Here is my current ongoing build of the 1/1000 scale Polar Lights kit modified to add lighting to the saucer sensor domes and bussard collectors. I am also adding tiny details not included in the base kit to make this a fairly accurate portrayal of the studio model as seen on screen. The lights will be static which will look nice for photographing. Just so you all know, this image taken from the 2010 SOTL calendar is kind of what I'm using for inspiration, as much as possible anyway, given the limitations of this kit. Shown here are various parts scavenged from booklights I found at the local Dollar Tree store. Four of the 1.5V batteries, wiring, metal contacts (one with and one without a spring), and slide switch will be used to construct an internal battery pack so the finished model will not need an external power source. Each nacelle will have a reflector behind the LED in each bussard. The finished battery pack made from the booklight parts and Evergreen and clear acrylic tubing is wired up and attached with CA to the back of the deflector housing. I won't go into details about all the material I had to remove from the inside of the secondary hull to accomodate all the battery parts and wiring but, believe me, it was a lot! Brass tabs at the front of the battery pack mate to slots cut into the secondary hull and the housing turns to lock into place. A high brightness white LED is wired between the upper and lower sensor domes in the primary hull. This LED will later be painted with fluoresent white acrylic paint so it spreads it's glow evenly around the interior much like an incandescent light bulb would. Wires are soldered to the LEDs in each nacelle. The LEDs are painted with white fluoresent and orange acrylic paint. A wire cage or "spider" is constructed using 30 gauge solid wire and a clear styrene disk. This will be inserted into the lower saucer sensor dome to give it the "pie slice" look seen in several fan made images which I have come to admire. The cage after insertion into the lower dome. The insides of the sensor domes are painted with white fluorescent acrylic so they will have a nice even glow with the light on. Fiber strands are run to the lower running lights. I didn't care for the look of the kit molded "nipple" on the lower saucer dome so I used the other dome in the kit (the one provided for use in building the pilot versions) and drilled out a small hole in the center. Then I turned some aluminum bar stock at high speed on my dremel and made a tiny round bead with a tiny shaft using my scribing tool. Then I glued it into the hole in the center of the lower sensor dome. This is the location of the ion pod in my opinion. Some may disagree but, for the sake of this build, it's the ion pod! Upper port and lower starboard running lights were turned on my dremel using red and clear acrylic rod. Looking at some great still shots of the studio model I left them as globes rather than hemisphers sitting up slightly above the surface of the model. Work on the bussards involved making a brass template for use in cutting strips of adhesive-backed aluminum foil to make the fan blades to stick to the dome inserts. The template will allow me to make each fan blade identical to the other. The inserts have had about 1/8" removed from the backside to accomodate the LED reflector. The ridges for the fan blades were also sanded flat as the fit was too tight otherwise; I have cracked a few bussard domes in the past so I knew this going in. Light test after painting the interior of the bussard insert with transparent turn-signal amber enamel followed by red acrylic paint thinned with alcohol and allowed to pool in the center. The outer bussard domes were previously frosted on the inside with Floquil clear flat. The stern beacon over the shuttle bay doors was the wrong shape and you could see the square slot in the kit part for mounting to the tab on the hull so I made a new one from scratch. Then I took brass tubing and ground a bevelled edge with the dremel before slicing it on my mini-cutoff saw. Much better in my opinion. Then I sliced the acrylic rod off below the metal collar using a miter saw, hollowed out the inside with a round router bit, and painted it with white fluorescent paint tinted with just a hint of blue. My fingers almost cramped up from holding this tiny piece as I worked on it. So, at this point, all hull seams have been filled and scraped and puttied and the majority of the sanding is complete. I did fill in the kit scribed lines in the front of the dorsal and on the front undersides of the nacelles with red putty. These areas will eventually be masked off and painted a slightly darker, greener shade of the hull color.
