Die Cast Lighted 1/350th TOS Enterprise (TOMY crowd funded)

Jamesfett said:
FOCUS PEOPLE. Who cares how many did this or that.

I need you all putting your brains to work solving these problems. (y) :love: o_O :lol: :D

First and foremost, my God please come up with a solution to that horrific saucer stand

Then I need a seam and hole filler that will work.

Then matching paint and ideas to only hit the areas filled. No new decals hopefully.

With any luck you will all have it solved by the time I get mine.

Thanks. Appreciate it.
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I don't think spot painting would work with this after filling the seams. The whole ship would have to be repainted. I don't think you can blend and buff this paint like a car. As for filling the seams there is a lot of stuff you can use. The problem is how long will it last until it cracks and the seams show back up. There are more extreme ways like welded the pieces but you may as well just get a kit and start from scratch...

I'm not an expert though so maybe there is a easier permanent solution.
 
Fizzbin said:
It definitely looks better in low light. It would be interesting if there was a way to suspend it. I'm sure there will be some aftermarket products to replace that crazy stand at some point. Once the ship can be displayed with the good side (port side) unobstructed, it will be a bit better. Sadly the saucer dome underneath is obstructed to provide support. That too is somewhat dissatisfied. Oh well.
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Well in the dark on the coffee table highlighting the best lighting features reminds me of date wearing heavy fake up. Once you bring it to eye level on top of a detolf or a high cabinet so you can actually see it in the light, the horror of the one night stand is revealed. The stand is ridiculous seriously WTH. It's great if you have nothing in that scale. It had so much potential and a little thought to the body plugs and the stand could have been forgiven with the "show side" Already repeatedly discussed, Also Diecast folks you have to be very careful with it as it will chip easily and the white color makes it just worse. Many a Franklin mint diecast enterprise on EBay over the years...... will highlight what I am talking about. A slight knock and white will chip down to the base metal as the result. Only think I hate about diecast anything.
 
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goldcylon said:
Well in the dark on the coffee table highlighting the best lighting features reminds me of date wearing heavy fake up. Once you bring it to eye level on top of a detolf or a high cabinet so you can actually see it in the light, the horror of the one night stand is revealed. The stand is ridiculous seriously WTH. It's great if you have nothing in that scale. It had so much potential and a little thought to the body plugs and the stand could have been forgiven with the "show side" Already repeatedly discussed, Also Diecast folks you have to be very careful with it as it will chip easily and the white color makes it just worse. Many a Franklin mint diecast enterprise on EBay over the years...... will highlight what I am talking about. A slight knock and white will chip down to the base metal as the result. Only think I hate about diecast anything.
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Battle damage ! :lol:
 
goldcylon said:
Well in the dark on the coffee table highlighting the best lighting features reminds me of date wearing heavy fake up. Once you bring it to eye level on top of a detolf or a high cabinet so you can actually see it in the light, the horror of the one night stand is revealed. The stand is ridiculous seriously WTH. It's great if you have nothing in that scale. It had so much potential and a little thought to the body plugs and the stand could have been forgiven with the "show side" Already repeatedly discussed, Also Diecast folks you have to be very careful with it as it will chip easily and the white color makes it just worse. Many a Franklin mint diecast enterprise on EBay over the years...... will highlight what I am talking about. A slight knock and white will chip down to the base metal as the result. Only think I hate about diecast anything.
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This is all the more reason we need to come up with a good paint match. However, if properly painted it takes a lot to chip or wear the paint off. I played heavily with my 1970's Dinky Die Cast of the enterprise, moved with it many times, had cats knock it off shelves and so forth, and some edges have a few small < 1mm chips . Such small wear can be touched up without being very obvious. Normally I would say Tomy understands how to paint die-cast, but I thought they understood how to engineer it too..and this model doesn't lend any credence to that theory
 
Ant1988 said:
I don't think spot painting would work with this after filling the seams. The whole ship would have to be repainted. I don't think you can blend and buff this paint like a car. As for filling the seams there is a lot of stuff you can use. The problem is how long will it last until it cracks and the seams show back up. There are more extreme ways like welded the pieces but you may as well just get a kit and start from scratch...

