Aztec Decals

[barry136]

A little confused. This Aztec decal thingy for federation starships. Is this supposed to represent the panelling on the hull of a starship or is it just a decoration? If you watch the films you see the ships are constructed with alternating light and dark panels. I am currently building the Reliant. I do not have the money or inclination to buy any add-on decals, which most people are recommending. When you see the ship portrayed in ST-TWOK it appears to have just the simple alternating panel appearance. Am I missing something?

[GreenDragon]

The Aztec decals are supposed to represent the construction panels but aren't to everyones taste, I did all my builds without them. Movie Enterprise I did (several times) with a patchwork of different whites/off-whites for the panels. Enterprise D's Aztecing was painted freehand and drove me mental!!!! It's a lot easier to make a patterned mask and spray a section at a time if you're good with an airbrush (I'm crap at it!).

Did Reliant overall white (customer preference) and it still looked great.

Have to do the 1/350th NX-01 for a mate with the Aztec decals, Not looking forward to it!

It really all comes down to how you want it to look.

HTH

 

Paul Harrison

[barry136]

Thanks for the input. I have been studying a some more film footage and the colour variation on the panels is very very suttle. In some light you can hardly see the distinct panels at all. I will keep to the original spec and do the suttle colour variant as best I can. I have tried today to make templates and transfers to do this but even the Gerber FX printer I use cannot quite get the look I want. I will resort to lots of masking and do them by hand. I will give it my best shot. The build is in the WIP forum and I will be doing some more this week.