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Polar Lights 1/350 Refit Enterprise


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Hello, here's what's been going on- the electronics arrived

enterpriseprogress007.jpg

so lots of drilling out the holes to fit the led's. the saucer sections have had the insides ground away in the shapes of grooves to make shadows for the phaser emitters, as the spot lighting will be aided by lighting the inside and it shining through. The supports that were in these areas had to be removed as a result. the grooves were coloured black to make the shadow effect as seen here-

enterpriseprogress005.jpg

enterpriseprogress001.jpg

enterpriseprogress003.jpg

saucer inner walls need to be removed to allow light throgh the windows as marked out here

enterpriseprogress002.jpg

Saucer outer wall ends needed removing where the rcs thrusters are to allow the light to flood that area from 1 led

enterpriseprogress004.jpg

hole in saucer fro wiring through the neck

enterpriseprogress006.jpg

That's about it for now folks :)

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Hello, this week's update-

Photo- etched set arrived from starship modeller, very quick service! Set is by ParaGrafix

enterpriseprogress010.jpg

So I've done one half of the shuttle bay's walls

enterpriseprogress001-1.jpg

The doorway in the wall was opened up, a bit fiddly but well worth it-

enterpriseprogress002-1.jpg

enterpriseprogress003-1.jpg

Overall, this will look really nice when viewed through the shuttle bay doors. The turbolift shafts were drilled through the middles to allow them to be lit effectively, really scary stuff but the plastic was quite soft for clear stuff so all was ok.

enterpriseprogress008.jpg

The bridge and sensor domes had their supports removed

enterpriseprogress004-1.jpg

enterpriseprogress006-1.jpg

The rear support was left to give a positive fit to the saucer, but was drilled through to allow light to pass through

enterpriseprogress007-1.jpg

The warp nacelle booms were grooved at the base to allow wiring to pass through

enterpriseprogress005-1.jpg

The hole has been made for the connector, a step drill was used, I find they drill plastic nicely and don't tend to grab like a normal bit does when it breaks through.

enterpriseprogress009.jpg

After a lot of rubbish has been vacuumed up, that's about it so far! Thanks for looking! :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Been a while folks, so quite a bit to report.

Insides of secondary hull parts have been painted, two layers of Halfords' matt black, then their grey primer, then their appliance gloss white- that should keep the light inside! It makes for a good deal of scraping where I miss masking up mating surfaces that need gluing or fitting pins etc.

enterprise001.jpg

I decided to fit the halves of the warp engine pylons to the secondary hull parts first because I thought it would be easier later on to clamp them together than to clamp the stubs at the bottom when the time comes.

enterprise023.jpg

I made brakets to fit the led's into from some plasticard and fitted them into the saucer

enterprise0042.jpg

enterprise003.jpg

enterprise027.jpg

The led's are fitted in after the saucer has the same painting treatment as the secondary hull parts, resistors are fitted where needed and heat shrunk so it's starting to get a bit messy inside, the led's are hot glue gunned to their mounts.

enterprise025.jpg

The area of the saucer where the light illuminates the registry was masked up when painting the inside, then some of the grey was used to blend the end where the light fizzles out and the white was painted over. This is yet to be done for the name behind the lounge windows in this picture, I'll use an airbrush for this finer task.

enterprise026.jpg

Which gives this effect when held up to the light

enterprise028.jpg

It should calm down a little when the outer paint is applied in terms of definition of the light boundaries (I hope).

The Impulse engine grilles were used from the etched fret, painted black and fixed to the clear part with several coats of Klear whilst it was pinned down to the slightly curved surface.

enterprise022.jpg

The etched set provides light boxes but I made them and found they won't accomodate the 2x 5mm led's needed so I boxed in the back using plasticard.

enterprise021.jpg

The clear part has been frosted from the inside but still doesn't disperse the light so there is 2 layers of diffusing going in , just frosted clear plasticard, much as with the deflector shown below

enterprise024.jpg

Just frosting the deflector wasn't good enough to scatter the light from the led's which is quite intense. the plasticard disc holds the 2 led's, blue, and an ambery yellowy coloury!

That's about it for the mo folks, thanks!

Edited by Tabio
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello

I've been fitting some of the electronics, those in the bottom of the secondary hull, the power input connection, the blinker control board, the capacitors for the deflector lights, two of the 'relays' as they are described by the trekmodeller instructions- these are made from scrap circuit boards.

enterpriseprogress13feb001.jpg

enterpriseprogress13feb002.jpg

Warp nacelle grilles painted, frosted first then painted with Tamiya clear blue. Straight out of the pot didn't give as deep a blue when airbrushed as it seems to when brush painted as it is shown on my 1/1000 Enterprise,

enterpriseprogress13feb007.jpg

even with multiple coats it never darkened up and looked rubbish when light came through, so I painted more on with increasingly more Tamiya smoke added until i got a nice deep blue

enterpriseprogress13feb003.jpg

The impulse engine has been fitted

enterpriseprogress13feb004.jpg

and led's are in, etched grilles doing the job and looking good

enterpriseprogress13feb005.jpg

enterpriseprogress13feb006.jpg

That's it for now, thanks for looking :)

Edited by Tabio
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  • 2 weeks later...

