Project: Potemkin, a Star Trek Fan Film

[Potemkin_Prod]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

Wow! You're really chugging along! I better start playing catch-up!

LOL, sometimes like today it seems we've accomplished so much, and sometimes like this evening it seems we've so far to go.

My pic, cast bio and character outline is up.

Yep, trying to get some of our other actors to provide their pics and bios. Of course, we're competing with exams for the past couple of weeks.

Even though my son graduated Friday night, we were able to get a lot done on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday:
http://www.projectpotemkin.com/building_the_bridge_6.htm

We're hoping to get more done this week!

 

[Melonpool]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

Wow! That looks great! It's amazing how much it looks like Bridge with all the framework in place. Don't feel discouraged if construction seems to drag on a bit from her-on-out, though -- the devil is definitely in the details, as they say. In other words, it takes a surprising amount of time to paint and finish a job -- especially in comparison to the framing time.

I should have an update soon as well. I decided to take an assembly line approach and started cutting out all of the pieced to the wedges, so that next week I should be able to construct 3-5 of them in one afternoon. Like I said before, you guys definitely have an advantage of having several people working on this with you. Mine's still mainly a one-man operation.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

Wow! That looks great! It's amazing how much it looks like Bridge with all the framework in place.

Painted the bridge control stations tonight, and couldn't believe how much more it's coming together. Carpet man coming tomorrow to talk about the installation.

Don't feel discouraged if construction seems to drag on a bit from her-on-out, though -- the devil is definitely in the details, as they say. In other words, it takes a surprising amount of time to paint and finish a job -- especially in comparison to the framing time.

The painting was the easy part. Getting the trim and the acrylic panels installed will no doubt drive me crazy.

I should have an update soon as well. I decided to take an assembly line approach and started cutting out all of the pieced to the wedges, so that next week I should be able to construct 3-5 of them in one afternoon. Like I said before, you guys definitely have an advantage of having several people working on this with you. Mine's still mainly a one-man operation.

Looking forward to your next update! Sometimes, ours seems like a one-man operation with all this 'un-fun' stuff to do. Still, help comes out of the blue. Linda's actually helped me with a bit of it; her father was a big help this past Saturday. The kids have actually helped out; my daughter's quite interested in the project.

Tomorrow I plan on working on the captain's chair with Ricky...

 

[Melonpool]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

The thing that I forgot to do on my original captain's chair was figure out how to light it. I pretty much was limited to battery-powered lights in the control panels as a result and they constantly burned out at the worst possible time. If there's a way to run a cord up the base, make sure you take this into consideration before everything's put together.

I'll probably be designing panels for the next few days. In the words of Dr. Leonard McCoy, "Joy."

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

A few problems popped up last night....

I'm a little disturbed by a slight rattle when anyone sits down in the captain's chair. I've not attached the lighting or the arms yet, and I can't decide whether or not to rip the chair out and try again, or come up with some other approach. Glad you told us about the battery lights, because I was considering that approach instead of running electrical...

I've noticed some of the seams of the service board paneling aren't quite plush with each other, and my father-in-law said to cover them with black duct tape and no one would know they're there. Couldn't find the black duct tape, so used silver and painted it. Not good. May try just vinyl tape. May actually go get some trim or molding to use on it like we did on the helm/nav console.

For our working turbolift, we're cutting into the carport siding, and it appears to be dulling the blade at an incredible rate. I may have to buy two blades just to finish the job...

*sigh*

So it's going to be another long weekend in the heat....

 

[Melonpool]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

I would cover the seams the same way (or at least a similar way) to the way they join pieces of drywall -- that is with tape and drywall mud. Only -- that's a long laborious process and you may be able to do it this way: Masking tape (not the blue stuff the regular kind) and Bondo.

So, what you do is Masking tape all the seams with 2-inch masking tape. Then, buy a 5-gallon jug of bondo and feather over the tape to cover it. Don't use too much of the catalyst and it should give you enough time to make it pretty smooth. Let it all dry overnight, then sand it smooth and paint it. Be sure to use a breathing mask when sanding.

This was what was suggested to me by my uncle who was a carpenter for 30+ years. I haven't quite gotten to that step yet, but it seems pretty sound. And I know that Bondo is what New Voyages uses to hide seams and imperfections.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

Don't know if I'll go with Bondo, but I've got 5 gals of mud still on hand from my last home improvement job... I may give that a try. Thanks!

 

[Data Holmes]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

I would cover the seams the same way (or at least a similar way) to the way they join pieces of drywall -- that is with tape and drywall mud. Only -- that's a long laborious process and you may be able to do it this way: Masking tape (not the blue stuff the regular kind) and Bondo.

So, what you do is Masking tape all the seams with 2-inch masking tape. Then, buy a 5-gallon jug of bondo and feather over the tape to cover it. Don't use too much of the catalyst and it should give you enough time to make it pretty smooth. Let it all dry overnight, then sand it smooth and paint it. Be sure to use a breathing mask when sanding.

