Original Enterprise & Excelsior Model Painting Questions.

[Dayton3]

After moving recently, I found models of the original Enterprise and the Excelsior tha I assembled several years ago.

I never painted them or added decals and their original boxes are long gone.

I've never been good at painting and decaling models after the assembly stage.

So I was wondering what paints I could use on both models that would make them look closet to their onscreen counterparts.

I prefer a model spray paint if possible.

The original Enterprise model as assembled is a grayish looking off white, while Excelsior is a bleached out white looking color.

 

[Captain Robert April]

The Enterprise looks best with a regular old gray primer (ninety-three cents at Wal-Mart), whereas the Excelsior is generally shown as white.

 

[Dayton3]

Really. I had thought the original Enterprise was supposed to be some kind of light blue.

don't know why I thought that.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Re: Original Enterprise & Excelsior Model Painting Questions

The original (TOS) USS Enterprise was painted a very neutral gray tone. (Some folks will quibble about it being "green" since there is a tiny hint of green in the mix.)

Basically, this sort of color takes on the character of whatever lighting it's seen under. Light it with a blue-tinged light source and it looks blue. Light it with pure white light, it looks white. Light it under red, it'll look reddish. Much more than any actual COLOR you might deal with... gray is good for that (part of why it's common in many camoflage schemes, too).

There are great articles to be found on the web re: this. I recommend you start off looking here:

www.starshipmodeler.com

or

www.culttvman.com

though there are many other excellent references to be found as well. Both of those will be great for finding lots of references for both of your models, however.

If you want to get more detailed in terms of decalling and so forth, you might also want to try here:

www.federationmodels.com

FYI, I'm not associated with any of the above, except as a customer from time to time in the case of Federation Models.

 

[Forbin]

Re: Original Enterprise & Excelsior Model Painting Questions

Paul Newitt's article on the color of the original E:
http://www.culttvman2.com/dnn/tabid/74/ctl/ArticleView/mid/408/articleId/7/Default.aspx
Basocally, concrete gray. I use ModelMaster light ghost gray, and it looks perfect.

The Excelsior (and the motion picture E) were indeed basically white, but the aztec pattern held many subtle shades of blue and gold and silver, and varying amounts of gloss, flat, and pearl coats.

Dayton, the original E looked blue on screen because it was filmed against a classic blue screen for compositing, and the blue always tinted it. I too thought it was blue for decades, until I got on line and was set straight by the experts.

As for types of paints, you'll do fine with good ol Testors spray bombs. Try "light gray" instead of white for the Excelsior. It's kind of an off-white, and I think it looks better. I used it on the kitbash I just posted.

For LOTS of info, hit the following sci fi modelers' sites and browse around:
www.starshipmodeler.com
www.culttvman.com

 

[Griffworks]

Re: Original Enterprise & Excelsior Model Painting Questions

Definitely agree w/John on the TOS color for that kit. I'm not so hot on the color he chose for the Excelsior, but to each their own, as always. He's always done a great job on his models and do like how his turned out.

There are no aztec decal sets available that I know of, so your sort of on your own for the aztec pattern on the Excelsior. However, I believe there are folks at Starship Modeler Star Trek Modeling Forum who've made their own decals. They might be able to help you.

There's also the Walker Excelsior Painting Templates available at Federation Models. Check under "Products" and then select "Walker Enterprises".

HTH,

 

[trevanian]

Re: Original Enterprise & Excelsior Model Painting Questions

Forbin said:


The Excelsior (and the motion picture E) were indeed basically white, but the aztec pattern held many subtle shades of blue and gold and silver, and varying amounts of gloss, flat, and pearl coats.

Something else to consider about EXCELSIOR (and the E in most shots from SFS and TUC) is that to avoid blue spill, the ships were shot in heavy yellow light. The yellow would get filtered out later on, which basically meant you were getting a filtered/processed looking grey/white, not the color the model was actually painted. (kind of like how the TIE fighters and imperial ships changed between STAR WARS and EMPIRE -- on the first film, they pitched the blue record altogether during optical to eliminate BLUE matte lines, pushing them to black, whereas on the later films, this was apparently not an issue, but it created discontinuity in terms of ship look. I think the original look is better, the 'realer' color in EMPIRE seems very fake blue to me.)

 

[Captain Robert April]

Re: Original Enterprise & Excelsior Model Painting Questions

The greenish tint of the Enterprise is probably for the same reason, so the ship would stand out better against the bluescreen.

 

[Dayton3]

Re: Original Enterprise & Excelsior Model Painting Questions

So light primer gray is the consensus choice for both ships?

 

[Captain Robert April]

Re: Original Enterprise & Excelsior Model Painting Questions

At least for the Enterprise. Fielder's Choice on the Excelsior.