TazMan2000
Master Member
Astounding.
TazMan2000
TazMan2000
Mutara Nebula DeBoers E and R Build
- Thread starter jwood314
- Start date
Your build is fantastic, and I hate to bring this up; but I think your landing bays on the Reliant are oriented wrong. I believe they are supposed to be parallel to the centerline of the ship, rather than radiating outward from the center.
It kills me to point this out, 'cuz you've already got them installed. You've done such a masterful job on this project that I felt you might want to have that detail correct though.
It kills me to point this out, 'cuz you've already got them installed. You've done such a masterful job on this project that I felt you might want to have that detail correct though.
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star-art
Sr Member
This is the most amazing electrical design I've ever seen for a model project. WOW!
Could you elaborate on the "simple ESD protection" you mentioned in post #112? Most of the info I've found on that was written for electrical engineers and I've never heard hobbyists discuss the subject. I'm particularly interested in protection for automotive projects, but also for model work. When you have to seal up components inside a project that takes months or even years to build, I'd rather be safe than sorry! Thanks!
Could you elaborate on the "simple ESD protection" you mentioned in post #112? Most of the info I've found on that was written for electrical engineers and I've never heard hobbyists discuss the subject. I'm particularly interested in protection for automotive projects, but also for model work. When you have to seal up components inside a project that takes months or even years to build, I'd rather be safe than sorry! Thanks!
TazMan2000 - Huge thanks for the kind words!!
Duncanator – You can bring up whatever you want! I looked at doing them both ways, and ultimately I think they look pretty good this way and this mounting method saves me a ton of time. There are too many inaccuracies on the model kit to get them all fixed. I would rather have these bays mounted this way than not have shuttles! Also, huge thanks for the kinds words!!
Star-Art – I am an EE, lol. I no longer do design work, but this is a great way for me to scratch that itch. I am using diodes to clamp the voltage when it goes below or above 5V or ground. Basically, the diodes provide an alternate path for the current to flow into the power supply instead of into an IC or transistor. Long term, this is not a great solution, but it can save your electronics from a hit or two, depending on how much static electricity or ESD you are discharging. So, better than nothing, but not a super stout implementation. Also, to help out on the protection side, EVERY LED has a series resistor that is installed into the model, period. This will also help protect them. The diodes though are more for the electronics that are in the base of the model.
Update #91
I have been working away on the 2nd Reliant nacelle. I have completed 4 of the 7 areas that need to be painted, about 75% of it. I have the front and rear portion of the nacelle left to do. Doing 6 layers of paint for the aztecing takes some serious time, but having so many layers of paneling looks amazing, the pictures don’t do the model justice. Should be done in the next few days. All of the pics are of the WIP for the nacelle painting.
No progress on the O Club, arboretum, Enterprise nacelles or the bases. I did get the latest Cameo in though, which will cut through styrene much better than the old model. The newer model can put down something like 20 pounds of force on the cutting blade, which is 6ish times more than the old model, which will get it through 20 thousand styrene, which I need cut for many parts. Woohoo!
On a side note, I really enjoy doing the aztecing. Not sure why, but I find it very relaxing!
Cheers
James
Duncanator – You can bring up whatever you want! I looked at doing them both ways, and ultimately I think they look pretty good this way and this mounting method saves me a ton of time. There are too many inaccuracies on the model kit to get them all fixed. I would rather have these bays mounted this way than not have shuttles! Also, huge thanks for the kinds words!!
Star-Art – I am an EE, lol. I no longer do design work, but this is a great way for me to scratch that itch. I am using diodes to clamp the voltage when it goes below or above 5V or ground. Basically, the diodes provide an alternate path for the current to flow into the power supply instead of into an IC or transistor. Long term, this is not a great solution, but it can save your electronics from a hit or two, depending on how much static electricity or ESD you are discharging. So, better than nothing, but not a super stout implementation. Also, to help out on the protection side, EVERY LED has a series resistor that is installed into the model, period. This will also help protect them. The diodes though are more for the electronics that are in the base of the model.
Update #91
I have been working away on the 2nd Reliant nacelle. I have completed 4 of the 7 areas that need to be painted, about 75% of it. I have the front and rear portion of the nacelle left to do. Doing 6 layers of paint for the aztecing takes some serious time, but having so many layers of paneling looks amazing, the pictures don’t do the model justice. Should be done in the next few days. All of the pics are of the WIP for the nacelle painting.
