Mutara Nebula DeBoers E and R Build

Update #52

Not a lot to talk about. Most of what I have been doing is putty, sanding, putty, more sanding, repeat, while not quite infinite, sure seems like it. So, to break the monotony, although I am getting close on the final three nacelles, I just worked on a single nacelle until I could shoot some primer on it. I am pretty happy with where it is after the first coat of primer. I am running into a problem I have seen in wood working. In highly figured wood, or wood with a lot of lines, it is hard to see parallel lines and square corners. So, with the whiteish base color of the resin, and the different types of filler used to build the surfaces back to flat and parallel and square, I am having a hard time visually inspecting. So, the grey primer is AWESOME and letting me see all of the issues. I plan on getting to a bunch of single primed parts, before I continue to clean up the imperfections. I also shot a lot of base white today. I am working on completing my second color board. I plan on custom mixing colors, but by the container, so they will be consistent throughout the painting process and touch up process. I also shot the first base coat of white on the Reliant bottom of the bottom hull. Looks like it got sick! The white will get evened out after 3-4 coats, with wet sanding in between coats. I did run into a problem where I damaged an area from my hand pressure holding the paint. I let the white dry to the touch, but the primer was softened because of this. Some touch up is required. Part of the issue is my air brush booth is not big enough for these LARGE pieces. I think I lost a few brain cells painting today! I will paint the hulls in parts now so I will always have a very well cured area to grip. I also really need to get to the point of putting the base mounting part into the hulls. I have also been doing work on the bases. Progress all around! Oh, some more parts have come in for my shuttle bay builds.

Cheers,
James

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32buds,

Thanks! I can't wait to see them assembled also!

Update #53

The 4 nacelles have the first primer coat down. Going to let them cure for a few days before I go back and do the cleanup sanding. I noticed I missed one or two areas per nacelle. Bummer. Started working on the sanding for the top of the Enterprise. However, before I prime it, I need to cut out the windows for the O club, and cut some other holes where stuff mounts. This will decrease the strength of said part, so the care factor will have to go way up, which also makes me sad. I can see me destroying this part accidentally due to the holes that need to be poked throughout the top. Headed on vacation, no work on the model for a few days. I can actually see the end of the model assembly tunnel headed my way. Still do not have a good answer for the sensor bands yet.

Cheers,
James

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HUGE BREAK THROUGH, well at least for me. I finally figured out the best way to mask off the UV layer for my photo etch work. The solution drum roll putting 2 masks on top of each other to block out the UV light. I have been having tremendous problems getting just the mask to develop and be removed from the brass. Doubling up fixed this problem. This introduced some smaller manageable problems that I can solve. So, a huge ass albatross has been pulled from my neck. Full steam ahead. The two PE pics are of the new detail going into all 3 shuttle bays. I am going to have to do some tweaking on line width and do a better job aligning masks, but this is solvable. The other pic is of the holes and masking on the top saucer, she has gotten her first coat of primer. In my enthusiasm though, I did not mask of the area where the PE is going, oh well. I also got a second coat of base white down on the bottom of the Reliant. I am going to do some cleanup on where some parts are glued on, but she is starting to look gooood. Can not wait to install the electronics in there. I did not do much model work on Saturday, instead my son and I built terrain and armies for the newly released Kill Team from Games Workshop. He is 9 and did a wonderful job on cutting out, cleaning the parts, and gluing everything up. I LOVED watching him build his minis. He had so much pride when he was done, and they are his, which is really cool. Next up, dad will prime them :) and he will paint his Kill Team up. Super excited.

Cheers,
James

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Bill,

Appreciate the support! This is a LOOOOONNNG slog.... :(

Update #55

Lots O work, but sure doesn’t look like it. I am getting closer to being down priming all 4 nacelles. I have completed two rounds of clean up on them, they are getting really close. In the first pic you can see the Enterprise s first round of touch up. I will take a pic of round two, the touch up will be about 10% of that amount. Getting closer to base coating the nacelles. For the bottom of the E s saucer, it needs a light sanding and is ready to go for base coat. The top of the saucer will be put on hold until I get the PE part made, I just am being lazy on the CAD side, oh well. Pic 3 and 4 shows the second coat of primer down on the parts. The last pic shows the little doo dad parts that attached to the saucer. They are just about ready for electronics installation. I think I will get the saucer bottoms down and then do electronics for a week or so in one big go. I have to move a bunch of stuff around in my little hobby area, so one go makes that easier. Still cranking. Lots of work all over the place still needs getting down, but always marching forward!

