Took up the hobby up again after an over 20 year absence. I've had alot of stress in my life, mostly due to health issues amongst various members of my family. My mother lost a battle with cancer, my step father is seemingly losing a battle with cancer, and now my father-in-law, whom I'm rather fond of, is starting his own battle with.... you guessed it, cancer. I've found that building model ships has been a positive way to take my mind off the "doom and gloom" and focus on something more constructive. I can honestly say this hobby has helped me through this difficult time. Anyone else still building kits these days? It seems like it has become far more of a niche market then it was back when I was a kid. Since July, I've managed to finish 4 separate builds of various size and skill, with my 5th one, a "weathered and worn" Voyager nearly finished. Anyways, just thought I'd share and see if anyone else was interested is physical model building.
NICE work! I would still be building models, except my wife states she cannot stand the smell, so I took up work in 3D.
Tried it a bit as a kid, but I never the fine motorskills or patience for the fiddly bits. I actually tried the Defiant and Voyager about 25 years ago. Stunning work on those models! I appreciate the weathering on Voyager, makese sense she's less pristine after all those years in the DQ.
I relate to this more then you'll ever know. Luckily, glue has come a long way in the last few years. There are lots of different types that are easier to work with, these days. Yeah, my wife can't stand it either. I'm lucky that I have a well ventilated room to work in. That said, I envy what people can do with a 3D printer. It's amazing how much that community has exploded. You're very kind. Thank you. Agreed! I decided to go with the warn and weathered look for Voyager because I never cared for the fact that the ship always looked pristine and new, despite the fact it was decades away from a Federation repair facility. After 7 years in the Delta Quadrant, she should have had some wear and tear!
I build every day, but my interests in models go beyond Trek, and unfortunately, I haven't built a Trek model in a few years. If you go to my model gallery you can hit the Trek categories and see what I've built over the decades: http://www.inpayne.com/models/models.html A direct link to my Trek kitbashes is in my siggy.
Awesome work! I'm building the NX-01 refit as my next project and your pics will definitely influence my paint scheme.
Great work. Models used to be cheap but, due to a variety of factors, have outpaced inflation significantly. The problem this creates is that nobody is going to spend a lot of money to build a model that won't be that good, which your first several aren't going to be. The good news is that you can get good at it fairly easily, especially if you read up on the subject. Getting great at it is another story. The first 90% comes easily, the next 5% comes from perhaps years of practice, the last 5% you may never get. But 90 to 95% gets you some pretty good models.
One way to get around the high cost of model kits is to go in for scratchbuilding. Plastic waste is everywhere and if you've got the imagination you notice how much the plastic drinking glass looks like the "Super Hero Clubhouse" or various lengths of plastic tubing can be used as rocket stages. I built a nice nice model of a hypothetical space station where the central piece was part of a toilet repair kit. Here's a modest example. https://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspot.com/2019/07/home-made-time-bubble.html#more
And that's a wrap on my worn and weathered Voyager. I tried to walk the line between factory fresh and battle damage and give it the look I always thought it needed on the series. The look, not of neglect, but of something with "a lot of miles". I think, in the end, I've achieved the look I was going for.
Reminds me a lot of the wear and tear we see on the TOS Enterprise and we know she's seen some things so this is just about perfect.
That Voyager's a beauty, you've done the model justice. I hope things look up for you and your family soon.
Your models look fantastic! I think you've done a really good job getting the "a lot of miles on her" look to Voyager. My favourite is the little Franklin, though - I love the colours and the finish you've given her. I made a few models when I was a teen - a couple of Enterprise-As, a couple of Excelsiors, an Enterprise-B, a Reliant and a Defiant as far as Federation starships went. They were all rush jobs because I was so impatient to have them finished, so most looked pretty awful. However I did get a bit better from one model to the next - I think Defiant and Reliant were the last ones I did, and they didn't look too bad as long as you didn't look too closely (i.e. from across the room with your eyes half shut ). The ones that didn't end up broken ended up with re-paints. Some were painted gold (after I'd seen the gold models in First Contact), and one Excelsior ended up with a black and yellow paint job to look like a wasp, for some reason!
Thank you very much. Yeah, The Franklin is still my favourite thing I've done, since getting back into the hobby.