1/260 Scale - ST:TMP Drydock

July Updates - 2017
Hey Everyone! My apologies to all for the big delay. As you may have noticed my website was hacked and my NemVia.com version of my is no longer functioning for my website. I have had to update my site to NemVia.net and try to clean up as much of the garbage that the hackers have caused and try to get things back in order as best as I could. I've had a few setbacks with the Drydock build, sick relatives and other problems have caused further delays. Although I do have a small update for this month I think you'll find some of it interesting.
I became discouraged when I found out that I made a mis-calculation with my armature for the ship. This armature was to keep the ship level inside the dock and also allow it to appear to be floating while inside the dock. I poured over ways to correct this problem including some extremely thin steel fishing line that would hold the engines level with the dock. I decided to do what I did with my 1/350 scale dock armature and just bend the heck out of the thing until it help the ship upright and level the way I wanted it to.
Using a pair of pipe wrenches, I found the point where the armature meets the connection rod and pushing in opposite directions I twisted the armature enough to pre-load the tension in order to hold the weight of the ship in place. I have a pic of how I was able to do this in the July Updates - 2017 page. It took me a couple of tries, but I finally got the ship to appear level inside the dock. She FLOATS! I exclaimed! Anyway that was a huge hurtle to get past. Now I can finish the wiring for the main deflector dish and torpedo launchers and finally seal off the saucer section and get ready to add the port side panel frames into place.
In other areas I had to replace the hanger deck on the aft side of the Dock. Some of the fiber optics were not lining up the way I wanted to so I redid the entire deck. It looks much better now and I have all of the chase lighting done for the entire aft end of the modules. The small hangers have the chase lighting heading into the deck whereas the larger hanger has the lighting running in take-off mode with a few shuttles in position for launch. I have 7 new pics and 4 new videos of the chase lighting effects in this month's updates I should be able to get more done in the upcoming month. Once again I apologize for the long delays. Hang in there and I'll get this thing done soon. Thanks for your patience and keep checking for more updates.
Mark
http://www.NemVia.net
 
July Updates - 2017 - Supplemental...
Okay, I usually don't jump ahead of my posts here, but I just had to add this to the blog.... I recently purchased a 80cm motorized camera dolly and I wanted to use it for several special photography effects on the side. But most importantly, when I finished the drydock build I wanted to make a duplicate flyby movie that would match ST:TMP's drydock flyby. I made a few passes with the model in it's unfinished state to get an idea of what I can do for a final project for this build. The results of the tests came out very good even though the lighting was not corrected the models are incomplete, none of the effects lighting is operating and there is no space background. But if you could just ignore all of that and take a look at the video's potential, you might understand why I had to do an early posting of this video. Now I really can't wait to finish this project. Take a look at the test video. https://youtu.be/n4EtoOLRdgg
See you in a few weeks
Mark
 
Wow that is amazing!

I didn't know any better, I'd have thought I was looking at a movie shot before they added in the CGI interiors and backgrounds!
 
Dude! That is looking awesome.

What make and model of slider do you have? And what camera were you using?
I'm using and Andoer 80cm motorized camera dolly and a JVC HD Everio hand held video camera. I'm not sure this will be the final camera used
for the final production that I'm doing but as I said this was a test to see if the dolly speed was correct. I will try other test shots later with better lighting. This will cut down on the grainy look of the shots as well as add some more depth to the picture. I'll post more as I go. I just wanted to see how the dolly worked and the test was so good (I thought) that I wanted some opinions on the look. I'm buying a few more accessories for some other shots like above the saucer and some top to bottom shots as well. If you have any other suggestions for shots you would like to eventually see, I'll try to rig them up as well. Thanks for the comments!
Mark
 
Wow that is amazing!

I didn't know any better, I'd have thought I was looking at a movie shot before they added in the CGI interiors and backgrounds!

Well, if some creative film editor would like to add cgi in, I will be happy to let them do it!. When I do the final version though, you
you won't see any of the posters or window wells or ceiling lights in the shots. I will shoot them with a black velvet background much like I did with the 1/350 scale version.
All of the effects I will do will be in-camera. Anything extra can be added in by some of you wonderful CGI artists.
Thanks for the reply,
Mark
 
Love those dolly-shots for sure (I'm a fan of in-camera effects). It's really looking good. I don't know what kind of depth of field you'll have (background and lighting can be tricky without it as you know). Looking forward to your next update!
 