No progress on the O Club, arboretum, Enterprise nacelles or the bases. I did get the latest Cameo in though, which will cut through styrene much better than the old model. The newer model can put down something like 20 pounds of force on the cutting blade, which is 6ish times more than the old model, which will get it through 20 thousand styrene, which I need cut for many parts. Woohoo!
On a side note, I really enjoy doing the aztecing. Not sure why, but I find it very relaxing!
Cheers
James
Attachments
mjhall
New Member
New to here as I discovered this build just this week. Love the work - SO impressive! I'll be reallllllly interested to see what kind of spot light solution you come up with for the secondary hull lighting of the Starfleet insignia. Unless it has been covered in some sub page already (sorry if I missed it!).
Attachments
MJ - I have a build up here on the 1/350 I did, and that covers the spotlight detailing I am going to repeat here. Basically, I set the model up on jigs and aimed an LED to that area. I think I talk about what I did to get that LED setup in a previous post on this thread.
Update #92
Has been a while, but super busy, until this week. We were supposed to go to Disney Land, first true vacation in 5 years, and, well, that plan got scrapped. Oh well. I am down to the last steps on the 2nd Reliant nacelle. I should have it done this week. I received the bases this week, WOOHOO!!!!! Huge shout out to Matt over at Laser Fire. So a lot of work on the bases has happened over the last week. I am ready to do the veneer work on the sides. I have the interior painted white and the electronics screwed down. I will start the wiring up process, not sure how long this will take. First up though is all of the power distribution first.
I ran into some issues though. I screwed up one of the bases, I bored out the incorrect side, super sucky. So I had to fill a bajillion holes in with epoxy and redo the work. I also decided that the 90 degree connectors I was using on the power and main boards were not up to snuff. So I removed all of the parts and soldered in the new ones. The old ones would probably have worked, but the newer longer connectors will, I think, be more reliable over time.
I have also done a ton of tedious paint adhesion work on the two Enterprise nacelles. I am nearing the end of that stupid odyssey. I still don’t know the exact reason why I have the problems I do, but the end is near. A combination of adhesion promotor and removing material and replacing it with Apoxy sculpt.
On a side note, we are probably headed to Stuttgart as our next duty assignment, so if that is confirmed, I will have to build some really hefty shipping crates for the two models and two bases. I should know early this upcoming week.
A lot of work has been done on the models, but there are not a lot of super flashy pictures showing massive advancement. Can’t have everything!
Cheers,
James
Update #92
Has been a while, but super busy, until this week. We were supposed to go to Disney Land, first true vacation in 5 years, and, well, that plan got scrapped. Oh well. I am down to the last steps on the 2nd Reliant nacelle. I should have it done this week. I received the bases this week, WOOHOO!!!!! Huge shout out to Matt over at Laser Fire. So a lot of work on the bases has happened over the last week. I am ready to do the veneer work on the sides. I have the interior painted white and the electronics screwed down. I will start the wiring up process, not sure how long this will take. First up though is all of the power distribution first.
I ran into some issues though. I screwed up one of the bases, I bored out the incorrect side, super sucky. So I had to fill a bajillion holes in with epoxy and redo the work. I also decided that the 90 degree connectors I was using on the power and main boards were not up to snuff. So I removed all of the parts and soldered in the new ones. The old ones would probably have worked, but the newer longer connectors will, I think, be more reliable over time.
I have also done a ton of tedious paint adhesion work on the two Enterprise nacelles. I am nearing the end of that stupid odyssey. I still don’t know the exact reason why I have the problems I do, but the end is near. A combination of adhesion promotor and removing material and replacing it with Apoxy sculpt.
On a side note, we are probably headed to Stuttgart as our next duty assignment, so if that is confirmed, I will have to build some really hefty shipping crates for the two models and two bases. I should know early this upcoming week.
A lot of work has been done on the models, but there are not a lot of super flashy pictures showing massive advancement. Can’t have everything!
Cheers,
James
Attachments
mjhall
New Member
Hi James - sorry for delayed response from my side. Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I'll poke around and try to find the detailed, original post. Good luck with everything and please, stay healthy!
