1/144 Revell Space Shuttle OV-101 Enterprise

1
January 20, 2021
Box on the bench.
2
January 20, 2021
Kit sprues overview.
3
February 2, 2021
Considering all it's short falls and the horror stories I've read and heard, she goes together very very quickly!
This is about 2 hours work from box open to photo taken.
4
February 3, 2021
So that's the build done, next up, filter!
5
February 3, 2021
And I found a fairing to cover the engines and decided to test for it all.
6
February 7, 2021
Lots of filler.
7
February 7, 2021
Yep, definitely needed filling!
8
February 7, 2021
I used Flory Models Sanders and watched his tutorial videos whilst learning.
Its nowhere near Phil's results but it's already better than my best result!
9
February 7, 2021
All filler has been sanded.
10
February 9, 2021
The nose section has now been filled.
11
February 19, 2021
Engines are now all in place, heres a first and final shot showing them before the fairing goes on.
12
February 19, 2021
Fairing in place with the cargo bay doors glued together to form a lift off lid, I will be adding more support but it's good enough for now.
13
February 19, 2021
Test fitting the cargo bay doors, works for me!
14
February 19, 2021
And the other side.
15
February 28, 2021
Prototype siblings.
16
June 24, 2021
Yellowed decals just after being placed into the Bleaching Hanger.
17
June 24, 2021
4 hours later there alot less yellow and good enough for me.
18
June 22, 2021
This is the idea I have.
I'm going to use this support piece taken from a Monster Truck toy and install the spare set of mounting points from the Minicraft Shuttle.
This is my plan to make all 6 Shuttle mountable on both this base, the external fuel tanks and boosters and one day the 747.
19
June 23, 2021
All parts cut off ready for the trial.
20
June 23, 2021
That seemed to go well.
21
June 23, 2021
Enterprise seems to like her new stand!
As I have 6 Shuttles and 2 Buran's to do, this build/storage stand fits the bill just nicely!
22
June 25, 2021
She's now primed white and ready for paint....
23
June 25, 2021
When priming the Shuttle I also primed and painted the wheels and cargo bay.
Please note, if you dont already know this, OV-101 Enterprise was one of the Prototype Orbiters and her cargo hold was never fitted out with the protection lining that the others were.
Hence the green ribbing.
Revell definitely based their 1/144 Shuttle on the Enterprise.
24
June 25, 2021
The real Enterprise on display at the USS Intrepid Museum New York has had a wooden walkway fitted to preserve as much of the original cargo bay as possible.
25
June 27, 2021
Left wing masked.
26
June 28, 2021
Right wing masked.
27
June 28, 2021
Bottom masked.
28
February 28, 2021
More filler..........
29
June 22, 2021
Sanding done.
30
June 22, 2021
Rear view of the fairing.
31
June 22, 2021
Look at all that filler!
32
June 22, 2021
No idea why but Scalemates likes to invert some of my photos,.
33
June 26, 2021
And the painting process has begun!
I'm masking the nose first as I was most worried about masking that.
34
June 26, 2021
Another view of the nose masking.
35
June 28, 2021
Left tail section masked.
36
June 28, 2021
Right tail section masked.
37
July 25, 2021
All masked and paint started.
38
July 25, 2021
Black airbrushed.
39
July 25, 2021
The base looks shiny with wet paint.
40
July 25, 2021
All sprayed and hung up to dry she looks like the real Enterprise did on her flight trials.
41
July 26, 2021
Just the tail and cockpit to go.
42
July 27, 2021
Now to figure out the cockpit......
43
October 25, 2021
She's now on her own legs.
Also this photo was taken testing the new LED lighting system we've just had installed over the last week in our house.
I think it does the job very well!
44
June 20, 2022
I've now put the wheels and doors on, painted the leading edge of the wings grey, painted the black square on the nose and put a nice layer of Klear on.
I also painted the 5 rectangular shapes on the left side of the fuselage and I used the Dragon Shuttle to create a paint mask for the cockpit windows.
45
June 20, 2022
She's now ready for Decals!
46
June 21, 2022
A nose shot!
47
June 21, 2022
Decals on!
48
June 21, 2022
I ended up using only the Minicraft decals as they appear to have 2 complete Shuttle's worth of decals if you use the Enterprise option.
49
June 21, 2022
Oops!
I spotted that Minicraft's decal placement for "Enterprise" is about half inch wrong if your modelling herbas she's sat on the USS Intrepid Museum in New York.
50
June 21, 2022
All that's left now is the thruster dots and the grey nose.

Comments

16 3 January 2021, 13:57

Torsten
Nice, looking 👍

3 February 2021, 04:08

Starbase101
Looks like the kit decals have yellowed quite a bit. Are you going to try using them or replace with newer decals?

7 February 2021, 14:45

Mark D
You can tape the decals behind a window, with some strong sunlight (nowadays in europe not very present...) on it, the decals are getting more white, it really works, I've done it with some old Tamiya Honda RS1000 decals.

7 February 2021, 21:14

Tony Stark
Thanks for the heads up folks.
I wont be using the Revell decals, I'll keep them in the spares box in case I need to bleach them in future.
What I will be using are the Enterprise decals from the Minicraft kit as they are the ones that represent how Enterprise looks now.

9 February 2021, 14:11

Tony Stark
Thanks Roland, hope you enjoy!

9 February 2021, 15:12

Christian W
I'm looking forward for the process. I'm curious to see the added parts when it was on display.

17 May 2021, 07:06

Spanjaard
looking good. i believe pictures are rotated due to the EXIF information in the pictures. you can anyway rotate the ones that look wrong after you uploaded them (Tim added that feature some time ago)

28 June 2021, 10:56

Christian W
This is smooth!

28 June 2021, 11:11

Tony Stark
Thanks for that!
I've now edited my inverted photos, thanks for the heads up!

28 June 2021, 21:11

Tony Stark
Thanks Argento!
Yours look fantastic!

5 July 2021, 18:37

Tony Stark
An update has just been posted.

25 October 2021, 01:03

Spanjaard
Looking good

20 June 2022, 07:18

Treehugger
A small (tiny) Tamiya pointed brush is nice to have for cleaning up paint that didn't end up as a straight line after using masking tape.

20 June 2022, 11:32

Tony Stark
Treehugger what have I missed?
I have fine tip brushes and I've been going around tidying up so if there's anything I've missed tell me.

20 June 2022, 15:03

Tony Stark
Roland:- you would be very very correct on that assumption!
It is the worse kit I have ever built!
Every time I tried to make progress I lost my mojo as it just doesn't build well, I even went as far as to honestly think this kit is cursed!
I'm now liking the result though and after decalling it will stay on a shelf and get swallowed up and sit at the back of the shelf once I build the Airfix, Minicraft and Dragon Shuttles!

20 June 2022, 16:23

Project info

1/144 Revell Space Shuttle OV-101 Enterprise

50 images

1:144

Completed

1:144 NASA Space Shuttle (Minicraft Model Kits 11668)

Rockwell International Orbiter

NASA-National Aeronautics and Space Administration (1958-now)
"Atlantis"

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