Cool/Interesting/Funny Fanatic/Geek Movie/TV/'other' Collectible Stuff

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Mail room didn't bring the stuff delivered this morning over to this building today, and I got too busy to go over and get the boxes for the big E.
So tomorrow will be the day to start on it.

So many decisions to make:

Fill in or don't fill in the groves on the saucer section.
Bridge lined up with the turbo-lift or view-screen facing front (It's cool that the model has the option for both).
Light the vents on the insides of the warp engines or not.
Light the impulse engines or not.
Light all the windows or black out the ones that were always dark on the show.

Pretty much decided not to do the lights on the warp engine vents.  I've seen video of people that did it and it just looks wrong.

I don't think any models used during the original series had lights on the impulse engines, so that's a harder decision, it doesn't look wrong to me when looking at what people have done, so I might go with a faint red glow in those squares.

The bridge alignment, leaning towards the 30° offset so the turbo-shaft doors line up with the exterior bump for it.  That's the way it is in the blue-prints and technical manuals I got as a kid.  Besides, how will the little people get onto the bridge?  And it's not like the view-screen is a window, doesn't matter what direction it faces.

I'll have to wait to see the parts to tell how badly the grooves on the hull bother me.  That will depend somewhat on what color the plastic is, if I like the plastic color I would lean towards not painting the entire thing, so wouldn't fill.  If I do decide to paint the entire thing I'd probably fill in the grooves.

Been looking at a lot of images of the 11 foot model, old and new, the terrible paint job it currently has while on display makes me sad every time I see it...

Been watching a lot of the build videos on YouTube, seems with the bright LEDs inside you need pretty thick paint on the inside to block light leaks, so that will add extra time to the build.  The model design already has tongue and grove on all the seams so that makes light blocking much easier.  I already decided to put the circuit boards in a box outside the model, just seems wrong to seal up a model and have stuff that could die inside (If I test the LEDs for long enough first to weed out any bad ones they should last forever once installed).  With custom wiring I can get it down to 4 pairs of wires going into the model at the base.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Damn this thing is huge...

And should be as sturdy as everyone says, just putting the main pieces together held with some scotch tape on the seams and it wasn't even sagging much...

Some picts of testing the fit with taped together parts:







Video of the bussard collectors turned on (frame rate of the video messes up the rotation):

[RVR II]

*Kirk voice* 'SPACE! ... The Final Frontier!'

That looks Awesome!!:o

[RVR II]

Now if they could make a Battlestar Galactica and Imperial cruiser based on this scale..

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Now if they could make a Battlestar Galactica and Imperial cruiser based on this scale..

A Galactica the size of my Enterprise model would only be something like 1/1880 scale.
A 1/350 scale model would be the size of a car...

[Sideswipe]

I've seen scalings elsewhere based on the size of the launch tubes that indicate a much smaller Galactica, around 600 meters.  That would make it smaller than NCC 1701 D.

[RoninFox]

NERDS!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Hiding my jealousy, because I want that model, and I was never good at putting them together.)

[MartyS (Gromit)]

NERDS!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Hiding my jealousy, because I want that model, and I was never good at putting them together.)

This one is very well designed, fits together really nicely.  It's the filling the seams, sanding, and painting that has me worried.  I'm up to about $360 on it so far between the kits and supplies, don't want it to suck when done....

[LucasM]

Luckily, Marty, it doesn't look like the grooves are overly deep (as pictures indicated).  I'm beginning to think that for the model used in the advertising pics that they'd used the 'paint deep and wipe off surface paint' technique to get them to stand out.  Or is it just the lighting for the pics you took?  [i.e. do you plan to fill and paint the whole thing to eliminate them?]

Next time, could you put something in the frame that gives a sense of scale?  The thermometer/(hygrometer or barometer?) on the wall gives a bit of an idea, but not enough.  [No rush on that. ]

Looks awesome.

I'm with RoninFox, I was never terribly good at putting models together (at least not more complex ones).

This is the ship model I'd really like... no assembly required.  Problem is, I just can't see spending that kind of money on it, regardless how much I'd like it.

[pic is link]  It's a foot long, opens with accurate interior (bridge, crew quarter corridor, and kitchen), but is $329 'on sale' (from $350).

[Sideswipe]

I am sure you probably know this already, but take your time! 

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I am sure you probably know this already, but take your time!