Update #93
Another long delay in between posts and although a ton of work has gone into the models, the pics don’t really show that. First two pics are of me doing the veneer work on the bases. I spent almost 10 days correcting some gluing deficiencies on that veneer work. Although very tedious, the overall look of the work is tremendously better. I don’t do veneer enough to be an expert on the amount of glue to use, and in these instances, it is much better to not use enough. If you over glue the stuff, you end up turning it into expensive trash. So pic one is of the base parts with the veneer in the vacuum bag. Second pic is of the pieces with 1 coat of boiled linseed oil. I ended up only doing a single coat of BLO. Over the last 5 days I have been doing very thin coats of dewaxed shellac. I did my first sanding this morning and then back to adding layers of shellac. In order to get a perfect gloss coat on these guys, your surface has to be perfectly flat and I am working on getting it perfectly flat, just takes time. The next pic is of the Enterprise crate. I am building 4 crates for the models. 1 for the Reliant, Enterprise and 2 for the bases. Both the E and R are crated and I won’t be touching the models for at least 5 months. Next pic shows the crates all closed up. Next pic is of the bottom or the Reliant base, with all of the boards installed and the power wiring harness built and installed. So, I will keep doing finish work on the sides of the bases, will then glue them up and connect to the bottom. I will keep doing wiring work for as long as I can before I head out. I am using ethernet cable as a compact way to get 8 signal wires around the base. Will take some pics of that next. So still making progress, just maybe done next year, LOL.
Cheers,
Another long delay in between posts and although a ton of work has gone into the models, the pics don’t really show that. First two pics are of me doing the veneer work on the bases. I spent almost 10 days correcting some gluing deficiencies on that veneer work. Although very tedious, the overall look of the work is tremendously better. I don’t do veneer enough to be an expert on the amount of glue to use, and in these instances, it is much better to not use enough. If you over glue the stuff, you end up turning it into expensive trash. So pic one is of the base parts with the veneer in the vacuum bag. Second pic is of the pieces with 1 coat of boiled linseed oil. I ended up only doing a single coat of BLO. Over the last 5 days I have been doing very thin coats of dewaxed shellac. I did my first sanding this morning and then back to adding layers of shellac. In order to get a perfect gloss coat on these guys, your surface has to be perfectly flat and I am working on getting it perfectly flat, just takes time. The next pic is of the Enterprise crate. I am building 4 crates for the models. 1 for the Reliant, Enterprise and 2 for the bases. Both the E and R are crated and I won’t be touching the models for at least 5 months. Next pic shows the crates all closed up. Next pic is of the bottom or the Reliant base, with all of the boards installed and the power wiring harness built and installed. So, I will keep doing finish work on the sides of the bases, will then glue them up and connect to the bottom. I will keep doing wiring work for as long as I can before I head out. I am using ethernet cable as a compact way to get 8 signal wires around the base. Will take some pics of that next. So still making progress, just maybe done next year, LOL.
Cheers,
Update #94
Well my 5 month prediction was a little long. I have started working on the models again! WOOHOO!! The move from San Antonio to Stuttgart Germany went off without a hitch. No one got COVID in all of the traveling across many airports and plane changes, so very thankful for that. The whole house showed up here, with nothing missing and the only thing that got broke was a $1 plastic bowl thingy, so that was awesome. The house here is about 36.456% smaller than the one we left, so, unfortunately, my hobby area is now in the home theater room/living room/PC area/main area of the house. I am glad the wife tolerates it. I don’t really like it, but I wanted to make sure each kid got their own room without Dad interference. We have a storage room in the basement, and I am turning that into a workshop where I can airbrush. The building we live in has 12 3 bedroom flats/homes in them, and all full with families, which is pretty cool. I should be able to airbrush in a few weeks, waiting on 1 more exhaust fan and a new 220V airbrush compressor. The cost difference between an inexpensive compressor and a transformer was just a few bucks, so bought a newer compressor.
