Miketastic
Jr Member
HELLO EVERYONE!!
Considering the fact that I have hyjacked (unintentionally) a few posts with pics of my most recient Refit build, I thought I'd go ahead and start a thread on it. I have already finished it, but I'd just like to share my build process and offer some tips and advice to my fellow modlers who, like me, have struggled with this kits eccentricites (nacelle droop, gaps, etc) thanks for looking, and I'll offer any advice and lighting tips as well. I dont pretend to be any sort of expert, and what I did with my kit, may not nessisarally be "cannon" but here are my feelings on "exact screen replicas". What we see on movies, are a dramatic representation. sometimes things are exaggerated or omitted for cost, and/or to get a good shot. I paint my ships as close to the filming models as possible, but as far as effects goes, I tend to try to go with a compermise between what we saw on screen, and what would "logically" be functional. there were a LOT of things that they wanted to do but couldnt due to limitations in budget and technology at the time. I build ships that incorperate some of those ideas that were scrapped for whatever reasions. That said, dont bash on me too bad if you see something "non cannon". its just my perception of how it MIGHT be in real life. Ok, now that the disclamer is done, on to what my goals were for this ship...
I have bult two other 1/350 refits and were not happy with the results.
2005: the beginning. Ok, the first one was deffinitly a prototype, I used grain of wheat bulbs, all lights were steady on, no effects, not even nave/strobes, no azecing, no warp grille illumintion. But this build was just built to teach me how to build the kit, and figure out all the greeblies. hehe. i have no pictures of this ship, tragically, she was lost due to a little brother and a car accident( little brother was fine, ship was destroyed) so i built refit 2.0...
2008 try try agian: I bought the Round 2 version of this ship and found the stand set up FAR superior, even though the stand location made my desgine of rlighting the deflector impossible, but i found another way, no worries. This was my first go with LED's, I bought the VoodooFX light kit for this ship, all lights were cool white LEDs, still though, the only effects were navs and strobes. every other light was steady on, no deflector change, engine modes, or weapons, ect. I learned a valuble lesson in assembling the Engineering hull that i will go into later on, but this kit still exists. The little bro who destroyed the first one, porudly displays this one in his home. the first pics are of this ship.
2012 Ultimate Refit: Ok i figure its time to pull out ALL the stops.... the ship I am about to describe, is the ship that this post is about. the Ultimate Starship Enterprise Refit. This ship is the ship I grew up with. When she graced the screen on STTMP i was as awed as Admiral Kirk, When she was struck by Khan in STWOK, I was outraged, When she busted her way out of spacedock in STTSFS, to escape the indignity of decomission, I applauded, and lastly when she gave her life over the Genesis planet, "to turn death into a fighting chance to live" i cried. Of all the starships that have graced our screens and inspired our dreams of the future, to me shis ship was the most tangible and eligant, yet powerful looking. she was a graceful lady. but I digress... I wanted to build a kit that expressed these things. to have something that when you looked at it, made you FEEL the things you felt when you watched the movies. In this build, incorperated a deflector control circuit that also powered different engine modes( deflector fades from a rose-copper color to blue) impulse engine fade on and off( impulse crystal glows orange with impulse power "on" and then blue iin warp mode, off when deflecot is in rose-copper or "low power mode) warp engines fade on and off. and when deflector is in low power mode, all fourteen RCS thrusters, flicker on and off in a random-ish pattern to simulate "station keeping" I have torpedoe effects using two 1.8mm leds, wite and red. those have multiple modes too. mode 1: armed( both tubes just glow red. mode 2: single fire. red tube ramps up, quickly followed by a white led "fire" strobe. mode3: battle mode: the torpeoes fire in a quick spread alternating right and left at different speeds for about 1 minute. and ofcoures yo ucan just have the red tubes off for "condition green" I incorperated a chasing landing light circut as well. But the real fun was incorperating the option of only having the interior lights on. no spot lights, no navi/stobes, engines, weapons, just interior lighting. just like we saw her in spacedock. incase i ever get a wild hair and build a 1/350 spacedock... wink wink nod nod...
anyway ill post updates on what i did to build this ship and add pics and answer any questions you guys/gals might have. I love my hobby and have been building models since i was 5 yesrs old( im 31) Like i said, i dont even much pretend to be any sort of expert,just a humble styrene junkie. the pics you seeon this post are from the enterprise i built in 2008 first, just as a refernce to the 2012 one.
thank you for reading my book haha!! always remember to enjoy your hobbie, for if you dont, then its stops being a hobbie
Michael
This is the 2008 ship, notice the round2 aztec deacls and incorrect color of strong backs...
