Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[peter]

2 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Speaking of the E, boy I wish someone would tackle that ship with a new mold.  The Polar Lights 1/1000 kits are just so much better than the old AMT/ERTL molds.

I'm messing with that same kit right now, and the plastic just has this mushy, gummy look and feel to it.  Molding is all soft, and despite the white stress marks I'm making all over the pylons, I cannot for the life of me get these nacelles aligned.  They sit evenly for a couple hours, but the plastic just slowly drifts back into the default cockeyed position.

Far as assembly goes, I'm considering clipping off the assembly tabs, and detailing the saucer, hull, and nacelles separately.  I'm almost considering doing the aztec pattern using pencils like I remember seeing someone (I think it was derex?) use on one of the 2009 Trek kits, but the tiny patchwork of panels on this particular ship is just a load of chaotic nonsense.  

Found the box with my older version of this kit.. same nacelle alignment issues, but the saucer fit seems better somehow?  Maybe the paint helped it.  I think I sprayed the whole thing with a white rattle can in the mid 90s, before brushing the details on, with what I felt were pretty acceptable results for the time.

Oh man, I remember brush painting the details on my old Refits back in the 80s and 90s.....except I didn't even lay down a base coat with rattle can, just brushed straight into the plastic because it was molded in color!

[peter]

10 hours ago, derex3592 said:

@peter - free bit of advice...if you have any red left, mask off and airbrush the red front bussard collectors on the E. The red decals suck for those. I wish I had done it. I airbrushed the saucer impulse engines red which looked great and I wished my red on the nacelles would have been the same. Just my .02. 

Ok, followed your advice, managed to squeeze a bit more life out of my clear red.

It's not perfect, but I agree, it looks better than the decal.

 

[peter]

Small update, I didn't have time to get started on the decals, but I read somewhere that it was suggested to do the windows before the decals so I figured I would give it a shot.

I considered using Tamiya panel liner, but gave the Gundam marker a shot.

Cleaned up any major blemishes but if you don't zoom in it looks ok.  Except I may have turned off too many lights on the Ent C

 

The Ent E felt like it had smaller windows, and they weren't as well defined as the windows on the C.

I know, the deflector is supposed to be yellow, but I'm going with an earlier production design where it was originally supposed to be blue.

I may try to get to the decals tomorrow, but I might do a once over to see if there is anything else I should paint that he decals don't cover.

 

[arbit]

17 hours ago, derex3592 said:

Any of you guys ever heard of or tried this method? I'm gonna try it! 

I always try, but not sure I get such nice results

 

[Urashiman]

On 3/17/2021 at 4:20 AM, peter said:

I know nothing of RC cars, but I got this from a buddy ages ago.  Played with it for a bit, then the remote died and the car sat on a shelf for more than 20 years.  Just dug it out the other day, got a new remote and fresh batteries and took it for a spin, forgot how fun they can be

Oooh Nice! What kind of chassis is that? Looks like one of those fancy TT-02 custom chassis with cambelt transmission for 4WD.

[electric indigo]

@peter I really admire the passion you have for these challenging kits – it must feel like time traveling, working with these crappy molds. Looking forward to see the decals on them.

Some more time traveling today:

[derex3592]

The set of 7 Enterprises becomes a sadistic mission to finish them at some point no matter what....you HAVE to keep going, because you keep thinking to yourself, man, this is gonna be SOOOO cool if I can only make them look half way decent! They are a bit of a rabbit hole to go down. 

[derex3592]

I gotta share this here too....

 

[Chronocidal]

13 hours ago, peter said:

I know, the deflector is supposed to be yellow, but I'm going with an earlier production design where it was originally supposed to be blue.

 

All looking really good, and actually the blue deflector is more accurate for that rounded alley.  I believe the color changed when they redesigned that area to make the full-scale set for First Contact easier to manage.

[pengbuzz]

Some more work:

Finally beginning to resemble something other than a turd with wings....

[peter]

6 hours ago, derex3592 said:

I gotta share this here too....

 

Holy $hit

[peter]

45 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Some more work:

Finally beginning to resemble something other than a turd with wings....

Looking good!!

[peter]

7 hours ago, Urashiman said:

Oooh Nice! What kind of chassis is that? Looks like one of those fancy TT-02 custom chassis with cambelt transmission for 4WD.

Haha, actually, I know nothing of RC cars, someone gave this to me a long time ago, but it is fun to play with

[peter]

7 hours ago, electric indigo said:

@peter I really admire the passion you have for these challenging kits – it must feel like time traveling, working with these crappy molds. Looking forward to see the decals on them.

Some more time traveling today:

That looks good.  Hope to build a Valkyrie that looks that good.

New to airbrushes so precious Valks were built with rattle cans only, no shading.

