U.S.S. Reliant AMT/ERTL 1:650

July 02, 2022 (1) Bought it on eBay in 2005, when it was already 10 years old! 

July 02, 2022 (2) Parts counted and washed, and laid out to dry. 

July 02, 2022 (3) Little red impulse engine pieces, and Don's Light & Magic warp chiller grilles washed and ready! 

July 13, 2022 (4) Started drilling out the windows. The 1995 tooling has several flaws, including a too-slim saucer section and strange, ribbed siding around the back of the engineering section. Into this ribbing they planted a rough pattern of single and double windows. Even the forward-facing windows are in odd places. 

July 13, 2022 (5) Anyway, I looked at the Paragrafix template but it's a bit beyond my budget for this project, plus, this is my first build in about 30 years. 😄 Sooo, I decided to just roll with the funny windows and, along with the various other little discrepancies here and there, as well as my own inevitable mistakes, call it some kind of variant Miranda class. 😄

Here I've drilled out the single windows using a 0.7 mm drill bit, and the doubles with a 1.2 mm -- one hole at each end of the oblong windows, with a bit of gentle drilling in the middle part to clear the hole.  

July 14-15, 2022 (6) First half of the first nacelle taped down and ready for the Dremel. In accordance with the photo instructions on the packaging for the DLM warp chiller grille replacement parts, and with what Boyd did in his Trekworks Reliant video series, I lined up the clear DLM part with the moulded grille, and penciled around it. To help secure the clear part while I drew around it, I used two little blobs of UHU gummy-tacky poster blob-stuff (no idea what to call it - in the old days in Britain, we called it "Blu-tack"). 

July 14-15, 2022 (7) The next part was drilling loads of tiny holes *close* to the pencil line using a 0.7 mm bit, but not *on* the line. Boyd did this using a relatively large bit and far fewer holes, but this was my first real Dremeling, so, I was playing it safe. He also used a Speed-click bit with a plastic cutter disc to saw the grill out, buuuuut, I also watched AllScaleTrek do this with the millions of tiny holes and an X-Acto knife, so that's what I started to do... and eventually moved to the plastic cutter disc. This was quicker, but infinitely more frightening. 😄 It also created lots of melted plastic to pile up along the edge, which needed knifing off anyway. Eventually, I got most of the moulded grille out, and you can see it looking like an absolute massacre up above there. 

July 14-15, 2022 (8) But! Lots of careful sanding and filing later and the clear part fits nicely. It will need puttying, and not only for the gaps from my clumsy hacking, but also as added support along with the glue. This is because the clear part is quite thick, but there is no bevelling to help it sit in the hole. 

July 14-15, 2022 (9) Anyway, as you can see from the inboard side of the first nacelle, I got that second grille out much more smoothly. This was done using the AST method of billions of tiny 0.6 mm holes and a good, pendulum-like knifing technique that I spontaneously developed on this go. I found this to be quite a tiring process, so the second nacelle is yet to be done. I'll get to that later this week. 

July 14-15, 2022 (10) Just before I started on all of that craziness though, I was checking my windows from the previous session, and noticed that I'd missed making holes in the top and the bottom saucer halves, where the bridge and sensor dome are mounted. I will stick a couple of small bulbs in the middle of the saucer section to light those parts, so after drilling 1 mm holes in either side, I decided to start light blocking the hull, beginning with these tiny buggers. That also meant - as you can see here - the first gluing of the project! The Tamiya Thin came out and the tiny docking port on the back of the bridge dome, which fit neatly in to place, was then glued in. I also slipped in a little Vallejo acrylic putty on one side of the door piece, to fill a tiny gap.  

July 14-15, 2022 (11) So, back to the nacelles. After chopping out the two grilles (picture 9), I started the actual lightblocking of the two hull halves. What you can see here is three thick coats of Vallejo black primer (from a can). Both halves are done, plus the two saucer pieces from the last picture. I had to spray a few times more on and around the oblong greebly parts either side of the impulse deck, because the plastic seems a bit thinner there where it's moulded with all that detail. But now, the job is done, and it looks like no light is escaping unless it's through the windows. 😄 

July 19, 2022 (12) I took a few days off to rest and plan ahead a bit more. Two updates from today's efforts, then. The first is that I glued the navigation array and the bridge dome to the bottom and top saucer halves, respectively. (I always get excited when it's time to glue things together; maybe it is the fumes). 😄 

July 19, 2022 (13) The second update is that I finished filing and shaping the holes for the chiller grilles, glued in the clear parts, and then Tamiya Putty White'd them on the reverse, for extra strength. Probably tomorrow, I will then run a bead of Vallejo acrylic putty around the exterior-facing seam to make that nice and smooth too. Once that's dry, I will lightblock the interior and then... on to the next nacelle! 😄 This is really much harder work than I expected, although it should go a bit quicker and more easily now that I know what I'm doing... 😄

Edit: One thing I didn't mention at the time is that these DLM grille parts are made of a softer plastic, and over time they had developed an ever-so-slight bend. Like bananas. So before I started gluing them in, I let them sit in a bowl of hot tap water for about 10 minutes until they were quite hot and more malleable, and then I folded a tea towel over them and left them overnight under a pile of heavy books. In the morning, they were completely flat and ready to glue! 

July 26, 2022 (14) Last picture of nacelles for a while, I hope! I couldn't get much modelling done this week, but I did manage to finally cut out the last nacelle half and putty in the clear chiller grille part, so I masked the glueable edges with Tamiya 6mm tape and took the buggers out to the garage to start light blocking them on the inside. I put on a coat of Vallejo black primer last night, and a good dose tonight too. I'm checking each time I light block something by shining a small lamp through from the outside, and painting the thin parts until they're fully blocking the light.

Anyway, what did I learn about cutting out these bloody nacelle grilles? This is what I learned:
- use two small blobs of poster-tack stuff to hold the clear parts in place while you draw around them. A clear line is essential.
- use big drill bits, not even micro bits but even small domestic bits in your Dremel to punch out the line of holes close to the pencil line, not on the line, obviously.
- use a knife to cut out the grille by 'joining the dots'.
- use the Trekworks technique of sanding the bumps down closer to the line with the back side of a Dremel speed-click plastic cutter disc.
- But! What worked best there, which I didn't learn until the fourth nacelle half, is to use a higher speed - on my Dremel 3000, I did this to the (iirc) second and third halves on Speed 2, which was difficult, created hot plastic sludge that needed to be cut away, and in places could deform the plastic too. On the fourth nacelle half, I kicked it up to Speed 6, and that produced a really nice, sharp, clean line that I could then just sand to perfection with a 600 grit file.

