{"id":1300,"date":"2016-09-30T17:19:15","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T15:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/borkedcode.com\/wp\/?p=1300"},"modified":"2016-09-30T17:19:15","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T15:19:15","slug":"the-uss-enterprise-refit-from-star-trek-the-motion-picture-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.borkedcode.com\/wp2\/2016\/09\/30\/the-uss-enterprise-refit-from-star-trek-the-motion-picture-12\/","title":{"rendered":"The USS Enterprise (Refit) from Star Trek: The Motion Picture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Build Log:\u00a0 Part 12<\/h1>\n

Okay, everyone, I did some fun stuff in the last couple of weeks \u2013 some was dirt simple and pretty, some was a little harder and is coming out really great.<\/p>\n

\"See<\/a>

See you guys soon!<\/p><\/div>\n

First off, let\u2019s bid a fond \u201csee you soon\u201d to the engine nacelles \u2013 I\u2019ve trimmed them out and packed them away in a big ziplock to protect them while they wait until I get things ready to apply the decals.<\/p>\n

\"Rec<\/a>

Rec Deck is a fold-up piece of photo-etch. Even after heating some spring remains, so it’s wired shut while the glue dries.<\/p><\/div>\n

So \u2013 the first thing I did since those engines went into the storage area was the recreation deck.\u00a0 This was entirely a photo-etch piece that was originally flat and needed to be folded up.\u00a0 I heated the brass plate on a burner first, to get the springiness out of it.\u00a0 Cutting it free from the sheet involved my trusty little chisel, and then filing away the extra flash.<\/p>\n

After this, I applied the HDA Modelworx decal (which looks really nice, by the way \u2013 if you look at the rear screen, there\u2019s a shot of the Klingon cruiser from ST:TMP being hit by the V\u2019Ger weapon) and waited for it to set a bit.\u00a0 Folding it up was a simple matter, and then tying it with wire to keep it together while the glue set.<\/p>\n

\"Tiny<\/a>

Tamiya 1:350 Navy crew. \u00a0Tiny is an understatement. Heheheh. See what I did there?<\/p><\/div>\n

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Once the glue was good and the piece was ready, I grabbed some Tamiya 1:350 navy crew (which are great for WW2 models and such at the same scale) and prepped some of those up.\u00a0 I painted the crew up with blue, white, and black uniforms (tan and perhaps red should have gone in there, but these colors gave better contrast with the flesh-tone of the heads and hands).\u00a0 Once their paint was dry, I used tweezers to hold them on their way in \u2013 dipped them in CA glue and settled them into the rec-deck so it would look like a small group of crew watching the report on the screen.<\/p>\n

I hit it with some matte spray, and once dry (I gave it 24 hours) I parked it with the other finished pieces.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The HDA decal is in there, notice the viewscreen shows the Klingon from ST:TMP being hit by V’ger. The crew are CA’d to the floor, I used a toothpick with a little blu-tack to dip their feet in glue and then position them .<\/p><\/div>\n

Next Item\u2026<\/p>\n

The main deflector\/sensor dish!<\/h2>\n
\"Here<\/a>

Here we go!<\/p><\/div>\n

This part has a remarkably small number of parts (eleven), but as usual I made it a bit more complicated than it would have been.\u00a0 Five of the eleven parts are actually clear, and some of it will need to be painted cleanly in order to look right.\u00a0 I\u2019m also adding a few PE parts, and a light diffuser over the central bulb.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The thruster panels here are clear parts, and very small, about 5mm square. The grid on the matt beneath is 1cm square.<\/p><\/div>\n

Around the outside of the forward ring are four tiny little thruster panels, each one about half a centimeter square.\u00a0 Inside each of these are two thruster ports, which will be lit from inside with yellow LEDs.\u00a0 To keep those LEDs from spilling their light into the rest of the model, I will create some very small light-boxes which I\u2019ll detail later.<\/p>\n

\"They<\/a>

They slip snug right into place, perfectly.<\/p><\/div>\n

The thruster panels themselves fit really easily into their spaces, and the rest of the parts also fit pretty well together (only the two big rings needed some gap filling \u2013 we\u2019ll get to that later).\u00a0 I had originally intended to back-light those thrusters through the plastic of the ring using a Raytheon technique (basically parking the light behind the plastic and letting it shine through), but I thought that would dim the output too much.\u00a0 I figured out where the ports sit, and used a 1mm drill bit to open up the space behind each set of ports.<\/p>\n

Next, to make sure we had only<\/em> the thruster ports lit, I proceeded to light-block them.\u00a0 First step of this was to park the panels on a sprue for spraying with some white tac.\u00a0 Then, drop some liquid mask (Humbrol Maskol on this one) into the ports.\u00a0 I let the mask dry, and then push them all into the white-tack to protect the backs, which would be parked against the ring.<\/p>\n

