SteveR

That looks amazing! Very nice :) I've seen some people use a soft pencil to bring out the deeper panel lines. Is that how you did yours?

Thanks @RACETRACK I looked in to this a bit after someone else also mentioned DS9. The model does indeed look like it's based on the Enterprise featured in the DS9 episode 'Trials and Tribble-ations' which does have the grid lines... it made me feel better about not filling them in and trying to be faithful to the original series version I'd also love to build/have a 1/350 Enterprise, but I think the Mrs might get upset as I've not really got anywhere to display my models (yet)! The model I've shown above is a good size though, not too big but big enough to really get stuck in to, I really enjoyed building it. Even now, more than a year after I finished it I still enjoy plugging it in and looking at it

Oh crap... I've just got mine out of the box and it does indeed have the panels scribed in I'll have to think about what to do, but I may forget about the aztecs on my Revell model, treat it as a bit of a test run (for lighting and colours etc) and maybe look at getting the Polar Lights version at a later date! Thanks for the info though! When I eventually get started on it I'll be posting my work in progress here so you can all see what I'm doing wrong Anyway, I'm really looking forward to more updates on your build, thanks for posting!

Oh it's worth it, it looks amazing! In fact like others I'm very interested in how you did the aztecs. I've got a Revell Enterprise Refit build (1:537 scale) coming up and I want to to have the full on aztec paint job (I will be lighting it too). I've never attempted any paintwork like it before though so I'm really blown away with how good yours looks, I can only hope mine will look half as good as yours, and I'll still be happy

Looks great! You probably know that the Reliant was originally designed with the warp nacelles on top, but when the drawings went for approval they were viewed upside down! They were approved upside down with the nacelles on the bottom and that's how it stayed! A lucky mistake that made the Reliant a stand-out ship and one of my favourites I only say this because it's interesting to wonder if the ship had been in the original series, which way up would it have been!? Great work, and great photos!

Very nice opus999! Also, the detail in your posts is very useful to a relative novice like myself! Thanks

Let battle commence! That looks like an amazing model though, lovely detailing and nice lighting. The K'Tinga was the ship I wanted when I bought my Klingon Battle Cruiser D7, which I just posted a work-in-progress for. I'll probably try to get one when my skill level is a bit higher I'm really looking forward to seeing your build!

Klingon Battle Cruiser D7 I’ve finally gotten around to posting my work-in-progress Revell Klingon Battle Cruiser D7! I’ve had these hanging around now for a long time and I didnt take a huge number of photos, wish I took more (will do next time) but here’s what I’ve got so far! I’ve washed and tidied up the parts here and I’m about to start giving them a coat of adhesion promoter – to make sure the final paint job is hard-wearing. Between here and the next photo I’ve given everything a coat of adhesion promoter and primer. The inside also had a black coat then a coat of reflective white. Overkill perhaps, but certainly no light will be leaking out! Here I’ve got the engine circuit pulsing the two red outer LEDs while the two inner orange ones stay on. The back of the engine compartment is covered with grease proof paper to diffuse the light once it's all put together. Testing the engine unit before putting it on the model. The red engine light pulses gently. Here, I’ve pushed a red LED up in to the bridge area of the model and used hot glue to fill it in. To stop the light bleeding out I’ve painting the glue black. I've pushed the LED in to the photon torpedo tube and glued it in to place. I've covered it in hot glue which I'm going to paint black to stop light leakage. You can also see the grease proof paper covernig the windows. And here it is, the first real mistake I’ve Glued and light-locked all the parts for the head of the ship, now it’s time to glue the parts together…. The white LEDs in the image provide the white lighting for the front windows, but I’ve got the sticking upwards, so the top and bottom sections no longer fit together! With some cursing and rearranging of the LED, glue and plastic in the head section it now all fits together nicely. The image shows it powered up. The warp nacelles are pretty thin, especially with the clear parts fitted so I had to light them from the ends. The clear parts are again covered with grease proof paper to help soften the light. Hot glue (love that stuff) is again used to hold the LEDs in position. When the other half is put in place it’s a snug fit bit just about all fits. Sorry about the focus on this one. I’m about to glue the top section and warp nacelles in to place. The photo shows the mess of wiring running through the model. Not the best photo here, but the model is about ready for painting. I just need to mask all the clear parts first! I hope I can find time to do the painting before Christmas, I’ll update here when I’ve got more to show! Thanks all

Hey all, I got a Revell U.S.S Reliant in the post this morning, to go with the Enterprise refit that I've had for a few weeks now! Both are the same 1:537 scale. The Reliant is my second favourite ship, after the refit Enterprise so I'm really looking forward to building and lighting these two! First though I have to finish my Klingon D7 kit. It's built and lit, but not painted. This one has taken me a long time due to family complications, but I'll post my build progress in the 'Work In Progress' forum soon So much fun to be had, so little time to have it!

Nice! The updated paint job and decals look great, well worth the effort I'd say

Very nicely done! It's a pretty small model too isn't it?

Thanks again for the kind words all @Mikey-1980 & @Mike I originally planned to use a Raspberry Pie to control the lighting, in the end I built my own circuit(s) because I was worried abut running the wiring through the whole model to the base for all those LEDs and for both nacelles, so no programming. The chips I used for the warp nacelles were a '555 timer' to provide timing and a '4017 decade counter' to control the order LEDs were lit. I've uploaded my notes, diagrams and Pad2Pad circuit projects to NCC1701 Circuits The zip contains two folders, 'NavigationLights' and 'WarpNacelle'. Both contain Pad2Pad project files you can edit, as well as the BMP images I used to print the circuits in order to apply to single sided photosensitive boards. The 'WarpNacelle' folder also contains a text file with some important and useful info. If you use them, please treat them as experimental and be careful, I'm no expert! As an alternative to building the boards/circuits yourself, I think @Madmonk is a bit of an expert with this kind of thing and even sells some lighting kits, so it might be worth checking out what he can help you with. He had some great advice for me on the electronics that I plan to put in to practice after my current build-in-progress, a Klingon D7 Battlecruiser! @Victory-is-in-the-Kitchen I have an AMT NCC-1701 Refit on the shelf waiting for me. As I'm a beginner I have several models to do first before I get to it... I really want it to be good as it's by far my favourite version of the Enterprise Thanks again everyone!

Amazing work, the detailing is excellent and, that cockpit!!! Very nice!

Very nice! I loved the original series too. I keep looking for small models I can do quickly as I don't seem to have much time for anything at the moment, but most seem to be Star Wars related... which I'm not really that interested in

That's very effective, and a great approach to the lighting In my last (finished) project, a Revell Enterprise NCC1701 I built my own boards; used 555s and 4017s to control the lighting. It worked out well, but I think I'll try those Arduino Nano's next time, it looks like it would save a lot of time and effort Thanks for the inspiration!