New MR Enterprise problem over time (Dome blotching)

CessnaDriver and RS1, thank you for drawing this to my attention. I hadn't read elsewhere about problems with the saucer or nacelles drooping on the MR Enterprise.

I'll have to check my E for dome blotching and sagging when I get home tonight. :confused

I've got some blotching on one of my domes. Did you ever get a particular person to address this to, or is it a "Dear Sir" issue?
 
Montagar (in Post #36) is the one who actually received a response directly from MR. I'm guessing it's probably a "Dear Sir or Madam" issue, but if there was a particular name attached to MR's response, Montagar's the one who can tell you. :)
 
This is a typical corporate response. Im currently involved with a class action suit because of this same sort of attitude with Hewlett Packard and the DV1000 laptop series. They had a huge failure rate but HP said they didnt know anything about it until a website was formed for people who all had the same problem. It seems the folks that DIDNT have a problem were the minority and HP was giving everyone the same out of warranty runaround. The only folks that got any sort of satisfaction were those that went to the CEO directly. The only thing MR and HP are insuring is that they will never see another dime of my money. If youre going to charge that amount of money for a lit piece of plastic the consumer should have a reasonable expectation of qulaity and its not the consumers fault that the company didnt forsee the problem. wrong answer.
Listen up MR! Your response just told us quite clearly that you do NOT stand by your product and that you are willing to charge a over a grand for a lit piece of plastic that you wont stand behind even when it is shown to have a chronic problem. Thats fine...you just alienated yourself from one of the CORNERSTONES of your target market. What do you think the chances are of you selling any more high end scale replicas to folks here? This board is connected to several others in the hobby and word travels fast.
The HP suffered from a chronic design flaw and HPs unwillingness to take care of the issue has now resulted in an organized large scale class action suit going in front of a judge in June.
MR needs to rectify this situation or fold up their tents. Their track record is NOT a good one with fans regardless of how they try and spin it. The QC is abysmal. Remember the ROTS Vader fiasco? How about the vaporware TNG Tricorder?
Their inability to deliver quality goods in a timely fashion is going to be the end of them. Thank GOD EFX got the Star Wars license and here's hoping when the last shovel full of dirt is thrown on MR that EFX picks up the Trek license.
 
I know I'm not going to buy a product like this again(as long as it's made in China). I don't care who has the license. They are most likely going to use the same subcontractor, thus more problems.

I would rather scratch-build the model, or get a garage kit.
 
Well, Im waiting on the new TOS 1/350th kit. Im sure VoodooFX will have a killer lighting kit for it and I trust my OWN QC more then China's.
 
I gotta say that the Enterprise was my first . . . and last MR purchase. It took getting a couple of them to find one that was "acceptable" but I would never deal with them again. The blocthing on mine was on the first one I recieved when I got it and showed up on the second one within months. I still love the thing but it should have been so much better for the money and I don't once look at it now and don't think about the flaws that should NOT have been an issue. At least I don't have an M. Falcon (with a bad headlight which I guess is just an isolated problem as well: B.S.)!


Will
 
I went through three!... and then the one I had that was okay showed the weird blotching in the domes even though it was in storage and not displayed. I would re buy this if they got this right, as the model itself is fantastic.
what a pity!

KK
 
I have been lucky so far both my Enterprise and Falcon are good on all fronts. I got good paint jobs on the first ones I received. I did order very early on both. My Enterprise was #50 my Falcon was number #0008. Fingers crossed they stay happy.
 
I decided to pull my Enterprise back out of storage for a look-see. Relieved that no blotching is present, however, one of the nacelle motors was stuck! I let it just run and after about 10 minutes, it started up. It's been about a week and it still comes on every time I turn it on. I got lucky. There are a few very minor finishing issues, but overall it is a good one. Mine's #350. I do love this thing and it would be heartbreaking if it developed these new problems. I really sympathise with you guys on this. :/
 
Just to repeat what I posted there about this for reference here.

On mine the saucer is sagging a bit down, creating an illusion of nacelle droop. You really have to look hard for this, and I think nearly all of them have this issue. I believe they came from the factory like this.
You can actually push on the saucer a bit to raise it and things look right again.

I photoshopped the saucer raised a bit and you can see how it effects the perception of the nacelle droop.


As built.
sideE.jpg


Photoshopped correcting saucer dip.
sideEcopy.jpg





CD, I don't think it's exclusively a saucer issue. The nacelles appear a slight bit droopy as well, at least on mine. On mine it appears to be a combination of equal saucer droop/nacelle droop.

By the way, I'm new here. I've been reading your messages for the past hour or so. I don't know how many of you guys/gals are still posting after all this time. I hope you are.

I bought a SE MR E on Ebay. The only issues thus far are a crooked deflector "mandrel" and the slight nacelle droop. No oil issues as of yet.

I must say, though, that the problems you folks have been experiencing are really putting a damper on this acquisition for me.

I will continue to read your posts hoping to learn more about the ongoing "voyages" of the MR Enterprise.

By the way, a thought that came to me in regards to the oily bussards: the issue is only an issue when the light are off, right? Well, in the show, one never sees the bussards unlit... so, maybe the model should only be "considered displayed" with the lights on. Just one way to look at it.
 
