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1:350 Polar Lights Enterprise A Refit


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I already posted a couple of pics in the new members section of this but I thought that I would document it properly here.

 

This is my WIP 1:350 Enterprise refit. The project stalled back in 2010 when I ended up taking on a lot of other projects. I have just now decided to crack on with it and bring the project to conclusion.

 

The model is painted in white with interference paint for the aztecs and will feature full lighting controlled by an arduino board in the base/stand.

 

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Edited by Father Cool
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Why thank you sir. I enjoyed looking at yours the other day.

 

The aztecing on this has been a pain in masking. I was masking the warp nacelles for over 4 hours the other night to spray for 10 minutes before removing it all.

 

As I am using 3 colours of interference paint (red/green, blue/purple and gold/green) its been a slow process. The colours are very subtle too which makes you wonder if it was worth it. I didn't want it to shout too much though as the studio enterprise A had the colours knocked back after issues filming the original ships colours against the blue screen.

 

I'm very much looking forward to the lights going on!

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45 minutes ago, Father Cool said:

Why thank you sir. I enjoyed looking at yours the other day.

 

The aztecing on this has been a pain in masking. I was masking the warp nacelles for over 4 hours the other night to spray for 10 minutes before removing it all.

 

As I am using 3 colours of interference paint (red/green, blue/purple and gold/green) its been a slow process. The colours are very subtle too which makes you wonder if it was worth it. I didn't want it to shout too much though as the studio enterprise A had the colours knocked back after issues filming the original ships colours against the blue screen.

 

I'm very much looking forward to the lights going on!

Can I assume you are using a airbrush? I sadly don’t have access to one so it’s either hand paint or rattle cans for me. 

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Yes I do use an airbrush. It is the best thing that you will ever buy. The cheaper chinese copies are perfectly fine for what we do and the added bonus is that when they start to perform badly you just buy another as they cost a fraction of the expensive ones.

 

I do still brush paint as well though. Each technique is still valid depending on what you are doing at the time!

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Hi yes.

 

The main aztec pattern is formed using aztec dummy masks applied to the matt white base colour. This is sprayed over with gold/green interference paint to create the main colour and contrast. Its subtle and looks like a matt/satin constrast but with a gold on the reflected light at certain angles.

 

The whole thing was then covered in further masks based on the frisket masks made for the studio model. These were done in several variations for use with blue/violet and red/green interference paints. Again this is pretty subtle and you only see the colour at certain angles when reflecting light. No where near as rainbow effect as the motion picture version or some other models I have seen online, although they do look excellent. It still adds a certain interest though which is what I was going for. When catching the light at an angle where it doesn't reflect then you get a darker shade much like satin/gloss paint verses matt which gives a nice panel variation.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/14/2018 at 6:14 PM, Father Cool said:

As I am using 3 colours of interference paint (red/green, blue/purple and gold/green) its been a slow process. The colours are very subtle too which makes you wonder if it was worth it.

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 :) 

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Hi Steve thanks for the positive comments.

 

The aztecs were done with aztec dummy masks, not cheap but worth it. For the extra panel details I cut my own masks from frisket sheets based on the ones used by Paul Olsenwhen he painted the motion picture ship.

 

For the 1:537 scale, is your version the one with the panels scribed in? That will make painting tough as the model should actually be smooth apart from the shield grid lines, aztec dummy do do masks for it though and there are some online with the patterns masked off. There are people who have filled in the scribes on theirs too but damn that's a tedious job.

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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!

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There is no reason to not do the aztecs on the 1:537. It will still look better than without.

 

I look forward to seeing the build.

 

Anyway I finished painting up the main colours on the strongback of the secondary hull. The panel lines around the edges need some treatment but I'm also not 100% happy with the colour. Looks much too dark I think. I will probably tidy up the panel lines and then blow the lot over with a grey/white to knock back the richness. Its amazing how different paint looks in the mixing pot compared to when you get it on.

 

Please excuse the buzzard collectors too, I haven't finished painting them yet.

 

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Went into a Starfleet day dream, yep I'm 51 and still daydream of the show and the ships.. a highlight was about 12 years ago when the Star Trek exhibition was in Hyde park. At no particular point a group of about 10 visitors were ushered up to a pair of elevator doors. Only they were not elevator doors, oh no. With an all too familiar "schweep" the doors swept back to reveal a full size Enterprise D bridge.. now, that was a moment.....

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  • 3 weeks later...

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