wm cheng Posted September 18, 2003 Posted September 18, 2003 Hey all, This is what I've been doing for the past few days. I thought it would be a really easy build 3-4 hours since it was all painted and everything - but a few things bugged me and I ended up taking up more time to correct them. Overall it's an excellent kit, amazingly well engineered and its lit to boot! Additionally, the entire kit is pre-painted with all the subtle aztec panelling and really fine federation stenciling. After seeing what they could accomplish in printing these kits on these complicated surfaces, Yamato has no excuses in giving us a sticker sheet for a $200 toy! I pretty much built it straight out of the box, but I did drill out the lower arboretum windows (large blue ones) on the secondary hull and the rear lounge windows behind the bridge on the primary saucer section. I don't get why these were just printed on, there was obviously light behind them. I filled all the windows in with Krystal Keeler - a kind of white glue that dries absolutely transparent and glossy to simulate the windows instead of just drilled holes. Lastly the biggest job was to eliminate the crack/seam separating the two halves of the warp nacelles. Of course since I had to fill and sand the seams, I had to spend the next 2 hours trying to mix paint to match the pre-painted surfaces so I can repair what I sanded. I also filled in the crack/seam in the front of the saucer section that just stood out like that ugly gap in your front teeth (those who own this model knows what I am talking about). Overall I think I found a pretty good match and I am happy with it - its kind of a cross between a toy and model. Here's some shots, excuse the blurriness, I didn't properly set up a tripod for these slow exposures to show off the lights. Quote
wm cheng Posted September 18, 2003 Author Posted September 18, 2003 Oh yeah, I airbrushed the front clear deflector array in a clear blue and gradiated it to a darker blue near the edges. The included piece was just clear. Quote
wm cheng Posted September 18, 2003 Author Posted September 18, 2003 I love how they lit the warp nacelles and the impulse reactors. Quote
Mechamaniac Posted September 18, 2003 Posted September 18, 2003 (edited) Overall I think I found a pretty good match and I am happy with it - its kind of a cross between a toy and model. Yes, kind of like the MG or PG Gundam kits. I call them "Toydels" Very nice btw! After having, and building this kit myself, I have one major complaint. The porthole lights should not be as brightly lit as the damned Deflector Array!!. Edited September 18, 2003 by Mechamaniac Quote
wm cheng Posted September 18, 2003 Author Posted September 18, 2003 I would highly recommend this kit to any Trek fans out there. Its just a little pricy. Quote
Anubis Posted September 18, 2003 Posted September 18, 2003 I have one on my shelf, too. My only complaint is that the warp nacelles are not very sturdy or secure on their mounts. If I had to do it again I would have cemented them on. Looks great though. The Enterprise-E is now shipping at HLJ, by the way. Don't plan on getting one of those personally, but I would buy an Excelsior. Quote
Mechamaniac Posted September 18, 2003 Posted September 18, 2003 I have one on my shelf, too. My only complaint is that the warp nacelles are not very sturdy or secure on their mounts. If I had to do it again I would have cemented them on. Looks great though.The Enterprise-E is now shipping at HLJ, by the way. Don't plan on getting one of those personally, but I would buy an Excelsior. Sucky thing about the Enterprise E is that they made it 1/1700 scale, so you can't display it in scale with the 1/850 . Yes, it would be big, but did they have to cut it's size in half? That really sucks IMHO. Quote
SkullLeaderVF-X Posted September 19, 2003 Posted September 19, 2003 Damn. That ting looks goood! Quote
ewilen Posted September 19, 2003 Posted September 19, 2003 Beautiful. Brings me back to when I cared about Trek. Quote
alexborn007 Posted September 19, 2003 Posted September 19, 2003 Now, THAT is the starship Enterprise. Accept no substitutes I'd love to get one of those and give it the battle scars from 'Wrath Of Khan'. Too bad I don't know how lol. Quote
David Hingtgen Posted September 19, 2003 Posted September 19, 2003 I still have to get one of those... (Hey, anything's easier than making an Excelsior light up--especially since the deflector and ramscoops and impulse crystals and planetary sensor dome were molded OPAQUE) Maybe after I finish my USS Iowa/Ingersoll/Alaska/San Francisco/The Sullivans/Ticonderoga/other The Sullivans/Tirpitz/Scott. (Yes, quite the ship backlog I have--currently have 5 unfinished hulls laying around) And I DEFINITELY need to get the E: I've got an unbuilt Ertl -E, but the work to make it light up (while much less than my Lakota was), would still be WAY more than correcting any problems the Bandai might have. (And cost about the same, with how much it costs to light one up from scratch). Quote