The key takeaway is, don't be afraid! Make a good, clear line, drill holes, cut out the grille, Dremel at a mid to high speed, and then file to perfection.

Right, enough with these stupid nacelles. I won't show them again until they've got lights in. 😄 

July 26, 2022 (15) Speaking of lights, I said in the album description, or on slide 1 or something, that I will be making a custom base because I don't like the clear plastic 'skis' that come with the kit and only give you a few cm clearance from the ground. So, I've been struggling a bit with the base because the packs of Polar Lights dome bases seem very difficult to find and very expensive to purchase even so. The extra bases I've found online have all been nice, decorative wooden or plastic blocks without pipes or stands. Yadda yadda.

Then one day last week, I was spraying the black primer on in the garage when I found this old IKEA desk lamp (pictured). I unbolted the stand from the base and sawed the flexible neck off. Now I have a really nice, slim, sturdy hollow tube with a solid, sturdy base to mount the whole thing on. My other problem - about how to create a socket in the model to hold the end of the stand - solved itself when I realise I could use the head of a small Minecraft 'Creeper' toy - it's a perfect cube of solid plastic with a hole already in it (I'll expand that a bit), which I can easily glue and putty into the lower hull half. I'll clean the stand with some acetone and paint the base black, stick a nice sticker on it (I have a huge book of 90's-era Trek stickers and labels), clear coat the base, et voila. That's the plan, anyway... 

July 31, 2022 (16) I finally got to building and painting the rear hull wall, with the shuttle bays, you know. So, the clear parts for the shuttle bay 'doors' are not that great in terms of detail or accuracy, but I do like how they made these things like little tubs that you glue onto the inside of the wall part. It's almost like they knew we were going to light them up! My strategy here was, mask up the clear tubs except for their inside surfaces, and then blast those surfaces with one of the grey colours I chose for this project - Tamiya AS-10 "Ocean Grey (RAF)". When that's dry, I'll hit it with some more of the Vallejo black primer for light blocking purposes. When the 'tubs' are glued into place, the light from the main roll of LEDs inside the hull should give that nice ring effect that we see in the movies.

So the wall piece has had the four little clear lights glued in, as well as the two red clear parts for the impulse engines - I'll hit them with 5mm red LEDs in the wiring. I masked the glueable edges around the outside, masked the red parts, and stuck tiny blobs of poster-tack-stuff over the clear lights. The whole thing is sitting on the bench in the garage now, the inside drying from the first coat of Vallejo black primer.  

August 03, 2022 (17) Glued the rear hull wall onto the lower hull half, and painted the inside of the clear impulse deck domes. I used some of my son's Vallejo figure paints for that - a mix of Ultramarine Blue (72.022) and Dead White (72.001). It lacks the vibrancy and vividness that it should have, and that I've seen most modelers achieve, but I'm going to have blue 5mm LEDs shining through them, so when powered up it should still look good, and believable when powered down too. Well, we'll see. "Do what you can with what you've got" is my motto. 😄 

August 04, 2022 (18) Quite a productive evening, in which I managed to do lots of little things. First of all, I started adapting the toy Minecraft Creeper's head into my mounting block. I drilled out his existing neck hole to 10mm, with a 5mm hole in the top of his head for the wiring to enter the stand. I sliced off a bit of the top of his head too, so that it actually fits inside. My lamp stand is actually 11mm, so tomorrow I will hit the local hardware place for a larger drill bit. 

August 04, 2022 (19) I also started on the torpedo launcher and rollbar. Unfortunately, heh heh, I got a bit ahead of myself and glued the rollbar halves together without making a trench for the wires, from the red LEDs inside the launcher hub in the middle. My current plan is to simply cut a trench on the underside of the rollbar and try to *discretely* bury the wires in that. A compromise, but if I'm careful, perhaps it will be okay. I'm annoyed at myself for this, but oh well, it's not the worst thing in the world. 

August 04, 2022 (20) Finally, I sprayed the bussard collectors and the front and rear plates for the torpedo launcher with Vallejo black primer, and also sprayed the inside of the hull halves with Humbrol Chrome Silver. Which is, frankly, a gorgeous, thick, beautiful and shiny colour! Wow, I am in love with this stuff! The only thing about this Humbrol spray that I'm not crazy about is that it smells much more strongly than either the little Tamiya cans, the Citadel sprays, or the Vallejo sprays. But it's not a big deal really. Just look how shiny that stuff is! 😄 

August 04, 2022 (21) One more of the shinies! My Helping Hands (I call him Mr. Grabby) wearing his best raincoat, holding the bussard collectors by their mounting pegs, and inset and in the background, the torpedo launcher halves! Sooo shiiiinnyyyy....  

August 06, 2022 (22) Saturday! No one is around, so I get lots of work done. I have planned to start the wiring today, which we'll get to in a sec. But first, I did some work on the stand. In picture 18 I explained how I'd cut holes in the toy Minecraft Creeper's head. Well, I got the 11 mm bit and widened the hole. The top of the stand was, as I hoped, a tight fit. But using sheer will power and certain ancient Vulcan techniques, I jammed the lamp stand into the head. Then, I cut a notch through both, to allow the wires to comfortably enter the top without being trapped against the inside of the top of the hull. 

August 06, 2022 (23) That done, I set up for soldering and wiring. As I said at the beginning of this album, I haven't done any ship modelling for about 30 years, and I've never done any soldering. But, again, I spent a good half a year studying YouTube videos in preparation for this moment. TrekWorks obviously gives lots of good advice, but the one video I found most helpful was AllScaleTrek's 11-minute video about simple wiring and lighting.

Eventually, I got to this point, as pictured. That's 9 individual strips of 3 warm LEDs, all hooked together around the rim of the saucer, with one long strip going around the back and sides. Once I got into it, I realized that the LED tape that I used (no idea about the manufacturer tbh, sorry! Ordered it from botland.pl, a great Arduino/Pi/microelectronics website here in Poland) was not as high density as I would have liked it to be, but early tests seem okay, especially with the thick carpet of Humbrol Chrome Silver everywhere. 😄 Also, I used warm LEDs for the windows because Boyd on TrekWorks pointed out that that colour looks more like cabin and interior lighting. In comparison, I have cold LED tape for the nacelles, to give it that super hi-tech Starfleet Corps. of Engineers look. 😄

The tape is fixed to the inside of the saucer with the built-in Scotch 3M backing tape, which was wicked sticky, I have to say. Like super glue almost. I will also blob some hot glue on them too, for extra security. Anyway, this is all of that, plus a red 5mm LED going to the navigation array at the bottom of the saucer, and a blue 5mm LED going back to the lower fusion power core. 