Love those dolly-shots for sure (I'm a fan of in-camera effects). It's really looking good. I don't know what kind of depth of field you'll have (background and lighting can be tricky without it as you know). Looking forward to your next update!
Thank you joberg. I wish I could do something like that with your Space station as well. I'll just keep trying different lighting and/or filters until I get it right. We'll see how it goes. Thanks for the comments.
Mark

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mindblowing work,cannot get enough of this!
Thanks mofo77 glad you like it!
Mark

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August Updates - 2017
This has been an eventful month. Adding the Test video of the Enterprise flyby to my library has given me a little extra motivation. I want to thank all of you who have checked out the video on youtube. I am looking forward to making my own ST:TMP version of the flyby when I'm finished, shot for shot. Also I'm planning on making an additional version that would include portions of the Enterprise and Drydock that were not shown in TMP. Any ideas? Let me know.
In this month's update I've been concentrating on getting all of the wiring done for all of the hanger bays on both the front and aft sides of the dock. I finally was able to hook up all of the chase lighting on all of the hangers as well as their overhead lighting. I wanted to have the overhead lighting on the hangers rather than the rear walls glowing to make the modules appear more like a gigantic space warehouse for supplying and/or repairing any starship that might pull into this humungous dock for repair/refit/resupply. This is also why I wanted everyone to see inside at least one of the hangers. If I didn't need the support framework on the inside of the modules to hold the model up, I would have made the hanger even deeper into the model. But space was limited. But, I've permanently added the shuttles into the hanger deck and at least four of them are lit. I will be adding crewmembers as well as work bees and cargo containers to add depth of scale to the dock. I also added some red LEDs to the front hanger as seen in TMP. I would guess that the RED lights would be a warning to small craft that it is not safe to enter the dock at this point. That is why on the open hanger on the aft side I'm using green LEDs to indicate it is safe for departure or arrival onto the hanger. The chase lighting on the open hanger is heading outward indicating clearance for launch.
I've also added the top f the module to port side of the dock in one of the pictures. I wanted to make sure it seated the right way and would not interfere with any of the wiring and optical fibers. It fits very snug and can be removed to access the lighting and wiring.
Getting back to the Enterprise, I am adding some super strong magnets to a few parts of the ship. Mainly the saucer and the main deflector dish housing. This will also allow access to some of the wiring. I will be finishing that wiring up as well as for the photon torpedo launchers. There are a few more small details I have to add to the ship and then do another wiring test before I seal everything up. I can then add the Enterprise permanently to the dock structure and wire it into place. After that I can begin adding the port side panel frame assembly. Keep checking for the updates. I can actually see an end coming for this build. FINALLY! Then I can look forward to making some nice HERO shots as well as the long awaited FLYBY Video. Exciting times!
Well that's it for this update. Enjoy the pics in the August Updates 2017 page. Talk to you in a month or so.
Mark
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Fantastic job Mark:cool My Space Station is finally done and I wish I had had your knowledge of wiring/electronics to put lighting in it:cry
You're mentioning in your post that you'll film your dry-dock shot for shot (as in the same set-ups that are in the movie?) I think that you should make a brand new vid of what you wanted to see in the movie but that wasn't shot;) I think that with your set up, you'll achieve great quality at the end! Eager to see the next update.
 
Fantastic job Mark:cool My Space Station is finally done and I wish I had had your knowledge of wiring/electronics to put lighting in it:cry
You're mentioning in your post that you'll film your dry-dock shot for shot (as in the same set-ups that are in the movie?) I think that you should make a brand new vid of what you wanted to see in the movie but that wasn't shot;) I think that with your set up, you'll achieve great quality at the end! Eager to see the next update.
Thanks joberg. Yes, I wanted to try the classic camera shots as many do in their cg work just to see how it works out. After that I want to do my own version of the flyby, that's why I was asking for suggestions. I've had a few good ideas suggested to me so far by other fans as to what they'd like to see and I will try to include as many as I can. But for now.... baby steps before the quantum leap!
Mark
 
September Updates - 2017
Hi Everyone. I've been making a little more progress with the dock build. I've added some magnets to the engineering section to hole the Deflector dish assembly in place. This will make the Housing removable in case someone needs to get to some of the engineering electronics. I've also added the wiring and LEDs for both the Deflector Ramp on/Ramp off effects as well as adding the Photon torpedo firing effects to the launching tubes. I still need to fix a few of the light leeks but the effect look very nice. I've added a small video for those who would like to view the effects. I've also built some lighting housing for the running lights that are seen on the drydock mainly on the front end. I was having trouble figuring out how I was going to wire these until I found some speaker coil wire which is extremely thin. Once it's painted up it will be difficult to see on the model. I've added 8 pics to the September 2017 page... I've also added a new short video with the Deflector dish and Photon Torpedo lighting tests. By the next updates I will have the Shuttle bay details added to the outside of the hanger deck and will begin to permanently wire all of the electronics to the circuit boards that are inside the Starboard side overhead modules. See you next update.
Mark
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http://www.NemVia.net
 
January Updates - 2018
Hello everyone! My apologies for the delays. I really have been working on my build, but Life just keeps getting in the way of my progress. Hopefully things will be a little better now that my peak season at work has calmed down.
For my project updates I have cast resin pieces for the outside details of the hanger bay lighting effects. I had to make the pieces transparent so you can see the actual lighting effects. I'm in the process of opaqueing the castings to prevent light leaks.

