Modelling and Painting

[RetrogradeOrbit]

My painting skills are not that good...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Well Boys and Girls, that's the best I can do...
Semi gloss clear coat in a couple of days to seal and protect the paint.

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

In Enterprise news... These have arrived from Shapeways.
Enhancements for my next projects. I won't insult your intelligence by saying what they are...

That is a £1 coin which is 22mm or 55/64" or 0.866" in diameter. For scale...

They are designed to be painted, have decals applied and to be lit.


Okay. I will tell you.
They are both for my next two big projects, Polar Lights 1/350 Enterprise (TOS and TMP)
Expect at least the next two years of my life to be eaten up!

 

[Flash525]

I hope you’re going to throw a Disco Enterprise into the mix at some point. I also think (if you’d be willing) to be a bit more original with the naming - everyone uses Enterprise.

Happy to provide options.

 

[MissMarvelous]

Nice! Are those costumes for £1 coins, then... Lovely.

:P

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

I hope you’re going to throw a Disco Enterprise into the mix at some point. I also think (if you’d be willing) to be a bit more original with the naming - everyone uses Enterprise.

Happy to provide options.

I appreciate the thought and the offer! Even though I am going to have to decline...
You see, I've been a Star Trek fan for as long as I can remember. Two of my earliest memories are watching the moon landings in 1969 and Star Trek on UK TV the same year on the BBC...
And I totally fell in love with the refit Enterprise when I saw Star Trek The Motion Picture in December 1979.

So to call the the TOS and TMP ships I am going to build anything other than "Enterprise" is just not going to be possible for me.

@Flash525
I am curious though, what names and registry numbers did you have in mind?

With regards to the DiscoPrise... I guess I am just a bit too old to consider Discovery or Picard as Star Trek to me.
Although, I do appreciate the fact that the design of Discovery does harken back to the concept art for the re-imagined Enterprise when it was going to be "Planet of the Titans" by the legendary Ralph McQuarrie...

Now, if you wanna talk about Star Trek Strange New Worlds...

 

[Flash525]

I appreciate the thought and the offer! Even though I am going to have to decline...

[snip]

So to call the the TOS and TMP ships I am going to build anything other than "Enterprise" is just not going to be possible for me.

I can appreciate and respect your position here.

I am curious though, what names and registry numbers did you have in mind?

Well there’s a number of other ships we’ve seen on screen such as the Intrepid, Defiant, Potemkin, Farragut etc, but I’ve always liked the idea of borrowing names from other shows;

• USS Rocinante (the Expanse)
• USS Yoshiro (George Takei’s character in Red Alert 3)
• USS Sheridan (Babylon 5)
• USS Crichton (Farscape)
• USS Apophis (Stargate)
• USS O’Neill (also Stargate)
• USS Emmett Brown (I needn’t spill this one)

...there’s an endless list really.

With regards to the DiscoPrise... I guess I am just a bit too old to consider Discovery or Picard as Star Trek to me.

Now if you wanna talk about Star Trek Strange New Worlds...

I’ve enjoyed Discovery, more season two, which I wonder whether that was because of Anson’s portrayal of Pike than the show itself. I guess Discovery Season 3 will be a deciding factor on that front.

That said, whilst I adore the latest rendition of the Constitution Class, I am not remotely fond of the Discovery model. Horrible.

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

If a 1/350 scale version of the DiscoPrise(!) ever becomes available, I might just take the plunge...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

This arrived...


Which obvs(!) goes with this... I took another picture with my telephoto lens in macro mode...

Still can't get it all in bloody focus! I need to go fully manual and on my tripod. But that's for another day...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

I tried to be clever...

 

[MissMarvelous]

Looks very good! Is it done?

Are those "lenses"? There are three holes... What are those? You could add some liquid glass mix in there. But anyways, I have no idea what that really is.

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

I think the three size of tubes represent different phaser settings... But I’m not a Discovery Phaser expert!

It’s as done as I can do it...

 

[MissMarvelous]

Maybe @Flash525 knows what that is...

 

[Flash525]

Maybe @Flash525 knows what that is...

Hah, Trek technobabble eh? Presumably yeah. Stun. Kill. Vaporise the evidence.

 

[MissMarvelous]

Hah, Trek technobabble eh? Presumably yeah. Stun. Kill. Vaporise the evidence.

Vaporise me? Huh...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Ooops. Missed a bit on the undersides...


Not now. But I am going to have to leave this to fully harden for the next several days...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Guess I'll build the light box for K.I.T.T.s scanner leds then...



And wait 24 hours for all the glue to totally harden so that I can sand it down to make it all fit nicely inside the body.
The scanner lights are not arriving until next week anyway...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

I do hope I haven't screwed up the red thingy!

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

I decided to look at an old thread I made back in 2018 that actually (I think) ended up winning me a Hype award(!) - Shameless plug, sorry...
Imagine my horror when I realised that all of the build process images had vanished because TinyPic is no more...

Anyhow, I had all of the pictures I took of the build and I have spent the last several hours going through the posts and rebuilding all of the images.
You might be interested to take a peek, so if you do want to...

Great Scott! It's a hoverboard thread...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

At least this sanded nice and flush...

I know the leds will fit into those slots... Hopefully they will get delivered tomorrow.

In the meantime, I looked at the car body and where I had sprayed the underside, there had been overspray that went onto the sides. Which I was afraid of. Tried to sand it back with 7000 grit wet & dry, but it just didn't work.
So, once again, I stripped the paint back to plastic.

But this time when I sprayed, I did the underside bits first...

Now to leave it for at least 24 hours. As long as it is covered okay, I will go with it this time. I can't face stripping it back yet again...

Hopefully the only thing left is to give it a blast of lacquer after putting the last few bits on...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Paintwork on the body does not match what is on the headlamp covers, probably because I had hand painted them. So, a quick strip back and prime and gloss the same as the body...

Sod it. I'm done...

 

[MissMarvelous]

Why from that angle, tho'? We cannot see the surface. And you know it.

 

[MissMarvelous]

Ohh, I'm getting so good at this jajaj I feel like Simon Cowell

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Why from that angle, tho'? We cannot see the surface. And you know it.

But, but that's the bit I painted...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

I made another test spoon with the same primer and gloss on the car body


Then I slapped on a couple of coats of gloss clear enamel lacquer


1) I need more spoons!
2) This is a great way to test if the different paints work with one another
3) If that finish stays anywhere near as good as it looks now, I am doing it on the body