Mutara Nebula DeBoers E and R Build

Update #14

Wow, got to use the vinyl cutter for the first time and WOWOWOWOW, super looking forward to cutting custom masks for whatever is needed. I cut strips that are going down into the nacelles, and actually getting ready to paint the first one tomorrow. The first part to get finish paint, super excited, and only 6 weeks into this, LOLOL. I guess that is fast, not sure. The planetary sensors are through their first round of primer, and came out better than I had hoped, got everything cleaned up, and waiting for sunlight tomorrow to put down the second light coat of primer on them. Working the fitting and puttying of the impulse engine crystal component. Takes a few days, apoxie takes at least 16 hours or so before I will sand on it. Coming along nicely though, and getting better at the whole thing. Hopefully get the nacelle grill painted tomorrow, and start building the warp engine light boxes. I want a painted grill to test my designs on. Everything is moving along.

On the equipment side, I could not find my exhaust duct thingy for my little airbrush booth, so ordered another on Ebay. Once that gets in, I can set up my airbrush station, and start laying down final paint on some parts! Just about done researching everything needed to do my own photo etch, will need to buy a UV light, a tank to etch in, probably get a bubbler/heated tank and the hard part, l learn another software package to draw up what I need. I have been drawing up the replacement parts for the bottom of the Reliant, maybe cut some plastic tomorrow.

Cheers,
James

Update #15

Tons of sanding, some priming, and a single piece of finished paint I needed to start work on the light boxes for the warp nacelles and I am pretty happy with the results. There is some light leaks that need to be addressed, but not worried at all on that part. I also went ahead and did a cut run for the Reliant replacement parts on the bottom. I did it in card stock, and there is some tweaking needed, couple of parts to short and 1 too long, but overall, really nice, and the hard parts, angles, are all within a degree or so. I need to finish up a few more parts, then cut some plastic, then sand that sucker flat. So many bubbles….gone…woohoo!

Cheers,

Update #16

The sanding and prepping continues. I have been working on the nacelle chiller parts, prepping them to be glued onto the nacelle. They need to be primed and then the base white paint painted onto the inside portion of the part. Much easier to paint that now, with the part off. The only problem, I have to finish putting my airbrush stuff back together, which has required some parts to be ordered. I needed a new hose and I need to track down a power supply for my booth. I got primer down on the impulse engine assembly for the E, and I am REALLY unhappy with how my panel lines look. They look like crap. Soooo, I am in the process of filling and sanding. In order to put the panel lines back in better, I cut out some stencils to use as something to trace against, but I really like how they look. I went ahead and cut some 0.010 thick plastic parts out, and will glue those on and prime it up. Fingers crossed, I think they are going to look good. The last pic is of some 3mm FO line installed into the Es secondary hull. Most people just shoot some light up there, but I want to be able to turn individual sections on and off, and I can not fit a light box in there, so, FO time. The good and bad, the glue that was holding that part of the hull together sort of failed. I needed to drill to make a hole large enough to use a coat hanger to help guide the FO down the neck, and the parts separated. Good to find out now, will go in and reinforce the area some when I close it all back up. I have also done some RCS thruster work on one of the nacelle parts. Unlike the saucers, which are easy to fill with some clear resin and light, these parts a little trickery. So, I cut part of the nacelle part off and poured in some clear resin. Going to do some testing on the results over the next few days. If happy, will do the other 3 parts. A little closer to getting the nacelles done.

Also, all of my photo etch etching stuff came in. I have yet to mess with that, soon. I was thinking of doing some custom etch to clean up the nacelles on the outside. There are a lot of little air bubbles in the molding, and doing PE is probably a good way to redo the detail and eliminate the molding issue.