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My first two MR E's had a number of issues; a blotched nacelle was not one of them. However, the third and final one I have does, and it's had it a long time, almost from the first, and it's gotten worse over the years. Still, I have to say this, you won’t notice it when she's lit up and to my mind that's really when it matters. I have also noticed a slight droop in the saucer but that to is really very subtle. One more thing that needs saying is this, when this model is powered up and under dramatic lighting she looks pretty good. In fact nearly all those issues (other than dead lights) aren’t really noticeable when she’s photographed and lit as she would be in space (as an artist would want it and not as it actually would be for real). Isn’t that kind of what happens to most of the real studio models as well . . . take a magnifying glass to them in regular lighting (or out in the sun) and you will find all manner of imperfections. The original 11 foot TOS had a bunch of them so I guess one could say our models truly are a studio replica, they are a chip off the old block :lol.
 
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My E is brand new, maybe lit up for a total of a couple of minutes and the port bussard shows symptoms of the "disease" already (see pic).
 
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All good points, Artman. Yes, she is a thing of beauty, flaws and all, particularly when lit. She is the best of her kind to date, by far. And no matter what Polar Lights, or anyone else, can produce in the future in the form of a kit, one would be hard pressed, I think, to create such an authentic replica... especially considering the amazing spinning bussards and superb paint and markings.

And speaking of the bussards, my E is brand new, maybe lit up for a total of a couple of minutes and the port bussard shows symptoms of the "disease" already (see pic). Note: although new, having purchased her MIB on Ebay, she had been sitting unopened in her box for several years now before I pulled her out just a few days ago.

Actually, my main complaint is the crooked deflector (see pic), and to a lesser degree the slight sag of the nacelles and saucer section. It is slight but both the nacelles and the saucer section seem to be slanting equally slightly in opposite directions.

I'd suggest taking the deflector dish off by gently pulling and rotating it at the same time. Then check the deflector coupler, it is the part attached to the center of the amplification rings. If that is on strait than rotate the deflector dish back into position, it should have some slight adjusting ability even though it fits on quite tight . . . just don’t push it in to far.

I just put my E on the worktable and examined that nasty blotch up close . . . it would appear that some oily residue has leaked out onto the upper part of the nacelle around the red beacon light. Anyone else notice that? It’s interesting that this blotching seems to be happening only upon the port side nacelle, why not the starboard side as well?

(port side is indicated by the red navigation light the starboard by the green one) :cool
 
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I just put my E on the worktable and examined that nasty blotch up close . . . it would appear that some oily residue has leaked out onto the upper part of the nacelle around the red beacon light. Anyone else notice that? It’s interesting that this blotching seems to be happening only upon the port side nacelle, why not the starboard side as well?

You mean on the *outside* of the dome, on the outer surface of the nacelle?? That really sucks. No, I don't think I've noticed that on mine (yet), but I'll have to take a closer look when I can; I have mine under acrylic and it's a bit harder to get my nose right up to it and examine it really closely.
 
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Mine has spread to at least 25% of the starboard dome and a little spot has started on the same dome on the other side of the hemisphere.
So much worse since my pic in the first post.
Lights on you can't tell.

But I would love to fix this.
 
Mine has spread to at least 25% of the starboard dome and a little spot has started on the same dome on the other side of the hemisphere.
So much worse since my pic in the first post.
Lights on you can't tell.

But I would love to fix this.


I can't imagine a fix. I personally would never cut open the nacelles to get inside the domes. Even if you do so to remove the residue, it would more than likely happen again. The only thing I could think of to do (if you're really good at that sort of thing, which i am not) is to lightly spray paint the outside of the domes with a color somewhere in between the frosted color and the "oily" color and hope the lights still illuminate through. :confused

Personally I would leave bad enough alone, though.

So far, my port nacelle is the only one affected, and my lights have been on for a total of less than 5 minutes. Come to think of it though, having bought mine new and unopened on the Bay, I just broke the seal on mine just last week and I think I did notice something going on with the port dome even as i first took her out of the box that she had been in for a couple of years.


I'd suggest taking the deflector dish off by gently pulling and rotating it at the same time. Then check the deflector coupler, it is the part attached to the center of the amplification rings. If that is on strait than rotate the deflector dish back into position, it should have some slight adjusting ability even though it fits on quite tight . . . just don’t push it in to far.

Well, I took the dish off and checked the coupler and it looks straight. The problem lies with the "rod" projecting forward from the dish that has a funnel-like base where it attaches to the dish. I could see that that part has been glued into the dish a bit skewed so that the rod itself isn't crooked or bent but it has been attached to the dish not perpendicular to its vertical axis.

Anyway, I patiently and slowly bent it back, using a blow-drier to add a tiny bit of heat. After a few minutes of gently pushing it, It seemed to work--but only briefly; after I pushed the dish back into place, in a matter of minutes the slant was back, albeit *maybe* to a *slightly* lesser degree.

Still looking for a spare dish from someone....
 
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You mean on the *outside* of the dome, on the outer surface of the nacelle?? That really sucks. No, I don't think I've noticed that on mine (yet), but I'll have to take a closer look when I can; I have mine under acrylic and it's a bit harder to get my nose right up to it and examine it really closely.


Actually it's not that big a deal, I just wiped it away with some paper towel and all seems fine.

As Cessnadriver indicated it's spreading. Even though it does not seem to be affecting the way she looks when lit up I must admit it looks a tad unsightly when she's not. Here are a few images taken of the MR-E I own, the first picture shows the port nacelle as it appeared a day or so after I got it . . . sometime in August of 2007.

Aug-2007.jpg


It looks fine but in truth I noticed the frosting was more translucent than the starboard side.


And here are some images taken of the port nacelle as of Thursday December 9, 2010.

Nacelle-oil-leak-front.jpg


Nacelle-oil-leak-side.jpg
 
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