TOS AMT/ERTL 18 inch Enterprise Custom Build

[spacerone]

Thanks Tiberius, hopefully I will have the painting done soon and get a photo up.

 

[spacerone]

Hi Shaw, looks good. I to am just using what came in the box, except I'm going to make a different version of the nacelle front covers and not use the original caps. Are you going to power this one up with electronics?

 

[Shaw]

Are you going to power this one up with electronics?

No, this is strictly practice and most likely won't even get displayed anywhere. It is just that I build so few models that I figured I could use some experience with building, painting and applying decals before I start in on my 1966 AMT Enterprise model once I've finished documenting it. The last thing I wanted to do was go into building that model (which was pretty expensive and very rare) cold... and I hadn't done any building in more than 9 months (and even then, I've only built a few models in the last 17 years).

So yeah, just practice and fun for this build.

 

[spacerone]

Sounds good! I may build one of my long box version S951 kits after this one. It has the large antenna dish in it.

Here is an update photo of my progress of the ship I'm working on now. I just gave it a paint job but it may need a second one after I go through it.

What do you think so far?

 

[Shaw]

Looks like it is coming long quite nicely. :thumbsup

Any shots of it lit? What did you do to address light bleed?

 

[Chrisisall]

Shaw, I'm totally impressed! You GO girl!
Errr, Guy!:lol

 

[spacerone]

Thanks Shaw, I took care of that problem with primer. I put two coats of dark primer on before the final painting and now there is zero light leakage. I will get a photo up soon.

 

[JohnLogan]

It's really coming along nicely!!

 

[spacerone]

Thanks JohnLogan! I appreciate the comment.

 

[spacerone]

Here is a photo of the ship with the lights on. I still need to finish the end caps and add decals to it. Let me know what you think about the lighting.

 

[Chrisisall]

Well, I know I'm not gonna be alone in saying that it ROCKS! The light above the hangar bay is especially impressive, IMO.
I want to do that to my 1/1000 Polar Lights model sitting un-assembled in my closetl!!! But the windows are SO SMALL on that one... :confused

 

[trekriffic]

I like how yours is coming along spacer.

Since you asked others to share pics of their builds here's a photo of my 18 incher with lit shuttle bay:

Bow shot with lights:

 

[spacerone]

Thanks Chrisisall! Your right the Polar Lights ship is small, I never bought one of them because of the small size but I bet there is a way to build it up with partial electronics in it.

 

[Chrisisall]

I love it! Enterprise-O-riffick!:thumbsup

 

[Chrisisall]

I never bought one of them because of the small size

To quote Ahnult from Last Action Hero, big mistake!:lol
It's totally accurate. And so fun to play with!
To light it will be a challenge.
I accept.:love

 

[spacerone]

Trekriffic nice job on that ship. I bet it took awhile to build it and I like the shuttle bay idea. When I fininsh with the rest of the ship (hopefully soon) I will get another photo up. Thanks for sharing the photo of the 18 inch AMT that you built. It shows what can be done when you put a little effort in something.

 

[spacerone]

Chrisisall I would like to see one of those built with lights. But its got to be cramp in that ship.

 

[Chrisisall]

Chrisisall I would like to see one of those built with lights. But its got to be cramp in that ship.

Like I said, I accept the challenge!:lol
Give me a month. Thanks for the incentive. My Son & I made one, but not lit. I *love* the scale; I *love* the impossibility.
I will make it so.:love

 

[trekriffic]

Thanks spacerone. I spent over a year working on my 18 incher. Months were spent trying to figure out how to motorize the bussards. I finally found an HO scale train motor that would fit; then I found these Spin-Pop toys with these tiny gears that were just the thing I needed to slow down the spin rate.
Here's one of the warp engines I built. Needless to say, it was a tight fit:

Each red resin dome is lit with 3 flashing and 3 non-flashing yellow LEDs. This makes them appear to pulse with energy:

I have a 1/1000 kit that will have lit bussards as well. I bought a light set off the CultTVMan site some years ago; it has a circuit board for each nacelle wired to a disc with 12 red surface mount LEDs for each bussard that fire in a chaser circuit to simulate the rotation of the "turbine" blades. I also have a set of vinyl aztec masks for the 1/1000 so this one will end up as the Defiant from the Enterprise episode "In a Mirror Darkly" which had aztecing.

 

[spacerone]

Very nice design Trekriffic. Did you also hook up the the metal cage to the motor inside the 18 inch ship to give it the rotating blade effect?

Chrisisall is also thinking of building the 1/1000 kit. I would like to see the end results of both of your ships But I think you may have an electronic edge on him.