Cheers,
James

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Update #56

Another round of primer and sanding, I think I have 2 of the 4 nacelles completed. I started putting down the base coat for the Es saucer section. Also, put another coat down on the Rs bottom hull. I think I will need 2 more coats of the Rs hull. I ended up spilling paint on the hull while air brushing today, but, if I had not done that, I would have ended up with all of my expensive lacquer white paint on the floor. A comedy of errors almost ended up in disaster. So, that area is what is driving the extra coat, bummer. I also started mixing the custom greys needed for the E and R. On the Enterprise, they are used on the planetary sensor area on the bottom and on the Reliant they are used everywhere!

I have 1 thing left on the retirement box, I need to cut the plexi that holds the flag in and drill a few holes. So that project is complete.

I am also almost done with the new artwork for the shuttle bay photo etch parts and the officers quarters PE part for the upper saucer section.

Progress, and I am off this week, hoping to get a lot down on them.

Cheers,
James

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Update #57

The slog is real and the pain continues! All 4 nacelles are ready for the base coat of white, woohoo! It has been raining cats and dogs, and even though I spray in a back room, the humidity has been really high, so no air brushing going on. Makes me sad.

On a good note, the photo etch part came out, most of the pics are of the kit needed to make it, minus the laminator and software. I use Silhouette Studio, since that is what my wife owns their cutter machine. Works well enough for what I need. The pic with the primer on it has not been touched at all, needs some more work to get the part into the saucer and blended in.

Last pic is of the Reliant top hull. I am trying something different this time on sequencing. There are a lot of pin holes, but I think the primer will fill most of them in, so will reduce my overall work load on this.

I should be able to paint tomorrow, get a lot of white down onto parts!

Cheers,
James

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Nice etching.
One tip: only use outlines to etch away pieces. That way your etching liquid will last much longer. So instead of letting the etching liquid eat out the entire window, just let it remove a small line. That way just remove the core which is now available for future projects.
 
Update #58

Well, it IS STILL RAINING except for one day, so go some painting done on that day. Got the primer down on the top hull, still have not looked at what needs to be cleaned up on it though. Maybe tomorrow. I got some more base coat white down on the bottom hulls. Need to wet sand them though in preparation for the next coats of white. I added some more light blocking for the RCS thrusters using the black paint in AK Lacquer series, and wow, that paint is AWESOME! Super flat and looks amazing. Hopefully it will also be that extra bit of light blocking will do its job! All 4 nacelles are now prepped for their white base coats, and I have been cleaning up all of the little pieces that I have already sprayed white. If it had not rained essentially during my entire staycation would be a little farther along, which is frustrating. Another sad thing is that the Falcon had to get disassembled to make some more table space to hold all of the painted parts. But hey it is LEGO, will be fun to put her back together. Making progress.

Cheers,
James

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Update #59

I did not feel like doing any sanding in the last few days, but I have gotten a lot of white paint down. The Enterprise bottom saucer section is almost done with base coat. The little extra bits, bridge, sensor thingy and the impulse housing are about done. I got another round of putty and sanding on the photo etch for the officer club on the E top section. Will look at that tomorrow. Hopefully it is ready for paint. I need to sand the Reliant bottom and Enterprise bottom though at some point soon to get the last coats of base white on there. I am debating on doing some painting on the bottom sections before I install the electronics. I know I will completely paint the 5 bots off model before installing them, I think I will do the same with the aztecing on the E and R. Not sure. Progress continues.

Cheers,
James

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I just read through your entire thread, seeing the entire process from bare kits, parts and ideas up to this stage, where the end (although probably still quite a ways off) is finally visible. And I'm really impressed by your tenacity and unwavering adherence to detail and accuracy.

The end results will no doubt be incredible, what with all the monumental effort you've been putting into these.

Can't wait to see them both all painted and lighted; please keep it up! :)
 
Truly inspiring , i wish i had that much willpower and inspiration to just finish my moebius galactica , i just tried to add a couple of lights and i cant imagin doing al the amount of work you are pouring into this build, cant wait to see it finished, and read your progress
 
A bit late to the game but will be following this thread.
Great work so far James, I know the DeBoers needs a lot of work. I threw mine in the attic for a bit after trying to sort out the windows and the sensor lines around the saucer and that's after building my own saucer top !!
 
Daeothar, Maverick626,

Huge thanks for the encouragement!