Cheers

Update #17

The sanding and prepping continues, lol. I was working late two nights ago, and did damage to a part while sanding and prepping, so, took a few days back on that impulse engine housing part , not happy at all about that. Oh well, getting close again to getting it complete, at least the primed and sanded part. I did some more work on the nacelles, I have to do some more light blocking on the grills. Since they are a single piece of acrylic, the light bounces around in there pretty good, and I had to go back in with some black paint to get the edges blocked out. Not the end of the world, but not the perfect look I was looking for. I am hoping hitting it with some clear flat spray will get it back to the look I want. Otherwise, not having light leak out is a bit more important than the perfect paint line. However, the nacelles are still progressing. I have a couple of shots of the RCS thruster housing that goes on the nacelle. I am super happy with how it turned out. It will need more than a single coat of primer though to get the light blocking needed. I am also going to see it I can sand the LED down some more and wrap it in aluminum tape. That will have a huge effect on the light blocking and getting the light where it is needed. Will mask my one part back up tomorrow and add a few coats of primer, that should get us there. The biggest step taken today was an error. I am working on making some photo etch and I have been having problems with removing the photo resist in the Sodium Carbonate. After thinking about why, it turns out the error is due to the printer I am using. I am using an ink jet, which doesn’t create an opaque enough film to block all of the UV light coming off of my developer finger nail light thingy. So, tomorrow, going to go print the transparency on a laser printer, and fingers crossed, that gets us there. Hopefully will have the parts needed to complete the two bridges tomorrow, that would be super awesome!

Cheers,
James

Update #18

Got the nacelles with updated paint, so far so good on the light blocking. Still have not gotten the photo etch printed, still waiting on the transparencies that work in a laser printer. I am hoping all works out well with that. I have the design done for the impulse engine PE and parts going on the bridge and docking ports. Hopefully in another few days will have some completed PE to show off. Also, have the shapes laid into the program for all of the PE that is going on the pylons for the Enterprise. I am using an easy to use CAD program, Silhouette Studio for Business, BUT, not a lot of power in the program, so have to get really creative to draw some of the shapes. I am concerned with the ring that helps clean up the deflector ring on the secondary hull getting drawn up. Hopefully will get it drawn fairly accurately.

The pics are of all of the CNC cutting machined cut plastic parts, pretty excited about getting those done. The machine can’t go through 0.020 styrene, will try it out with the deep cut blade. The sheet styrene was scored enough that I was able to get the parts out, they will all need some sanding before getting glued into the hull. For the really complicated cut part, I went down to 0.010 thick styrene and cut two parts to be glued back together. I will need to build up the courage to just scrape all of the detail off of the cast hull….

The other pic is of the PE design for the impulse engine cover. It is close to the original part, I am running into a capability gap of the CAD program, I can not go back in and thin out some of the horizontal lines, as seen in the studio part. I am doing some research to come up with a plan. I have some ideas, but it would be a ton of work for this detail. Oh, ignore the filler on the part

Cheers,
James

Update #19

The battle continues via sandpaper, putty and added paint. Lots of progress across many fronts. I completed one of my light boxes for the warp nacelle, with all of the diffusion built in, looks great as a box, but a picture looks really bad. Also, all of my nacelles are taped up for primer and base coat, so will not be able to verify the effect for a while. Will take some pics when that gets done. My laser transparency paper came in, hopefully get the printed tomorrow and get my first parts made up tomorrow night that is the goal. Today, I got the impulse engines formed up and the clear resin poured, will take it apart tomorrow and prep the part for the white base coat, so that is exciting. I will also be able to glue down my new 0.005 thick panels, hopefully the look cool, will add to more parts of the model if they do. I think a little dimensionality will set this model off. I cut my first complex shape for masking, 99% there, I can then go in and do all of the extra cuts needed to paint the sensor dome that is exciting. The cool thing is that the outline works on both the E and R, saving some time, finally, on something, LOLOL. The paint scheme is different between the two models. Next pic is of the nacelles getting an area with the base coat white. I needed to get this put down before I glue in the chiller grills. I wanted all of the white that I will not be able to get to, to get painted, before gluing and priming. Hopefully the final product will look great, not just good. Next pic is of a white sensor done, excited and SAD. The camera sure shows a lot of little nits, that I cannot see under 4x magnification Last pic is of the three remaining RCS thrusters and Impulse Engine letting the resin cure, takes a day or so. Continual progress on the model, couple hours a night, one day, will be complete!