The work I have been doing over the last few weeks besides unpacking and setting up the house has been to write code and finish debugging all of the hardware. I have written all of the code to test the hardware, with the exception of the main control board. I am currently working my way through that and with the integration of the Starling Tech boards. When I designed the board early last year, I had to make a LOT of guesses, so some of those were of course wrong, and working to get them fixed. No biggie, but sometimes running down and fixing the error can take some time. The landing bay lights, shuttle lights, RCS thruster, Attitude Control Boards and Shield boards all work. Very cool to raise shields! The Attitude and Shield board though need a rewrite of the code. I wrote the simplest and quickest set of code to exercise all of the functionality, but there is not intelligence to it, so basically, shields go up or down, and is very unresponsive to the control switch. I will change the code to allow for shields to be raised/dropped without having to wait for a state change. This code is way down my list though. It was also really cool to see that stepper motor go back and forth, I am concerned with the acrylic piece that it will rotate might weight too much for the motor to turn. Will find out in the future when I get those pieces.
I have done a ton more work on the wood part of the base. I have been adding layers of shellac and then sanding flat to get a perfect base to which to add the high gloss lacquer spray on top. Getting better at this, but it is time consuming, although the results look WAAAYYY better in person than on the pics. Also, the veneer I used has, Quilted Kosipo, has large grain and it is taking some extra effort to get those filled and sanded flat. Looking forward to getting the plexi inserts and taking the next step on the base.
Super happy to be working on the model again and writing about it! My updates will still be slow, most of the work is writing code which isn’t very exciting. When I get the control code into a better state and some control over the daughter boards, will post a video showcasing everything I expect the control software/hardware to do for the model!
Cheers,
James
Well my 5 month prediction was a little long. I have started working on the models again! WOOHOO!! The move from San Antonio to Stuttgart Germany went off without a hitch. No one got COVID in all of the traveling across many airports and plane changes, so very thankful for that. The whole house showed up here, with nothing missing and the only thing that got broke was a $1 plastic bowl thingy, so that was awesome. The house here is about 36.456% smaller than the one we left, so, unfortunately, my hobby area is now in the home theater room/living room/PC area/main area of the house. I am glad the wife tolerates it. I don’t really like it, but I wanted to make sure each kid got their own room without Dad interference. We have a storage room in the basement, and I am turning that into a workshop where I can airbrush. The building we live in has 12 3 bedroom flats/homes in them, and all full with families, which is pretty cool. I should be able to airbrush in a few weeks, waiting on 1 more exhaust fan and a new 220V airbrush compressor. The cost difference between an inexpensive compressor and a transformer was just a few bucks, so bought a newer compressor.
The work I have been doing over the last few weeks besides unpacking and setting up the house has been to write code and finish debugging all of the hardware. I have written all of the code to test the hardware, with the exception of the main control board. I am currently working my way through that and with the integration of the Starling Tech boards. When I designed the board early last year, I had to make a LOT of guesses, so some of those were of course wrong, and working to get them fixed. No biggie, but sometimes running down and fixing the error can take some time. The landing bay lights, shuttle lights, RCS thruster, Attitude Control Boards and Shield boards all work. Very cool to raise shields! The Attitude and Shield board though need a rewrite of the code. I wrote the simplest and quickest set of code to exercise all of the functionality, but there is not intelligence to it, so basically, shields go up or down, and is very unresponsive to the control switch. I will change the code to allow for shields to be raised/dropped without having to wait for a state change. This code is way down my list though. It was also really cool to see that stepper motor go back and forth, I am concerned with the acrylic piece that it will rotate might weight too much for the motor to turn. Will find out in the future when I get those pieces.
I have done a ton more work on the wood part of the base. I have been adding layers of shellac and then sanding flat to get a perfect base to which to add the high gloss lacquer spray on top. Getting better at this, but it is time consuming, although the results look WAAAYYY better in person than on the pics. Also, the veneer I used has, Quilted Kosipo, has large grain and it is taking some extra effort to get those filled and sanded flat. Looking forward to getting the plexi inserts and taking the next step on the base.
Super happy to be working on the model again and writing about it! My updates will still be slow, most of the work is writing code which isn’t very exciting. When I get the control code into a better state and some control over the daughter boards, will post a video showcasing everything I expect the control software/hardware to do for the model!
Cheers,
James
Attachments
Update #95
Tons of work, but none of it is at all visually interesting. Lots of code written and closing in on getting the finish complete on the first base. I ended up sanding down some of the gloss lacquer spray and went with an automotive gloss finish. The Karlack finish is a much harder and glossier finish. Getting close to being done with that! I am hoping to actually putting the 4 pieces together on the base and finishing up the edges to get everything aligned.
