I think it looks good! I've used Krylon Crystal Clear, Rustoleum clear, and Valspar clear, and all seem to work well for me. I like a glossy model. 
-Ricky
-Ricky
Super Dreadnought - TOS Style
- Thread starter trekriffic
- Start date
Franz Joseph's dreadnought is equal parts cool and goofy. The forward-facing shuttlebay and rear-facing dish are the goofy parts. But that's what makes it so neat. It's like the Edsel of Star Trek ships.
Here is someone else's attempt to kit-bash it. The only inaccurate thing I see with it at first glance is the sides of the top nacelle should both have the grille on it. So you'd have to cannibalize two nacelles and slice them down the middle and join them together to get the right effect. (Well, the diagram only shows one side, but that's what it seems like it should have.)
Here is someone else's attempt to kit-bash it. The only inaccurate thing I see with it at first glance is the sides of the top nacelle should both have the grille on it. So you'd have to cannibalize two nacelles and slice them down the middle and join them together to get the right effect. (Well, the diagram only shows one side, but that's what it seems like it should have.)
After the last coat dried it's at least as glossy as you'd get with Future (or Pledge with Future Shine as it's called now). The glossiness is needed for applying the rest of the decals. Once they're on I'll give her another gloss sealer coat before successive coats of Dullcote for a dead flat finish. I like my TOS era starships to be flat, like the military ships they are.I think it looks good! I've used Krylon Crystal Clear, Rustoleum clear, and Valspar clear, and all seem to work well for me. I like a glossy model.
-Ricky
I used Perfect Plastic Putty for small gaps and scratches. For larger gaps, or where strength was needed in the joint, I used AVES Apoxy Sculpt.
The hull color was a custom enamel paint mix of roughly 85% IJN Sky Gray, 10% Flat White, and 5% Faded Olive Drab. Once dry, I sprayed the hull with Dullcote and rubbed in Tamiya titanium chalk for the final finish. The "balls" on the endcaps were painteed this color too. The accent colors on the front of the lower dorsal and the scalloped area under the front of the nacelles was Hellblau mixed with some of the hull color- about a 70/30 mix. The other color on the endcaps, inside the nacelle tranches, the grooved rectangles at the rear on the sides of the nacelles and the abbreviated linear accelerator piece on the front of the upper nacelle dorsal were all painted Medium Grey.
Nope. The drawing in the book shows the ship from the port side which does have the interior trench, but from the top view, we can see the control reactor loop only on the port side of the engine, which would mean that the center nacelle is a copy of the starboard nacelle. So The kit you posted a pic of is not inaccurate after all.
--Alex
Wow. Another reason that it's a weird design, the asymmetry.
No wonder Gene didn't like it. The odd nacelle isn't a "pair" the way it's been retconned to be.
Steve H over on HT thought that having the trench on both sides of the middle nacelle meant it could act as a warp field bridge of sorts between the two outboard nacelles. A similar idea to a middle nacelle with one trench facing downward I suppose.
I could agree with this - and on first look do - but then I remember that the TOS E has a turret on that sensor dome. And that the turret was apparently intended to be the phaser.
This modeler's megaphaser double turret actually appears to be a logical extension of that TOS E thinking. It's that thinking - which we are stuck with - with which I have the problem. The small, understated ball turrets introduced by Franz Joseph definitely look less like something from Space Patrol.
The turrets port and starboard this DN's secondary hull? They certainly are pronounced. The turret atop the secondary hull looks IMHO kinda ridiculous. Like those Japanese space battleships mated with a starship.
I do very much like the secondary hull lengthening and modified fantail. However I don't understand the upside down saucer. I'm all about the function, and while there is no upside down in space, there is an upside down on a starship with artificial gravity. I'd think the outer shape reflects in some way what is inside, with decks down and overheads... overhead.
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My point was not whether or not you care. 
It was that it looked out of place on the original model. And that this modeler was following that precedent. I'm not even going to say he mis-scaled it, because a dreadnought and heavy cruiser should probably have very different guns. But whether a dreadnought needs a big gun tower on its back is a purely aesthetic question about which I have already contributed my opinion, such as it is.
It was that it looked out of place on the original model. And that this modeler was following that precedent. I'm not even going to say he mis-scaled it, because a dreadnought and heavy cruiser should probably have very different guns. But whether a dreadnought needs a big gun tower on its back is a purely aesthetic question about which I have already contributed my opinion, such as it is.
Sheesh... sounds like somebody has a case of "Turrets Syndrome"...The turrets look clunky because they look clunky. I don't care that the tiny barely seen "oviposter" appeared on the original model.
Actually it adds quite a bit more interior volume to the saucer. Think 4 decks thick at the rim as opposed to 2 on the Constitution class. You need that for the additional twin launch bays and the anti-proton beam emitter hardware. Also she has 4 fusion reactors for additional impulse and other power needs.
And I accept your opinion. Towers and turrets on starships are not everybody's cup of tea it would seem but I have no problem with others expressing their opinions, in fact, I value your frankness.My point was not whether or not you care.
I built mine using the Polar Lights 1/1000 Enterprise and the late Tom Sasser's resin conversion kit:
http://www.inpayne.com/models/trek/dominion.html
Mine has the center nacelle rotated with the grill upward for symmetry.
http://www.inpayne.com/models/trek/dominion.html
Mine has the center nacelle rotated with the grill upward for symmetry.
I like your ship, good form follows function... Good level of detail... A lot going into the build, keep it up!!!
Regards,
Chuck
Negative. Look at FJ's top view. It clearly shows the reactor loop on one side only, and thus the grille.
There's always been discussion among modelers about rotating the grille to the top, or the underside, to make the ship symmetrical. That also lets one put a banner of both sides for symmetrical markings.
I rotated it up on my Feddy class as posted earlier. Then I tried it rotated down on a kitbashed DN:
http://www.inpayne.com/models/kitbash/trekpage_them.html
I like both ways better than FJ's standard side-facer. But FJ's DID only have the grille on one side.
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