August 06, 2022 (24) Something that has been troubling me a bit was how to stop the red and blue LEDs bleeding into each other at the rear of the ship. At first, I decided to see if I could abandon the red LED for the impulse engines and just have the ambient light from the warm LED tape do the job. And that is what it looks like, here in this photo (none of this is glued btw, it's just a test). Again, no blue LED either, just checking the engine effect. (I also painted the inside of the clear red parts with a bit of Vallejo Bright Orange (70.851) to give it that warm, orangery colour, like in the films) 

August 06, 2022 (25) Anyway, it looks okay I suppose, but I subsequently had an idea. In TrekWorks' 1:537 Reliant, Boyd seems to use styrene sheets to make little barriers and shields everywhere. Well, I don't have any styrene at the moment, but eventually I evolved an idea to fruition - use plastic bottle caps to cover those parts.
The navigation array in the lower saucer half, the impulse dome in the top half, and the fusion core at the back of the lower half, are all little round clear domes glued into holes in the hulls. They are all the perfect size to fit underneath an ordinary plastic bottle cap. In my case, Schweppe's tonic bottle caps, of which I have a million under the sink, waiting to be recycled. The plastic is soft enough to easily cut with a knife, so a small notch to accommodate the LED wire, plus a thick coat of black paint, et voila! Blob on some hot glue to secure them in place, and they should be enough to stop light mixing.
What you can see in this photo is a test that I did to make sure these things will fit comfortably without buggering up the eventual gluing together of the hull halves. I taped them in and did a test fit, and lo, everything fits perfectly. As a bonus, once the fusion core bottle cap is in place, I can glue the red LED for the impulse engines to the top of that and it will point perfectly at the clear engine parts.
 

August 06, 2022 (26) On to the nacelles! At this point it was early evening and I was frankly quite knackered. It was a good time to take a break before I started doing stupid things, but I couldn't resist just wiring up one nacelle, as a test. The thing is, because I'm lighting both sides of each nacelle, I can't simply stick the LED tape to the flat inside part of the chiller grilles. The most obvious candidate for the job is the lower side wall, under the chiller grille. This is slightly slanted anyway. So, I cut out the first chunk of LED tape to line up with the grilles, did a quick-and-dirty solder, and plugged the wires into my 12v test board. I also discovered that the sticky backing on this cold LED tape is absolute crap, about as sticky as concrete. I mean, I wasn't going to rely on it to hold the tape in place, but it would have been nice to have it stick a bit better for testing porpoises. Oh well. Let's see how it looks...  

August 06, 2022 (27) The light looks good - bright and vivid compared to the interior cabin lighting, which is what I wanted. Obviously, we need some diffusion on those clear blue parts, to hide the individual lights. My half-arsed attempt at wet sanding didn't really do any good, so I'm going to try an AllScaleTrek thing that I learned this week - a light dusting of white paint sprayed onto the insides. That, plus a wash to fill the ridges on the outside, and we should be in business. 

August 07, 2022 (28) Here are the bottle caps from picture 28, painted and glued into place (excuse the dribbly hot glue technique). No room for the red LED to be glued onto that rear cap after all, but the ambient light works great, so no worries there. 

August 22, 2022 (29) Back at it, after a 2-week break that included the annual summer holiday with the fam. So, I need to get on with wiring and assembling the rollbar and finishing up the nacelles. Last night I misted the inside of the clear chiller grilles with white paint (I saw someone in a modelling group on Facebook do this), in an attempt to diffuse the light from the LEDs. Of course, without some diffusion you just see a row of bright little cubes in a sea of light (see Photo 27 before). This misting did not work, really. I mean, the diffusion was minimal. But, I had a bit of inspiration when I noticed that the thin texture of the masking tape I was using looked almost like the paint-misted clear parts. So, I did an experiment and stuck a length of wide, white masking tape over the inside of the grille...  

August 22, 2022 (30) ...et voila! Instant and almost-perfect diffusion. In actuality, it looks even better than in the photo tbh. When I hot-glue in the LED strips, I will also tidy up the ends of the tape and blob a bit of hot glue onto each end of it, just for future security. 

August 24, 2022 (31) Moving on, this evening I started on the pylons. I had another look at how Boyd did these in his TrekWorks video, and it looked quite simple. But when I sat down with the pieces and everything ready, I still couldn't quite wrap my head around the kinds of cuts I needed to make.

First, I lined up the wires roughly where they would go and made pencil marks to guide me. I started on the tab at the base of the pieces, which fits into the nacelle itself. I tried to cut the notches with an Exacto, but the plastic was a bit too thick there to manage it without stressing the plastic. So, haha, I put a grinding disc on the ol' Dremel, whacked it up to Speed 4, and went in. Now, the piece on the left - the outboard piece let's call it - I went a bit too far with that one. My notch crosses through the thick ridge between the thin tab and the thicker, actual pylon piece. You'll see the effect in the next picture, but needless to say I was a bit more cautious on the inboard piece.

What I learned here is that you need to be super precise, to cut through the tab *just* up to the point of the plastic thickening out into the actual pylon piece. If you do that on both sides, you'll be okay. That's the part I had trouble visualising to begin with, but oh well. Putty to the rescue!

Much easier was the cut at the top of the big pencil line, which is just a thick rib. 

August 24, 2022 (32) The next thing was to dry-fit the pieces together and make a pencil mark in the top hole, onto the top of the inboard pylon piece (picture on the right). Your nacelle wires will then thread up through the hole in the tab, up through that top hole, and then bend inwards and into your hull, through a little hole that you'll drill in to the little triangular space that you glue the pylons to.