Written a bunch of code. Having to make guesses on what I might think will look good when the effects are actually going on in the model. So, the lighting will maybe most likely possibly change, lol.
I also have found a total of 2 mistakes on my boards. One is a missed ground, no problem, solder wire a good to go. The other is on my transistors, seems I order the wrong ones, soooooooo, the right ones are on the way, but I will have to swap them ALL out, this will be about 500 total, which will take some time. That made me really grumpy. I was having this really weird issue and it took me a while to trouble shoot it, but I did. Hopefully will have the new transistor before Christmas, so I can swap em all out over the holiday, since we can’t travel anywhere here in Germany.
So no pics this update, but here are some videos.
This video shows the power up sequence.
This shows the integration of the Starling Tech boards and my hardware and software. This needed to happen so I could fire off weapons during the battle sequence effects. Currently, the phaser button cycles through the 3 different phaser outputs.
Cheers,
James
Tons of work, but none of it is at all visually interesting. Lots of code written and closing in on getting the finish complete on the first base. I ended up sanding down some of the gloss lacquer spray and went with an automotive gloss finish. The Karlack finish is a much harder and glossier finish. Getting close to being done with that! I am hoping to actually putting the 4 pieces together on the base and finishing up the edges to get everything aligned.
Written a bunch of code. Having to make guesses on what I might think will look good when the effects are actually going on in the model. So, the lighting will maybe most likely possibly change, lol.
I also have found a total of 2 mistakes on my boards. One is a missed ground, no problem, solder wire a good to go. The other is on my transistors, seems I order the wrong ones, soooooooo, the right ones are on the way, but I will have to swap them ALL out
, this will be about 500 total, which will take some time. That made me really grumpy. I was having this really weird issue and it took me a while to trouble shoot it, but I did. Hopefully will have the new transistor before Christmas, so I can swap em all out over the holiday, since we can’t travel anywhere here in Germany.So no pics this update, but here are some videos.
This video shows the power up sequence.
This shows the integration of the Starling Tech boards and my hardware and software. This needed to happen so I could fire off weapons during the battle sequence effects. Currently, the phaser button cycles through the 3 different phaser outputs.
Cheers,
James
Update #96
So I have been working away on the model. I ran into a problem with how I designed a circuit to drive all of me LEDs and what I did wasn’t going to work. Will spare you the details, but I had to redesign the thing, with the limitations of all of the work I had already done. I can’t go back and rewire the model, since so much stuff has already been sealed up. So, the first pic is of my little test circuit and she works as designed, so all of my previous work is saved. But, I have to redo all of my interface boards, and I am having to add an interface board to pretty much everything else. When I get it all wired in, will make sense. So now I am waiting on parts and new PCBs from China. Soooo, I don’t want to lose 2 months of work, so I have started filling in all of the pin holes on the Reliant model, along with finally drilling holes again, needed to thread wires through and just general modeling work to get the hull back into final paint. One issue I ran into though is that my clear casting resin is not longer clear, so will need to order some new resin from Amazon.de. I am going to use it on some of the lights at the back of the Reliant around the hangers. A 3mm LED would look to big, and there is not a lot of room on the other side to run wires, very congested. So, I am going to use surface mount LEDs flush mounted to the resin, will take picks when installed. But resin first. There has been some movement on the plexi inserts for the base, and I need those before I glue the base up and get some serious steps done on the bottom portion of the model. These guys are actually getting closer, lol, to being done. When the weather warms up, I will be able to airbrush again, my airbrush area is in an environmentally uncontrolled area, and I don’t like freezing my bum off while air brushing!
