Variant Excelsior scratchbuild (new maker, looking for advice!)

[spillway]

Hi folks,

I've been bitten by the modeling bug recently and have begun to plan out my first real project. A little while ago, for a lark, I began to rough out a Star Trek: Online-era revision of the Excelsior and accidentally kind of fell in love with it.

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This is obviously unfinished, but you get the idea.

The idea is that it's huge--a rebuilder, a saviour of remote colonies busted up by the Dominion War, a self-sufficient mobile platform for the Starfleet Corps of Engineers.

The plan is to make myself a 24" display model, chock full of lights, something I can mount on the wall and just kind of gawk at in full-on self-congratulatory narcissism. And the procedural goal is to roughly reproduce the method used on the studio model of the Enterprise-D (it's not the most detailed account, but the chapter on the build in Star Trek TNG: The Continuing Mission is my go-to reference on how they went about it).

Now, all that said--I haven't done anything remotely this complex before. So I shall be consuming everything here I can before I start, and asking lots of questions so that I have a more fleshed-out plan than " BUILD COOL THING NOW." I am also not allowing myself to just dive in, because I'm in another, highly inaccurate build right note in which I'm making an Ent-D bridge playset (just out of cardboard) with my 3- and 5-year-old sorta-stepdaughters. It's damn adorable and I don't want to distract from that with another build.

So, first off, what are some things a new maker needs to know? Is fibreglass a good way to go for the final model, or will that be too heavy/too much a pain for a 2' model? Id's there a way to mount it to a wall-mounted plaque for display that doesn't involve installing a bracket into the model (i.e., what's a way to keep the model completely intact to take down and admire)?

Any thoughts you gorgeous nerds have would be much appreciated, including responses to the design. I'll post more renders when I'm at my computer again to give you a better sense of what will differentiate this from the original Excelsior, beyond the obvious.

Cheers!

Trevor

-- paddle your own canoe--

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[spillway]

It occurs to me that I'm lucky I mocked this up in 3DS before deciding to make it a physical thing. I can slice and dice the 3D model, print those slices on heavy card, and use them as ribs for a study model. Fortuitous accident, that.

If the plan is to make a master from which I can then make a mould, should I be looking at clay as the primary material? I want to use the study model as practise for the real thing and feel like I should figure out where I'm going with this.

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[division 6]

I would suggest looking at Steve Neill's Half Scale Enterprise build thread.
link

 

[JBReplicas]

Great looking project, for the final model fiberglass would be your best best, resin may be inclined to warp (no pun intended) for such a large model with things like the nacelles protruding. I would also advise referencing steves build, also look up REL, good luck and be sure to post lots of pictures

 

[spillway]

I would suggest looking at Steve Neill's Half Scale Enterprise build thread.
link

Thank you so much-- I'm starting to get a better sense of how I'm going to approach things thanks to that thread. It's truly fantastic. I can't get over how educational it is. I love the RPF.

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[spillway]

Great looking project, for the final model fiberglass would be your best best, resin may be inclined to warp (no pun intended) for such a large model with things like the nacelles protruding. I would also advise referencing steves build, also look up REL, good luck and be sure to post lots of pictures

Thanks for the kind words! I'll be sure to share pics as things develop.

Yeah, I think I've settled on fibreglass. I'll get some practise with it if I glass the master before casting. I think the last time I used fibreglass was to cheaply patch some rusted-out bodywork on a car not worth the time. This will be somewhat finer work, I imagine.

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[spillway]

Man, it's almost like I forgot about this thread... but of course, I didn't.

I've managed to do the unthinkable and actually turn part of my cluttered basement into an entry-level workshop! It's been packed full of disorganized stuff (much of it from previous tenants) since I moved in, and I went on an adrenaline-fuelled rampage last weekend and gutted the place. It's still cluttered, but there's now a workable area there.

View attachment 138077

I think that I'm going to be making this up as I go along more than I thought I would be. The 3DS model looks cool, but any slices I take from it are going to be the wrong shape, the wrong volume to make sure it supports its own weight.

Anyway, I'm gearing up for my first real teaching job, which starts Monday, so naturally I'm trying to distract myself and force myself to stop prepping every spare second and freaking myself out. I'm going to start a video series talking about the project soon so that I can keep myself honest about it.

Thanks for reading and the suggestions.

What's your favourite starship style/feature? Smooth? Greebled to hell? New Trek/old Trek?

As always, folks, paddle your own canoe.

Trevor

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[Wes R]

I like this design, it's old and new at the same time.