Contiuing on... I glued the bussards in place and lit her up. These pics are a tad overexposed but you get the idea... I made a round headed post to fit inside the flight deck control beacon,drilled a countersunk hole into the upper cowling directly above the door control booth,inserted the mounting post into the hole and glued it with CA,glued the beacon dome to the mounting post with crystal clear craft glue, then puttied around the base of the metal collar with AVES. I'm going to start calling it the flight deck rather than the hangar bay since someone pointed out that the hangar is where craft are stored prior to being moved to the flight deck. In this case the Enterprise's hangar is below the flight deck. Basically ready for priming. Still need to mask the stern beacon and the running lights. The deflector housing will be unlocked, masked and left dangling for priming separate from the rest of the ship. The horizontal inner nacelle grills were painted and masked. I used gunmetal metalizer as a base then brushed on aluminum metalizer. I didn't think to snap a photo but the aluminum over the dark gunmetal looks fantastic! Paint for the main hull color... Masked and ready for the first coat of primer: I wasn't satisfied with just using a decal for the impulse engine vents so I cut a piece of thin styrene sheet using an impulse engine from another 1/1000 kit as a template to trace the outline. Then I and cut out the rectangles with an exacto thin chisel blade and drilled the tiny center hole before gluing it to the face of the kit part. This is a nice improvement in my opinion and really defines the vent openings: After priming I noticed several spots that needed more sanding so I dobbed on red putty as needed and sanded and sanded until I was satisfied everything was uber smooth. Based on the photos below, I'm quite satisfied that no seams are visible. After a quick go over with 600 grit to ensure absolute smoothness she'll be ready for the initial basecoat: Musings on the next steps... So I was checking for light bleed and noticed some minor leakage around the rim of the bussards. I should be able to sort that out by applying some more Mr Surfacer with a brush. This will be followed by some light sanding with 600 grit paper and even finer grit polishing pads. Then I'll shoot the entire model with a coat of Testors flat black before airbrushing the first basecoat of Shady Cove enamel. Using the airbrush should allow me the control I need to have some of the black showing thru to leave faint weathering streaks. After the initial coat dries I'll be using Alan Sinclair's blueprint of the upper saucer to draw the gridlines using a mechanical pencil. I printed the drawing off onto 8.5 x 11 inch paper and then zoomed out to 124% on the copier at work to match the 5" diameter of the kit. I'll cut it out and lay it down on the model then make tick marks along the rim of the saucer where the gridlines terminate. I'll do the same thing along the perimeter of the B-C deck housing then use a piece of styrene strip to draw the radial lines. The tick marks will be erased before more paint is applied. The circular lines will be drawn with a compass. I don't want the compass needle to mar the upper sensor dome so I'll cut a short length of tubing to fit snugly around the periimeter of the bridge (with a slot cut out where the turbolift is) and glue a round, flat piece of styrene to the top of the tubing with a hole dead center for the compass needle to rest in. The tubing will need to fit snugly enough around the bridge deck without gluing of course. The compass needle will thus rest just above the level of the dome without touching it. Once the gridlies are drawn I'll seal with a light spray of Dullcote and use them as a guide to mask off and paint the rust ring with Testors Rust and lightly scribe lines where the four rectangular upward facing saucer window decals will go. Then I'll mask off and paint the front of the dorsal and the area under the front of each nacelle behind the three flux constrictors with a mix of the hull color and Intermediate Blue. The rust ring, gridlines, and weathering streaks will then be muted down to be very subtle after another thinned down layer of the basecoat. As far as the nacelle encaps, the rear retangles on each side of the nacelles, and the impulse engine vent assembly and accelerator on the back of the upper saucer, I plan on painting those a 50/50 mix of Testors Medium Gray and Euro Grey as Medium Gray seems too light and Euro Gray seems a little too dark. The slot on the inside of the nacelles will probably be painted Medium Gray as they appear to be a shade lighter than the rest. These will be painted after the second basecoat has been applied to the rest of the ship. I'll allow 2-3 days for the paint to cure before hitting her with Glosscote, then apply decals, wait a day and spray with more Glosscote, and then finally 3-4 coats of Dullcote. Then I'll unmask the clear bits, clean up any "holidays" (hopefully there won't be any) and call her done! Well, all except for the base which will be a resin U.S.S. Enterprise base I bought from The Model Base Guy years ago for this build. Here's a pic: Almost forgot, before I call her done I'll need to shape and glue on the little "lights" on the top of the nacelle collars, the teardrop shaped red and green lights outboard of the upper saucer flashers, and the 3 lights on the spine of the secondary hull over the flight deck and between the two parallel red stripes. Figure on doing that before the decaling stage.