Considering the fact that I have hyjacked (unintentionally) a few posts with pics of my most recient Refit build, I thought I'd go ahead and start a thread on it. I have already finished it, but I'd just like to share my build process and offer some tips and advice to my fellow modlers who, like me, have struggled with this kits eccentricites (nacelle droop, gaps, etc) thanks for looking, and I'll offer any advice and lighting tips as well. I dont pretend to be any sort of expert, and what I did with my kit, may not nessisarally be "cannon" but here are my feelings on "exact screen replicas". What we see on movies, are a dramatic representation. sometimes things are exaggerated or omitted for cost, and/or to get a good shot. I paint my ships as close to the filming models as possible, but as far as effects goes, I tend to try to go with a compermise between what we saw on screen, and what would "logically" be functional. there were a LOT of things that they wanted to do but couldnt due to limitations in budget and technology at the time. I build ships that incorperate some of those ideas that were scrapped for whatever reasions. That said, dont bash on me too bad if you see something "non cannon". its just my perception of how it MIGHT be in real life. Ok, now that the disclamer is done, on to what my goals were for this ship...
I have bult two other 1/350 refits and were not happy with the results.
2005: the beginning. Ok, the first one was deffinitly a prototype, I used grain of wheat bulbs, all lights were steady on, no effects, not even nave/strobes, no azecing, no warp grille illumintion. But this build was just built to teach me how to build the kit, and figure out all the greeblies. hehe. i have no pictures of this ship, tragically, she was lost due to a little brother and a car accident( little brother was fine, ship was destroyed) so i built refit 2.0...
2008 try try agian: I bought the Round 2 version of this ship and found the stand set up FAR superior, even though the stand location made my desgine of rlighting the deflector impossible, but i found another way, no worries. This was my first go with LED's, I bought the VoodooFX light kit for this ship, all lights were cool white LEDs, still though, the only effects were navs and strobes. every other light was steady on, no deflector change, engine modes, or weapons, ect. I learned a valuble lesson in assembling the Engineering hull that i will go into later on, but this kit still exists. The little bro who destroyed the first one, porudly displays this one in his home. the first pics are of this ship.
2012 Ultimate Refit: Ok i figure its time to pull out ALL the stops.... the ship I am about to describe, is the ship that this post is about. the Ultimate Starship Enterprise Refit. This ship is the ship I grew up with. When she graced the screen on STTMP i was as awed as Admiral Kirk, When she was struck by Khan in STWOK, I was outraged, When she busted her way out of spacedock in STTSFS, to escape the indignity of decomission, I applauded, and lastly when she gave her life over the Genesis planet, "to turn death into a fighting chance to live" i cried. Of all the starships that have graced our screens and inspired our dreams of the future, to me shis ship was the most tangible and eligant, yet powerful looking. she was a graceful lady. but I digress... I wanted to build a kit that expressed these things. to have something that when you looked at it, made you FEEL the things you felt when you watched the movies. In this build, incorperated a deflector control circuit that also powered different engine modes( deflector fades from a rose-copper color to blue) impulse engine fade on and off( impulse crystal glows orange with impulse power "on" and then blue iin warp mode, off when deflecot is in rose-copper or "low power mode) warp engines fade on and off. and when deflector is in low power mode, all fourteen RCS thrusters, flicker on and off in a random-ish pattern to simulate "station keeping" I have torpedoe effects using two 1.8mm leds, wite and red. those have multiple modes too. mode 1: armed( both tubes just glow red. mode 2: single fire. red tube ramps up, quickly followed by a white led "fire" strobe. mode3: battle mode: the torpeoes fire in a quick spread alternating right and left at different speeds for about 1 minute. and ofcoures yo ucan just have the red tubes off for "condition green" I incorperated a chasing landing light circut as well. But the real fun was incorperating the option of only having the interior lights on. no spot lights, no navi/stobes, engines, weapons, just interior lighting. just like we saw her in spacedock. incase i ever get a wild hair and build a 1/350 spacedock... wink wink nod nod...
anyway ill post updates on what i did to build this ship and add pics and answer any questions you guys/gals might have. I love my hobby and have been building models since i was 5 yesrs old( im 31) Like i said, i dont even much pretend to be any sort of expert,just a humble styrene junkie. the pics you seeon this post are from the enterprise i built in 2008 first, just as a refernce to the 2012 one.
thank you for reading my book haha!! always remember to enjoy your hobbie, for if you dont, then its stops being a hobbie
Michael
This is the 2008 ship, notice the round2 aztec deacls and incorrect color of strong backs...
