USS Voyager (First Model Build)

[Extremedalek]

Hi All

 

Thanks to everyone who welcomed me to the forum in the other thread, and suggested I start a WIP thread - well here it is!

 

I think I've committed a cardinal sin already - painting before assembly. But the instructions did say to paint first...

 

Anyway, I've had a good productive day today. I've primed all the parts with Tamiya Light Grey primer, 2 coats of. In fact I'm using this for my base colour as suggested on a Star Trek modellers facebook group, and to my eye it does seem to be a pretty good match for "Federation Grey". So that's my base colour done as well. I used a spray can and I have to say the finish looks really nice.

 

I started painting the clear part for the nacelles last night, and finished them off today. This enabled me to assemble both nacelles and finally feel like I was making progress. Unfortunately I didn't do a very good job, and they do look a little  messy. I'm hoping a fine brush and a spot of paint fir touching up may help a little.

 

I've also decided the paint the main deflector dish and the smaller saucer section deflector copper, and this against the clear blue on the main deflector really does look nice. It also gives it a bit of lineage to the original Enterprise. I've also done the bussard scoop ribbed housing in copper as well.

 

I've also begun on the phaser strips - beige as per the instructions. I'm not thinning down my acrylics for the smaller details parts like these just using as is and it seems to be OK so far. I've only done one of the long sweeping phaser strips so far, one underneath the saucer section, and I did it free-hand rather than masking off. I think it looks pretty good by my standards, but I wonder would masking off be recommended for this job?

 

Tomorrow I'm cracking on with painting the grey window frames into the clear plastic window parts, then I can get them all glued into place in the saucer section.

 

I do have some darker grey panelling to paint in, but I haven't yet found a suitable grey. I'm off the Hobbycraft on Monday to see if I can pick one up. As these are quite large areas I do plan to mask these off and thin the paint before using - any tips for any of these? I already have some 6mm Revell masking tape.

Edited August 17, 2019 by Extremedalek

[Troy Smith]

43 minutes ago, Extremedalek said:

and suggested I start a WIP thread - well here it is!

 

Pics... or it didn't happen

 

Seriously,  photos really help determine what you are doing, right or wrong

(FWIW, if it gets you the results you wanted  that is 'the right way') but very hard to give feedback without any.

 

You don't need to be David Bailey either,  as long as they show what's going on,  they'll do, so if you have a reasonable phone camera, use that.

Or just get a cheap camera for model work,  I ended up getting off ebay for a fiver, posted, the model up from the first digital camera I ever had.

all the pics here were taken on this, using desk light, or natural light.

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235052380-hurricane-airfix-72nd-fabric-wing-mki-oob/

Quote

All pics on my 'toytown' camera.... 

By this I mean,  the first digital camera I had was borrowed and then inherited, and was I guess a 2nd generation digital camera,  by Concord, very basic, point and shoot lens.   But, I liked the results it gave.   I have had several 'better' cameras, but I mostly didn't use the features, and there were always other problems (none were new I must add)

My old one eventually died,  and after getting annoyed with the others,  I ended up searching for one on ebay, and as it's an obsolete model, got  a boxed one for for about £5 posted....  this is the model up, Concord 5062AF.     I really like that the batteries keep their charge for ages, and even in macro mode it doesn't show up every last tiny flaw...

 

You will need a photo hosting site,  there are threads on this, say if you can't find a thread. 

 

cheers

T

[Extremedalek]

22 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

 

Pics... or it didn't happen

 

Seriously,  photos really help determine what you are doing, right or wrong

(FWIW, if it gets you the results you wanted  that is 'the right way') but very hard to give feedback without any.

 

You don't need to be David Bailey either,  as long as they show what's going on,  they'll do, so if you have a reasonable phone camera, use that.

Or just get a cheap camera for model work,  I ended up getting off ebay for a fiver, posted, the model up from the first digital camera I ever had.

all the pics here were taken on this, using desk light, or natural light.

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235052380-hurricane-airfix-72nd-fabric-wing-mki-oob/

 

You will need a photo hosting site,  there are threads on this, say if you can't find a thread. 

 

cheers

T

Right you are - I'll upload some pics in the morning. My phone camera is pretty decent so should be no problem.

[Extremedalek]

As promised I've attached a few photos of the progress so far

 

Any comments suggestions or advice are most welcome!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Looks good ED

[Troy Smith]

52 minutes ago, Extremedalek said:

As promised I've attached a few photos of the progress so far

 

Any comments suggestions or advice are most welcome!

 

 

 

 

OK, I'm not sure how big this, and it might be a case of the "curse of the macro lens" 

The light brown bit, you may want to slightly thin you paint,  as it does not look that smooth (though, this maybe just in close up)

 

52 minutes ago, Extremedalek said:

 

 

 

 

 

In this, look like the seam needs work,  but , again, not sure of size, and if 'the seam' is actually there on the film model....

A good seam filler, is superglue and talc, dries fast, easy to work as long as you work as soon as the glue has dried, when it's cured it's harder than the plastic.

Does mean that you can deal with seams quickly, rather than waiting for filler to dry as well.

 

Otherwise, they look good, neat and tidy,  one other point,  photos of your work are also a useful tool, as sometime when up on the screen, it shows up areas you have missed,  though 'the macro photo' can show up things that I'd be hard pressed to spot in real life except with powerful reading glasses and a very bright light, so if it looks OK in macro, then it fine for the shelf!

 

It's easy to go down the rabbit hole of self criticism, and then nothing ever gets finished (one of my faults) so I'd say the above looks fine,  my comments were made as you asked for comments and advice,  I hope these were of use.

cheers

T

 

 

 

[Extremedalek]

13 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

OK, I'm not sure how big this, and it might be a case of the "curse of the macro lens" 

The light brown bit, you may want to slightly thin you paint,  as it does not look that smooth (though, this maybe just in close up)

 

In this, look like the seam needs work,  but , again, not sure of size, and if 'the seam' is actually there on the film model....