That's the idea anyway. I was about to glue a nacelle together tonight, but ran out of time. So we shall see. It looked like Boyd glued the outboard part into the nacelle already before assembling the nacelle halves, but I can't imagine how to do that and have everything straight. Okay, well, that's tomorrow's problem. 🙂 

August 24, 2022 (33) One thing I forgot about, yesterday, was the fact that I'd glued in the LED strips. I gotta say, throughout all of this lighting part of the project, hot glue has been a dream come true. When I say Boyd at TrekWorks blobbing out the hot glue into a model, it was a revelation for me. 😄 

August 25, 2022 (34) Okay so today, this morning, I dropped a little more hot glue onto my paper-tape diffusion strips in the non-light-bearing nacelle halves, marked up where the wires needed to go into the nacelle pylons, and then glued together the first nacelle.

This evening I found a little time so I notched the other pylon and got that all ready, and then glued together the other nacelle. I started bundling some of the wires together inside the hull too, checked that they were all still working (yup), and put the lid back on for another night... Small but important steps. I guess every step is important, really. But wow, I had no idea how much extra work it would be lighting one of these babies up! Sometimes it seems like I've been building the inside of this kit for a thousand years. But we're getting there. 😄 

August 28, 2022 (35) Nacelle pylons attached, captain! Not much to say here. I was a bit worried about how this would work out, but thankfully everything glued into place and - according to my eyeballs, which may or may not be deceiving me - is all straight, in alignment, and correctly angled. As a happy bonus, the too-deep cut that I made into the pylon tab (back in picture 31/32) is barely visible now, thanks to the moulded 'steps' around the gap in the nacelle halves into which the pylon tabs fit. I will need to sand and putty the nacelles, of course, and that tiny gap can be easily filled then (it's that tiny dark bit on the left nacelle's seam line, between the two clips). Win!

The way I did this was to glue in the large 'outboard' side first, positioning the wires in their slots and getting the pylon piece as straight and neat as possible. While the glue was firm enough to hold it but still a bit malleable, I glued in the smaller, 'inboard' half. Two little guide posts ensure that the pylon halves fit together correctly. With a little finessing, everything dried in a neat, correct way. Of course, I am not ruling out the possibility that when I look at them again tomorrow, or when I glue them onto the hull, everything's going to be at impossible, tear-inducing angles. 😄  

September 6th, 2022 (36) Right then! Significant work accomplished this evening when I finally got some alone time. In between now and last week when I put the nacelles together, I'd been thinking about the rollbar problem - about how I'd glued the lower plates onto the rollbar arms prematurely, before I ran the torpedo launcher LED wires along the arms. Well, a few days ago I did a little experiment, and I managed to dry fit a 12v battery case and battery into the 'pod' at the top of the rollbar, along with 4 red LEDs (5mm at that), and see that not only was there space for a small switch to be wired in - theoretically through the bottom of the pod, so as to be discrete - but that also the top half of the pod fits on perfectly, with room to spare! My Plan B for lighting the rollbar would work.

But when I saw how absolutely brilliant those red LEDs look shining out of the torpedo holes, I knew that I could not risk having the battery one day die, or leak, and not be replaceable. The effect was just too pleasing and good. So I resolved to go with Plan A - cut a trench in the underside of the rollbar, run the wires through that down into the top of the nacelle pylon and back into the hull. I can live with some slight disfigurement, plus it's on the underside, and after putty and paint I think it will not be too noticeable.

Finally, this evening, with my heart racing I sat down with the Dremel and the trusty 38 mm EZSpeedclic plastic cutter, and began digging out the trench. Top left, you can see the result after the first few runs along the length of the arm. Again, this is the underside of the rollbar, cutting into the separate plate that you glue on there for thickness. Lower right is the final product. You can see in the top-left pic that that one 'cut' along the arm is too narrow for two wires, so I pulled the blade gently towards me along the length of the trench to widen it out. Because my 38 mm cutter is so wide, I couldn't cut the trench right up to the edge of the rollbar pod, so for those last few mm I  

September 6th, 2022 (37) Rollbar trench complete, it was time to tackle the other two pieces of this puzzle - the main nacelle pylon (now glued to the nacelle itself of course), and the other piece of the tube-shaped phaser housing. The fact that between them, the rollbar, the tubey bit, and the main pylon all form one single phaser housing is what was giving me a hard time to work out how to cut them.

What I find helpful in such situations is to talk to myself, out loud, Chief O'Brien style. 😄 (Remember how he used to talk to himself sometimes, giving himself little pep talks and commenting on his situation? I love that!). 😄 So yeah, I got a pen and worked it out, slowly and carefully.

On the left of this photo you can see the end of the rollbar arm, with the trench that extends a little bit into the tube part for maximum comfort. The black marks on that are the remnants of where I was aiming with the cutter.

On the right, you can see the other, tube-shaped piece of the phaser housing, with black pen marks to show where I needed to cut. What was very helpful here was the trusty poster-tack stuff, a big blob of which I used to hold everything together while I marked it up. 

September 6th, 2022 (38) The inside of the main pylon is the easiest to prepare, because you just need to cut through that thick line there inside the yellow highlight. When you dry fit the small tubey part from the last photo onto the top of the pylon here, you can see that there is already a small gap, so all we need to do with all these parts really is just increase that space a tiny bit by shaving away some more plastic. 

September 6th, 2022 (39) The tubey part was the last to be cut because it's potentially the most tricky. (Note that in this photo I did some very quick and crude photoshopping to remove the big blob of poster-tack from the top of the picture, above the top edge of the part. You can still see the rest of the blob to the lower left).

Anyway, here we see a notch in the top of the tube (highlighted in yellow), and a 'massive' trench from the bottom of the part up into the tube-shaped space (orange highlight).

The wires will come out of the end of the rollbar, through the yellow notch and down along the orange trench, then directly through the hole in the side of the main hull, along with the nacelle wires. This is the plan anyway.  

September 6th, 2022 (40) A view from the pod down the trench in the rollbar arm to the phaser tube, very crudely test-fit to the rollbar arm and held in place with poster-tack. 

September 6th, 2022 (41) Wires! Using blue and white for this bit because I'm running low on red and black. Inset photo shows the wired part with the poster-tacked tubey part, with the wires. I hope you can see it in the photo, but they really do fit nicely into the trench. The only thing is, they fit flush with the surface, so there's no space for even a molecule-thick layer of putty to disguise them completely. But I think it will be okay even so. Again, they're mostly out of sight and I think that after putty and paint, the lump won't be too extravagant. 

September 6th, 2022 (42) Glued the wires into the trench with a thick bead of the ol' Humbrol thick gel glue, clamped, and left it all overnight. The next thing you'll see here will most likely be me soldering together 4x 3 mm red LEDs - the 5 mm bulbs are just a bit too big to fit into the holes I drilled in the front and back plates, whereas the 3 mm bulbs fit nicely inside. That should also help with light leaks, because when you fit the pod halves together, there's a gap on either side that you could drive a bus through.  

