Ertl U.S.S. Defiant NX-74205

[CaptainHawk1]

Here's the Defiant I completed a month or two ago. For the record, the scratched up gold detail at the front is intentional to make it look mean. Enioy. Click the link for the whole album.

http://s258.photobucket.com/albums/hh245/UTOPIA_PLANITIA_001/

 

[Maestro]

Outstanding work.

 

[CaptainHawk1]

Thanks.

-Shawn

 

[Praetor]

Nice work! Did you mix paints as per the suggestion on the instructions, or go from scratch? And I like the nose nick.

 

[Kaiser]

that looks Awsome

makes me wish i could afford one of those

 

[CaptainHawk1]

Nice work! Did you mix paints as per the suggestion on the instructions, or go from scratch? And I like the nose nick.

I mixed the paints per the advice of one fantastic builder named Tracy Mann and actually it looks a lot darker in person but from where I'm sitting, perfect in pictures as far as color is concerned. The colors it was supposed to be was 40% Duck Egg Blue, 40% Light Ghost Gray, 5% Medium Blue and 15% white and you can play with your ratios of the final 2 colors to get the desired effect. Well, instead of grabbing a a bottle of Intermediate Blue (couldn't find Medium Blue) I grabbed a bottle of Intermediate Gray (yikes) and had to add a crapload of white to try to correct the problem.

What was really fun was the gridlines as I was losing my mind trying to figure out how to do them. The problem with the kit as opposed to the filming model is that the gridlines on the kit are "outies" (raised) as opposed to the "innies" (recessed) gridlines on the studio model. It was suggested to me that I use an artist's pencil on them and if they were innies that would have been a piece of cake to do(hell I could have used an alcohol wash or powdered weathering if they were innies). So I tried using a pencil and experienced failure right off the bat. So, I took an eraser to the sloppy line and discovered that when you do this you leave a faint hint of the pencil mark and it's realtively straight for the purposes of a weathered gridline.

So all of those gridlines you see are erasures. I think that's pretty neat myself.

-Shawn

 

[Corran Horn]

Very nice job! I've made the same model using the paints without mixing and it looks dreadful. Far too much contrast. I'm making a notation of what you did so hopefully I can replicate it if I come upon this model again.

Thanks!

 

[CaptainHawk1]

Another standby for starship hulls if you don't want to go blind mixing paints and then trying to match them up with the filming model (and it works particularly well for the Defiant and the Ent. D) is a craft paint by Apple Barrel called Dolphin Gray (matte). I used to be able to get this at Wal Mart and Michael's but they only carry the gloss version of it so now I order direct from the manufucturer, Plaid, at $1.25 a bottle. The color is a great match and striaght out of the bottle with no mixing I personally don't think anything comes close to it. Keep in mind that because it is a craft paint it is very thick and will require thinning for airbrushing.

Stay tuned, I'm going to post pics of my Enterprise-E (WIP) that I'm almost done with.

 

[Forbin]

Good job!

 

[T J]

Excellent!

 

[JayTheTrekkie]

That looks really great, great work

 

[Praetor]

Nice work! Did you mix paints as per the suggestion on the instructions, or go from scratch? And I like the nose nick.

I mixed the paints per the advice of one fantastic builder named Tracy Mann and actually it looks a lot darker in person but from where I'm sitting, perfect in pictures as far as color is concerned. The colors it was supposed to be was 40% Duck Egg Blue, 40% Light Ghost Gray, 5% Medium Blue and 15% white and you can play with your ratios of the final 2 colors to get the desired effect. Well, instead of grabbing a a bottle of Intermediate Blue (couldn't find Medium Blue) I grabbed a bottle of Intermediate Gray (yikes) and had to add a crapload of white to try to correct the problem.

What was really fun was the gridlines as I was losing my mind trying to figure out how to do them. The problem with the kit as opposed to the filming model is that the gridlines on the kit are "outies" (raised) as opposed to the "innies" (recessed) gridlines on the studio model. It was suggested to me that I use an artist's pencil on them and if they were innies that would have been a piece of cake to do(hell I could have used an alcohol wash or powdered weathering if they were innies). So I tried using a pencil and experienced failure right off the bat. So, I took an eraser to the sloppy line and discovered that when you do this you leave a faint hint of the pencil mark and it's realtively straight for the purposes of a weathered gridline.

So all of those gridlines you see are erasures. I think that's pretty neat myself.

-Shawn

Ooh, very clever! The mixing was a pain for me and I didn't follow the directions; I think yours certainly looks great. I think you're much better than I am at the whole paint thing... when I did mine I made a diluted black paint that I rubbed over with a sponge and then dabbed with a towel that produced a decent weathering and highlighted the lines but wasn't nearly as effective as your eraser method.

 

[CaptainHawk1]

Yeah, that's one of those "happy accidents" that I'll definitely be using on the future.

I'd love to see yours, post some pics!

-Shawn

 

[Bernard Guignard]

Nice work there