Cheers,
James

Update #20

The epic battle of resin model kit construction continues with the main players being sandpaper, putty, filler, elbow grease, primer, tape and paint. Phewww, just typing that makes me sad. The first assembly I plan on completing for both models are the nacelles and their mounting piece. The first pic shows the warp grill side completely primed. This is just the first coat. I need to go back in a fix all of the little dings that I have a hard time seeing in all white. Pictures also help to show where some issues are, the lens never lies! You can also see the bridge for both models have their first coating of primer. The primer on the photo etch parts is SUPER light. I plan on putting down some white, and then actually using a wash to help bring out the PE details. I need to start working on the masks for the bridge and planetary sensor part soon. These piece will be magnetically attached to the saucer section. I will need to install all of the LEDs though before the magnets go in. Will probably do the electronics before all of the detail paint goes in, both have their pluses and minuses though. Next pic shows the opposite side of the nacelle before gluing the chiller grills on. I need to put down some white where the piece goes. I have glued on the chiller grills, I have not started the putty work though on that. Tonight. Once both piece are primed and cleaned up, I will do a mock up assembly of both nacelle parts, I must do this so I can drill the holes needed for the strobe and crystal holes. Then all of the electronics go in, and prep for gluing the nacelles together. Next three pics are of my first acceptable photo etch I have been able to produce. Most of my problems have to do with the exposure of the film and the removal of the film in the soda ash solution. I am getting closer to the correct times on the equipment I am using. It sucks that my pic is not focused well, but you can see how small some of the details are in the air lock door. I would like to see the equipment a pro company uses, maybe get better on how I do the process, not sure. So, next steps are to work the RCS thrusters onto the nacelle parts and work all of the putty work on the nacelles. This is a few days of work. Well the pics didn't upload in order, so, hope not too much confusion with text and pics!

Cheers,
James

Update #21

LOL, sand, putty, glue, sand, putty, glue, prime, sand, putty, sand, putty, sand, putty, prime again? LOL Resin kits are cool, but WOW, they are a TON of extra work. Of course, I want to go buy some more kits! I am looking into the studio scale Enterprise, still working on the Wife. Hopefully, these guys get built and sold relatively quickly, then on to the 8 footer. That would be cool, fun to dream though, right! Unusual to post so quickly, but I got all of the RCS thrusters glued into the nacelles yesterday, and the first round of 28, putty rounds put down. Really happy with how they went on, and the parts are pretty darn square considering how every surface is curved. Also, these are the first parts with LEDs installed and put into the model. I wanted to minimize the amount of material removable to get everything to fit, and making the holes big enough to install LEDs later was a sub optimal solution. Here is my #1 tip about building lit models.

ALL LEDS THAT ARE TO BE INSTALLED INTO THE MODEL WILL HAVE A SERIES RESISTOR.

Do not ever break this rule, ever. You will rue the day when you break this rule, and blow up an LED buried DEEP in your model, which will require major surgery to remove and major reconstructive surgery to reinstall. Some of the electronics I have, have the series resistor on the board, these resistors will be moved to the LED, period, end of story. Enough on that topic!

Last item, look at that amazingly straight line I cut into the nacelle by hand. Super straight, AMAZING. Ok, that is a little bit of sarcasm. At least no one will every see the butcher job I did on the nacelle. Probably no updates for a while, all I have to do is sand and putty work for the next few nights.

Cheers,
James

Update #22

Well, here are all of the parts I have gotten through their first primer shot. The wife is out of town this weekend, so a lot of sanding coming up. Hopefully will get through all of the touch up on the 8 nacelle parts and the 2 bridge parts this weekend and start getting electronics in them. This leads to a cool problem, I need to start working on the E and R pylons. The plan is to complete the pylon and nacelle as an assembly. The second pic, or first, depending on they upload, shows some paint being pulled up. I left a mask on the bridge under tension for 2 weeks or so, and it damaged the paint. I am 99% sure that all of the parts were washed, I did not use adhesion promoter though on the bridge parts, will use that on the big saucer sections for sure. So, first paint down, and first paint repair, already, lolol, actually
Does not look like a lot but 2.5 months into the project, I have a bunch of filled in holes, lol and 12 grey parts, some with paint damage. LOLOLOL. Oh well.