Neo-Uk,

I got the windows sorted via over sizing the holes I drilled and using indirect lighting to light them. I can use the placement of the paint masks to get them straighter. They won’t be perfect but they will be pretty close, which I am happy with for hand drilling a bagillion windows on a non standard curved surface. For the sensor bands, I still don’t have a good answer. I have some videos of some other folk who have built this model, need to go watch and see what they did. Some options I have, custom photo etch parts, this would be a TON of work. Possibly a cut plastic part using a machine to do the gouging of sensor band lines. Going in a hand deepening them, this however would most likely cause more damage that couldn’t be repaired. The last one is really teo options, painting them or decaling them on. I am moving forward with a good solution on the sensor bands.

Your build log is in my reference work notes I have!

Update #60

More painting and sanding.

The Good - the 4 nacelles are ready for touch up sanding and then a finish coat of base white, then they are ready for additional paint details. I need to check light blocking one last time though before I continue with the painting.

The Bad - I discovered an issue, which will drive a longer paint time on the upper saucer for both the E and R. I am glad I saw this now and I think my new way of painting will fix the problem, who knows though. You can see the first light coat on the Es upper saucer section.

The Ugly - The issue was paint lifting at intersections of planes. Basically, randomly, paint would delaminate from the part and sort of puff up. On the same part, painted the same day, you would not get consistent bubbling, and I saw ZERO bubbling on flat surfaces. Guess what I did all of my primer and lacquer paint testing on, large flat surfaces, boo. So, I went back in and scribe all of the panel lines on the bottom of the E saucer, but this chipped the paint around the scribe lines. I almost have all of this fixed and repainted. I have a half a coat to go, tomorrow night, then a light sanding and a visual inspection. The last pic shows you a bubbling section. I am going to strip all of the paint off of one of the bottom sensor pieces, I have lost too much detail getting everything cleaned up. I would rather spend some time removing all of the buildup and redoing the paint to get a crisp looking part. Bummer, but will be a better model in the long run.

I need to go buy some super soft cotton fabric to make to piece holders so as not to scratch up the finished assemblies. Also will need to start working on the masks for the Es nacelles. I am doing the 5 color refit, so the masks I have bought do not have everything needed for that.

So making forward progress. I have collected a large selection of parts and pieces to build out the three shuttle bays that are required. I also have all of the electronics ready to be installed on the stuff I am painting now. That will be less than a day. So huge progress, may not seem like, but the foundation is nearing completion.

Cheers,
James

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Update #61

I figured out what was causing my lifting issue. Essentially the lacquer based white paint would pool some on the non-flat surfaces and this was causing the problem. So, lesson learned, lighter coats on the non-flat surfaces. I also stripped down a part, reprepped it and only painted it with the white, WOW, much better, MUCH better. I have already started stripping the other 3 parts. This will drive some work on light blocking changes, but that will allow for a better looking model when done. I am glad I stripped them. I am going to hit the bottom E saucer with some sanding, and see if I am happy with how it looks, if not, I think I will strip the whole saucer and start over. Some more light coats put down on the top saucer. Progress.

Cheers,
James
 
Update #62

So I stripped the bottom saucer, and the left over top and bottom parts. I re-sanded the parts. The top and bottom ad on parts are repainted, will get sanded tonight and 1 more coat and they are then DONE with the base coating. They look MUCH better now, and I look forward to getting actual colors down on them. Also, making some nice soft part holders, so I can do work on the electronics without damaging the paint job.

I tried something new on the saucer, since stripping the saucer was easier than painting it. I am outlining all of the hull lines with black, then painting 2 coats of white over it. This will add a little highlight to the lines without standing out too much, and it cleans up the area, makes everything look neater. The pics do not do it justice, but in person it looks better. So, going to line the rest of the saucer tonight and get those coats down this weekend, I think, unless I work on the sensor bands.

Cheers,
James

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Update #63

So I finished one of the saucer sections that had primer down first then the white and I was unable to get the panel lines to work out properly. I am sad that I spent all that effort which is now wasted, but glad I learned some good experience out of this. So, very happy with how the saucer section came out that was not primed, ALL of the panel lines are super crisp. I think you can see on the top part of the saucer section the softness of about half the panel lines. So, off to strip it down. I will also strip down all of the Reliant hull parts to. So, I am out about $30 in primer lolol. For the nacelles, I am about down, and since there are essentially no panel lines, I have not had this puffing up issue with just a few exception, which I can carefully clean up and fix. The bad, time and money wasted, the good, earned some great experience in working with these paints and getting much better with my air brush and paint sanding skills.

This weekend going to work on my sewing skills. I need to make some padding and other holder pieces so I can flip over these base coated parts and install the electronics.

Cheers,
James

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