I'm not an expert though so maybe there is a easier permanent solution.
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I think this depends on how careful you are in filling the seems and how patient and delicate you are while sanding them ( a very small and very slow dremel barrel?) and then masking and painting them. There may also be a clear coat needed . I am sure some amount of work would be needed to blend it with the weathering- and that would be the trick, but a good paint match is a good paint match. If you get a smooth coat it should look no different to the base color of the ship when dry, and it is over such a small area I don't think you would need to buff it out unless your paint job was poor. The problem is the weathering has been added of the top of that base coat (and possibly under a clear coat) , so some artistry will be required to blend it without making a mess of it. The plug holes will be more problematic from a weathering perspective I suspect. For the Nacells however, new decals will almost certainly be needed. Running a seam right through a decal.... (My 1970s Dinky toy runs the seam in line with the nacelle strut, the two parts closing around the strut to secure it) -.

From what little research I have done, it seems loctite superglue and baking soda will make a decent filler for diecast , lasting a decade or more. If a decent solution can be found to support the saucer so a non-obtrusive stand can be used , these are true diamonds in the rough. Even if they do require a full repainting-- I think, in capable hands, these can be modified to rival the MR version, and will probably command prices comparable or higher than professionally done plastic models once finished. I personally don't think I have the skills for that.. but I almost wish I had bought two, so I had one to experiment with. If these show up wholesale somewhere cheap maybe I'll try to grab another - but I don't think that is likely. I suspect they will still command a price close to the original if not more.
 
I have heard online that the screw hole covers are a “rubber-like” material, in order for the buyer to be a or to access the Internals, if needed?

If so, I am not sure how that would affect using bondo, or some other seal filler material, to cover up the screw hole covers.
 
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Captain Dunsel said:
I have heard online that the screw hole covers are a “rubber-like” material, in order to slow the buyer to access the Internals, needed?

If so, I am not sure how that would affect using bondo, or some other seal filler material, to cover up the screw hole covers.
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I think people would simply remove those plugs. One would probably want to put some sort of blockage in to protect the screw itself from being covered by filler (maybe a cut down plug?) , but the expectation is that one wouldn't be trying to get back into the model. If you need to get to the internals of the model one would have to locate and drill out the filler to again access the screw. But most plastic models are set up so such access is simply impossible without similar operations , so having no access would not be unusual. If they had only placed these on the opposite side of the model, I think all but the most die hard people would have left them as is. We all know the Studio model is no beauty queen on the port side, and its such an easy design decision to make if you think about it for more than 10 seconds early in the process.
 
goldcylon said:
Well in the dark on the coffee table highlighting the best lighting features reminds me of date wearing heavy fake up. Once you bring it to eye level on top of a detolf or a high cabinet so you can actually see it in the light, the horror of the one night stand is revealed. The stand is ridiculous seriously WTH. It's great if you have nothing in that scale. It had so much potential and a little thought to the body plugs and the stand could have been forgiven with the "show side" Already repeatedly discussed, Also Diecast folks you have to be very careful with it as it will chip easily and the white color makes it just worse. Many a Franklin mint diecast enterprise on EBay over the years...... will highlight what I am talking about. A slight knock and white will chip down to the base metal as the result. Only think I hate about diecast anything.
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Well the same could be said about vacuum formed plastic or resin or vinyl . It's more brittle and can crack and break much more easily.

Diecast is just gonna last last imo....
 
dlbsyst said:
This video answers a lot of your questions guys.:)
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Seems like it's a heavy sucker for sure; hearing the stand creaking I believe that it shouldn't be manipulated too often.
Once it's in its cradle it shouldn't be moved anymore...unless you want to see cracks happening on the base or the cradle.:oops:
 
joberg said:
Seems like it's a heavy sucker for sure; hearing the stand creaking I believe that it shouldn't be manipulated too often.
Once it's in its cradle it shouldn't be moved anymore...unless you want to see cracks happening on the base or the cradle.:oops:
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Yeah, I wish they had made the stands solid or metal. They seem a bit unstable with all that weight on them.
 
The stand needs to be redesigned to be more sturdy. Not just to support the diecast weight, but to be handle as well. Without the saucer support eventually over time then secondary hull support front may just cave in slowly. It needed more ribbing support instead of just open area. They only ribbing support is more centralized at the center saucer base. Wish the video guy would have shown secondary hull display base underneath it. Good video though!
 
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