UN Spacy Posted September 19, 2003 Posted September 19, 2003 Once again wm cheng GREAT work on the Enterprise-A model. Do you think it'd look a lot different if you DIDN'T add your personal touches? I might pick up the Enterprise-E but don't wanna hassle with any seems (like the one you mentioned). The A has the most gorgeous lines out of the other Enterprise's. B) Quote
Abombz!! Posted September 19, 2003 Posted September 19, 2003 Now thats how you can save the Star Trek franchise!! B) Quote
Isamu Atreides 86 Posted September 19, 2003 Posted September 19, 2003 sweet. i always did like lit model kits. Quote
Yang_Neumann Posted September 19, 2003 Posted September 19, 2003 Dag yo!!!!!! Makes me want to go and buy another DS9 fiber optic kit. Bravo! Awesome Job! Quote
wm cheng Posted September 19, 2003 Author Posted September 19, 2003 Hey UN Spacy, Its pretty much a great model out of the box. I was just a bit anal. I think it would look amazing without any of the work - its so well engineered, I would highly recommend it to any trek fan. The only bit of caution to those planning on building it is, follow the instruction steps to the letter (I skipped ahead to paint and fill and sand) where the engine struts connect to the warp nacelles and where it connects to the secondary hull is a really tight fit. You really need to attach them to the nacelles while they are still halved so that you can push back behind the nacelles. Then you really have got to jam them into the secondary hull - I had to pad it up with tissues and use a big pair of pliers to push the pieces together. But once your are done - it is a very solid and permanent connection. I found gluing most of the assembly ends up making the overall model much more solid. Good Luck. Quote
Sarensaas Posted September 19, 2003 Posted September 19, 2003 (edited) Too bad they were not able to light up the hull lettering and registration numbers like the studio model in the movie. It would have been tough for them to do, but it would have looked great, and I would have bought it then. I bought the Starcrafts E-A kit instead, since it is in scale with the E-C, E-D, and E-E plastic kits. Nice job WM. Edited September 19, 2003 by Sarensaas Quote
wm cheng Posted September 19, 2003 Author Posted September 19, 2003 Hey I bought that kit too - must of been 6 or 7 years ago. It was tiny, around 7 inches at 1/1400 scale eh? I remember trying to mask and spray that aztec pattern on the hull and doing the decals in photoshop and getting them laser printed onto decal paper - boy that brings me back a while. Here's a shot of it. Quote
wm cheng Posted September 19, 2003 Author Posted September 19, 2003 This Bandai was sure less work and looks far surperior! Quote
UN Spacy Posted September 19, 2003 Posted September 19, 2003 I'm not sure if you guys have seen Art Asylum's Starships, but for the price they're a pretty good deal (I already have the NX-01 Enterprise, they're releasing the Enterprise A and E pretty soon). Quote
Sarensaas Posted September 19, 2003 Posted September 19, 2003 I agree the Bandai kit is less work; thats why the kit costs $60. The Starcrafts kit has good detail though, and there are some great aftermarket decals for it, as well as the scale issue. Polar Lights might be doing a Enterprise-A kit too, since their TOS 1701 has been pretty well recieved. Fans have been pulling for a PL E-A kit pretty hard, so if they do one, I'm snapping up that one. Quote
Chronocidal Posted September 28, 2003 Posted September 28, 2003 Personally, I wish they had made this kit a little bigger... I was hoping you could do things like pasting film cells in the windows. I have one of the old Ertl Ent-As, and it just doesn't compare to this thing's details. Sheesh, all that engraving, and still none of the panels had any reason to their arrangement. I did notice some things about this kit though, and being absolutely broke after buying the thing, went the ghetto route to fix them. The lights in the windows are way too bright for one... they just look blinding. That's really easy to fix.. I just put a layer of masking tape over the clear inner parts before snapping on the outer hull panels. It dimmed the lights noticeably, and also helped to diffuse the light on the windows closest to the bulbs. I did nearly the same for the deflector. I put two