\"Step<\/a>

Step 1: push the little buggers into the tack gum.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Step<\/a>

Step 2: mask all the thruster ports.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Step<\/a>

Step 3: tell the little buggers to hold their breath and hit them with a light-block. \u00a0After the light-block dries, hit them with your chosen flavor of yellow for the model.<\/p><\/div>\n

Set the thruster panels aside for a bit.<\/p>\n

\"If<\/a>

If you’re going to drill holes like I did, masking is not entirely necessary. Nevertheless, do it just in case. You won’t have any fun scraping and sanding out light-block paint from those little slots.<\/p><\/div>\n

The kit comes with two choices for the three bulges around the deflector dish (port, starboard, and ventral sides); I picked the ones that looked most like the ST:TMP reference photos.\u00a0 Using polystyrene glue, the three bulges were settled in, and then the PE grilles for them were attached with CA.\u00a0 Then the thruster receiving slots on the ring got some mask (you can cut small panels out of regular masking tape, or something like one of the narrow modeling tapes), and the edges of the edges of the rings where they would need to be glued together.\u00a0 The exterior of these parts got the black primer light-blocking treatment, and then<\/p>\n

\"Light-block<\/a>

Light-block and base coat applied<\/p><\/div>\n

white Vallejo spray primer as a base coat on top of that.\u00a0 I had to do a couple of coats to get most of the dark out of sight, but in general it was okay.\u00a0 The forward section of the rear ring has a couple of inset rings with recessed canals which don\u2019t take spray paint easily \u2013 some corners of it collect a little too much, some not enough.\u00a0 This was easily fixed with a little hand-painting using a thin brush and some regular acrylic white (I’m using Mig “Satin White”, Mig-047 for reference).<\/p>\n

Pulling all the masks off, a dry-fit of the parts showed everything was coming together nicely.<\/p>\n

\"Dry-fitting<\/a>

Dry-fitting is always a good idea – it’ll help you anticipate trouble spots, and also let you know if you’re putting on too much paint.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"It's<\/a>

It’s going to be behind the diffuser dish, so it doesn’t have to be spotless, but try to keep it round so that the LED will seat evenly.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Voi-la,<\/a>

Voi-la, it fits!<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Canopy<\/a>

Canopy glue for starters. You could also use CA or all-purpose clear. I’ll be sealing it in the back with Black Seal too, so it ain’t going no place.<\/p><\/div>\n

The center of the dish comes with a small hole, which is probably a perfect fit for a 3mm\u00a0LED, but I\u2019m using a 5mm one, and needed to open it up a bit more.\u00a0 Once it fit snugly, I did a quick and painless circuit check, then glued the LED in place with canopy glue.\u00a0 After the canopy glue dried, I used Black Seal over the back of the LED to keep its light where it belonged.\u00a0 I set this assembly aside to rest.<\/p>\n

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I mentioned earlier that the kit comes with a choice of parts for the three bulges \u2013 once the choice is made, there are three extra parts.\u00a0 I used those as the basis for three of the four thruster light-boxes.\u00a0 The fourth was a section of an engine nacelle snipped off of a 1:1000 TOS Enterprise (the 1:1000 models come with multiple choices for the nacelles).\u00a0 I closed off the nacelle section with standard styrene trimmed to fit.\u00a0 A hole in the side of each one made room for the wiring to pass through.\u00a0 Black light-block and gloss silver to add extra internal reflectivity finished them out.<\/p>\n

\"These<\/a>

These parts seemed to fit just right for light boxes on the thrusters.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Light<\/a>

Light boxes built and silvered, time for the circuits.<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"I<\/a>

I drilled a hole behind the thruster ports so that the light would have zero obstruction to reaching the outside. Peeled off the little tiny masks and you can see right through. Since there’ll be a light-box there, it’ll be black until the power is on.<\/p><\/div>\n

The thruster panels got a yellow overcoat and once that dried, they were glued into the receivers with canopy glue.\u00a0 The rings went together with some polystyrene glue, no worries. I peeled out the mask material from the ports, and re-trimmed with yellow where the mask took some of the overcoat away.\u00a0 A quick check with the battery showed that everything was still working properly, and the ports were shining perfectly<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The wiring for the thrusters had me trimming down the resistors and attaching flexible leads to the positive and negative legs.\u00a0 The 9V battery paid each<\/p>\n

