STAR TREK: Enterprise NX-01
As you can see, not much has happened yet, although I have already invested hours of work.
As I couldn't and didn't want to use decals for the Aztek pattern at that time, I had worked on the upper side with a scalpel 8 years ago. This gave a little more depth to the rather smooth surface. It's not perfect, today I would have better tools at hand. Believe me, this has already taken a few days.
The bottom half of the saucer is not yet finished. So I'll have to continue here for now. I hope the motivation remains.
I had already bought a kit with 2 shuttle pods. The quality is, well, just about acceptable. Today I have a resin 3D printer and I think I'll print the shuttle again myself.
The fitting is not perfect, filler will be needed
After several years I lost one of the torpedo bay parts, so I had to scratch build one.
Since I have a 3D printer now, I can use the advantages of the Resin to fill small gaps. No drying time is needed after fixing it with UV light.
The hangar for the inspection pods also had a bad fit. I'm really afraid of gluing the upper hull later. The fitting might be terrible at all.
This part needs a lot of sanding and putty - ah no, I used the UV-Resin again.
Drilled the holes for the loading bay to lighten them with fiber optics.
More holes to drill for illumination effects.
Finished with scratching the complete surface with aztek lines.
Starting to glue some bigger parts.
Drilled the holes for the secondary impulse engine. Will see later if it is small enough to close it with Micro Crystal Clear.
I read in other construction reports that there is a misalignment of the nacelles to the horizontal of the saucer. They seem to sag at the back. I therefore moved the pin a few millimeters at the marked point. Let's see if that's enough to correct the misalignment.
Oh oh oh... so many gaps and light leaks to fill after putting parts of the saucer together.
Lot's of light leaks filled with UV resin.
Sprayed black layer on the inside to make the hull lightproof.
Silver coat for more lightproofness.
Sanding the first clear parts.
Blind sanding the next clear parts.
Clear parts painted
Tamiya Fine Surface Primer applied.
Main color sprayed with Valllejo Model Air Aluminium.
Started with first color of free handed Aztec painting. I used Vallejo Model Air Gunmetal.
Comparison: Left - Aztek pattern finished after several hours / Right - still many hours to go
Upper hull is now finished with Aztek painting. Can't see rectangles anymore.
Painted some small details and sprayed a clear coat with Emsal Bodenglänzer as preparation for the decals.
Decals applied on the upper hull.
All decals done and sealed with a gloss varnish. Next step will be panel lining.
Panel lining is done now on the saucer
Clear parts painted for partial light transmission.
More preparing for light installation: I darkened some windows and I also colored some windows. In my opinion the crew is not always in every room of the ship, so some rooms would be dark.
Not as difficult as I thought, but it takes time to prepare and solder all the LED lights.
Preparing the fiber optics step by step
Hozzászólások
36 5 December 2023, 10:20
NicolasA build of my favorit ship from Star Trek? I'll take a seat first row centre!
5 December 2023, 19:37
Spanjaardaztek mosaic looks really good, congratulations on surviving it 🙂 i think i would have been cross-eyed after that!
8 February, 15:52
CaptGPFWow, Chris! That's amazing work so far! I'm betting this will turn out to be a beautiful build!
11 February, 06:28
Album info
I started with this kit back in 2015, but then it disappeared under many other boxes for years and I simply lacked the motivation to continue. I hadn't done much yet and I had the greatest respect for working with electricity and lighting. Electricity and model making are completely new to me.
But now I'm finally going to continue, let's see how far I get with this new attempt.
