Delta Flyer

What got me started in the first place. 

I always start with a set of orthogonal drawings. This was something I downloaded off the internet in the day. 

Think this picture was taken with a film camera, then scanned in with the state of the technology home printer/scanner of the day. From this, and following pictures, what I figured out was that base of the subject looked like a Venetian gondola. The base of this sub-assembly was taken directly off the bottom "blueprint" scaled to a 1/72 representation. 

I wanted to be able to open or remove the back hatch, like an old Aurora TV show model, ala Land of the Giants, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, etc. I used standard drafting techniques to extrapolate what the hatch dimensions are off the orthogonal drawings. 

Another view of the base. I noticed there is a shrouded cut out for some bottom emitter. So that had to be boxed in before proceeding to the next layer. BTW, here's a tip. Provided you have access later in the build, don't get too hung up on the shape of the internal ribs. It's easy to score & snap excess later. Or a razor saw can remove something that interferes with later sub-assemblies. 

Close up of the exterior of the back hatch. All filled in at this point. For those checking this versus the renders, the duck tail that extends off the end of back hatch will be added later. 

There's two more layers added to the gondola shape at this point. Whether the CGI artist composed the mesh this way or not, what I realized is the Delta Flyer is made up of three distinct compositions. The gondola shape at the bottom, a series of angled ribs roughly all the same angle on top of the bottom, then a filleted set of triangles on top of the middle later. In this picture, I've used some scrap plastruct sheet that I wanted to use up, that makes up the "cockpit" exterior, then come the warp nacelle wings, and in the back is the duck tail. 

Here's a side view. I had to plan ahead and cut out the hole for the deflector emitter in the nose, and notch the ribs for the grooved sheet that will eventually become the warp nacelle intercoolers. Remember how I said its easy to cut excess away. When I cut the profile for the "wings" I didn't worry about the notches for the impulse drive emitters. The Emitter notches have been boxed in, but I haven't removed the wing profile segment yet. Once the middle layer profiles were glued in place, I could make a side profile of the top sub-assembly, and glued that in place. More on this in a later pic. 

Shot of the bottom. I believe I forgot about the cut out for the dorsal sensor array (elliptical hole, just behind the notch). Marked it, and cut it out, then back filled from above. Easy to fix at this point in construction. Yes, the duck tail has been roughed in. Something to keep in mind, is that a completed sub-assembly actually helps you figure out how to build some complicated shape stuck on it. You basically tack in pieces that stretch from a starting point on the model to where the orthongal says it has to end. Kind hard to picture from a 2D picture, but the duck tail was fairly easy to build. 

Close up of the warp nacelle wing. I had to guess at the interface between the wing and the main body. I figured the flat overhang from the nose would transition to a constant width wing. So I drew that transition on the gondola exterior sheet, then fitted ribs from that line to the exterior thickness taken from the side orthogonal drawing. 

Close up of the duck tail. I will later have to cut a hole in the skin sheets I installed, but other garage kits implementations choose to simplify the details in this sub-section.  

I used this render to guess at the intersection of the warp nacelle 'wing' with the main body. 

I have finished "skinning" the bottom. Long story short, the warp nacelle intercoolers are the wrong shape/dimensions. This gets fixed later. This is one of the advantages of working with 15 thou sheet styrene. Skinning complex shapes can be a challenge. Especially smoothing over joints in between sections of the sheet styrene. So there's copious amounts of putty and lots of sanding here. Not shown in this pic, but whenever possible, use a piece of scrap that attaches behind the skin parts, and you have to plan ahead, and attach backers starting with the first 'skin' that goes on, with additional backers on the 'new' edges as you progress around the model. 

The upper has also been skinned. Scratch-building needs sub-millimeter accuracy for sub-assemblies to connect without large gaps between them. (Albeit not every part is this fussy.) Note the pencil lines for the outline of the cockpit. I chose to skin the entire section then locate the centerline, and draw a precise line of where the cockpit meets the top of the nose. An alternative that may sound appealing, is to rough in the opening, using exterior 'landmarks' to draw the outline. Then at a later detailing stage, discover that a line is off by 1 or 2 degrees, and an important detail is cockeyed, in the wrong spot, of some other issue. For example, I've seen UFO Interceptor builds where a lack of attention to dimensions, and the nose landing gear is too short by half because the fuselage is a touch too big, then the lower pod is slightly too big, and so on. 

Another view of the upper skins. My own work has led me to building something that is a misshapen mess. Including this project. So I measure, and double check a lot. And even so, I got the warp intercoolers wrong. 

