Polar Lights 1/1000 TOS U.S.S. Enterprise

[pengbuzz]

Recently, I finished my kit of the 1/1000 Enterprise. While I didn't go "all out" as I originally thought I would, I thought the stand for it could use some redoing. Soooo...I combined the original stand with the dome stand from my Surak model:

The dome stand is painted to represent the northern hemisphere of the planet earth, and I figured the Arrowhead would be a nice touch. I painted the Arrowhead in gold, then painted over it with Tamiya clear yellow to give it a richer golden color:

The ship itself is painted with Krylon primer, then Apple Barrel Acrylics and sealed with Krylon clear coat and matte finish. I mixed up a light grey tinted with a small amount of green to approximate the "concrete" color for the hull. I then did a wash on the crevasses and corners of the ship to give it some scale, and dry-brushing to bring out the highlights. The Bussard Collectors are done in Tamiya transparent red and yellow, with the inner clear pieces done in acrylics:

A thin piece of heavy wire was inserted into sprue, then the sprue was glued into place on the dome. Once dried, the Arrowhead for the stand was plastic-welded into place for aesthetics and to physically steady the wire:

My special thanks goes out to delong1701 for the spare decals, and to crowe-t for the parts I was missing!

 

[Robiwon]

That turned out pretty darn good! I really like the subtle weathering you did on it. Most builds IMHO are too clean. Yours is nicely realistic. Good job!

 

[trekman1017]

How did you paint the nacelles?

 

[pengbuzz]

The nacelles were painted with regular acrylics on the inner clear piece, with the sections between the "vanes" done in light yellow and white. The outer domes of the Bussards were lightly sanded with 600-grit sandpaper, then painted with a mix of Tamiya transparent red and yellow in thin layers.

 

[JMChladek]

Very nicely done IMHO. The Earth painting looks good and using the arrowhead is a very nice touch IMHO. I also agree about the subtle weathering. It looks right to me.

 

[pengbuzz]

Thanks for the compliments, Robiwan and JMChaldek.

Yeah: most vessels do look "too clean". They sometimes look almost toylike to me, and they lack the shadowing that even a simple wash of darkened hull color would give to such a ship.

 

[Chrisisall]

One tiny criticism of an otherwise perfect job- the ring around the dome on the underside of the saucer is a little dark IMHO, if that could be lightened up a bit, it would complete the "WOW!" factor for me...:thumbsup
And yeah, I like the weathering a LOT! It makes the model look a lot bigger than it is with nothing to reference next to it!

 

[pengbuzz]

One tiny criticism of an otherwise perfect job- the ring around the dome on the underside of the saucer is a little dark IMHO, if that could be lightened up a bit, it would complete the "WOW!" factor for me...:thumbsup
And yeah, I like the weathering a LOT! It makes the model look a lot bigger than it is with nothing to reference next to it!

Yeah, once you mentioned it, I noticed it as well Chrisisall; I'm thinking about repainting it a bit lighter, maybe drybrush it with some hull color.

I'll post pics of the revision as soon as I get it done!

 

[Chrisisall]

EXCELLENT!

 

[liskorea317]

The nacelles were painted with regular acrylics on the inner clear piece, with the sections between the "vanes" done in light yellow and white. The outer domes of the Bussards were lightly sanded with 600-grit sandpaper, then painted with a mix of Tamiya transparent red and yellow in thin layers.

The ship looks terrific! I found three kits in my stash that I forgot about and will do them up as the pilot versions and the production version. Your kit is an inspiration!

 

[Underdog]

Yeah, I thought the stand sucked as well. I like your resolution to it. I've done several of these, but only have photos of a few., I ended up giving them all away. LOL! I've still got several in the garage in various stages.... I think I'm going to have to start a thread and show some of my work and finish one of the existing projects. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[pengbuzz]

Thanks liskorea317, Underdog!!

Yeah, the original stand was a nice concept, but poorly executed. However, i didn't want to discard the arrowhead, but at the same time I had the idea for the dome stand. While building the dome stand, the idea came to mind to use the arrowhead to disguise the rod supporting the ship. Meantime, it also made for a nice metaphor for "Starfleet reaching into space from the earth".

 

[Chrisisall]

Pictures would be nice...:lol

 

[pengbuzz]

Pictures would be nice...:lol

Yeah :lol I have them, but I just have to upload them.

 

[pengbuzz]

Okay; as promised, here are the pics after repainting the planetary sensor dome ring:

 

[Underdog]

Nice, I don't want to hurt feelings, or cause an issue, but I can see that you've done a fine job of trying to get the detail right and I think you've done a fine job. I think with a little more experience you can do better with every ship. Your technique is workablem it just needs to be refined a bit, nit that I'm any measure of brilliance. I think you're on the right track, but you need a little more work. I'm sorry if that offends, that is not my desire.

 

[pengbuzz]

It's okay Underdog; my technique used to be better, but I suffered a head injury that put me out of doing any artwork or modelling for quite a long time. it was only in the past few years that I have been able to return to it, and I'm slowly recovering my old skills as I work. However, some stuff is still a bit wonky due to" rust" and having to work around the problems I encounter with doing builds.

In any event, thanks for the encouragement; it means a lot!

 

[Chrisisall]

Yeah, NOW the colour doesn't stand out like it did. Waaay better.:thumbsup

 

[trekriffic]

Yes. It looks better without the ring being so dark. Nice fix!

 

[pengbuzz]

Thanks guys.