September 7th, 2022 (43) Yesterday (the 7th), with the Tamiya White putty dry enough for filing down, that's what I did. The more experienced among you would probably be right in thinking that I put a hell of a lot of putty on that, but I find it's usually better to put too much than not enough. Having said that, I was still a bit unhappy with the result, buuuut, when you look at the rollbar from the front or back -- and when it's displayed it'll be on a level plane anyway -- ye cannae see the repairs, captain! So that turned out (so far) okay. Phew!

This evening (the 8th), I sat down to do the wiring up of the 3mm LEDs to their resistors, and after one success and two failures, I realized that this is perhaps a step too far for me in terms of awkward, fiddly work. The problem is that my right hand shakes a bit when I'm doing close-up, delicate work like soldering LEDs to resistors and so on. Sooo, I'm going to just order some pre-wired 3 mm LEDs and just hot glue them in, join the wires up, and put the lid on the rollbar pod! Until then... 

September 13th, 2022 (44) A small but not insignificant update! The 3 mm red LEDs finally arrived today, so I wired them into the torpedo pod and tested them out - as you can see, they work! After that, I tinned the wires and put some heat-shrink tubing over them for added protection. I just need to drill out the holes a teeny-tiny bit more, and then we can hot-glue everything in and put the lid on! 

September 14th, 2022 (45) Put a 3 mm wood bit into the Dremel and properly drilled out the holes for the 3 mm LEDs. Quick and easy, blew off the dust and used a black permanent marker with a fine tip to just add a bit of black back into the holes. After that, the LEDs fit absolutely perfectly into the holes. I glued the LEDs in, bundled the wires up and blobbed a bit of hot glue onto the LEDs for extra security. Could I have cut the wires short a bit, made it easier to fit everything in? Sure, but I wanted to leave wire to spare in case my stripping went awry. 😄 

September 14th, 2022 (46) Final dry-fitting tests showed one corner of the lid not going down neatly, which was the result of a tiny bit of hot glue getting in the way. Careful surgery with an Exacto fixed that, and then I laid down a bead of glue all around and pressed the lid on. Beautiful fit, and even the gap that had always been there in previous dry fits disappeared. I had wanted to putty right away too, but I found that the curved shape of the two halves meant that the plastic crocodile clips went shooting off a few seconds after putting them on! (Almost gave me a heart attack when they snapped shut and pinged away). 😄 So, I wrapped it tightly in tape, rubber bands, and one clip that snags on the rubber band. Finally, I tested the lights - still working! The patient is now resting comfortably. 🙂 

September 17th-18th, 2022 (47) I got a bit busy decaling the Enterprise-C, and when I finally got back to thinking about Reliant, I realized it was time to start painting the nacelles and rollbar at least. Apart from one last thing I need to do to the main hull (more on that in a minute), it's just painting and assembly for this big bird. Here's the rollbar (which passed the light leak test unpainted with flying colours) and inset are the two nacelles, hanging by their (solid core) wires from a bit of string I tied across my workbench. 😄 Oh yes, this is Citadel Grey Seer. Today I did a second pass, so tomorrow I'll look at some black detailing to create an 'under-skin wash' and then I'll start gently laying on the white. 

September 29th, 2022 (48) Right then, with the Enterprise C (my mini side project) completed, new paint and gloss coat ordered and on the way, it is time to re-focus on Reliant and push through to the end! We begin this phase with a small step backwards. As you can see in the photo, the bridge module is crooked. *pause to allow for the sharp intakes of breath* I actually noticed this ages ago, not long after I had glued it on. (Around photo 17 I think). I thought about how to correct this for a long time. A quick fiddle with the X-acto knife proved ineffective and so I realized right away that I would have to Dremel it off. (I researched some chemical answers, but this seemed to risky). So... 

September 29th, 2022 (48) ...tonight I sat down with ye olde Dremel and the traditional Speed-click bit and carefully sliced the bugger off. In this operation, my skills as a cack-handed butcher served me very well, aided by the tiny gaps built into the rim of the module. Some gentle scraping with the knife and filing smooth with a high-grit file yielded excellent results. This photo shows the results of the first cut! 

September 29th, 2022 (49) After more cutting (but before the filing and knifing), I saw an interesting thing. The glue and the black light-blocking paint combined to leave a footprint, showing us how far the bridge module had skewed. (I still have nooo idea how that happened really). On the right side of this photo, at about 2 o'clock, you can see the footprint and also the mounting peg. (The three holes are mine, to allow some light through those gaps in the bridge part).There are or were two mounting holes under the bridge module, and those two pegs on the saucer top half. I remember when I did the dry fits of the bridge that the pegs are very, very short - almost smooth to the surface of the saucer - and that getting the pegs to 'click' into the mounting holes under the bridge was difficult. In the end, I eyeballed it because I couldn't feel it. And now, here we are. (Although I'll swear in court that it was straight then). 😄 

September 29th, 2022 (50) Okay, but this story is about to have a happy ending. This is the final result of the removal and cleaning. It still looks messy, but it's smooth to the touch and accepts the replacement bridge module perfectly. Any remaining crap around there will be painted over. "But wait, what replacement bridge module?", I hear you say. Ah ha! 

September 29th, 2022 (52) This one! Good fortune visited me last month when I stumbled across a new (or unknown to me anyway) modelling shop online. This one is actually in my country (I'm out here in Central Europe, where resources are either scarce, expensive, or scarce and expensive). Best of all, it has tons of amazing stuff. ParaGraphics, Green Strawberry, custom resin kits, all the good stuff. I spent a chunk of last month's pay on some new kits, as well as the new bridge module. 

September 29th, 2022 (53) A mini unboxing for you, right here. 😄 Anyway, I have never used photo-etch parts before, so I did a quick Google and found that CA (superglue) is the recommended adhesive for this. Of that, I have none, so I will go out tomorrow and buy some, and then this weekend I will assemble our new bridge and stick her back on. STRAIGHT this time. 😄 

September 29th, 2022 (54) Last picture for today. This is the dry fit of the new resin part. As you can see, it covers the ruins of the old bridge nicely. I had to use the Dremel again to cut off the chunk of resin from the rear of the part because it was too thick for a knife. The instructions show that you should actually remove it all the way, leaving no rear 'wall' at all. This would allow some light out either side of the docking port (if you're lighting it, ahahahahaha!). However, I decided against that because it was already getting dicey removing the chunk without damaging the line of the rear. But as I write this now, I am thinking that I can drill a couple of tiny holes there before or after applying the PE parts, so we'll see. 