A good seam filler, is superglue and talc, dries fast, easy to work as long as you work as soon as the glue has dried, when it's cured it's harder than the plastic.

Does mean that you can deal with seams quickly, rather than waiting for filler to dry as well.

 

Otherwise, they look good, neat and tidy,  one other point,  photos of your work are also a useful tool, as sometime when up on the screen, it shows up areas you have missed,  though 'the macro photo' can show up things that I'd be hard pressed to spot in real life except with powerful reading glasses and a very bright light, so if it looks OK in macro, then it fine for the shelf!

 

It's easy to go down the rabbit hole of self criticism, and then nothing ever gets finished (one of my faults) so I'd say the above looks fine,  my comments were made as you asked for comments and advice,  I hope these were of use.

cheers

T

Thanks for the responses. I did the underside of the sauce phaser strip forst just in case I needed the change how I did things, as it wouldn't be in full view once completed. I'll think the paint and have another go at the other side.

 

I've got plenty of the base colour left in a spray tin so I don't think there'd be much hassle in filling/sanding/masking and respraying so that's something that gone onto my "to do" list.

13 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

 

 

 

[Tomjw]

I've just bought this kit, so I'll follow this one if I may?

 

A great start. I love the detail painting on the 'greebly' part of the saucer section.

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

[Extremedalek]

6 minutes ago, Tomjw said:

I've just bought this kit, so I'll follow this one if I may?

 

A great start. I love the detail painting on the 'greebly' part of the saucer section.

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

Ha thanks, and I love your word "greebly"!

 

Done a little work this afternoon. Masking off for a bit of dark grey detailing. The instructions call for these parts to be aluminium silver but I wanted to continue to scheme from the "greebly" parts on the saucer to tie both sections of the hull together.

 

 

 

Also finished and assembled the main deflector array. Really please with this. I think the copper on clear blue really looks the biz.

 

 

[Thom216]

Really liking the look of those sensor pallets. Nice little bit of color among the gray there. 

 

Another idea for a seam-filler is Perfect Plastic Putty. It's water based, so you can wipe away excess before it dries, and it's easy to sand.

[Extremedalek]

A bit more done over the course of this week. Found my mid grey for the panelling details and they've all been masked and given three coats of *thinned* paint 😀

 

Bought the correct brushes as well (for acrylic paints) and it went on like a dream. Next up is the detailing on the saucer sections and the phaser strips. What's the thinking on using the tamiya curved masking tape for the phaser strips, or would I be as well doing it free hand?

 

Also I'm thinking of getting a black sharpie marker fine point to do the windows but this seems a bit like cheating. Is this a standard tool within the hobby?

 

One more question. I've made a bit of a hash of painting the frames on the clear windows. Is there an easy way to get the acrylic paint off and start again? They're still on the sprue. I've tried scratching off the paint with a bit of sharpened sprue but it's taking aaaages.

[Troy Smith]

2 hours ago, Extremedalek said:

Also I'm thinking of getting a black sharpie marker fine point to do the windows but this seems a bit like cheating. Is this a standard tool within the hobby?

If it works, it it's the right tool.  I think the only 'cheating' would be passing off someone else work as your own. 

 

2 hours ago, Extremedalek said:

 

 

One more question. I've made a bit of a hash of painting the frames on the clear windows. Is there an easy way to get the acrylic paint off and start again? They're still on the sprue. I've tried scratching off the paint with a bit of sharpened sprue but it's taking aaaages.

depends on the acrylic paint type (Brand?) but usually some type of alcohol, Isopropyl for example, will dissolve the paint. If you don't have any Vodka should work..

  Experiment on scrap first to be sure.

[DalekCheese]

Coming on beautifully (love the username btw). I’m not sure what paints you’re using on the blue, but you might want to highlight raised blue parts a slightly lighter shade.

[HoolioPaulio]

On 23/08/2019 at 18:07, Extremedalek said:

A bit more done over the course of this week. Found my mid grey for the panelling details and they've all been masked and given three coats of *thinned* paint 😀

 

Bought the correct brushes as well (for acrylic paints) and it went on like a dream. Next up is the detailing on the saucer sections and the phaser strips. What's the thinking on using the tamiya curved masking tape for the phaser strips, or would I be as well doing it free hand?

I have found buying good quality brushes makes a world of difference where brush painting is required.

 

On 23/08/2019 at 18:07, Extremedalek said:

Also I'm thinking of getting a black sharpie marker fine point to do the windows but this seems a bit like cheating. Is this a standard tool within the hobby?

I agree with @Troy Smith here.  The only form of cheating in modelling is passing off someone elses work as your own.  As Troy said, if it works its the right tool for the job.  I think most modellers will always be on a quest to find whatever gets the best results in the quickest way.  I have been recommended a sharpie type pen on this very forum for getting neat and accurate window rubbers on cars, so give it a try

 

On 23/08/2019 at 18:07, Extremedalek said:

One more question. I've made a bit of a hash of painting the frames on the clear windows. Is there an easy way to get the acrylic paint off and start again? They're still on the sprue. I've tried scratching off the paint with a bit of sharpened sprue but it's taking aaaages.

Again, Troy nailed it here.  Depends on the paints being used.  I use Vallejo acrylics, so when I messed up the clear piece for the rear lights on my RX-7 build, I simply soaked the part in neat Vallejo airbrush cleaner for 30 mins or so, then is just easily brushed off with an old toothbrush I keep for cleaning models and tools where needed.

 

I'm loving your progress so far, keep up the great work my friend.

 

Paul