Greetings folks,

not been up to much last week or two as I've been away, which was nice but now it's back to business!

I'd been bugged by the light on the starfleet symbol on the secondary hull, I had a bit of a conflict of interests here because I'd made the disc to carry the deflector lights as far back as possible to improve the light pattern and to get good diffusion in, being that far back it would be well into the lit area needed and there is also a joint there too so I was going to point the lights in the bottom of the saucer at it but it just wouldn't be right. So I set about scraping the painted inside of the hull to backlight it as I had on the saucer and plan to do on the nacelles...

Enterprise008.jpg

A card template was made of the shape to get it right on both sides, the smaller part being the bit that would fit in the first section of deflector housing.

Enterprise010.jpg

A plasticard part was made the shape of the smaller part and fitted inside that deflector part. The disc was cut to accomodate these 2 parts, and won't affect the lighting in the deflector being level with the led's.

Enterprise0043.jpg

Enterprise0032.jpg

Milliput was used to blend it all in and stop any gaps for light to leak through.

Enterprise0053.jpg

We end up with the desired effect, the light getting in behind the plasticard shape. the large lip had to be removed to get an even light pattern, a little filler will probably be needed when the secondary hull comes together, but fit seems to be pretty good so shouldn't be a big problem.

Enterprise009.jpg

Enterprise0062.jpg

The rear hull part has been carved out and an led will shine through there to illuminate the 'Enterprise' there, there is just enough room between shuttlebay floor and hull bottom for this which is a relief, it will look quite good hopefully.

Enterprise0022.jpg

I've also drilled out the 3mm holes for the thruster's flat led's in the dish housing so I can start painting it to lightproof it, hopefully getting the whole deflector bottom'y done soon. A little template is what's in front to get all the holes in the right place.

Enterprise012.jpg

The warp nacelle grilles have also been re- frosted to gather more light, they're a bit super shiney in the photo up there! Painted very dry- dusted on from about 3 foot away so the paint didn't react, it's lethal stuff as it's supposed to stick to glass!

enterprise0012.jpg

That's about it for the moment, thanks for looking and to those who have commented so far!

Regards, Andy

Edited by Tabio
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello,

not much again this week but some progress on the deflector. The wiring was made up for the thruster Led's, then it was all fitted in the housing, glued in and painted over to stop the light.

7mar11001.jpg

The black was painted over white before it was assembled to the other half of the housing.

7mar11002.jpg

The deflector had the strips painted on the dish

enterprise8march007.jpg

Tests of the deflector, looking good I think!

enterprise8march001.jpg

enterprise8march005.jpg

Nearly faded away after being turned off thanks to the capacitor

enterprise8march006.jpg

Amber light in the 'standby' mode

enterprise8march004.jpg

That's it for now!

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Great work so far, got one of these in the stash when Play.com were selling them off for £14.99. All I need now is a bigger house then I'll be able to build the thing :rolleyes:

John

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14.99!? That's a great buy. Fortunately I didn't pay the full 100 quid asking price they ask these days, but bought it from a fellow Britmodeller.

Thanks to all who are following and your comments.

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  • 1 month later...

I'm still hangin on in there, folks. But with all this lovely weather modelling has taken a back seat of late, I've been painting the shuttle bay interior so I can try and get the secondary hull put together. Here's one of the little Starfleet chappies who's going to be in the shuttle bay. Feel free to zoom this one lol

Enterprisecrew001.jpg

That's all as a little taster for now, hopefully some more soon! Cheers

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I've put a couple of guys on the walkway now. Hopefully It should be bright enough to see them all the way in the back.

moreEnterprisecrew010.jpg

moreEnterprisecrew011.jpg

moreEnterprisecrew012.jpg

He stayed at his post while the trainees ran.

Regards, Andy

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello peeps, got a few bits to share now, shuttlebay parts painted up

Mildenhall20May11214.jpg

led's for lighting up the turbolift shafts in the floor

Mildenhall20May11215.jpg

led for lighting up shuttlepod interior

Mildenhall20May11216.jpg

neck has been painted inside, leaving the lit area as on the saucer

Mildenhall20May11217.jpg

Warp nacelle all wired up (one done so far) the looms will have connectors on so it can be painted up then just hooked up in 4 bits, nacelles, saucer and engineering hull

Mildenhall20May11211.jpg

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lit up on the bench- blue looks deeper than this to the eye though which is good

Mildenhall20May11218.jpg

registry lighting

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front lights

Mildenhall20May11220.jpg

chiller grille lighty type bit thingy

Mildenhall20May11223.jpg

that's about it, perhaps too many pics but that's what it's all about!

Cheers folks

Edited by Tabio
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