NCC-1701 Refit... 1/350

[Wonvertu]

Lower primary hull...
DSCF1837 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

The pearl coat is showing up quite well without overpowering the details.  It's not the same method used by the original modeller for the movie ship, but I'm at least getting a bit closer to the effect than I'd hoped.

[Xhopeon]

Nice progress so far!

Can't wait to see finish... until then these pics will satisfy

Bipsy Dipsy

[Wonvertu]

Nice progress so far!

Can't wait to see finish... until then these pics will satisfy

Bipsy Dipsy

I pick at it daily.  That keeps me from getting into a rush and doing too much too fast and not paying attention to details.

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These are two of the interior spaces in the Enterprise.  On the left is the bridge lounge and on the right is the Arboretum.

There have been people who have detailed these spaces to some really crazy levels of detail.  I was tempted to do the same.  However, the plastic windows these will be behind aren't exactly what you would call perfect optics.  They're wavy and won't do much more than allow distorted shapes to be seen.

So with that thought in mind, I've opted to be very simple with both. Spots of bright color and suggested shapes more than super details are the key here.

DSCF1838 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

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The engineering hull is just sitting here on my desk after its initial coat of the pearl coat.  The first coat was done with each piece separately.  The second will be done with the hull stood up on where the deflector will be attached. 

I do that to minimize differences in the paint layers between each part.  It's very easy to not realize you have different paint thicknesses until you go to put things together.

DSCF1841 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

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[Wonvertu]

Shuttle bay and Arboretum set into the bottom engineering hull section.

DSCF1845 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

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Looking into the unlit shuttle bay.  This will be far far cooler once I get the lights in.

DSCF1846 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

[eagl17]

I wish i had the patience to build something like this ! 

[Wonvertu]

I wish i had the patience to build something like this ! 

It does take a while.  I'm probably something of an old fart on the boards and in the game (40 is long gone) and that actually helps.  I'm much more patient with something like this than I was when I was younger.

[Wonvertu]

In surveying things today, it appears that most of the "mass" painting is complete.  The kits doesn't have too many "finicky" bits (except the light array around the shuttle bay doors) for which I am thankful.  

It may now be time for a stall in progress.  I'm intending to order the light package tomorrow and that could take up to six weeks to arrive.  Then again, the Trekmodeller folks did say that was their worst case delivery time so they might well fool me.

I have a few more aztec decals I can do before assembly. But only a very few.  In fact I think I can do the ones for the nacelle pylons and that's about it at this point.  Once those are done, I'll post pictures of those and the deflector dish.

[Wonvertu]

Keep up the good work, we certainly enjoy seeing how it's coming together!

(So, if it takes so long to arrive, why not order the light kit when you order the model?)

Chris

Budget my friend. Budget.

However, the lights did get ordered yesterday.  

I had to do a kitten rescue on Thursday.  Some sorry so-and-so ran over the little guy on a highway near my house, but he survived.  Got a broken leg and a scraped up nose, but he's recovering very well.

Anybody want a kitten?

[Wonvertu]

So today's bit of progress doesn't really look like much, but if it's not right the whole ship will look bad.  This is the one place where I found a casting flaw in the kit.


One of the two major pieces for the neck was warped just enough to be pulling the "ends" apart.  The solution is to clamp one end together and use some of the liquid brush on cement to weld the joint on one end.  Then let that cure out where it will take the pressure of clamping the other end.  Just repeat the process on the other end. 

DSCF1851 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

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DSCF1850 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

As always, the camera finds detail (goofs) that the eye doesn't notice. 

[Wonvertu]

I can't wait to see things start coming together.  But I know there are a lot of steps that need to be followed-

Chris
Sorry to hear about the poor little kitten.  Wife's allergic, so I'd have to make a tough choice on who to keep if I took in the cat-

Got several people starting to make adoption noises so i don't think he'll be without a home for too long.

Working on pylon decals tonight.