So after work the other night, I skipped (errrr... make that strided purposefully) out to the garage and spent about an hour on the old girl. First thing I wanted to do before spraying her with Testors black enamel was to drill holes for the lights on the spine over the shuttle bay (err... flight deck) and the tops of the bussard collars. I figured it would be easier to see what I was drilling against a gray exterior as opposed to one painted black. For the spine lights, I drew a line down the center of a piece of Tamiya masking tape and using my drafting calipers took measurements off Alan Sinclair's blueprint (which I had previously blown up to match the size of the model) and transferred the location of the three tiny lights onto the tape using the front edge of the stern beacon as my reference point. After that I laid the tape down as close to the centerline of the secondary hull as I could using my drafting calipers to measure where the pencil line was centering it from the front edge of the hangar beacon, between the nacelle struts, and up to the centerline of the dorsal. Then I took my straight pointed dental pick and pressed it thru the tape where I'd marked where the lights should be leaving indents for drilling into the model... I removed the tape and drilled with my pinvise. The center hole of the three spine lights is about 33% larger than the other two. The holes on the bussard collars are the same size as the middle hole of the spine lights... Here she is after the black paint had dried... And after giving her a light sanding to smooth everything out. Of course, she'll need dusting off after this. Sanding really attracts any crap floating around in the air doesn't it? So soon it'll be time for the basecoat to be airbrushed. Before I do that, though, I'll mask off the areas I want left black such as the ridged baffles behind the bussard collars and the impulse engine vents. Once I'm done with the painting I'll turn clear green and red acrylic rod in my dremel and insert them into the holes I drilled out last night. I figure I'll just glue on the tiny teardrop shaped lights on the edge of the saucer outboard of the running lights. For the blinkers on the sides of the shuttle bay I need to drill two holes in the hull opposite each other and make the bulbs out of clear rod. If I do that I might as well turn some brass tubing for the metal collars around those lights. You can see them on the studio model here... I'm really trying to be a stickler for details on this build if you hadn't guessed that already! Next day... I turned the first of the side strobe lights on my dremel last night using a piece of .060 clear acrylic rod. I had to get it down to about .040 diameter. I also made a beveled collar from 1/16" diameter brass tubing using a round needle file to enlarge the inner diameter slightly for the "bulb" to poke through. The finished strobe is about the size of a grain of rice. Once I finish the second one, I'll try to take a picture of them next to something recognizable (perhaps a pencil tip) so you can get a sense of the scale. It's about the limit of smallness for me to be able to manipulate, even using my finest tweezers. I'll need to go even smaller though for the other lights. So last Sunday I turned the second strobe light on my dremel/lathe. Turned out pretty good IIDSSM. I'd have gotten more done if not for having to go over to the in-laws for my wife and brother-n-law's combined birthday celebration. Anyway, here's the stock piece of acrylic rod being turned to the correct diameter in the collete... Here's the 1/16" OD brass "collar" on my fingertip. Prior to slicing it off the tubing I bevelled the edges using a needle file... Here's the collar in place and ready for gluing onto the clear rod. I'll slice it off the stock with my miter saw... very carefully... The finished strobes next to a penny for comparison... Once I've got the basecoat on I'll glue them into the holes I've drilled into the hull with CA. I may put a small drop of fluorescent white paint on them too as they are unlit otherwise.
Did a little experimenting with different ratios of Shady Cove, Intermediate Blue, and Azure Blue to see what looked best next to the basecoat for the front and back edges of the connecting dorsal: I'm leaning towards using the fifth from the bottom on the righthand side for the front of the dorsal. It's about 8 parts Shady Cove to 1 part Azure Blue. Could even go a little lighter but it's close. Maybe 12 to 1 would be better. The trailing edge needs to be even lighter; leaning towards second from the top on the lefthand side-20 parts Shady Cove to 1 part Azure Blue. Again I'll probably go even lighter, say 25 to 1. Funny thing is I was thinking the two accent colors would give me a bluish tint but ,when combined with the slightly olive green tint of Shady Cove, the hue leans more towards green or a neutral grey. Here's the Enterprise cleaned up, dusted, and ready for her first coat of Shady Cove. Like my homemade painting booth? I know, pretty fancy: I cut some thin strips of Tamiya tape and masked the grooves between the shuttle bay doors. Once basecoated and the tape is removed the slots will be black; I'll then spray them with a second thinner coat of the basecoat so the slots will be a light gray when done. The nacelle endcaps are masked as I don't want their grooves to disappear under multiple coats of the basecoat and the darker gray final coat (possibly a mix of Aggressor Gray and Euro Gray?) so they will stay masked until I give them their final paint coat: After airbrushing the first coat of Shady Cove: You can see why so many people think the Enterprise is white. She looks white in these photos but she's defintely a light gray color as is evident when you look at my experimental color chart at the beginning of this post. Shady Cove is an oil-based gloss enamel so you have to allow 6-8 hours for drying time before handling. Hopefully I'll be able to do some light sanding with polishing pads tomorrow. Once it's good and dry I'll spray with Dullcote then draw the gridlines on the upper saucer and paint the rust ring. I'll also do a little weathering with pastels and gel ink pens. This will be followed with another thinned down spray of the basecoat. The rust ring, gridlines, and weathering needs to be very subtle at this scale. Here's the base I'm using. It's from The Model Base Guy. Tamiya primer went on very nicely: Thanks for reading!
Wow! Great work! I wish I had the skills and patience you have. I look forward to seeing your progress.