Cheers,
James

Update #23

I would show another shot of all my parts grey, but not a lot of reason to. I got through a round of sanding and putty on them, so they are getting closer to getting done, well at least this step. However, in the case of 1 step forward 2 back, lol, I had an epiphany while looking at plastruc at HobbyTown, with kids in tow. I always have my best epiphanies at hobby stores. I have been unhappy about how the grills look on the nacelles, and while looking at the styrene, why don’t I stack up some styrene strips to make new grills for the front end of the nacelles. So I am going to get some strips, I didn’t know what size to buy at the store, so couldn’t get them today, but will soon. This will allow me to clean up the front ends much nicer and to paint the grills off model, which will also present a much cleaner look. The sanding and putty work shall continue though. I have what I need to work on the E’s pylons and get them going, so that is next on the list.

Cheers,

James

Update #24
So, there is a series of steps that have to happen before I can glue up the nacelles, with the largest one being getting the pylons in shape for both the E and the R. As part of the Pylon Finishing Operation 2.0, I plan on installing a lot of CnC cut plastic inserts to clean up the mold work and also create super crisp inserts that go into these pylons. I do not like what came on the molded parts, the detail was blurred out, and the mold line runs down the middle of it. As a guy who has done a lot of casting, you have to put your mold line somewhere, and overall for the part and the shape of the part, you were kind of stuck putting it here. Overall the pylons on both models are fantastic, so do not take that the wrong way! So hopefully the first few photos are of the test cut inserts showing where they are going into the pylons. The next two pics are of DESTRUCTION! Oi, my Dremel work leaves a lot to be desired. However, I am sitting at 8 or 9 rounds of putty and sanding, the inserts recesses are coming along quite nicely. The problem is that there is some knife work required and if I screw up, I get to redo some putty and sanding work. That has happened a few times, which is frustrating. However, my skill level is increasing. I can see my XP bar filling up every night I work on this, LOLOL. If only I could grind out some levels quicker and easier though. Last shot is of all of the wires on the Reliant pylons, looks like a lot, there are not enough, which also makes me sad. There are 4 photon torpedoes in the roll bar, but each of those torpedoes needs 2 control wires, 2 reds and 1 white per torpedoes. So quick wire summary for the roll bar

8 torpedoes
1 nav ?
1 strobe ?
2 phaser cannon thingies
1 evil red lights, there are 4 of them, they are one when Khan controls the ship, I did not see evidence that they are on when he does not control the ship. So the plan is to add another 8 wires on the other nacelle, that would give me plenty to cover the requirements and still have a few.

Looking at the wires for the nacelles there are 8 wires, with two of them being a bit larger in gauge. One of those would be ground and the other for the warp engines.

1 warp engine, needs to be 24AWG or higher, actually caries a lot of current due to the number of LEDs in the LED tape.
1 RCS
1 Strobe
1 Nav??
1 2 lights at the front of the nacelle
2 spots?
1 warp crystal thingy

Looks like we have enough wires for the nacelles, woohoo! The progress continues, slowly, but relentless? LOL Still waiting on some parts to redo the grill thingies on the nacelle, hopefully get the parts tomorrow so I can do some work on it this weekend, who knows when and how the delivery man shall delivereth.

Hope everyone is enjoying our hobby out there!

Cheers,

Update #25

Lots of coolness happening, although, all of it is TINY ITY BITY TEENY steps Tons of work for literally half millimeter improvements. I will not do it this way in the future, but a good way to learn. I did not get to work on the models as much as I would have liked, but the family had a great time at the Renaissance Fair today outside of Austin. Lots of meat on a stick, sword fighting and the best show were the Washing Wenches.

So the first pic is of the small steps. The Enterprises pylons are just about done and the Reliants are well under way. I started the Rs long after the Es, so progress is quicker. I have gotten better at doing this. As part of this process though, I could not figure out how to get the bottom of each of these holes to the same depth. So I decided to cut out a ton of 0.010 thick parts that go in the bottom of the holes, and that will allow me to get the depths of all of the holes to within 0.010 of each other, which is pretty good for a resin model. So the pic is a bunch of these parts cut out on the Cameo 3. Which is the best present I have ever bought for the wife!