I was asked by my client to put some different lighting into the saucer section of the ship. So, I pulled all of the fluorescent lighting and ballasts out and I replaced them with LED lighting strips. This was a very good idea because the lighting will have a longer lifetime in the model. I also put some white styrene strips into the saucer sections behind the viewports to reflect the lighting better. I was originally going to insert some pictures of the corridors onto the strips but there was not enough depth to the pictures. So, I decided to do what I was originally going to do with the corridors and that was to build 3D versions of them. I built one master of the corridor section and made molds so that I could cast as many replicas as needed. I cast them in clear resin so that I could have the lower panels of the corridors lit as seen in the movies. After I cast all of the pieces I masked off all of the light panels. I then sprayed the first color which was FLAT WHITE. This would help reflect some of the lighting to make it appear more even. I then sprayed them FLAT BLACK to hide any light leaks. Next I sprayed them a medium BLUE/GRAY for the tops and bottoms of the corridors. Finally I hand panted the rest of the panels ALUMINUM, for the monochromatic look. After this I sprayed some flat pieces of styrene FLAT RED and then cut several pieces of them, all the same length, to use as the doors to the crews quarters. After all of this was done I then placed all of the finished corridors into an oven at 170F for ten minutes. This allowed the styrene to be pliable and I could then bend them into the shape of the outer rim of the saucer., Next I had to use a belt sander to sand down the tops and bottoms of the corridors to get rid of both the burrs from the casting process and to make them fit into the saucer. I aligned the corridors so they could be seen through the viewports.
Since the back sides of the castings were not painted, I added the LED strips to the backs of each of the corridor strips. Then I put electrical tape over the backs of the strips to prevent too much light from shining back into the model and ruining other lighting effects in the saucer. It was a lot of work, but worth the effort to give the corridors a little more 3D depth to them when looking through the viewports. To further help with the light leaks I found these foam rubber sheets at a hobby store and cut them into long strips and cemented them all along the perimeter of the upper saucer piece. This should help block light from showing through the seams of the upper and lower saucer pieces.
I have 16 New pics which can be viewed in the Members Gallery page under the January updates – 2018 album.
I can now finally seal up the saucer and get ready to permanently add the Enterprise into it’s new home in the Dock. Again, thanks for your patience with this build and I apologize for the long wait for this update. Hopefully I can now get this build finished. See you next Update


www.NemVia.net




 
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February Updates - 2018
Hi Everyone! This months updates are pretty good. First I have started to add the Black Velvet Material to the Base of the model. This will help make the model appear to floating over the base. The panel frames will be supported by two screws on each side of the frames to hold the structure up and help keep it level. This is also a very good sign because it means that I will soon be adding the Enterprise permanently into the drydock, then adding the port side panel frame assembly into place. I've added all of the wiring and some new lighting to the rear hanger bay on the dock by using the LED light strips. They have some interesting details on the strips that would make the lights appear to be a natural fixture on the dock. I will also be replacing the lightings on all the other hanger on the dock as well. It just looks better.
On the Enterprise I was originally going to use magnets to hold the two saucer halves together, but because the pieces don't line up very well, I've decided to permanently seal up the saucer. The LEDs should last quite a long time and even if there were a problem it would be impossible to work on the Enterprise in the dock unless I take the whole port side off of the dock and remove the ship. That Ain't gonna happen. In cementing the saucer together, I've found a lot of other gaps that needed to be fixed or repaired. The bottom impulse engine does not meet up with the saucer, so I had to use some styrene and putty to fix that problem. Also, the collar of the Dorsal was not molded very well so I had to replace that as well and then putty, sand and repaint all of these areas. Where the pylons meet the secondary hull there was a gap at that point, so I've puttied that as well on both pylons. The reason for holding off on that was because the model was going to be handled a lot before I added it to the drydock and I knew because of the stresses and weight of the model there would be cracks forming in the putty. So I waited until now so there would be less handling of the model. I also did the same with the Deflector Housing. Because of the way the Secondary hull was molded and put together the two halves did not line-up, so there was a gap on the port side where the pieces would meet. I was originally going to use magnets with this part as well, but decided to seal it permanently and putty up the seam to get rid of the gaps.
There are just a few more touch-ups to do and then the Enterprise will finally be added to the dock. I can then add the Port Side Panel framework and begin the final wiring of the model.
On a side note, there might be another delay with this build as my landlord decided not to pay his mortgage and has gone into foreclosure with our unit so we will be moving to another location. But I will try to get back to this project asap.
I have 11 new pics in the February Updates - 2018 page. Check-em out and I'll get back to you soon. Have a great month everyone.
Mark.
http://www.NemVia.net
 
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Thanks For checking in on me, Art. And just so you know I haven't lost interest in the forums. I lost my Mom on March 28th due to many health complications and of course dealing with the aftermath which can sometimes be more painful than the loss of a loved one itself. I did of course take a break from my progression of the Dock, but I am getting ready to post some new updates. Thanks for bearing with me on this and thank you for your support. I should have an update at the beginning of June. Talk to you all soon,
Mark
 
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