Starcrafts Prometheus model - advice appreciated

[Squeamous]

Hello everyone!
I received this model as a gift at Christmas. I've only ever built one Star Trek model before, and that was a plastic ERTL kit that was so flimsy I threw it out once I'd made it. This is a resin kit. You can see the problem: the pieces are different colours! It also has numerous bubbles and resin over/infills. I have no idea what I'm going to need to build it, so do any of you lovely experienced peeps have any advice for me? Places to buy supplies/kinds of supplies I'll need. Obviously paints, sandpaper, putty, tools, primers, varnish will be needed but I'm not sure exactly where or what to buy. Or how to rectify the different colours situation. There are instructions indicating what to paint and with which colours thankfully, but that assumes the pieces are all the right colour to start with....

 

[Avon]

undercoat it.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

How good is the detail? I've seen some resin kits that, if you undercoated them too much, you'd loose most of the detail.

I'm talking about the grid lines, windows, etc.

 

[Patrickivan]

Sometimes you may have to putty and sand after priming as well... Priming lets you see details that you just miss (at least I do) on a model that full of putty and sanding. Use raking light to find imperfections...

 

[Ziz]

Resin kits take a lot more attention to detail than standard injection molded (plastic) kits. This isn't a one weekend deal - this is a long term project, something you're going to work on a bit a night for a few weeks.

Start by hitting a hobby shop. Just get what you need right now - putty of some kind, sandpaper, files, a hobby knife (preferably one of those kits with several handles and blades) and for resin kits - superglue - regular glue for plastic kits won't work.

Start by washing all your parts in dish soap and water. Resin kits tend to have a slight oil on them both as a by-product of the resin itself and sometimes remains of the release agent that's sprayed into the mold before casting. You need to get that off before any glue or paint will have any effect.

Once that's done, work with a bright light to see where the various voids and pinholes are. Fill with putty and sand, or depending what detail is in the area, re-carve with the knives. You're going to develop some basic sculpting skills over the course of this build.

Once that's done, start with a light coat of primer. Krylon flat gray acrylic spray (Wal-Mart, about $3). That will allow you to see any holes and voids you missed as well as make it easier to see how well you did on the ones you worked on already. You want a VERY light coat - don't worry if it's not full coverage. Primary concern right now is hitting the puttied areas. Repeat putty/sand/prime until you're happy. As long as you keep the primer coats light, you shouldn't lose much detail. Anything you notice starting to disappear, re-carve it in to the paint layers.

Get the model to that point and then we'll talk about painting for color and detail.

 

[Deckerd]

Hello everyone!
I received this model as a gift at Christmas. I've only ever built one Star Trek model before, and that was a plastic ERTL kit that was so flimsy I threw it out once I'd made it. This is a resin kit. You can see the problem: the pieces are different colours! It also has numerous bubbles and resin over/infills. I have no idea what I'm going to need to build it, so do any of you lovely experienced peeps have any advice for me? Places to buy supplies/kinds of supplies I'll need. Obviously paints, sandpaper, putty, tools, primers, varnish will be needed but I'm not sure exactly where or what to buy. Or how to rectify the different colours situation. There are instructions indicating what to paint and with which colours thankfully, but that assumes the pieces are all the right colour to start with....

Welcome Squeamous, I'm sorry I missed your first post but this is a well nerdy bit of the board for my dilletante tastes. For everyone else, this is what Squeamous decided to go with:

I've worked out a colour scheme now. I want it to look menacing, so I'm doing a medium grey basecoat, then I'm going to darken some steel paint and do a dry brush coat over it which should give it an armoured appearance, building up the shade on certain plates for texture. Then a wash with black acrylic to pick out the hull plating seams - probably have to dig those out a little deeper first. I want it to look like a slightly darker version of this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/USS_Prometheus_-_StarTrekVoyagerS04E14.jpg

So if anyone has some sensible suggestions, please be forthcoming.

 

[Squeamous]

Thanks everyone for the advice, especially Ziz for so much info. I wandered off and had a look at the Games Workshop advice pages on their website too, and picked up some good tips. This site was brilliant too:
http://codyscoop.com/howto.shtml

Think I have enough info now to make a start.

I actually wondered about the depth of the detail in the model, and had concerns I'd lose a lot of it. I was going to dig out the lines a little deeper before starting - would this be advisable, or should I wait until it's filled and primed?

 

[Squeamous]

Welcome Squeamous, I'm sorry I missed your first post but this is a well nerdy bit of the board for my dilletante tastes.

Morning hunny! ^_^
I'm off to have a peek.....the Neutral Zone you say?

 

[Deckerd]

You need to join it: under CP group membership.

 

[Squeamous]

You need to join it: under CP group membership.

Well that was 5 minutes I'll never get back!

 

[Deckerd]

I knew you'd like it.

 

[Squeamous]

:P

 

[Ziz]

I actually wondered about the depth of the detail in the model, and had concerns I'd lose a lot of it. I was going to dig out the lines a little deeper before starting - would this be advisable, or should I wait until it's filled and primed?

Keep an eye on it as you work on the kit. If you notice panel lines starting to disappear because of your other efforts, take time to scribe them back in.