layers of carefully cut wax paper, and a layer of blue cellophane between the lens and the clear light diffuser. I also put some of that blue cellophane in front of the bulbs in the nacelles to dim them a bit.. they were a bit too bright for my taste as well... I kind of wish they could have put the lights near the front, actually, instead of at the back.. looks kind of backwards somehow. I really do wish that the parts had fit a little better, mainly the nacelles and pylons. Frankly, though I didn't want to risk gluing this thing. I think they used mixes of duck-egg blue and air-defense grey to make the panels, but I didn't want to try painting the seams myself, and possibly ruining what was already so nicely done. But the seams aren't too bad.. I can live with them. Maybe someday I'll get up the nerve, and glue it together.. besides, I wanted to be able to take this thing apart and rebuild it better later.. I may yet do it. The one thing that has really continued to bug me is the way the panels cover the stand mount.. They gave two kinds of one panel, allowing you the option of mounting the model, or possibly hanging it.. The problem is swapping the panels if you want to plug the hole for separate display. Once you put the stand in, and snap those panels in, you're better off never removing the model from the stand again. Those panels don't like to come out, and you can scratch the paint horribly trying to. After my first couple of tries, I just don't use the front panel while it's mounted on the stand anymore. Just too much of a pain to remove. I kind of was looking forward to the -E kit, but after spending the better part of two years making a CG model of that ship, nothing is going to stand up to the detail I would like to see. Quote
Doktor Gonzo Posted September 28, 2003 Posted September 28, 2003 Chronocidal: Who cares if it's off-topic - let's see some renders of that model! Quote
Chronocidal Posted September 29, 2003 Posted September 29, 2003 heheh.. I gotta go shrink the pics.. they're huge.. hmm... well, he'res one that used to be about 1600 pixels across... lost a lot of detail, but I think you can get the idea. Quote
Chronocidal Posted September 29, 2003 Posted September 29, 2003 Here's a perspective view of it. Quote
wm cheng Posted September 29, 2003 Author Posted September 29, 2003 Wow! Chronocidal, amazing work, so is this a hobby or it looks more like a proffessional job! I would love some larger high rez stuff, do you have a site, ftp or mind e-mailing some shots of this beauty to me - just for personal gawking of course This is my favourite Enterprise. Quote
Chronocidal Posted September 29, 2003 Posted September 29, 2003 (edited) Heheh.. I wish I could be paid for this. This is actually a model that I made to put in some games I have. It kind of went a little beyond that, but it still works as an in-game model, although it makes most games run like a slug (it's 13,000 polygons). I don't have any actual renders of it up, but there are a few in-game shots of it I can link to. I'll just have to zip up the big renders and attach em. There are a few screenshots of it in Bridge Commander as well, at these links: Shot 1 Shot 2 Shot 3 I've got more shots as well, I made a full 5 view plan set. I just couldn't fit the rear and bottom views in the zip. Renders.zip Edited September 29, 2003 by Chronocidal Quote
wm cheng Posted September 30, 2003 Author Posted September 30, 2003 WOW!! Great work - just like the CG model in the movies Quote
David Hingtgen Posted October 4, 2003 Posted October 4, 2003 Cool, I can use that new light-up Akira to go with the Ent-E for a First Contact diorama. Quote
UN Spacy Posted October 4, 2003 Posted October 4, 2003 Whoa. I wonder what else is on Bandai's potential starship list? Akira class? Defiant class? Intrepid class? B) Quote
Anubis Posted October 4, 2003 Posted October 4, 2003 I want an Excelsior Class and maybe a DS9. Quote
CHAN Posted October 4, 2003 Posted October 4, 2003 I just finished my Enterprise E. I suck at making models and have absolutely no skills at painting them, but the two Enterprises from Bandai sure as heck makes it easy for me. I think the Enterprise E is much easier to make because most of the wiring is already done, unlike the NCC1701. It is also a great piece to show off to my friends as something I made as long as they don't ask questions about painting. I also suck at taking photos so here is my are amature Enterprises. Quote
gnollman Posted October 4, 2003 Posted October 4, 2003 Sweet... beautiful models/toys all around. I think I might have to invest in the NX-01 and 1701-A for myself..... Quote
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