So I did some of the detail painting today. I have decided that I probably will NOT be painting the individual panels on the ship. I will sacrifice some accuracy for this, but basically in several spots due to the way the pieces print it's pretty difficult to tell exactly WHERE the panel lines would be. It's the nature of the beast, and part of what I accepted when I set out on this build. That said, I think it will still ultimately look very good.
Here is the collar with the first bit of detail painting done to it. The color differences are very subtle, so it's kind of hard to tell in this photo...but the panels on the very bottom edge are different shades now. I utilized a few images that I found that were good of ONE SIDE of the ship, and just kind of carried the overall design around the entire piece...so again, it might not be entirely screen accurate, but it will be a good representation of what the vessel looked like.
Here is the front of the control module. You can see the differences in the shades a bit more easily in this photo. There is the main color of the body, 3:1 white:gray, the slightly darker which is 1:1, and the even darker which is 2:1 gray:white. You can also see that I did the windscreens. I did these 2:1 black to gray.
Here is another view of the control module. You can see the shades in this one as well.
So, I have a few things left to do. I'm going to do some more along those darker lines on the control module with even darker gray...just a few very small pieces. I will probably do those at 3:1 gray:white. I also will be doing some lighter panels on the collar...I used the 2:1 gray:white on that, and I'll do a couple of panels with the 1:1 gray:white.
I also have a couple of spots of touchup left on the rear drive unit, but I don't think I'll be doing too much to that in the way of other shades. I've read that there are a few spots on it that are darker, however, I've been able to find absolutely nothing to back that up. The images online don't seem to show anything like that, and the only images I've been able to find that reflect this are actual models, not images from the film. So, I'll be leaving the rear part alone.
I'm hoping that my artistic license doesn't detract from the overall build. I don't think that it does, as the model is still built very much in the spirit of being a likeness to the ship from the film. The limitations of the model being 3D printed have forced my hand in a couple of areas, but again, those were things that I knew were going to be the case going into this entire build.