Cheers,
James
So I have been working away on the model. I ran into a problem with how I designed a circuit to drive all of me LEDs and what I did wasn’t going to work. Will spare you the details, but I had to redesign the thing, with the limitations of all of the work I had already done. I can’t go back and rewire the model, since so much stuff has already been sealed up. So, the first pic is of my little test circuit and she works as designed, so all of my previous work is saved. But, I have to redo all of my interface boards, and I am having to add an interface board to pretty much everything else. When I get it all wired in, will make sense. So now I am waiting on parts and new PCBs from China. Soooo, I don’t want to lose 2 months of work, so I have started filling in all of the pin holes on the Reliant model, along with finally drilling holes again, needed to thread wires through and just general modeling work to get the hull back into final paint. One issue I ran into though is that my clear casting resin is not longer clear, so will need to order some new resin from Amazon.de. I am going to use it on some of the lights at the back of the Reliant around the hangers. A 3mm LED would look to big, and there is not a lot of room on the other side to run wires, very congested. So, I am going to use surface mount LEDs flush mounted to the resin, will take picks when installed. But resin first. There has been some movement on the plexi inserts for the base, and I need those before I glue the base up and get some serious steps done on the bottom portion of the model. These guys are actually getting closer, lol, to being done. When the weather warms up, I will be able to airbrush again, my airbrush area is in an environmentally uncontrolled area, and I don’t like freezing my bum off while air brushing!
Cheers,
James
Attachments
Update #97
The new PCBs are in the mail to me and the parts are in the mail to me, woohoo. Hopefully will see those in the next week. I have spent several days sanding, drilling holes, sanding, clear epoxy, sanding, filling pin holes and sanding. I have done a lot of sanding! Lol. Working all of the final parts of the Reliant hull, so I can go get it back in paint. I had to move the upper hull flashing LEDs, I moved them inboard a bit, to get some clearance when the hulls are joined. Done a lot of work to get the two shuttle bays fitted in. Drilled holes out on both hulls for the impulse crystal dome thingies. Getting the holes drilled out. I won’t put the domes in for a while. Cleaning up all of the lights on the back of the hull and I made some 2mm holes and filled with clear resin. I need to do this due to a spacing issue instead if putting a through hole LED in there. Will take pics at a later date to show what I mean. The top hull has 90%+ of the pin holes filled and same on the bottom. Need to clean up the back of the bottom hull and shoot white paint again on both these parts. More progress!
Cheers,
James
The new PCBs are in the mail to me and the parts are in the mail to me, woohoo. Hopefully will see those in the next week. I have spent several days sanding, drilling holes, sanding, clear epoxy, sanding, filling pin holes and sanding. I have done a lot of sanding! Lol. Working all of the final parts of the Reliant hull, so I can go get it back in paint. I had to move the upper hull flashing LEDs, I moved them inboard a bit, to get some clearance when the hulls are joined. Done a lot of work to get the two shuttle bays fitted in. Drilled holes out on both hulls for the impulse crystal dome thingies. Getting the holes drilled out. I won’t put the domes in for a while. Cleaning up all of the lights on the back of the hull and I made some 2mm holes and filled with clear resin. I need to do this due to a spacing issue instead if putting a through hole LED in there. Will take pics at a later date to show what I mean. The top hull has 90%+ of the pin holes filled and same on the bottom. Need to clean up the back of the bottom hull and shoot white paint again on both these parts. More progress!
Cheers,
James
Attachments
Update #98
I finally got off of the pot and made some decisions and did ‘stuff’. Since I am still waiting on my parts from China for the Rev 2 boards if I wanted to make progress, had to do modeling work and paint. Soooo I drilled a ton of holes, spent several days sanding and getting the base coat on the Reliant finished. Which I did on both the top and bottom, woohoo! I also decide on several issues so I could
move forward. The main one being the removal of the sensor band lines. I can’t scribe on this model worth a damn, the resin has different hardness as you move through it, so it is impossible for me at least to have consistent depth and width of scribe lines. I made a morale roll and failed. ☹ However, I sanded them all of and plan on just painting a solid line back in. I looked at another Reliant that had done this and it look pretty good up till about 4 inches away from the model, so I am ok with that. The only other negative is that I lost some detail on the docking ports. I am thinking of putting that back in via PE or a 3d print off of a resin printer. But, that is a long ways down the road. Also, I cut some styrene parts to cover up some ****** looking scribe lines on the bottom. I still get the same design cue but without the anger inducing crappy looking lines. Will have a pic, I am sure a purist won’t like it. Oh well. Got the rear docking port holes looking pretty good. I also came up with a way to over come the last remaining fish eye. I ended up base coating with the McKenzie paint, then sanded the area down a bit and went over that with 2 layers of AK flat white, then again with the McKenzie white, looks very good. Will have a pic of the fish eye. I am now shooting color onto the model, which is super exciting! I took some time off from work, due to an already long weekend, and spent a lot of it on the model. I also tested out my make shift air brush booth and it works quite well. A great last week or so on the models! Lots of progress!
