Gamma Star Trek Scratch Build Thread

[pielock373]

It begins... I think I trimmed the shape pretty close.

 

[Apollo]

Great time to be a TOS fan on this board.

Looking forward to your progress

 

[ecl]

This is going to be great! Love the Gamma comm.

 

[pielock373]

Lid shaped


Test fitting the new lid.

 

[pielock373]

Onto lid silver soldering.

Start by chopping up silver solder into 1/16 inch long pieces.



Next take bread rapper ties, strip of the outer plastic and use the steel inner wire wrapping it through the lid holes around the frame.



Next carefully drop the pieces of solder into the lid and frame where they meet each other (sorry for the blurry pic).



Next dribble a small amount of liquid flux into the crevasse, then apply the micro torn heat from underneath. The little pieces of solder will just flow right in and disappear!



Here are shoots of the solder completed.






Steel wool and it bright and shines.


Gamma is the communicator that you see in "The Making of Star Trek" book. This particular communicator had a deeper brass lid with rounder
sides. It was also one of two that had a steel frame rather then the more common brass frame on the lid.

 

[pielock373]

Visible Beta, Gamma (in progress) and Alpha Prime.

 

[james kirk]

Awesome Steve

 

[Felgacarb]

This thread is super helpful! I had not seen solder details like that before.

 

[ecl]

Yes! I've always loved the steel wire on the antenna. Someday I'd love to do a variant with that too.

 

[pielock373]

This first shot shows the inside of the moire ring machined, putting in the outside grooves.



Next the ring has been cut off from the aluminum stock, turned around and the top face machined.



Almost done.



Gamma ring.

 

[ecl]

Awesome; interesting to see how the moire rings are made. The Delta rings I've bought from you for my builds look beautiful.

 

[pielock373]

Awesome; interesting to see how the moire rings are made. The Delta rings I've bought from you for my builds look beautiful.

Please post a picture of your Delta here!

 

[ecl]

Technically mine isn't a replica of "Delta", but a comm influenced by various versions! But I've always liked the wide Delta ring. I like the ring you made much more than the one that came with my JLong kit. Below are some pics Looking forward to seeing you finish the Gamma build. It's one of my favorite comms. In fact, I kind of wish I went with a steel wire for my Jlong comm, as I pretty much wanted to incorporate all of my favorite details into one comm haha!

 

[pielock373]

E

Your soldering is wonder! That is a beautiful build. And thank you for following this thread, nice to see someone from TPZ. I'm posting here and over at ASAP now. Is that Abroid glue that I see being used to hold the shell to the mid plate? Very original looking!!

Delta is going to be my next build.

Steve P.

 

[ecl]

Thanks! I can't take credit for the soldering though, that's something I never learned to do. A member on TPZ helped me with that (I sanded down the antenna piece that came with the JLong kit prior, to make it thinner. Looks much better now.). I've helped him build a couple midgrade phasers, so it was cool for him to help me with this antenna.

I just use contact cement to hold the shells to the mid plate, but it does mimic the appearance of some of the originals pretty well! I add a light touch of matte medium with slight yellowish/dark tint along where the shells meet the mid plate, and then add some dust into it. Makes for an aged look hehe

 

[pielock373]

A little bit more progress on Gamma.





Test fitting all the pieces.

 

[maxspr1]

I have a question about the lid: how do you get such a nice sharp bend at the point where the wheels meet the lid, especially with the lid so close to the wheels? It seemed like it should have been easy, but this was a big headache for me when building up my JLong kit--I just couldn't get the bend close enough to the wheels or sharp enough--it was always too round-looking.
Thanks!

 

[Lost in Trek]

Here's a pic of my Delta with the moire ring and lid both made by pielock. I'm really happy with the way this comm turned out.



Your gamma looks great Steve! Looking forward to seeing it finished.

 

[pielock373]

Lost in Trek

Great to hear from you! The favorite part of that Delta Build was doing the grooves in the wheels.

Steve

 

[asparagus64]

Lost in Trek

Great to hear from you! The favorite part of that Delta Build was doing the grooves in the wheels.

Steve

Yep..that does indeed set a standard by having the wheels properly grooved. Here is the set you made for me a while back which i used for my Delta build.