Took me about 4 hours to get those lights looking like that, so yeah, it's going to take a while.  I wanted a more authentic frosted glass look so spent a long time with a green scrubbing pad on the inside of the outer dome and outside of the spinning dome.  The place for the black lines is recessed so you can paint them in and sand to get a nice looking spinner.

It's going to take a while just to get the correct paints, and enough for the entire hull is going to be a challenge.

Going to hit up the other Hobbytown USA store that's a little farther away and buy them out of Tamya FX12 grey.  The shop I was at tonight only had 2 bottles, so I've got a grand total of 33ml of it...  You're supposed to mix it with a little white for the hull, and I do plan to thin it out a bit so it covers in thinner coats, but there's a lot of hull to cover on this thing...  Can't really spray paint in my apartment so will have to use my brush skills...

Sorry LucasM, I already disassembled everything to start painting the inside, for light blocking, those LEDs are so bright if you don't paint the inside the plastic glows and you lose the effect of nice lit up windows. 

The model when done is 32 inches long, the saucer section is just shy of 14.5 inches in diameter.

That stand it's on is an old floor lamp I replaced, had converted it into a shorter lamp but never used it, so it will be a nice stand for the model.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Luckily, Marty, it doesn't look like the grooves are overly deep (as pictures indicated).  I'm beginning to think that for the model used in the advertising pics that they'd used the 'paint deep and wipe off surface paint' technique to get them to stand out.  Or is it just the lighting for the pics you took?  [i.e. do you plan to fill and paint the whole thing to eliminate them?]

They are thinner than a fingernail,and pretty shallow.

I'm going to see how they look after sanding and painting, they should be even less noticeable then.  So I may not have to fill them.  You are right they do stand out more in promotional pictures.  From what I understand the company that made the model originally (this is a reissue by the company that bought out that one) hired the guy that did the restoration on the 11 foot model at the Smithsonian.  He was the one that pushed for the lines, I suppose they also took his advice to make them stand out in promotional pictures.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

The grid lines on the bottom are a little more noticeable, especially after the first painting.

So, decisions decisions.....  If I do fill in the grid lines I guess I'll also fix the light holes, the 3 on each side of the bottom are too far back, the 2 in back need to be filled and 2 new ones drilled on the other side...


Gray is a pain in the ass to photograph, even putting colors in so I could try to adjust in paint shop pro, but this was the closest I could get and it doesn't really show the color of the paint properly (That's a standard 8.5x11 sheet of paper for white color and scale):


Cool thing about the kit, and what adds to it's cost, is all the windows and domes are molded in black, white, clear, and some parts more colors that come in the lighting kit.  So there are throw away windows available to put in while working on the thing.

Edit:  The more I look at the lines the more I don't like them, so the long process of filling them in has begun...

[LucasM]

I agree... if the lines on the bottom had been as shallow as those on top, maybe.  But those on the bottom are way more noticeable than the panel joints were in the series.  At least it's big enough where there's some 'work room' for you to get at them all.  Unfortunate about the mis-placed lights and such.

Good luck.  A lot of work, but looks like it'll kick butt when done.

Edit: Oh, and yeah, it looks freakin' huge with the normal sheet of paper there.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I agree... if the lines on the bottom had been as shallow as those on top, maybe.  But those on the bottom are way more noticeable than the panel joints were in the series.  At least it's big enough where there's some 'work room' for you to get at them all.  Unfortunate about the mis-placed lights and such.

Took about 3 hours to fill the lines, close to 2 hours sanding and cleaning, just put a coat of paint on and the top looks great, lines are still there only if you look at light reflection at an angle, so barely there.  The bottom they were so wide it was hard to sand them flat with the surface, so slightly more visible than the top but not as jarring as original.

Actually it kind of looks like the hull of remastered HD Enterprise now, so I can live with that...

With the grid lines almost gone the misplacement of those 3 lights doesn't stand out, so I don't think I'll mess with drilling holes and trying to fill in the unused ones.

Good luck.  A lot of work, but looks like it'll kick butt when done.

Edit: Oh, and yeah, it looks freakin' huge with the normal sheet of paper there.

It is huge, don't know were I'm going to put it when it's done....

Edit: Second coat of paint and the lines are even fainter, tomorrow some sanding and a third coat and I think I'll be happy with it.

Edit2: this morning some sanding and another coat of paint, now I'm really liking the look.  Have now switched from worried about building it to looking forward to getting it done...  Still worried about the seam when the saucer section goes together, the windows are very close to it, it's going to be tricking masking them off so they don't get ruined when working to hide the seam.