Correcting the Lunar Models 41" Excelsior

[Vidar 710]

TrekModeler.com has finished the lighting kit for this project. Here are the subcomponents of the kit.
I guess I'm gonna have to finish this project after all!

How it will be mounted.


The Boards.


The Nav Lights and Strobes. Navs cycle 1 sec on/of, and the Strobe cycles 1/2 sec on/off.
Click image below to see flasher/strobe effects video.


Planetary Sensor Dome Assembly Lights


Primary Hull Window/Thuster Port Lighting.


Primary Hull Impulse Engine, and Impulse Crystal.


Secondary Hull Lighting.
Aft Section.


Forward/Ceiling Lighting.


Forward Lower Section.
Deflector Dish, Cargo Bay.


Power Connections and Switching.


Warp Nacelle Flood Lights and "Optional" Warp Effect.


I will get right back on this after IPMS Nationals.

Tracy

 

[spillway]

This is brilliant. I'm gearing up to build a variant Excelsior and I'm getting tons of inspiration from this thread. Thanks for the awesome work!

 

[Atesta]

I can 't seem t find this kit anywhere .

 

[publiusr]

Keep up the good work

 

[Atesta]

Where should I look for this kit ?

 

[ProfKSergeev]

Atesta, this kit is long OOP. Ebay is the best place to check.

 

[tgreco]

Any updates on this?

 

[tgreco]

Did this ever get finished?

 

[Vidar 710]

Not done yet. As an airline pilot, my time at home is precious, and limited. I have some 3D printed parts now that eased some of the scratch building. I'm currently correcting the length and shape of the warp nacelles.

Ill post some progress pics when I get back home.

Tracy

 

[Vidar 710]

Here's some of the 3D printed parts. The bridge, the Impulse Crystal, the NX Observation dome, the Warp Nacelle greebles, and the aft Torp Launchers

The Warp Nacelles are 1 1/4" too short, so I fashioned a dense foam master, then filled and sanded it to be molded.

Two castings were made and added into both Nacelle bottom Masters/ Bucks.

Like the secondary hull, the bow of the Warp nacelles are completely off. I traced a scaled image of the studio model to make a template to re-shape the top and bottom bow parts.

Sanding together to ensure both nacelles have the same shape.

The template and the bottoms are cemented to their plates.

Using the same template, I made the plates for the top hood.

Next will be to apply Apoxie Sculpt to the Bow parts to reshape just like I did with the secondary hull's bow.

Tracy

 

[Vidar 710]

The same template was used to make the leading edge of the Top Bow shroud.

Lunar kit shrouds cemented onto the new shaped profile.

The trailing edge of the top shroud needed to be corrected to work with the coming new shape.

Using thin styrene to make the patterns, they are cemented into place.

Apoxie Scultp was added to fill the extension plug, and flesh out the new shape of the nacelle bow.

Multiple sessions of sanding, and filling to come with priming, and refining the shape.

Tracy

 

[Vidar 710]

double post

 

[Vidar 710]

First round for refining the shape of the Nacelles bows. The Apoxie Sculpt has been sanded to shape.

Next, filler will be applied to cover seems and imperfections in the nacelles.

Tracy

 

[Vidar 710]

Nacelles with their first primer coat, and the first round of filler to smooth out any imperfections.

Tracy

 

[brandomack]

Loving this!

 

[Vidar 710]

Back and forth with priming and sanding to level the surface.

Nacelle bottoms and forward top cowls are complete! Shown here with the primary hulls superstructure.

Tracy

 

[JBReplicas]

Superb work, I would kill for a large scale Excelsior kit someday, keep it going!

 

[Vidar 710]

Tons of work finishing the primary hull masters. Pics to come when I get home off my current trip.

The top half needed extreme filling and reshaping, but the bottom was even worse. Completely inaccurate requiring a complete reshaping.

cant wait to share the images of the progress.

Tracy

 

[Vidar 710]

Here's how the progress of fixing the bottom of the primary hull went...

Original Lunar Models vacuum form part.

Roughed out changes to be made

Fleshing out the trench parts.

Trench Assembly

New profile and trench ready for installation.

Making the cuts.

Installing the changes.

from the inside of the hull. styrene re-enforcements were made.

Trench fully installed

Determining the shaped of the Dorsal's Trench using a scaled image of the studio model. This also determined the correct shape of the secondary hull's bow.

The crest is removed and a flat plate is installed for mounting the scratch-built Planetary Sensor Dome.

Filling is the over-exaggerated grid details. I used Apoxie Paste to ensure the thin styrene would not be melted or deformed from standard fillers and puttys.

A pater template is made and test fit to the hull.

The cut for the Dorsal Trench is made.

Base Plate is glued into place.

The vertical wall is glued into plase. as well as a piece of sheet styrene to level out the dip in the hull.

Plenty of back-n-forth with filling, sanding a priming until a smooth surface is made. Here it sits with the resurfaced upper half of the primary hull.

With the bottom of the secondary hull's master complete, preliminary work has started on the Dorsal/Neck assembly. Templates shown in place.

Tracy

 

[JBReplicas]

Excellent, you are really putting the hours in on this and it's looking great!