I did go a little crazy after reading about another refit studio scale model being built and decided that making a studio scale refit saucer would be fun. I planned to construct, paint, and light it on the path to maybe a full studio scale enterprise. it was important to keep it as light weight as possible, in case i expanded the build for the full ship.
everything is scaled to around 1/120 as i think this is the scale the original model was made at!
so here's the 1st attempt for posterity.
1. I made a cad file of the saucer, so I could get a main wooden frame made up. other parts were cut out from balsa wood sheets.
all looking good so far. theres a little twisting on some of the wood fame i had made up but it didnt effect the overall shape.
got some 1mm polystyrene sheets from B&Q to cover the saucer with using hot glue to hold them to the frame.
bit of sanding to get the edges ok
So far so good, its taken shape. got some west resin 105 epoxy to glass the thing to add more strength using Plain Weave Fibreglass Cloth.
The resin dry's alot faster than expected and the cloth moves around some if you cut it into sections for glassing (this is my first attempt at this BTW)
After two layers of glassing there were still sections on the saucer which would flex when pressed. I decided expanding foam would be good to add strength and keep the weight down. Drilled holes around the saucer to insert the foam and sprayed away
to get a nice smooth finish i used car body filler (light weight filler). plan is to layer the thing smooth for painting.
just about there
this is where things went wrong on the build! Checking the width along the saucer edge, I found it had become thicker in some places than others, due to the expanding foam, pushing the polystyrene up to the point where it would not be practical to continue.
Maybe one day I could cut it to make a uss reliant, as i can cover the out of spec parts of the saucer. In any case i did learn quite a few skills along the way.
everything is scaled to around 1/120 as i think this is the scale the original model was made at!
so here's the 1st attempt for posterity.
1. I made a cad file of the saucer, so I could get a main wooden frame made up. other parts were cut out from balsa wood sheets.
all looking good so far. theres a little twisting on some of the wood fame i had made up but it didnt effect the overall shape.
got some 1mm polystyrene sheets from B&Q to cover the saucer with using hot glue to hold them to the frame.
bit of sanding to get the edges ok
So far so good, its taken shape. got some west resin 105 epoxy to glass the thing to add more strength using Plain Weave Fibreglass Cloth.
The resin dry's alot faster than expected and the cloth moves around some if you cut it into sections for glassing (this is my first attempt at this BTW)
After two layers of glassing there were still sections on the saucer which would flex when pressed. I decided expanding foam would be good to add strength and keep the weight down. Drilled holes around the saucer to insert the foam and sprayed away
to get a nice smooth finish i used car body filler (light weight filler). plan is to layer the thing smooth for painting.
just about there
this is where things went wrong on the build! Checking the width along the saucer edge, I found it had become thicker in some places than others, due to the expanding foam, pushing the polystyrene up to the point where it would not be practical to continue.
Maybe one day I could cut it to make a uss reliant, as i can cover the out of spec parts of the saucer. In any case i did learn quite a few skills along the way.