Beginning the process of adding details. Lots of cut outs. The cockpit area was cut out. I made a RTV mold of the best phaser emitter I constructed from four tries at it, and cast enough for the model. Interesting note, when the same detail is repeated on the same model, it's easy to detect differences between different 'builds' on the model, despite being centimeters apart and on difference faces. Pictures may be out of order, just sayin. The warp intercooler has been fixed. All I did was mark the correct shape on the exterior, cut the skin along the correct outline, removed the underlying grooved sheet using a utility knife, razor saws, and small numbered sandpaper.Then a new grooved sheet was cut to fit the opening. Then I shimmed the gaps between the existing skin and the 'warp intercooler' with 10 thou sheet stryene. 

Opposite side. Same fixes. Not obvious here, but I actually was close to doing the last details, painting the model and calling it done. But I noticed in the CGI renders that the reaction control system (RCS) thrusters were recessed from the skin just the smallest amount. Debated making the fixes and went for it. Got out the razor saw, cut the notches out of the skin. There's a RCS notch just forward of the phaser emitter. There is one visible on the aft duck tail. 

Cockpit has been mostly done. Checking for fit. The Borg Tech module on the dorsal spine has been built to fit and detailed. Looks really complicated, but I made a slightly undersized part to fit the cut-out, then created the grooves on the exterior by cutting a second layer of sheet parts separated by the needed distance. Some silver solder 'tubing' and it's done. There is multi-vaned vent in the top of it. I'll show how to make one in later pictures. 

BTW, if some of the details parts look off center, it's because they are. I don't glue those things in place until I'm short tracking to painting. 

Yup. Pics are out of order. At this point, I was going to individually make all of the phaser emitters. But they looked like sheet. So I cut them off. So here's some construction detail on how I made the borg technology unit (BTU) on the spine. I drew the lines marking the locations of the grooves. The pieces that go over the BTU are test fit, and refined until I could see the sharpie lines.  

Three quarter view.  

Front view. Making the forward deflector recess in the nose looks scary. Mark out the recess and make the cuts just inside the perimeter. Use sandpapers to refine the opening. Slide a strip of 10 thou sheet into the hole for back/vertical face and superglue it. Yes, I'm one of those superglue guys. Then wrap an oversize section of 10 thou sheet around a styrene rod or tube. Place that piece in front of the back face part, sand it/shape it so its a tight fit against the back plate. Super glue it into place. At this point, you have these sheet styrene parts sticking out of the model like mutant skin tags. With a new blade, slice the the pieces close to the surface of the model. Then a couple of swipes with 220/320/440 and the inset is flush with the model.  

Aft 3/4 shot of the model. I've started marking out and scribing the lines for panels that are defined by grooves in the surface. Luckily, most of the surfaces of this model are nearly flat faces at a specific angle. Using standard drafting techniques, I can extrapolate the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the details, edit the orthogonal view to cut a section of the jpg. Then do a X-Y jpg pixel stretch to produce a print that is within a 1/2 millimeter of exact dimensions. I tape the paper print to the model and use a compass point to transfer the corners. When curved details are parallel to each other, as in above, I use a French curve to mark the score lines, and also for the initial scribe with a pointed scriber, like a sewing needle, or a compass point. 

Aft shot. I'll give you a clue how the vents are are made. They're laminations with 10 thou sheet. 

Showing the cockpit cover off of the model I did this one time too many, and I was committed to scratch building an interior. Maybe not a perfect interior, because to do that I should have thought about that way before I got to this point. 

Still call me obsessive. This is a detail part in progress. I noticed that on the underside of the warp nacelle wings a couple of small quadrilaterals. Looking at them closer, I realized these were angled vents with fins. I couldn't replicate see through vents, and when you see how big this part is, it's not necessary. So what you're staring at is a lamination. There are tiny strips of 10 thou sheet at 1 mm wide. Those are sandwiched with 2mm wide strips of 5 thou sheet. The strips are all standing on edge, BTW. The piece at the bottom is a 2mm wide strip of 10 thou sheet. It is extra long so my fingers can grasp it. I grasp with the fingers of my other hand a fairly long piece of 2 mm wide of 5 thou that has a trace of super glue on it. Wait a couple of seconds for the ACC to set. Then I trim the excess off at 2x the finished dimension of the vent. Then I bring the "shorter' 1 mm wide of 10 thou sheet that is long enough for my fingers to hold it with some super glue on it, and bring it up next to first 2mm 5 thou piece. At this point, there are two laminations. A tall 5 thou piece, and a shorter 10 thou spacer. I trim the 10 thou spacer even with the 5 thou vent fin. Keep alternating thickness and heights. Keep going so you have more "vent' by 2 mm than the hole its going into. This sounds tedious, but once you're in a rhythm you can churn one of these out in 10 to 15 minutes. 

