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Polar Lights 1/350 USS Enterprise


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Looking good so far. I've been tempted to pick this kit up myself but always managed to beat the urge. Looking forward to seeing this when completed.

I have heard Polar Lights are doing an Enterprise TOS in the same scale with all optional parts and a bespoke lighting kit!

Christof.

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Hola! Yeah there is the original 1701 kit out there in 1/350 scale. There are any number of additions you can get for them, photo etch sets for additional detail, LED and fibre optic lighting, you name it! Ive been having quite a dilema and pain in the back side trying to decide on the main colour for the hull. In the first movie, the motion picture shes much darker, more metallic and has very prominment "aztec" hull panelling. In the later films shes softer, more grey in colour. My pain in the backside is I bought a nice pearlescent titanium paint, but its far too dark for showing any detail in the decals when they are applied, so I will have to change to a softer, almost white shade, which im not overly keen on but seems to be the main choice for this kit. *sigh*

Oh and, Happy New Year everyone!!

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Following this one: Good luck with the "Aztec" paint-job! HIGHLY recommend the Paragrafix Photo-Etch set for this baby, Especially if your looking to do a bit more than just "throw her together & call it done!" build.

From experience, watch out for the joint where the warp pylons meet the secondary hull: this is a poor joint, and needs a little help with filler & re-enforcing.

Finally: original 1701 Refit or the -A ?

Either way, Good Luck!

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The base colour for the movie refit Enterprise is Pearlescent White. The reason I found this out is that somewhere on the Starshipmodeler site is an article written by the guy who actually did the painting of the original filming model, and also id the reason why it never looks the same colour in photographs

Colbee2004

Edited by colbee2004
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Yeah I too remember reading that article. White as a base colour is hard to believe though, look at the differences, the first is from the motion picture, the 2nd is from after wrath of khan

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100517032639/imagine/images/1/12/Final_enterprise_refit.jpg

http://starsmedia.ign.com/stars/image/article/846/846996/enterprise-1701-001_1201053407.jpg

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Hi guys, bit of an update here, the project is slowly but surely coming along. Did some work on the shuttle/cargo bay today, also totally changed the overall colour of the hull, and lighting kit arrived in the post. All being well thats all the materials and supplies I need to complete this beast!

Anyway, enough of this chit chat!

 

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Shuttlebay still isnt finished, this is just a dry fit, and the blue deck still needs a coat of varnish to finish it. Plus all the other extra bits eg cargo pods. Quite a bit of filling to be done here to prevent any light leaks!

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  • 4 months later...

Its been a while, so here is a bit of an update! Ive the main components assembled now and all the wiring complete. Its just a case of filling in the gaps with some filler and then onto the paint job! So glad to have this monsterous part complete now!

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Edited by chris1984_99_99
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Well lighting for this was a tough choice, there are a few kits out there to choose from. In the end I opted for the Madman lighting kit, and bought the small starship kit, which isnt really meant for the large 1/350 scale Enterprise, but to be honest I didnt want to pay too much and anyway, theres loads of the kit I ended up not using anyway! I also use (and you might laugh) a set of christmas tree lights for the main cabin and flood lights on the ship. I used the method of painting the inside of the hulls while masking off areas to allow light to shine through thus giving the illusion of floodlights for the likes of the name and registry.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Time for a bit of an update me thinks!

Well in the last few weeks Ive been filling in any gaps where there has been some light bleeding through. Ive got that more or less finished now. Going to test it again tonight as its best to do this at night with the lights on, have a look, then fill in the gaps then have another look again. Worst areas I found for this were along the rim of the primary hull, the bridge module, where the neck joins the primary hull, a couple of small sections on joins for the nacelles and where I connected the secondary hull to the neck, where there was some pretty heavy duty filling to be done.

Paint wise, I havnt invested in an airbrush as of yet, although to be honest in hindsight I wish I did before starting this monster. Ive spent a small fortune on spray paints online and in shops tryingto find various shades for the hull, ranging from pearlescent titanium bought on ebay to Humbrol and god knows how many others. To be honest I thought the Pearlescent Titanium would be the ideal for the base colour for the hull but it turned out to be too dark, so instead ive used it on the stand and highlights on the ship such as the darker parts of the engine nacelles.

In the end after months of trialing and buying paints, I opted for 2 shades of silver from the car shop just 1 minutes around the corner from me! 2 suble tones of metallic silver, of which ive coated her in 1 colour while I wait for the aztec masks to arrive from across the pond.

Ive finially trimmed the protruding fibre optic cables from the hull. I left them to stick out while I painted the hull to save masking, but after being like this for weeks they were getting to me and I trimmed them down today. A tiny blob of blue tac will do to cover them up should any more painting be required in those areas. One thing I would suggest to do is have a soldering iron handy when trimmimg fibre optics. When cutting them leave them about 1mm proud then present the soldering iron to the optic cable but dont touch it, just keep it a few mm about it and let the heat melt the cables end. This makes a huge difference it allowing the clean light to shine through.

Theres a lot of work still left to be done but shes slowly getting there! Cant wait to have a look at her again tonight! Anyway here are a few photos for your perusal!

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Edited by chris1984_99_99
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It could well have been lit up with Christmas tree lights, being the swinging 60's anything would go! I know she was mostly made out of wood, turned on a lathe to form the shape of the hulls. A bit different to model making for tv and films later on! The Motion Picture refit Enterprise which this baby is based on really was a labour of love, the work and craftmanship that went into that model really is breathtaking!

Edited by chris1984_99_99
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