This was what was suggested to me by my uncle who was a carpenter for 30+ years. I haven't quite gotten to that step yet, but it seems pretty sound. And I know that Bondo is what New Voyages uses to hide seams and imperfections.

I was going to mention the tape and bondo trick but you beat me to it. Back when I was in HS our shop class was charged with helping to build the sets for the school play. The Auto and Wood shop teachers worked out that solution for the massive "backer panel" for the exterior set so that it would be smooth for the art class to paint their panoramic cityscape for the "main street" scene. Worked really well, and as far as I know has been a common use fix since.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

Going to experiment tonight with all three options. Found Black Gorilla Tape and it's looking a whole better already, but going to try both the sheetrock mud and bondo approaches shortly.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Melonpool]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

My biggest fear with using Duct tape or Gorilla tape is that the paint won't adhere to it very well because of its rather glossy surface. Interested to see what your experiments show!

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

The latex did NOT stick to the duct tape. We'll see if we have different results with the gorilla tape. And the sheetrock mud looks very promising, but it'll have to wait until after tomorrow before I sand and paint...

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

Melonpool, you were right: Gorilla tape is just too shiny, and doesn't take the paint either. The sheetrock mud worked very well, and we're going with that. I have 4 gals on hand from last year's kitchen project. Bondo worked well, but was kinda tricky. Mud's tricky, too, but at least it cleans up quickly.

Widened the outside closet door which allows us to create a full-sized starboard turbolift. Caulked several seams under the console which won't be visible, but we want to make sure that light doesn't come through from underneath the panels.

Carpet guy came and took measurements of the bridge. Hope to order the carpet in the coming week. Electrician coming this week to wire the overhead lights we purchased. Going to have him fix one of the carport outlet that acts a little hinky.

Going to work on the turbolifts while the caulk and mud cure (48 hours there). Will sand and repaint on Monday. Looking forward to trying your idea on the traverse rod mechanism on the "dummy" turbolift, Melon. Should be an interesting experiment!

 

[Melonpool]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

I was poking around the IKEA website today (as I often do) and came across some cheap chairs that might work for your production. -- They look a lot like the chairs in TUC, at least as far as I can tell. Not sure if there are IKEAs near you, or if they'll ship to you, but I thought you might want to at least check them out.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70133676

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10142693

And, if you need armrests --

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/64896780

Don't feel obligated -- I just thought they might help!

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

Cool, but we've already got our chairs. It's good to be the boss, and we're just going to borrow them from Fast Copy.

As I said elsewhere, the seam work didn't go smoothly (good joke there when I think about it), and we ended up using bondo, sheet rock mud and gorilla tape in various places. The result looks great except on one console. Just can't get happy with it. Time to move on, and come back to that one when Ricky and Van get back from their respective family vacations.

Tonight, going to start work on the dummy turbolift.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

Just a brief update with pics of what we've been up to the past seven days. We've got a lot done, and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel...

http://www.projectpotemkin.com/building_the_bridge_7.htm

 

[Melonpool]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

Did you try putting Gorilla Tape on the back side of the panels? That's what I do in situations like this, and it keeps the light from coming though from the back. You can even double-layer it if you need to -- and you don;t have to worry about it not accepting paint.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

Did you try putting Gorilla Tape on the back side of the panels? That's what I do in situations like this, and it keeps the light from coming though from the back. You can even double-layer it if you need to -- and you don;t have to worry about it not accepting paint.

In fact, we did after we put the Gorilla Tape on the front. We put one or two layers on the back, as needed to block the light from shining through.

 

[Melonpool]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

How was your weekend? I saw in an earlier post that you had a very ambitious schedule set put for yourselves -- I know how everything always takes longer than you think it will -- That's why I'm renaming my ship the USS Murphy's Law.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

LOL -- Well, the weather has been quite rainy here, and so we're behind, of course. We knew that would be the case. We've got one turbolift built, lit, and ready to hang the doors this evening.

Not sure what I'll do tonight, but we're about four days behind on our dream schedule. I've had to do the work myself lately because of vacations for my associates (no rest for the wearied exec, I'm afraid). The boys helped out a bit Sunday and Monday evenings, allowing me to get the dummy lift partitions assembled. The plans on how to assemble them changed four times during implementation (grrrrrrr). The electrician bailed because of all the storms (can't blame him there), and will be here tomorrow.

We're going to do the viewscreen next.

 

[Melonpool]

Re: New Star Trek Fan Film

Sounds like we're both making progress. I've started bolting the odds and ends I've been saving to the walls as texture, then I'll be able to prime and paint soon. Still haven't figured out the base for the helm and nav stations yet... soon, though! I think the next time I work will be spent on that and the captain's chair.

I was delayed by the exact opposite problem out here this weekend -- 108 degree heat! I ended up working from about 8 am to 11 am, then again from 6 pm to 8 pm. Every second counts, I guess!