Here's another angle of the part. Like I said, what's not visible is you're using strips way longer than what's trimmed off. I've tried to align these pieces with tweezers, doesn't work. From here, this looks really immaculately assembled. Its not. The back side is uneven as heck. Don't care, that's not the side that's visible. 

Close up of the backside. I've coated it thoroughly with superglue. Do Not Want the laminations coming apart in the next stages. You'll have to remake the part if it happens. Like I said, it looks better in the picture than it really is. We'll smooth out all the rough edges in the later stages of installation, and the scale of this thing helps you out. 

So now, I've trimmed the piece to fit in the intended hole. The original part was 4 times the finished part. And I lucked out, I could make 2 vents for each "blank" I made. Note how I flipped the blank on its side before trimming it, because I intended the fins to run several millimeters into the model. 

Another angle of this part. Note drop of glue. It's that small.  

I have cut the holes for the vents. Yes, they parts are sticking proud of the surface of the model. Remember that trick with installing stuff that sticks above the surface of the model? Yup, more of that here. 

I've sanded the pieces flush with the surface of the model. There's some roughness to them. Higher grits will refine the look. 

Finished. The bottoms of the vent parts are uneven. This will disappear during the finishing stages when I apply a black wash to these vent details.But now, instead of some scribed lines, pretending to be vents, I have modeled actual recessed details. Go look at #image 2, the orthogonals of the prototype. These vents are on the underside of the warp nacelle "wings." I know, a lot of effort for details that are only a couple of millimeters across. I thought up a way of doing it, and thought I'd try it. 

These are all attempts at creating the impulse drive emitters for the delta flyer. They're all fails. I was very frustrated with building them, and it took years to produce an acceptable sub-assembly. The impulse drive emitters were extra challenging because they have three competing axis, and what look like an all so innocent looking recess was anything but. And yes, I was so frustrated, I even considered sculpting balsa wood to the right shape, and coating it in superglue to get the right finish. 

Another view of the fails. 

The flash has washed out the details, but these were the first pictures of parts that worked. If you look closely, there is a lot of superglue serving as gap filler.  

Here is the part tacked into place. I am using cut paper cut segments as assembly pins. The piece is not correctly aligned to where it should be. Though not accurate to the GGI model the middle piece is grooved sheet. The grooves matches the thickness of the impulse drives fins, of which there are two, with two end pieces placed in the grooves to get the correct spacing. 

Here is a distance shot of the impulse drive emitter installed only with pins. 

Construction of the aft hatch. Close examination of the hatch shows it is composed of several layers, And there are these raised lines on the door's exterior. How do I make those lines line up across the big recessed cut-out in the door? Some other modeler gave me the answer. Just glue them across the hole. Clean them up afterwards. 

The blank for the next layer in the door. After looking at the CGI, I realized, these strange looking holes were port holes. Oh great, many fine cuts in a section of 30 thou sheet. 

Another shot of the hatch exterior. 

Star Trek Magazine describes this thing as a Borg power supply and or shield generation unit. I've seen some garage kits where they stuck a couple of pieces of tubing together and called it good. Mine is not completely accurate, and there is crazy fine detail in the CGI. But at least I duplicated the major features. There's several rows of ribbing around the outside, there are two wings on it, and a conical end shape. Its barely over a centimeter long and it fits in the duck tail. Fortunately for my sanity, I could knock this thing out in a couple of evenings versus the insane impulse drive emitters. 

Same camera angle better lighting. 

Here it is nestled in the duck tail. Additional panel detail has been cut and installed. 

Different angle. 

And here are the parts placed. Only the rear hatch has been glued in, with a semi-inaccurate hinge. I did mention those cut outs are port holes, but the back part of the model is not detailed, and its so tight in there, I couldn't possible install an accurate interior. 

Different shot of the rear hatch. 

Rear hatch and more raised detail has been added to the model underside. 

And yet another view of the rear hatch. Those tiny vents that I went to the trouble of making are visible just beyond the hatch. 

Like I said, some pics are out of order. I gritted my teeth, and decided the warp nacelle intercooler had to be fixed yet again. So I hacked the old one out. But this is a scratch build. I'm not at the mercy of injected plastic. 

Distance shot of the bottom. At this point, landing gear construction has commenced. Not obvious from the orthogonal views, but the landing gear is recessed into the bottom. I have also detailed the dorsal sensor array, which is just forward of the nose gear. If you look closely, you'll see the ducktail, that the skin had to be hacked away to get the borg device to sit correctly there. 

Replacement warp intercooler under construction. One of the most valuable tricks I've self taught myself, is little tiny pieces of plastic CAN be worked. In years past, I would have cut the side pieces to the intercooler and tried to put them on one by one. But it's nearly impossible to grab hold of the part, hold them it place with tweezers, apply a drop of super glue, and have the part stay where you want it. So on this framing part, I have literally left a finger tab. 

