XanderL TOS 1/350 scale model and Minecraft build log

[XanderL]

I will post any updates here. you can find my previous thread here.
some general background:
I play on and help run my highschool's Minecraft server, I mainly build things. I had just completed a large project that had been entertaining me for months, so I needed to find a new project. After taking some time to think about it, I remembered this video, from 2010 where somebody made a replica of the enterprise D in Minecraft. I loved the idea of doing that and given that the game had evolved since then, so I decided to build a 1:1 scale tos enterprise. I thought it would be easy. I. Was. Wrong. researching the enterprise lead me down a rather deep rabit hole that ended in my buying the 1/350 pl model so that I can build it and measure it. Building began on 9/25/20 here are some general pictures, these pictures are kind of just a rough estimate for sizing and are not fully detailed.
here are the first I what I presume will be many questions
1.) What specific paints did people use for the TOS 1/350 enterprise model (what individual paints should I buy, I don't have any), or if you are @Shaw, what paints did you use for your 33 inch, I doubt you would just eyeball the paint on a model that you spent years of your life wanting and researching, but I could be wrong
and
2.) anyone know of any online services that mix acrylic paints using the LAB color space?
FYI, this thread will be where I ask any future questions relating to the Minecraft build (I'm building then model for the Minecraft build so also asking about the model)

 

[XanderL]

alright, a little update:
Update 1: Paint
I found a website to convert LAB colors to hex you can find it here, I then found a website where you can input the hex color you want to make and it will spit out 3 different paint mixtures with names of paints and ratios, percentages, or parts of each paint to mix, it can also make colors from the paints you have (if you have an account), here is the link to that, I went ahead and converted all of the colors that the Smithsonian listed when they were restoring the 11ft model into hex and then into the virtual paint mixer. I downloaded the combinations as a pdf which I will upload here (the image will remain up for 14 days starting 10/18/2020, I will try to find a permanent solution to have it online)
here is what each numbered color is
1.) Hull gray (base color for most of the ship)
2.) Yellow (used for yellow markings)
3.) Red ( used for red markings)
4.) Green (used for the turbo lift)
5.) Light gray (used for highlights/details)
6.) Medium gray (used for highlights/details)
7.) Dark gray (used for highlights/details)
8.) Turquoise (used on the leading edge of the neck)
I want to be clear and say the color mixtures that are on the pdf are not the EXACT same colors as the 11ft model or even the best that you can make with paint, but, it is a fairly close match that can be made using only a few paint colors, which could be useful for someone like me who had to buy all of the paints because I don't have any paints. if you want more accurate paints see Gary Kerr's painters guide.

Update 2: measurements/size
since the start of this project, I had been using the first image I found on google for the cannon size of the ship. It was stupid of me to assume that the image had the correct size without looking elsewhere to confirm it. I realized this after I had built the initial parts that appear in the photos of the previous post.
After a little digging on the memory alpha page which talked about how the generally accepted size is 289 meters and looking at Cygnus x1 for images that mentioned this size that also had other measurements that fit with the scaling of the 33inch model, I found a collection of images titled "Federation Starship U.S.S. Enterprise Constitution Class Naval Construction Contract #1701". The second image seemed like it had the measurements that better fit with the accepted sizes, I also will use the image that was listed on the memory alpha page. After realizing that the measurements I was using were wrong, I came to the conclusion that my Minecraft build was off by one block (1 meter) so I will have to rebuild it and make new measurements for everything.
as a little side note: when getting measurements from the 33inch model/ shaws model (in inches), I will multiply them by 8.55111 to get the scaled-up measurements in meters for the full size. When getting measurements from the 1/350 scale model (in inches), I will multiply them by 8.9017 to get the scaled-up measurments in meters for the full size.
I plan to write down all of the scaled-up measurments that I collect so that when I am done, I can compile them into a collection of blueprints with the in-universe size of the ship. My goal is to create images with every possible measurement (that are useful) so that anyone who has them can scale them to whatever size they want and using only the measurments, be able to build the enterprise without the need for tracing (so that any method can be used to build it)
. I want to do this because as helpful as the models and blueprints are, there are still some areas that are missing measurments. This wouldn't be a problem if I was building a physical scale model from scratch like shaw (not to say that what he did wasn't incredibly difficult to do), but because I am building it in Minecraft, I cannot just print out the pictures and model off of them. I have to instead, only rely on measurments of length and diameter/ radius. The Minecraft plugin world edit makes my life a lot easier because there are built-in commands for cylinders, circle, copy and paste, and a line command. The line command is nice because all I have to do to make the neck, for example, is find the points where it connects to the saucer and secondary hull (I have to do this 4 times, one for each point of the neck) and then connects them with the line command and the two points will be connected, and the program will calculate how to place blocks between them even if they are at a diagonal.


Update 3: question
Does anyone know how I would go about measuring the curve that the saucer has on the top and bottom? I mean how it curves upwards to the bridge and curves downwards to the bottom tip of the primary hull. This is one of the reasons that making the Minecraft model is so difficult because I cannot simply trace the curve from shaw's plans. any help would be appreciated, maybe the best way would be taking a lot of measurments of the height of it from the centerline of the saucer? it's not a perfect circle so I cant just find the radius. (note, I can use online tools to make a circle in Minecraft with a given block size, so If you can measure the radius in some way let me know)


sorry for the long post.
help me, @Shaw. You're my only hope (last ping I promise)