The HobbyLinc order came in on Saturday, woohoo, which allowed me to mock up my new ridged parts in both 0.030 and 0.020 thickness parts. I am going to go with the 0.030 strips to recreate all of the ridged parts in the nacelles. So, the clean up all of the detail in these parts and I will be able to paint both the nacelle and grill thingy off of each other allowing for some ultra-sharp transitions. The biggest problem is going to be on the curved section for the top grill, but I think I have a good solution on these. So, I am going to cut out some of these grills, hopefully not have a heart attack, and then make sure everything lines up.

All of the work is coming together on the nacelles, and looking forward to getting all 4 of these mounted up, wired up, closed up and painted up. That is a lot of Up!

Cheers,
James

Update #26

Got the little inserts popped out for the pylons, and started to test fit them. Still some work needed, but they are close on the E. Once they are in, I can finish cleaning up the edges of the holes, and then shim them out so they are all the same depth. Then, I get to wait until the pylon is painted out, then they go back in. Progress?

The other pic is of the new grills going into the nacelles. I had a heart attack drilling out the grill on the nacelle, and then, I told myself to be extra careful not to knock off the little sprue of resin left, and of course I dropped the nacelle, boooo, and it broke out. Soooo, another thing to patch. I need to get a little better making the grill replacements flatter, if that makes sense. There is a little curl on the outside, which shows some in the pic. Over all though, these are much better than what was on the casting.

Progress? Some.

Cheers,
James

Update #27

Woohoo, some real progress. Three of the four pylons are ready for primer, and the fourth one should be good to go tomorrow. Will get them all primed up tomorrow. The second Reliant pylon needed 8 additional wires added to it, so they were added. The two pics are of the trenching and gluing and backfilling of the pylon for the additional wires. I have spent all of last weekend working on a retirement box for a fellow Airmen. The pics are of the box and work in progress. The multi piece board is 11 different hardwoods jointed up and glued together to make a removable tray that will hold coins and will go inside the box. You can see the Es saucer providing support to the boards as the epoxy sets. The wood used was spalted maple, that had also been eaten by some worms. The worm tracks are really cool looking and add some unusualness to the box. The dove tails are half blind with Walnut inserts, first time my Dad and I were able to accomplish it, woohoo! So now I am sanding resin model parts and worm eaten maple!

Cheers,
James

This is an awesome build up and i can't wait to see more!

Rich

Rich,

Huge thanks for the kind words! Helps keep the motivation going on this year long project.
Update #28

I got the last pylon ready for primer, BUT, it is raining cats and dogs, so too humid to shoot paint. Maybe tomorrow, don’t know, do not look at weather reports. I also have most of the insert replacements built. That was 2 nights of gluing and forming. I have a little side excurision and the front nub left. I need to modify the nacelles to take the new inserts, but I think I will tack glue the nacelles together so I can finish drilling all of the holes needed for the lights. The crystals, nav/strobe, spotlights, and those extra lights on the Reliants nacelles. When I modify the nacelles to take the new inserts, they are REALLY fragile, and I want to minimize the possibility of me destroying something, which unfortunately is really high. Another for me. I will take a pic of all of the primed parts this weekend. I am running out of parts to prep for priming, SUPER excited!!

Cheers,
James

Update #29

So I ran into a problem, took me a few minutes to realize what had happened. When I built the nacelle jigs, to align to the rest of the model, I did not have the chiller grill parts glued onto the nacelle. I actually LOLd when I realized that my jigs are not going to work to well. I will need to modify them a bit to get them super sturdy again.

So the actual model stuff. The first pic shows all of the nacelle component in the alignment jigs, they do fit, but not as well as I like. The amount of work that has gone into these guys is stupid, but there are a lot of parts glued up, modified etc in this shot. So, some internal happiness on my part. The second pic shows my current issue. The openings to house the colored crystals that go on top of the nacelles are sort of jacked up. So, I am going to sand them relatively flat, and cut out some plastic parts on my Silhouette that will house the crystal and glue that onto the nacelle. Will take pics, will make more sense when I do that. I also have a plan to house and protect the LED that will light up the crystal. Pics will show how that will work. That leaves the hole in the back, middle, top of the nacelle for the nav/strobe light. I will drill the 3mm hole and glue the LED into one of the nacelles. Will take some extra super duper care to reassemble. I had thought about cutting out some of the opposite nacelle and gluing that together, then fixing that area. I might do that, will think on it tonight. I am really tired and do not want to screw up the cut when I could do it tomorrow in better shape. Long day at work, ran 3 miles, super hot today, which is a first for the year, and a lot of work on the retirement box. I also need to drill out the holes for the spots and align them up and glue them in. Then the rest of the electronics and interior stuff goes back into the nacelles, then cut out the front part, square it up, install new grills, and glue the sucker up. I do not think I will get that done this weekend, but, these parts are close.