Oh one last thing, I am now really running into issues with the hand built model. Everything is not symmetrical which is cool but I am probably going to have to go seek help for my quest for perfect symmetry, which I am not going to get to on this.
Cheers,
I finally got off of the pot and made some decisions and did ‘stuff’. Since I am still waiting on my parts from China for the Rev 2 boards if I wanted to make progress, had to do modeling work and paint. Soooo I drilled a ton of holes, spent several days sanding and getting the base coat on the Reliant finished. Which I did on both the top and bottom, woohoo! I also decide on several issues so I could
move forward. The main one being the removal of the sensor band lines. I can’t scribe on this model worth a damn, the resin has different hardness as you move through it, so it is impossible for me at least to have consistent depth and width of scribe lines. I made a morale roll and failed. ☹ However, I sanded them all of and plan on just painting a solid line back in. I looked at another Reliant that had done this and it look pretty good up till about 4 inches away from the model, so I am ok with that. The only other negative is that I lost some detail on the docking ports. I am thinking of putting that back in via PE or a 3d print off of a resin printer. But, that is a long ways down the road. Also, I cut some styrene parts to cover up some ****** looking scribe lines on the bottom. I still get the same design cue but without the anger inducing crappy looking lines. Will have a pic, I am sure a purist won’t like it. Oh well. Got the rear docking port holes looking pretty good. I also came up with a way to over come the last remaining fish eye. I ended up base coating with the McKenzie paint, then sanded the area down a bit and went over that with 2 layers of AK flat white, then again with the McKenzie white, looks very good. Will have a pic of the fish eye. I am now shooting color onto the model, which is super exciting! I took some time off from work, due to an already long weekend, and spent a lot of it on the model. I also tested out my make shift air brush booth and it works quite well. A great last week or so on the models! Lots of progress!
Oh one last thing, I am now really running into issues with the hand built model. Everything is not symmetrical which is cool but I am probably going to have to go seek help for my quest for perfect symmetry, which I am not going to get to on this.
Cheers,
Update #99
Color!!!! 2 days of work to get the front saucer down. The masks from Aztek Dummy were FANTASTIC! They worked perfectly, and no paint issues, phew. Yes, I know the color is very strong, but please remember, that there are another 5 layers of paint that go on top of these, so they will be really toned down by the time I am done getting all of the aztecing down. I seemed to have misplaced a few of my Aztec masks, so well need to make some new ones on my Silhouette cutter. I have also figured out what I want to do on the back of the Reliant. I will have a ton of aztecing on here, cause I really really enjoy this part of the build. I also received my parts in, so I need to go test and then building 40 or so voltage converter boards.
Cheers,
Color!!!! 2 days of work to get the front saucer down. The masks from Aztek Dummy were FANTASTIC! They worked perfectly, and no paint issues, phew. Yes, I know the color is very strong, but please remember, that there are another 5 layers of paint that go on top of these, so they will be really toned down by the time I am done getting all of the aztecing down. I seemed to have misplaced a few of my Aztec masks, so well need to make some new ones on my Silhouette cutter. I have also figured out what I want to do on the back of the Reliant. I will have a ton of aztecing on here, cause I really really enjoy this part of the build. I also received my parts in, so I need to go test and then building 40 or so voltage converter boards.
Cheers,
Update #100
Spent several days working on some custom 2nd and 3rd order Aztec masks for the saucer. I am hopeful I can reuse these on the bottom of the saucer. I am going on a trip over the next few days, so won’t be able to paint for the next 5 days, but that is ok.
Cheers,
Spent several days working on some custom 2nd and 3rd order Aztec masks for the saucer. I am hopeful I can reuse these on the bottom of the saucer. I am going on a trip over the next few days, so won’t be able to paint for the next 5 days, but that is ok.