\"Have<\/a>

Have I mentioned that Milliput is the bomb? That stuff is just great, even if it does get all over my hands.<\/p><\/div>\n

one a visit to confirm the wiring was good.\u00a0 Once those were done, they were positioned to shine directly through the ports drilled earlier and CA-glued in place.\u00a0 Time for another battery test, checking to make sure the light came through the ports properly.\u00a0 The boxes were then fixed over the lights with regular polystyrene glue.\u00a0 After this had been allowed to cure, yet another battery test, then Milliput (fine white) was applied all around the light boxes, and over the exposed legs of the circuits (the plastic of the ring between the legs was scored repeatedly with a knife to give the Milliput extra surface to grip).\u00a0 Before it dried, my paranoia set in and I gave it one more battery test.\u00a0 All good.\u00a0 All the thruster leads were then taped together in groups for ease of handling.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The warmup scene in ST:TMP was my reference photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

Next up, the dish itself.\u00a0 This is a big, clear part with a lot of detail that needs paint.\u00a0 If you look closely at the films, the dish has a ring of lines all the way around, really thin and about 1\/3 the circumference of the hemisphere (see the reference photo \u2013 you\u2019ll also note if you look really <\/em>closely there\u2019s an ejection ring on the interior of the studio model\u2019s dish).\u00a0 These lines need to be white.\u00a0 The ejection ring\u00a0line on the model also needs to be sanded off.<\/p>\n

\"Masking<\/a>

Masking the interior lines is a pretty slow and painstaking process…<\/p><\/div>\n

\"...but<\/a>

…but it is doable and worth every minute you spend on it.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Rather than try to trim masks to fit the lines \u2013 because there are soooo many of them and I\u2019m sure I\u2019d screw something up \u2013 I cut a bunch of sections of 1mm masking tape and snugged them up against the sides of the lines all the way around.\u00a0 I then made some really short sections of the same tape and pressed them into the gaps at the top and bottom of each line, leaving the lines exposed.\u00a0 Then regular tape was cut and applied around the exposed dish areas.\u00a0 More tape guarded the back from stray blasts.\u00a0 A couple of coats of white primer got the lines covered.<\/p>\n

\"Masking's<\/a>

Masking’s only half done! Gotta do the exterior rings next.<\/p><\/div>\n

Peeling off all that mask and trimming off the few areas that leaked a little was pretty quick and easy.\u00a0 I re-masked the back of the dish, and the entire front of the dish.\u00a0 Using the 1mm tape, I also masked the outer ring all the way around (the outside ring shines through, as well as the main dish).\u00a0 Dark grey primer went on to light-block the ouside.\u00a0 Once dry, a little extra mask was applied to the forward ring around the dish, and then white Vallejo went on all around the outside.\u00a0 This resulted in the rearward sections being white and the forward section being dark grey \u2013 which matches what the reference photos were showing.<\/p>\n

Set that aside and let it cure.<\/p>\n

\"Totally<\/a>

Totally worth it. Seen here dry-fitted on the main rings. \u00a0Also note the Paragrafix PE ring in place here.<\/p><\/div>\n

The diffuser panel was from HDA, it\u2019s a circular plate about 3mm thick of white plastic.\u00a0 It has a protective paper on both sides that needs to get peeled off before gluing the plate into the dish.\u00a0 It fits fine over the 5mm LED I\u2019m using.\u00a0 Canopy glue it in place and let it cure.<\/p>\n

\"Light<\/a>

Light test with the diffuser plate on – Amber (Impulse) flavor. \u00a0It’s a bit bright for my camera, but it looks great.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Blue<\/a>

Blue also works just fine, looks great!<\/p><\/div>\n

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A few little notes:<\/h3>\n

If you are working without the Paragrafix PE kit, you\u2019re going to note that the outer ring has a pattern of gaps and ring lines all around, wider gaps on the 3-6-9-12 o\u2019clock positions.\u00a0 If I weren\u2019t working with the PE part (which just required a coat of white), then I would have used liquid mask in each gap.\u00a0 The PE saved me from having to deal with this.\u00a0 All is not wine and roses though, because the parts are really tight-fitting (including the PE).\u00a0 That means if you put more than a few coats of paint on it, or one particularly thick coat, the tolerances get too tight and they scrape each other while going on.\u00a0 I had that problem a few times, which took a little time to wait for the paint to cure before sanding the scratch and re-painting with white.<\/p>\n

I also discovered that both Army Painter and Vallejo primers use similar solvents, so be really careful if you are going to try to brush on any of the Vallejo white \u2013 the solvent will get into both the top coat and the light-blocking layer, and potentially smear it.\u00a0 I also had that problem in one small area.\u00a0 Wait for it to cure, then sand and reapply white over it with the spray can.\u00a0 Vallejo goes on fine over a dry Army Painter and sits very well, it\u2019s just if you have to go back and brush anything with a lacquer or enamel solvent the two will both thin out under it, and result in a big messy splotch.<\/p>\n