October 1st, 2022 (55) Et voila! Replacement bridge module in place, with photo-etched parts super-glued in place (along with tons of skin from my finger tips). I did indeed Dremel two tiny holes into the ear part, for the docking port guidance lights, although to be honest I'm not sure we'll get much, if any light through them. We'll see. No biggie. Tomorrow I will prime the hull halves and do final touch-ups on the nacelles. This coming week I'll paint the hull to completion, and do some washes and detailing, etc. Then decals, and when everything is dry and nicely sealed up, I'll put it together. I will also need to finish the base, but some of that will have to wait until the wires are coming out into the base anyway. Assuming I finish in the next week or two, we can say this project took about 3 and a half months! 

October 5th, 2022 (56) A small but significant update! In the few days since I replaced the bridge module, I have started painting the saucer halves. The rollbar and both nacelles are fully painted now. The saucer halves have had the Citadel Grey Seer undercoat, plus three applications of Tamiya TS-26 Matt White (the whole model has been painted with these two paints). Today, I masked off the saucer halves and also applied some AS-10 Ocean Grey (RAF) to those two 'fingers' of greebling up top, and the parts down below. I also painted something that isn't usually painted, and is unpainted on all the studio models too, and that is the passive/active sensors (acc. to the Rupprecht/Wilson/Rosenzweig blueprints). In other words the globular element under the cowlling that faces forwards, cutting through the upright part of the hull. (That's easy for me to say!). 😄 

October 6th, 2022 (57) More painting! Detail work this time. I spent the day looking at various shades of Duck Egg Blue (the traditional accent colour for many Trek kits), wondering whether I should have a last-minute change of mind about not using it. Frankly, I think it's over-done sometimes and I would prefer not to use it. But I can see the need for some kind of accent colour. Well, for the time being I started painting the phaser banks (red first, and then moving the tape inwards 1mm and painting yellow). I also did some more Vallejo Stonewall Grey around the bridge bump (this might not turn out brilliantly, depending on how the masking makes it look). And then some initial dry brushing on the Ocean Grey greebling, and perhaps most controversially, the fins at the ends of the nacelles (most visible on that right nacelle in the photo).

One very exciting thing - I took the masking tape off of everything - hulls and nacelles and rollbar - and tidied up the edges on the nacelle's clear parts as best as I could. Had to dab some acetone onto one of the chiller grilles, under the tape of which a tiny rivulet of paint had crept in. Now they're clean though. What else? Hmm. Oh, I tested all of the electrics, that's all still working.

The only thing I did not have access to tonight was black paint - I forgot to grab it when I raided Felix's paint box again. 😄 Tomorrow - more detailing, black parts on the nacelles and elsewhere, and more drybrushing. Then, when everything is painted, I'll bang on the gloss coat and start with the washes. The hull plating is already a little bit delineated because of some fortuitous overspray, plus I added some light dusting from the greebling painting (that Ocean Grey again). I want to bring the white down a bit with dirt and so on, to bring it more into line with the greebling, but we'll see what we can do there eh? 🙂 

October 10th, 2022 (58) I did a bit more detailing, including painting the black parts black. That's mainly just the four 'thumbnails' on the nacelles, between the Bussard collectors and the warp plasma/chiller grilles. I also expanded the amount of blue paint on and around the clear domes of the impulse deck, having painted too-small an area before. Now, today, I have finished the detailing and given everything the first coat of TS-13 gloss. This photo shows the small parts with their gloss coat, and the final bit of colour painting, which is a blast of the Ocean Grey on the large indentations on the rollbar. (The whole thing is swaddled in blue tape, except for the painted bits ofc).

The next step after that will be some combination of decaling and chalk dust and oil paint washes. 

October 14th, 2022 (59) Getting close to the end now! I suppose that's why I've slowed down a bit. Seems like it's easier to let things sit for another day here and there when there is less urgent stuff to attend to. 😄 Anyway, this is most of the weathering, done with Vallejo Model Wash Black (76518). I started on the bottom half of the saucer - you can probably tell by how thick it is down there. But tomorrow I will get some white spirit and blend it all a bit better. I then want to do maybe 2 or 3 little chalk washes, to hide some clumsiness here and there. 😄 Another gloss layer, an attempt at decalling with the 500-year-old decals, and then seal it all in and glue everything together. Oh, and a bit of work to finalize the base. We're getting there! 😄 

October 17th, 2022 (60) So, this is how I've weathered it, for better or for worse. This photo shows everything sitting underneath the second gloss coat. Basically, I did not go as far as oil washes, despite researching them extensively and having anyway tons of tubes of Windsor & Newton at home. That's because I found that the Vallejo Model Wash (Black) that I used for the panel lines created enough of a dirt layer through the cleaning down part of the process that I didn't really need more liquid washes. And that's all because my first pass with the Model Wash was really heavy-handed and messy. 😄 And that's because I wasn't letting it dry enough before wiping it off with tissue. 😄 So, I had *very* dirty hull pieces with less well-delineated panel lines. Sooo, I went back to YouTube, looked at ModelChili and AST again, and went back and did the panel lines again, more carefully, and cleaned everything more carefully using a big 'ol stinky bottle of white spirits, and voila, here we go. The scorch marks were achieved with Tamiya Thin Glue and ground-up artists' charcoal sticks. (Couldn't find any black or grey chalks in my local store, and I figured the water method was meh). They cover various small indiscretions with paint and glue that never really got fixed nicely. 😄 We have to imagine that our Reliant was hit with very strong, very precise strikes, that left smaller marks than the traditional long, gaping tears. Let's say that Reliant had some hairy adventures *before* Khan showed up. 😄 

October 17th, 2022 (61) Alright, moving along. Everything is ready for decals.

Of course, these decals look quite elderly and unhappy, so today I was researching options for restoration. I've stuck them in a sunny window for a few days while I order a bottle of Microscale Super Film. It's possible that they could come off quite well without help, but really, I don't want to take my chances. There are enough decals in the basic kit to make the model look good enough, but about 90% of them are pin stripes, heh heh heh... 

