perfect shade of green for the Winged Defender -- something the color of oxidized copper, and I thought "why not just use oxidized copper paint?"
And then it hit me. Copper. Like the Vulcans, Romulans have copper-based blood. Which carries oxygen, hence green blood. The Romulans paint their ships blood green. How metal is that?! So I decided to do the TOS BoP in the same colors, but kept thinking about that white paint job. And remembered how many cultures have white as a color for death and mourning. What if that ship was painted white over its regular hull color because they considered themselves already dead -- a probable suicide mission probing Starfleet strength and resolve.
I'm toying with doing some Klingon ships, too, and would give them a nice dark, oil-rubbed bronze base tone. And all that led me back around to potentially doing a metallic base for my Starfleet ships, too. Conveniently, next to the kit above, there is this one:
It's surprisingly close to the base color Andy came up with for the Enterprise-D, that the AMT kit was molded in. I can mess about with the paint color of the TOS filming miniature, the duck egg blue of the TNG ship's contrasting panels, take some inspiration from the more-complex scheme the -D was painted for Generations, use some of those iridescent inks to break down the aztecing further. It is frustrating to me the whole "film generation" of ships are white, bookended by bluish-gray. All four of those ships look surprisingly good in TOS/TNG colors. It's just a matter of getting past the kneejerk "but that's WRONG!!!" reflex. I'm actually really looking forward to this now.
To the matter of colors... One thing that has bothered me for years has been the wild changes from era to era. TOS saw the greenish-bluish-gray thanks to the warm pearl gray of the model reflecting bluescreen light.. TMP gave us the stark whiteness of the refit, with much colorful contrasting marking paint and the famous "aztec" hull-plate patterning and the iridescent inks airbrushed onto the hull to deliver even more complex light kicks. The Reliant, Grissom, and Excelsior were also white, but less complex in execution. For TNG, Andy wanted to go back to the tones the TOS ship appeared to be on TV screens (and then was frustrated when it got washed out in the lighting and filtering to "just another gray spaceship").
I don't like the in-universe lack of consistency there. I don't buy that Starfleet's metallurgical science swung that wildly all over the place. I've tried to come up with something more internally consistent, while still allowing for evolution. One of the things I have come to actually came from a parallel project.
So I'm elbow-deep in a stupidly ambitious series that reflects the Star Trek universe's history of Human spaceflight, from Vostok I up to late-24th-century Starfleet ships. As I've been working on that, I also decided to indulge my ongoing love of Romulan stuff -- especially the better designs FASA came up with. I have one of Polar Lights' newish 1:1000 TSFS Birds-of-Prey. I have a couple of their 1:1000 TOS Birds-of-Prey. I have one of their 1:1000 Stormbirds (the slightly reworked Klingon battlecruiser). I have a 1:1000 "Bright One" Destroyer. I have a 1:1000 "Winged Defender" Cruiser. I am still working on the same for the "Gallant Wing" and "Whitewind", and a 1:1400 "Nova" battlecruiser and D'Deridex. Some remember the "Klingon" ship in TSFS was supposed to be a stolen Romulan Bird-of-Prey -- hence the name and feathering. It was green. The D'Deridex in TNG was green. The Romulan scout ship and science vessel and shuttle and the new ships from Nemesis were all green. So I decided to do the earlier ships in green, too, and cast a sidelong look at the TOS ships -- the BoP and the Stormbird.
The Stormbird was an easy choice -- green like the rest. But the TOS BoP was a very distinctive white. Then, one day, I was doing paint workups to figure out how to get the perfect shade of green for the Winged Defender -- something the color of oxidized copper, and I thought "why not just use oxidized copper paint?"
And then it hit me. Copper. Like the Vulcans, Romulans have copper-based blood. Which carries oxygen, hence green blood. The Romulans paint their ships blood green. How metal is that?! So I decided to do the TOS BoP in the same colors, but kept thinking about that white paint job. And remembered how many cultures have white as a color for death and mourning. What if that ship was painted white over its regular hull color because they considered themselves already dead -- a probable suicide mission probing Starfleet strength and resolve.
I'm toying with doing some Klingon ships, too, and would give them a nice dark, oil-rubbed bronze base tone. And all that led me back around to potentially doing a metallic base for my Starfleet ships, too. Conveniently, next to the kit above, there is this one:
It's surprisingly close to the base color Andy came up with for the Enterprise-D, that the AMT kit was molded in. I can mess about with the paint color of the TOS filming miniature, the duck egg blue of the TNG ship's contrasting panels, take some inspiration from the more-complex scheme the -D was painted for Generations, use some of those iridescent inks to break down the aztecing further. It is frustrating to me the whole "film generation" of ships are white, bookended by bluish-gray. All four of those ships look surprisingly good in TOS/TNG colors. It's just a matter of getting past the kneejerk "but that's WRONG!!!" reflex. I'm actually really looking forward to this now.
All that to say, I really like your color choices, good call on the J.N. Grey -- that's getting added to my short list of go-to contrast paints, and I know you're too far into painting now to change, but I'm glad I mentally hit on using the ModernMasters blue-patina and would love to see what you could do with it on a future kit. 
mb1k
Well-Known Member
Good update, looking forward to the next one.
