Warp Speed Mr. Sulu, Revell 1/500 STID USS Enterprise

[Deadman Disciple]

Its finale time on the Enterprise.

I started by finishing off the nacelles by applying the various markings on top of the aztecs.

At the front I applied the very thin line markings, being very gentle so they wouldnt tear, especially around the curves sections & down the side of the nacelle.

In between the vent decals were some rectangular markings that had to go on top of a raised section & the microsol sucked those into place.

After those there were some more line decals to go around the edge lip of the upper parts of the nacelles which (to my surprise) went down really easy when drawing them off the backing paper.

Some small stripes below the vents & then the registry markings & finally the fin decals.

Once dry I Microsol'd & sealed them & it was finally time to start on the top half of the saucer.

I started with the pre-painting of the T sections & the little square decals as I did before on the bottom half along with those little black & yellow house shape sections on the edges along with the blue lights on the spine.

Once all those were dry & sealed, I started on the aztecs.

The same as before (section by section) I worked my way around applying them, but this time I had a lot more raised sections to deal with.

Once the aztecs had dried I applied the microset a couple of times to the areas of aztecs sitting on top of the raised sections & once dried they had sucked right into those offending raised sections.

I then applied the Microsol to the rest of the aztecs & let those dry & then sealed them with some Revell Aquacolor clear gloss.

Once all dry, I then started work of the inner ring & bridge area.

Applying the ring aztec, then the upper ring aztec marking along with the grey & red stripe aztec markings.

While the grey & red stripes was drying, the red stripe's ink started to come away & break up, so I removed them & waited for the rest of the ring aztecs to dry.

Once dried I Microsol'd those & let them dry & sealed them.

Once all dry, I used my Tamiya curve tape & masked off the section to paint grey, I let that dry & applied the kit marking red stripe.

I then applied the aztec marking for the grey section around the bridge dome, but again to my dismay that also decided to break up, fade & change color to a greenish grey whilst drying, so again I had to remove the decal & mask off & paint that with the grey paint.

Once that dried, I sealed that & worked my way down the back of the bridge section & onto the spine.

Applying the small "USS Enterprise" lettering kit decal, along with a small red circle & some small grey square decals, I started on the spine.

Applying the spine aztec & I had to trim it slightly as it was a little too long for the channel it was applied to, then came the rear section.

Applying the aztec onto the curved rectangular section & the little c sections on the outer part, I discovered there was a gap, so I filled that it in with the spare bit of aztec I had from the nacelles & it patched it up real nice.

I then turned the enterprise around & put down the red vent aztec markings on the rear of the saucer, but again the ink on that also decided to break up, so luckily the yellow option went down with no problems & the microsol sucked those into the little dimples really nice too.

Also the marking between the yellow vents & a couple of little grey markings went down great too.

Then finally back again on the top of the saucer, I applied the thin circle kit stripe, which took a while to get to go as circular as I could & the Microsol took care of that into the channel in sat on top of.

The "USS Enterprise" lettering & the registry kit markings then were applied with no problems at all.

Then to finish off the saucer, I started on the rim stripes.

Firstly the left & right stripes from the rear were applied & once Microsol'd & sealed I worked my way around with the 2 sets of front stripes which all were applied in sections of 3 stripes which took 5 days to finish.

Once all that was done, all I had to do was finish off the deflector dish & apply a blue & black stripe above the dish & the Enterprise was done.

I then assembled the stand & filled in the hollow base with some household filler to make the stand more heavier & sturdy to prevent the weight of the enterprise from tipping over.

I then glued the neck & the base together, primered & painted the the base in Humbrol Brass Metallic & the neck & the lower lip of the base in Revell Aquacolor Silver.

Mounting the Enterprise to the base was quite easy, but I do have a concern out the mounting notches into the belly, but if left alone on my shelf, it should be ok.

Anyways, I have enjoyed building the Enterprise & for the most part glad I bought the aztecs & apart from the few frustrating bits here & there, the aztecs have really brought the model too life.

Cheers,

Wayne.

[whitestar12chris]

Cracking job Wayne, gorgeous finish, well done.

All the best Chris

[jake the snake]

Beautiful!!!!!

[Thom216]

Nicely dun! The Nu-Girl looks great!

[prowler0000]

Really, Really like that, Wayne!

One question? Where's the bridge window??? It's quite prominent in the films.....

[Deadman Disciple]

All there is are the 3 small clear parts & the bridge dome that are painted in the blue clear.

Cheers for the kind comments.

Wayne.

[Mark4700]

Very, very nice 

[F-32]

Top modelling!

[celt]

Not a Star Trek fan but your model is well tidy.

[Bell209]

Fantastic paint detailing! What a great model.