Back to the model\u2026<\/p>\n

While the front dish paint and the canopy glue on the diffuser plate are curing, I took the ring assembly and started filling the small gap that extends all the way around.\u00a0 At first I tried to use canopy glue in a syringe to fill it, wiping the excess away, but I found after applying a fresh coat of white over it that I had left a smeared look around the gap.\u00a0 In the end I pulled it out and replaced it with \u201cPerfect Plastic Putty\u201d, which then required a lot of sanding and filling to get a smooth surface \u2013 tough to do on this area.<\/p>\n

Soon as the cure was done on the dish and the diffuser, I pulled the masks off, and gave the dish one last treatment:\u00a0 a coat of matte clear on both the front and back.\u00a0 This adds to the diffuser effect, and gives the dish a \u201cfrosted\u201d look that fits the authenticity we\u2019re looking for against the studio model.\u00a0 If it were left gloss-clear as it comes out of the box, you\u2019d also see the edges of the diffuser plate behind, and it would just look a little too cheesy.<\/p>\n

And hour or two to let that coat dry, then canopy glue all around the edge, followed by a very gentle but very firm press to seat it properly in place.\u00a0 Set the whole thing aside, and let it firm up.<\/p>\n

\"from<\/a>

from left to right, a generic 3mm clear bulb, a 2mm yellow diffuser bulb, then a 1.7-candle clear lamp, a 3.4-cancle one, a 4.2-candle clear blue bulb, and lastly a 1mm SMD bare LED.<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve spent a lot of time detailing the edges around the ports and the forward rings, making sure there aren\u2019t any stray paint errors and trying to smooth the surface before putting a gloss coat on it.\u00a0 I also made some extended wire leads for the thrusters and the dish light, so I have only two main circuits to worry about connecting up rather than five.<\/p>\n

\"Setting<\/a>

Setting up the Raytheon light parts and wiring them was pretty simple.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Plop<\/a>

Plop them in the sides with some milliput and Black Seal and it’s good to go.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I\u00a0also have taken a little time to test out some LEDs to see what brightness works best, and also to compare relative brightness of various types of light against one another.\u00a0 I eventually settled on a 1.7-candle brightness backlighting for the Raytheon effects that will be right behind the Star Fleet emblem on either side.\u00a0 I also picked up some conical light shields that gave it more of a \u201cflashlight\u201d look.\u00a0 I fixed those in place with some Milliput and blocked their rear with Black Seal.\u00a0 Not entirely certain it\u2019ll show up at all still, but I have my hopes J.<\/p>\n

The surface finally got to a satisfactory state, so the whole exterior got a hit with gloss coat (to facilitate placing decals), and once that\u2019s dry (tomorrow afternoon) I\u2019ll mask off the exterior and hit the dish with one more matte coat to reinforce the frosting, then into a baggie it will go J.<\/p>\n

\"Silvered<\/a>

Silvered sections applied.<\/p><\/div>\n

As soon as I was about to clear-coat the exterior, I noticed in my reference photos that the three \u201cbulges\u201d (port, starboard, and ventral) were painted silver in the studio model (see the reference photo above).\u00a0 Don\u2019t know how that escaped me before, probably paying too much attention to the lights.\u00a0 The silver also had a neat grey design inside it (see photo).\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if the decals I\u2019ve got cover that, so I went ahead and used some Mig acrylic silver (the new metal lines are really great) on them after masking off the sides to ensure no \u201cspillage.\u201d\u00a0 A quick scrape of the excess off the top of the ring and all was well.<\/p>\n

\"...and<\/a>

…and with the grey patterning applied to it. From this angle it looks a little funky, but I’ll work the kinks out with a razor after it dries.<\/p><\/div>\n

Next, masks were needed for the interior grey pattern.\u00a0 You can do it just as easily by going grey first and then laying down masks to shield against the silver, I went this way.\u00a0 BFD, no worries.\u00a0 I designed the masks with pencil on regular masking tape and sliced them out with a fresh razor blade.\u00a0 Snapped on some grey, and all is right in the world.<\/p>\n

Finally, some gloss clear coat to seal it all up. \u00a0Once it’s cured, I’ll bag it up and set it aside while I drum out the next piece of this big puzzle.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all for this installment!\u00a0 See you soon\u2026<\/p>\n

USS Enterprise \u2013 Build Log Part\u00a011<\/a><\/p>\n

USS Enterprise \u2013 Build Log Part\u00a013<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Build Log:\u00a0 Part 12 Okay, everyone, I did some fun stuff in the last couple of weeks \u2013 some was dirt simple and pretty, some was a little harder and is coming out really great. First off, let\u2019s bid a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,16,24],"tags":[105,112,126,138],"class_list":["post-1300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-build-log","category-model-kits","category-sci-fi","tag-model-kit","tag-polar-lights","tag-star-trek","tag-uss-enterprise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borkedcode.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borkedcode.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borkedcode.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borkedcode.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borkedcode.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.borkedcode.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borkedcode.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borkedcode.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borkedcode.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}