[peter]

7 hours ago, derex3592 said:

The set of 7 Enterprises becomes a sadistic mission to finish them at some point no matter what....you HAVE to keep going, because you keep thinking to yourself, man, this is gonna be SOOOO cool if I can only make them look half way decent! They are a bit of a rabbit hole to go down. 

Lol, it is a bit sadistic isn't it?  

First decal down.

They seem more sturdy that the crappy ones that came with the Cadet Motion Picture series, but they are still prone to fragmenting if the water is too cold, or if I muck around with them too much.

[sketchley]

3 hours ago, peter said:

Lol, it is a bit sadistic isn't it? 

First decal down.

They seem more sturdy that the crappy ones that came with the Cadet Motion Picture series, but they are still prone to fragmenting if the water is too cold, or if I muck around with them too much.

That NX-01 is turning out quite nice.  I'm envious that you can add it to your bookshelf!

[pengbuzz]

12 hours ago, peter said:

Looking good!!

Yeah, unfortunately, all of the panel lines got filled in again and the paint began cracking and separating. So...back to the stripping tank it goes.

meantime, I'm going to be working on something a bit less stressful...

...the 1/537 REFIT.

 

[peter]

18 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Some more work:

Finally beginning to resemble something other than a turd with wings....

If you can't find a replacement canopy, here's an idea:

 

 

[peter]

5 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Yeah, unfortunately, all of the panel lines got filled in again and the paint began cracking and separating. So...back to the stripping tank it goes.

meantime, I'm going to be working on something a bit less stressful...

...the 1/537 REFIT.

 

Lol, you gotta be kidding me.

[peter]

14 hours ago, sketchley said:

That NX-01 is turning out quite nice.  I'm envious that you can add it to your bookshelf!

 

Haha, the NX has been the most cooperative so far.

 

The Ent B nacelle decals are the worst.

 

Will post pics of the mess later sometime.

[Thom]

On 3/19/2021 at 2:25 PM, electric indigo said:

@peter I really admire the passion you have for these challenging kits – it must feel like time traveling, working with these crappy molds. Looking forward to see the decals on them.

Some more time traveling today:

Like it! The lights hitting the paint real good at that angle.

20 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Some more work:

Finally beginning to resemble something other than a turd with wings....

All we see are the end(ing) results, and it is looking good. Nice save by the Wifey!

 

1 hour ago, peter said:

 

Haha, the NX has been the most cooperative so far.

 

The Ent B nacelle decals are the worst.

 

Will post pics of the mess later sometime.

Nice looking lil Enterprise.

[pengbuzz]

11 hours ago, Thom said:

All we see are the end(ing) results, and it is looking good. Nice save by the Wifey!

Well, right now, it's in prep to be stripped (again), after an issue with the paint. Starting to wish it were a Tamiya kit instead of this mess.

 

13 hours ago, peter said:

Lol, you gotta be kidding me.

Nope. I'm dead serious.

[derex3592]

17 hours ago, peter said:

 

Haha, the NX has been the most cooperative so far.

 

The Ent B nacelle decals are the worst.

 

Will post pics of the mess later sometime.

Looking good @peter!  "The Ent B nacelle decals are the worst"....YEH...You really do think that...until you get to the C's nacelles...hahahahaha! Keep truckin along man! NX-01 looks great! 

Edited March 21, 2021 by derex3592

[MechTech]

@derex3592 @Chronocidal @arbit For using the glue and styrene trick, let it dry for one to two weeks - not one to two hours - unless you barely use any. A nickname for that stuff is "Sprue Goo." It does work great and where sanding/gluing a seem won't do, it's great. The more goo, the longer the drying time though. It's perfect for gunpla and avpoiding painting where it would just rub off.

@peter Your collection is just getting better and bigger! The NX looks good too!

@electric indigo Your Messerschmidt is look good! I was always glad more ME-262's didn't make it into production.

@derex3592 That Monster is a beautiful rendering!!! Too bad it's just CGI.

@pengbuzz Your Tomcat is looking good! That kit isn't an easy one even when everything is going your way!

 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2021 by MechTech

[derex3592]

Some actual painting has been done! and seams are sloooowly going away.... uhhhgggg... 

[Gabe Q]

4 hours ago, MechTech said:

@derex3592 @Chronocidal @arbit For using the glue and styrene trick, let it dry for one to two weeks - not one to two hours - unless you barely use any. A nickname for that stuff is "Sprue Goo." It does work great and where sanding/gluing a seem won't do, it's great. The more goo, the longer the drying time though. It's perfect for gunpla and avpoiding painting where it would just rub off.

I love using this technique but @MechTech is right. You have to give plenty of drying time. It's a tricky process and I'm still learning but so far I'm pleased with the results. 

The first time i tried it, I had a seam that looked perfectly sanded flush. After a few days though, the seam developed an indentation all along it where the "glue goo" had evaporated. So yes, lots of drying time. 