Cheers,
Update #101
I am back from a trip to Estonia, so I am in the middle of quarantine and can’t go anywhere, so PERFECT time to paint! I have 2 of the 3 layers of aztecing done to the Reliant top hull. Lou’s masks were FANTASTIC, highly recommended. I need to cut another set of masks for the top front of the hull, then tape everything off again. I also need to do some patterns for the set of masks between the bridge and the front of the hull. The back part of the hull turned out better than I thought. The busy patterns helps to cover up some blemishes and the differences in the base part. Basically, the model isn’t perfectly symmetrical. I love LOVE the painting part. I am shooting another light layer of white tonight and hopefully getting all of the masks down, although that takes about 5 hours for the front half of the hull!
Also a pic of my next project, I see the light at the end of the tunnel, finally, and wanted to ensure I got what I wanted at a good price. Full on Pontos detail, plan on lighting and hopefully getting the turrets to do stuff. That is next year though!
Cheers,
I am back from a trip to Estonia, so I am in the middle of quarantine and can’t go anywhere, so PERFECT time to paint! I have 2 of the 3 layers of aztecing done to the Reliant top hull. Lou’s masks were FANTASTIC, highly recommended. I need to cut another set of masks for the top front of the hull, then tape everything off again. I also need to do some patterns for the set of masks between the bridge and the front of the hull. The back part of the hull turned out better than I thought. The busy patterns helps to cover up some blemishes and the differences in the base part. Basically, the model isn’t perfectly symmetrical. I love LOVE the painting part. I am shooting another light layer of white tonight and hopefully getting all of the masks down, although that takes about 5 hours for the front half of the hull!
Also a pic of my next project, I see the light at the end of the tunnel, finally, and wanted to ensure I got what I wanted at a good price. Full on Pontos detail, plan on lighting and hopefully getting the turrets to do stuff. That is next year though!
Cheers,
You're definitely not the only one!
Thanks!
Update #102
Painting, Painting, Painting! I plan on completing all of the painting and decals that I can on the 4 main parts of the Reliant before going back to the electronics. Hopefully, that will give enough time for my acrylic panels to get done and mailed to me. Although, so much painting has happened in the last 2 weeks, I doubt it! I have also spent many an hour creating all of the masks needed for the bridge to be painted and for the secondary and tertiary masks on the Reliant’s bottom. As of writing this, I have cut most of the masks needed for the 2nd and 3rd order Aztecs and just have one area left on the base to paint in the base Aztec pattern. I am blowing through the AK Interactive lacquer paint, but it is fantastic paint, so worth the cost. Although my super heavy use is nearing the end, woohoo! I also received their gloss, satin and matte clear coats which I will experiment with to put down the decals.
Oh, I also just about ran out of Lacquer Thinner. I have been using the Kleen Strip stuff you buy at Home Depot or Lowes, but I couldn’t find that here in Germany, I am now using Nittro Verdunning which is hot enough to clean out the air brush. I am using the last bit of my Lacquer Thinner in my actual paints. It works well with the AK paint. I got another work trip coming up, but the up side is a required 10 quarantine when I get back, so work and paint!
Need to start looking for someone to buy this guy, preferably in Europe!
Hope you enjoy the pics!
Cheers,
James
Update #102
Painting, Painting, Painting! I plan on completing all of the painting and decals that I can on the 4 main parts of the Reliant before going back to the electronics. Hopefully, that will give enough time for my acrylic panels to get done and mailed to me. Although, so much painting has happened in the last 2 weeks, I doubt it! I have also spent many an hour creating all of the masks needed for the bridge to be painted and for the secondary and tertiary masks on the Reliant’s bottom. As of writing this, I have cut most of the masks needed for the 2nd and 3rd order Aztecs and just have one area left on the base to paint in the base Aztec pattern. I am blowing through the AK Interactive lacquer paint, but it is fantastic paint, so worth the cost. Although my super heavy use is nearing the end, woohoo! I also received their gloss, satin and matte clear coats which I will experiment with to put down the decals.
Oh, I also just about ran out of Lacquer Thinner. I have been using the Kleen Strip stuff you buy at Home Depot or Lowes, but I couldn’t find that here in Germany, I am now using Nittro Verdunning which is hot enough to clean out the air brush. I am using the last bit of my Lacquer Thinner in my actual paints. It works well with the AK paint. I got another work trip coming up, but the up side is a required 10 quarantine when I get back, so work and paint!
Need to start looking for someone to buy this guy, preferably in Europe!
Hope you enjoy the pics!
Cheers,
James
stevielewis
Sr Member
Looking fantastic!
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