Oh, I will glue them on the pylons before I close up the nacelles, so that means Will not get done this weekend. Closing in.

With that done, a HUGE sub assembly will be complete. I will probably finish priming them and base coat them, then move onto the saucer sections. I have been in contact with another modeler to purchase a cast of the shuttle bay he built for the Enterprise, which has been delayed, due to some good reasons. I do not want to work on the secondary hull until I get that.

I have also been collecting parts to build the Reliant shuttle bays and shuttles themselves.

The wood shot is of the tray that is going into the retirement box. Will unclamp tomorrow and start the finish sanding needed. I am hoping to get the box done next week. Depends on the laser etch guy though. Look forward to sharing that when done.

Keep on modeling!

Cheers,
James

Update #30

I got one of the Reliant nacelles with the electronics installed. Learned a few things. The main one being that I will need to remove the grills that are cast into the nacelle before I install the electronics into the rest of the nacelles. If all of the electronic dodads are in there, very hard to cut out, sand, and remove the excess material needed to make the new grills fit. Will not be doing that tonight, a little late. Another issue, the light box interferes with either the crystal light or will not fit into the nacelle. So I had to modify the light box somewhat to clear the crystal LED and still fit into the nacelle. Not that big of deal, took a while though. I decided to just drill the 3mm hole in the rear of the nacelle to house the NJAV/Strobe light. The wires that lead to the LED are glued in, and the LED is tacked down via super glue. When I hit some of the areas with epoxy, will put some epoxy on the back of the LED so you can not accidently push it into the nacelle. That would be a DISASTER OF EPIC PROPORTIONS. I could not imagine having to tear the thing apart to fix that error. That would be very demoralizing. I also will need to add some epoxy over the front two lights on the Reliant nacelle and some other points for reinforcement. I have also added a bunch of Apoxie sculpt to allow for more surface area in the future glue up of the nacelle, and to help flatten out the curvy grill area. All of the nacelles will need to be cleaned up and Apoxied like this.

Oh, another interesting tid bit. The Reliant nacelles are super nice, the Enterprise ones are not. Normally I would put the resin into some hot water to help straighten them out, but these nacelles are fiberglass impregnated, so, hot water is meaningless to them., Ultimately, these guys are super strong, but getting the joints flattened out on the Enterprise will take some effort, and I am concerned over the long term stability of the joint. I might allow some what of a gap, basically minimize the gap along the entire joint, and go back in and fill. This would have the effect of a slightly larger, maybe out of scale joint, but the model will stick together forever. I will take some pics of what I am talking about in a future update.

I also got a lot of work down on the retirement box, reorganized my game room, it was a disaster, updated my game ownership database, I track every LEGO and game I own. Also saw Ready Player One with the family, great movie. Overall a good weekend!

Cheers,
James

Update #31

Have not had a lot of time to work on the models. The time I have had, has been spent on cleaning up the nacelles. Getting close to be done with straightening out the area that the inserts go into. Should be one last sanding, then back to electronic installation.

Cheers,
James

Update #32

The cleanup/straightening out of the grill area on the nacelles is pretty much done. I need to come up with a new insert that goes in between the nacelle halves. I do not think putting this together via a bunch of strips is going to work. I think I will design a part and cut them out on the Silhouette. The problem and benefit of this is that the cutter can only really cut through 0.020 thick plastic. Looking at the studio model, this insert part thingy is really thick, thicker than what I will be able to put back in, due to the current unchangeable geometry of the nacelles. I think I will be able to get between 4 and 6 of the 0.020 thick parts sort of glued up like a laminate board. Maybe stronger than just strip styrene, I do not know, but will find out.

I got the other 3 light boxes for the warp engines done last night. I think I can install the electronics now while working on the inserts.

Progress.

Cheers,
James