October 21st, 2022 (62) Decals! As I write this, the decalling is complete. So let's have a look at how it went. I took the decals out of the window after 3 sunny days (I was lucky because, the rest of October has been a bit iffy here). They didn't look to me like they'd improved, or cleared up or anything. (The photo is after the window session). But the good news is that when I actually inspected them, and coupled with my new knowledge about decals gleaned from the traditional hours of research, I realised that they were completely undamaged. In fact, they looked really glossy and thick and attractive. So I decided to skip the Microscale Super Film (I'd have to wait until the end of the month anyway, and I want to launch this baby before then). 

October 21st, 2022 (63) So I sat down with the Micro Sol and an X-acto knife and got to work. First of all, I sliced off the copyright/identifying text from the edge of the decal sheet and applied it to the Humbrol Chrome Silver inside the upper saucer. (An excellent trick that I learned from several sources). As you can see, the backing paper is covered in yellowy-brown sludge that floats off in the warm water. As you can also see, and I'm sure you know already yourself, some of that sludge is trapped behind the decal.

Still, against the silver, I was not sure just how crappy the effect would be. So... 

October 21st, 2022 (64) ...I said hell with it, let's just get on with it. The replacement decal set seems very hard to come by these days, and I'm not crazy about the way Aztec decals usually look on the movie-era ships. Eh. Anyway, I started on the inboard nacelle pylons with the smallish arrowhead/registry decals. Yes, the discolouration is obvious. (Check the photo). But as I continued, I found that there were things I could do to help. Whilst in the dish of water, I could rub off the surrounding gunk with an ear bud. However, this had to be done carefully because the decal would then lift off and twist up. It also depended on how big the decal was, how much backing there is. The large saucer name and number show very apparent discolouration, whereas with the pinstripes the final effect is not so bad. And with the weathering, eh, I can live with it. Again, I've invested enough time and money into this kit really, as the first major kit I've built in 30-odd years away from modelling (although that little Enterprise C snuck in and took the honour of First Kit a little while ago). 😄 

October 21st, 2022 (65) Here you can see the two saucer halves, with my weathering and semi-improvised charcoal 'blast damage'. Overall, I want to give all the praise and thanks possible to these decals -- not a single one broke in any way. They all survived pushing and nudging and fooling around and all sorts of craziness and went down smiling. Without the discolouration, they'd be perfect. But these little 2004-era beauties were absolutely brilliant. 10/10. 

October 24th, 2022 (66) Okay, the matt coat (Tamiya TS-80) is down and touch dry. While it's completely curing, I will move on to the last bit of assembly, which is... 

October 24th, 2022 (67) ...the custom base! In this photo you can see all the ingredients: the Creeper Head/IKEA lamp stand; an electronics project box; a packet of rubber feet and screws for the box; a 2-pin on/off switch, and a 12v battery in its little case. With the help of my wise and experienced modelling compatriots in the Starship Modeller Facebook group, I have also devised the final wiring diagram. The plan is to hot-glue into the base of the box a chunk of wood for Creeper Head to stand upon, otherwise most of his height is buried in the box.  

October 24th, 2022 (68) Like so! Two scraps of wood, sanded off the rough edges, hot-glued them into the base. Glued one of the removable side panels too, just to minimize a slight rattle. 

October 24th, 2022 (69) Next, I unbolted the lamp post from the lamp base, pushed it through the hole in the base of the lower saucer, and applied 4,000 Kg (or 800 tons) of hot glue between the head and the saucer, and then all around the head. I went ahead and slotted a good long length of wires through the post too.

The other thing I had to do here was to slightly enlarge the hole that I drilled way back when into the side of the saucer rear half, to allow the nacelle and rollbar wires through. Originally, these holes were 3 mm. This is enough to allow two wires through, i.e. for the port side nacelle. But 4 of my wires are too thick for a 3 mm hole. I didn't want to make this hole too large because it eats up the gluable surface area where the pylons attach. Also, my Dremel chuck only opens up to a 3 mm bit. Sooo, I just put the 3mm back in and gently wiggled the bit around to enlarge the hole just enough to take 4 wires without compromising the gluable surface too much. We'll see anyway.

Final note: because the square Creeper head glues flush to a sloped part of the lower saucer half, when mounted and standing straight up the whole ship is going to be slightly angled up. Dynamic! 😄 

October 26th, 2022 (70) Drilled out the hole in the lid of the project box today. Used a new 5 mm wood bit for the pilot hole, then a 10 mm wood bit, and the final 1 mm I scraped out with the X-Acto knife. 😄 I find that the spiky end of the wood bit works well on thin plastic. When I measured everything up, by great good fortune the drill point lined up perfectly with the small circular indentation left by the mold! I thought that was quite neat.

You can see the tilt quite clearly here. 

October 26th, 2022 (71) I also drilled out the hole for the switch and fitted that, and managed to get some sneaky soldering in just now - just enough to tin all the wires and start bundling them together.

I then scraped and filed some tiny bits of crap off the sub-assemblies, mostly around the nacelle grilles, and gave those grilles a gentle wipe with acetone to remove any lingering crud. Everything is sitting on the bench next to me now, ready for the final soldering and gluing. 

October 27th, 2022 (72) And what a day of gluing and soldering it has been! I should also mention hot-gunning, as all those lovely soldered joints had to be protected too. This photo shows her completely wired and working electronically. You'll see that I have two 24v batteries wired in there. So, after wiring it all up nicely the first time, I threw the switch and while the red and blue LEDs lit up perfectly, the LED tape instantly dimmed to almost nothing. Long story short - I spliced in a second 24v battery and bingo, everything as bright as bright can be!

Important stuff now, if you're building and lighting this kit too: do not use solid-core wire if you can get hold of normal multi-strand wires instead. I say this because the solid-core wire makes it very tricky to fit the rollbar and nacelle pylon together. The way that the kit is built, you form the phaser tube shape at the join between pylon and rollbar out of three parts: rollbar, pylon, and an inlay piece that glues to the inside of the pylon's triangular upper portion. Imagine a circle cut into thirds, and that is the shape you get from gluing these three things together. Adding in wiring that bisects all three elements is easily doable, but I can see now that the flexibility of regular wiring is much more desirable. The wires for the nacelles and rollbar are as tight as I can get them (right now) into the interior of the ship whilst still leaving some wiggle room for when I shove the wires inside to glue the nacelles to the ship. With flexible, multi-strand wires, this will be easy. With solid-core wires, it's a tiny bit more shoving and grunting where you really don't want that - you don't want opposing force on your glue joins.