Another view. Yup, it's a piece of scrap. Neatness does count, but it's not sloppy if it gets lopped off during construction. 

So there was one more framing part applied on the forward face of the intercooler part, then it was installed. Then a skin part bridged from the wing edge to the correct edge of where the intercooler should be exposed. 

Superglue gap filling in progress. Two tips. 1. DO NOT USE BAKING SODA as an accelerant. I've been fighting this tip for decades. Cured ACC is porous. On a humid day, your model will start frothing from the seams like a rabid dog. 2. Fill and sand the ACC within minutes. Repeat as necessary until you have a smooth finish. This model is being painted gloss white. It won't be a natural metal finish, but it won't hide many plastic finish issues either. 

Still needs more surface cleanup, but no heinous gaps, and now the intercooler is the correct shape and dimensions. BTW, what through me off, is the orthogonal looked like the intercooler was smaller on the bottom. But no, the warp nacelle wing is symmetric through its "anhedral" plane. 

Now to replace the intercooler on the opposite side. More chopping, but I was able to save the skin between the wing tip and the intercooler. If you look closely, you'll see the faded lines of a extra fine sharpie. Yes, I go through a lot of knife blades. 

New part cut. 

New part dropped right in. Another tip on applying adhesive. Take a piece of paper, stiff enough to be saturated with super glue and not sag. It can be as narrow as you require, wider if stiffness is needed. Soak the paper in ACC puddle. Slide the paper in-between two tightly fitting parts. Like a piece of a scratch build "skin" piece, and a recessed detail part. Or you need to fill a gap between a support part and a main body. 

Repair in place. Some surface clean up needed, but that comes during painting prep. 

From Star Trek Fact Files, or Star Trek Magazine depending upon UK or US publisher. The next part is the "desk" in the upper right hand corner. 

If you're in a hobby store desert, like I sometimes am, go to the For Sale sign section of a hardware store. You can find sheet styrene in thicknesses from 15 thousandths (of an inch) up to 40 thousandths. Extra large signs are 60 thou. Only issue, one side is garishly painted with black and orange paint. Where this goes will be revealed soon. 

The other side of the part. The groove was created with a razor saw, and for the purposes of this picture, was marked with a black extra fine Sharpie marker. 

The desk installed in the front portion of the forward interior. There was tedious cutting of small shapes in the 10 thou sheet laminated to the curve floor of the pilot's station. Most of this is interpolation of the Star Trek Magazine picture. Made to fit the inside of my scratch build. 

Another view of the forward portion of the interior. I installed the wedge shaped pieces to eventually support Voyager style interior wall units, which if you look at the ST Mag picture are depicted.  

The pilots console and a simple rod support have been created and installed. I have marked out, crudely, the perimeters of the upper work stations. What I mean by that will appear in the following picture/s. 

Continuing to plan and mark the outline of the center walkway from the pilot station to the upper cockpit crew stations. 

Sometimes I'm lazy, and don't want to install one part, take a picture, install another part, take a picture, etc. In terms of construction, there's a lot going on here. The lower walls to the upper cockpit crew work stations, have been installed. They're the same height from beginning to end though the ramp hides this. Grooved sheet is used to make the ramp, but I've skipped the framing that goes around the edges of the ramp. Some tedious fitting/sanding/fitting was required to make it fit nicely. Construction details continued next picture. 

The cockpit decks has been temporarily installed. The screws are located where the upper workstation chairs are going. And they're screwed into styrene tubes that have been glued to the pilot level deck piece, visible at the start of construction. This is necessary, because I can't insert the two levels of the cockpit interior inside the Delta Flyer in one piece. Surface detailing to the Delta Flyer nose has been cut and applied. The anal retentive drafting nerd in me uses red marker for center lines. Blue for other alignment marks, black for things being cut off. 

This the framework for one the bussard collectors on the front of the warp nacelle wings. In the next picture you'll find two blanks for what I planned was going to be heat & smash male molds for the collectors. But the more I thought about it, the heat & smash route was not going to look very good. 

The original male molds are above the hollow parts. I could have used the male molds, they fit the pocket at the leading edge of the warp nacelle wings. But they're not thick enough. I've learned by experience that hollow construction with interior framing should never have a span of more than 1" between frames/braces/support. That's why there are those odd looking stub pieces on the inside of the bussard collectors. 

Another view of the bussard collectors. Another trick to get two subassemblies to mate with minimum gaps, is to put sand paper against the "female" or concave shape on the model. The "male" piece is rubbed against the sandpaper that conforms to the model or mating sub-assembly shape. Start with a fairly aggressive grit. Take the abrasive away, check the fit and look for gaps. Continue until the fit is good. Then go to higher numbered papers, until you hit 600.