I can't even imagine putting this much work into a model kit, let alone something at this scale! Excellent work!
That is fantastic! Wish I had time for that. Who am I kidding. Wish I had the SKILL for that! Plesae keep us updated on the final build out.
I found this, if it's any help. Doug Drexler's article on the Enterprise's real color. You're doing great work, and the detail is amazing!
How funny. Doug posted Paul Newitt's article and that's where I got the information on color I'm using on this build. Newitt specifically refers to ACE Hardware "Shady Cove" as being close to "concrete". In the past I've followed his guidelines for mixing Testors paints to get "concrete" but for under 10 dollars I found I could buy a whole quart of it premixed from the local ACE hardware store. Now I have enough for basecoating an entire fleet of TOS starships! Thanks for the kind words everyone! Right now I'm still waiting for the first 2 layers of the basecoat to finish drying; I can still smell the paint, however faintly, when I get my nose close. I figure giving her until Saturday before the next steps. Working on painting the base in the meantime.
Your tiny turnings are extraordinary. Believe it or not, I have done stuff that small myself, so I know what you're going through. Of course, I don't have a nice workshop area set up and I tend to lose the stuff I spent so much time and vision on. Oh well. I can't wait to see this thing finished. I doubt any of us will be disappointed! --Alex
Thanks for the comment Alex. Yes. It's frustrating when you lose track of the small bits. To avoid that with the tiny strobe lights I placed them inside a small, clear plastic jar with a screw-on lid on my workbench. The really challenging bits will be the lights for the spine and tops of the nacelles. Will have to go even smaller for those.
I just had an idea for your spine lights... Have you considered getting some clear plastic sprue, (such as the frames the model's clear parts come on) and stretching them over a flame? Might take a few tries to hit the exact diameter you're looking for, but you can get diameters comparable to fiber optic line with practice. Then just cut ti length and round off an end, might be simpler than turning a thicker stock down. Just a thought. --Alex
That's another option Alex. I may end up doing that if the turnings don't go so well. I have some pretty narrow red and green acrylic rod to use already though. Thanks for the suggestion.
Updates from this weekend... So I figured the paint was finally dry enough and gave her a light spray with Dullcote on the upper saucer. Then I cut out the upper saucer from Alan Sinclair's blueprints (sized to fit the dimensions of the model) and taped it to the top of the saucer: I made a series of pencil marks around the base of the B-C deck and the saucer rim where the radial gridlines terminated: Then I removed the paper template and using a mechanical pencil and a length of Evergreen strip cut to size I drew the radial gridlines: Taking measurements from the blueprint I used a drafting compass to draw the circular gridlines: I didn't want the compass needle to mar the upper dome so I cut a short piece of acrylic tubing that fit perfectly over the bridge deck (with a slot cut out to accomodate the turboshaft bump) and glued a round piece of styrene to the top. This would serve as a nesting place for the compass needle. Then I taped it to the top of the B-C deck housing: The first few circles were too close in for the compass so I made a template from thin sheet using a circle template and used that for the first circle which had to be notched to the shape of the B-C deck rear. Then I used the circle template to make the next 2 circles. After that I used the compass: The saucer after drawing the gridlines: Masking tape was removed and any stray pencil marks were removed using a Magic Rub eraser: The rust ring was rubbed in using Tamiya pastel chalk and a foam applicator then sealed with Dullcote. Note that It doesn't go all the way around; this I confirmed by close examination of studio model pics and by what other Enterprise "experts" have written in other threads: Accent colors were brush painted on the front of the dorsal and lower front of the nacelles using a mix of the hull color and Azure Blue enamel. Some of the masking tape still needs to be removed around the flux constrictors in this pic: Lest anyone be alarmed in thinking I made the gridlines and accent colors too stark let me allay those fears; the colors you see now are not the finished product. I plan to mix up a thinned down batch of the basecolor (perhaps tinted a little more towards the green side with a few extra drops of olive drab and SAC bomber green) and airbrush it over the entire model with special emphasis on these areas to tone them down. When I'm done the gridlines and rust ring will be much more subtle and the other areas will be muted and somewhere between a bluish and greenish tint. To be honest, the main reason for drawing the gridlines was to make it easier to locate where the 4 rectangular windows go around the rim of the saucer. It also helped in positioning the rust "ring". So that's where I'm at right now. Comments welcome as always. Oh... almost forgot... I finished painting the base. Just needs a coat or two of Future:
You'll find the grid lines also help to align the registry decals. A lot of this project looks familiar to me, but I really like your idea of making templates to draw the inner concentric grid lines, I hadn't thought of that... --Alex
Still looking fantastic. Enjoying the build. I can't wait 'til I can get some time to put into something like this.