One small oversight that I made was forgetting about bundling in the the saucer upper half, which has two wires for an impulse engine LED, and two wires for the bridge dome LED. I had to run two more long wires from those upper-half wires, down through the tube, and splice them into the switch and battery. 😄 

October 27th, 2022 (73) Anyway, I've done that all the best I can, so it's in the hands of the gods now. I have also glued the saucers together (4 clips, tape, and a bunch of clothes pegs (not pictured)), using a thick line of Revell gel glue and some Tamiya Thin glue around the seam. I had to carefully slice off a blob of hot glue from Mr. Creeper's head to make the top half settle down nicely, and there was a wicked gap around the impulse deck that I immediately puttied too, with the Vallejo Acrylic Putty (for the flexibility of the join). And now we wait, and try not to imagine the horror of removing the tape and clips and the two halves peeling apart like an old cheese sandwich... 

November 1st, 2022 (74) Well, I said I wanted to be finished before November, and I almost am. Today is Tuesday. Last Friday I glued the port nacelle on, taped on a 'bandage' and then we went away for the Halloween/All Saints' weekend, so Mr. Nacelle had plenty of time to bond. So he's fine. Today I screwed the feet pads into the display box and finally tackled the last worrying obstacle - attaching the starboard nacelle with the extra wires from the rollbar.

Bending these stiff, solid-core wires with the rollbar attached was not too tricky, but I spent about 15-20 solid minutes dry-fitting everything again and again, until I had a reliable process to which I could introduce your friend and mine, glue:

1. Stick a blob of 'poster-tack' on the port side rollbar end, to temporarily join it to the pylon top.
2. Fiddle and jimmy the wires so there was as little of the rollbar wires sticking out as possible on the starb'rd side.
3. Glue the rollbar wires to the side of the hull (not entirely successful, but certainly helpful).
3. Glue the pylon+nacelle to the hull, then tape the bugger down good and tight.
4. Glue the interior pylon half to the top of the pylon (where it sticks out above the hull). This small triangular part has a peg that fits in a guide hole in the top of the hull. Tape that up too.

Without wires, this kit would actually fit together like an absolute dream. I can see that the port nacelle is perfect and beautiful - the pylon has a slight angle to it, and the nacelle sits perfectly level. It looks mint, and kudos to the original designers of the Miranda class, Joe Jennings and Mike Minor. Photo shows the starboard crime scene prior to gluing; inset is the patient swaddled in blue tape bandages. I'm thinking that any untidiness or weakness here I will try and fix with the ol' Tamiya White putty. 

November 2nd, 2022 (75) Horror! I carefully removed the tape from the port and starboard pylon-rollbar joins to find an absolute mess. The force of the solid-core wires was too great, the fit too fiddly and insubstantial, and the blue tape bandages probably didn't stand a chance. The port-side join was okay on the inner side, but the outer phaser tube shape had not sealed together and had left about a 3 mm gap. The worse news was, perhaps predictably really, on the starboard side.

Looking at the photos from left to right you can see how those rollbar wires really pushed the pylon out and away from the hull. Port side, the fit is flush and ideal. The triangular inner pylon part (second photo) did not join very well either. It looks okay from the front, and the peg is in the guide hole, but I think my trenching work on that part was not enough, and so again, the wires and the stiff bend in them forced the part off the main pylon piece. Third photo shows how not-together those tube segments are, after I glued the phaser emitters in. Now, photos three and four also show you my solution to this massacre -- more battle damage! 😄

Tamiya White went in, and I let it dry a bit rough and messy. Some of the ol' Vallejo Acrylic Putty is in there too, to actually try and make the gaps less obvious. (I did the same on the port side in that smaller, thankfully neater gap, and smoothed that off nicely. Port side is okay).

What you don't see here is what I did next, which was to add a combination of black wash, black paint, and crushed-up artists' charcoal sticks to cover the putty and justify the Elephant Man-like appearance of that whole phaser tube. Essentially, I made it look (or tried to make it look) like the phasers had taken a hit on that side and blown up. A bit. You'll see...

In other news, my two 12v batteries are already struggling to keep all the LEDs and the tape lit, so the other day I ordered a DC power socket that I can just screw the wires into inside the project box. 

November 3rd, 2022 (76) So, guess what? I have finished! It's finished, I'm finished, we're all done here. This photo shows the last thing I did (apart from screwing the box back together), which is to replace the two 12v batteries with a 12v DC socket and adapter. (I kept the switch because I'm in love with it). 😄

And so we come to my final lesson learned (I hope) with this kit. That lesson is that all throughout construction, testing the lights every step of the way, using batteries (one battery most of the time), the lights were never as bright as they are with proper mains power flowing through them. When I threw the switch for the first time with full power going into it, I was a) thrilled by the strength and beauty of the hull lights and nacelles, and b) somewhat dismayed to see that my light blocking along the seams was inadequate. Also, because I had to lay the saucer rim lights flat to fit inside the abnormally thin saucer section of this particular tooling (later kits have proper, thicker saucers), 3 LEDs do shine through as little tiny squares of light through the upper saucer. 😄 The effect is not disastrous, but... eh. 😄

Anyway! I love it. It's flawed, full of compromises, and the rollbar fit and how I masked it with 'battle damage' is an offense to the human eye. But, I love it. 😄 This is the last construction photo I'm posting. Tomorrow I will post a few 'beauty shots' and then we can call it a day for my old 1:650 Reliant. 🙂 

November 4th, 2022 - Final beauty shots (1/10)  

November 4th, 2022 - Final beauty shots (2/10) 

November 4th, 2022 - Final beauty shots (3/10) 

November 4th, 2022 - Final beauty shots (4/10) 

November 4th, 2022 - Final beauty shots (5/10) In this photo you can see some of the LEDs shining through the upper hull, around the rim. Partly this is due to having to lay the tape flat because of the slimmer saucer assembly, but also because I was using 12v batteries to test the lighting throughout construction, and then right at the very end I switched to a mains supply. The extra juice really makes those babies glow! 😄 

November 4th, 2022 - Final beauty shots (6/10) 

November 4th, 2022 - Final beauty shots (7/10) 

November 4th, 2022 - Final beauty shots (8/10) 

November 4th, 2022 - Final beauty shots (9/10) 

November 4th, 2022 - Final beauty shots (10/10) Live long and prosper, scalemates! 🙂