[pengbuzz]

Okay... finally got the warp nacelles reattached, and the ship is together again for the first time in roughly 3-4 years (give or take a decade):

After all the work that has been done, the warp nacelles are still uneven and misaligned, the details are a bit crude (still needs phaser banks for one!) and I have no decals for this thing. Regardless, I'm continuing on and will take this at least until I get to the decalling stage. Enough work has been put into this since 2011, and I'd like to call it done. But when you have a PITA Tomcat that needs stripping yet again, suddenly it doesn't seem like so much of a task to reassemble a decade old "problem project".

 

Stay tuned...

 

 

Edited March 21, 2021 by pengbuzz

[Thom]

7 hours ago, derex3592 said:

Some actual painting has been done! and seams are sloooowly going away.... uhhhgggg... 

Coming along great. Some nice color and tones.

2 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Okay... finally got the warp nacelles reattached, and the ship is together again for the first time in roughly 3-4 years (give or take a decade):

After all the work that has been done, the warp nacelles are still uneven and misaligned, the details are a bit crude (still needs phaser banks for one!) and I have no decals for this thing. Regardless, I'm continuing on and will take this at least until I get to the decalling stage. Enough work has been put into this since 2011, and I'd like to call it done. But when you have a PITA Tomcat that needs stripping yet again, suddenly it doesn't seem like so much of a task to reassemble a decade old "problem project".

 

Stay tuned...

 

 

We have faith in the 'buzz! The good news is it's harder to tell any miss-alignments unless you're really eye-balling it

[peter]

10 hours ago, derex3592 said:

Some actual painting has been done! and seams are sloooowly going away.... uhhhgggg... 

Runabout is looking good, might have to get one of those some day.

[peter]

5 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Okay... finally got the warp nacelles reattached, and the ship is together again for the first time in roughly 3-4 years (give or take a decade):

After all the work that has been done, the warp nacelles are still uneven and misaligned, the details are a bit crude (still needs phaser banks for one!) and I have no decals for this thing. Regardless, I'm continuing on and will take this at least until I get to the decalling stage. Enough work has been put into this since 2011, and I'd like to call it done. But when you have a PITA Tomcat that needs stripping yet again, suddenly it doesn't seem like so much of a task to reassemble a decade old "problem project".

 

Stay tuned...

 

 

Woah, you really are doing. 537 build.

I stressed me the hell out.

HDA has some incredible decals for this kit in stock right now, recommend you check them out.

[peter]

Decal update.

Ent B nacelle wrap around decal does not like to wrap.  Best to cut it I to 4 parts, the blue bits, the grey bits,, the Aztec bits and the registry.

I got stupid and decided to see if it could go on as one piece:

And totally mangled it.

Cut it like this, and it will make it a bit easier, but if I had to build another 2500 Ent B, I'm mask and paint the blue and gray bits.

TOS Ent had a bit of decal fragmenting, but nothing catastrophic.

This thing had decals for markings that I didn't know the ship had.  Going to be honest, was never a huge fan of the TOS style, I grew up on the Refit.  But the TOS is growing on me.

Ent B main saucer, bottom.  This piece did not want to go on in one piece, and as a result fragmented when placed over some curves.

The flat parts of the Ent B had no issues, but I refuse to give credit to AMT for NOT screwing this up, lol!

The Ent C is what terrified me.  I haven't seen many people that have had good luck with this one, particularly the saucer. 

Started off with something smaller and easier.

The hull decals were curvy, but not that bad.

Decided to follow what some had done and cut the main saucer decal into a pie.

By jig-sawing it back together was a bit of a nightmare.  Some overlapping, some misaligned parts. 

 

There is no winning when it comes to the Ent C, lol!

 

[pengbuzz]

8 hours ago, peter said:

Woah, you really are doing. 537 build.

I stressed me the hell out.

HDA has some incredible decals for this kit in stock right now, recommend you check them out.

lol Yeah, I am. Thanks for the heads-up on the decals; I'm going to be doing the aztec by hand, but I'm looking for the hull markings and pennants. I have a paint scheme I'll be following to get the original TMP look for it (to disguise the crappiness of the mold!)

[Thom]

9 hours ago, peter said:

There is no winning when it comes to the Ent C, lol!

 

Yeah, there was a whole episode about that!

And it looks like you are persevering with those ships. A nice 'tutorial' for anyone following along.

[pengbuzz]

UPDATE: my solution to the bands on the saucer edge:

Some thin-cut (and very long!) strips of masking tape, under slight tension, run around the length of the saucer edge. I just primed them along with the rest of the saucer edge; more pics when dry. meantime, waiting on getting some good flat-white spray paint.  I really don't want to have to do another repaint!

Stay tuned...

[peter]

5 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

lol Yeah, I am. Thanks for the heads-up on the decals; I'm going to be doing the aztec by hand, but I'm looking for the hull markings and pennants. I have a paint scheme I'll be following to get the original TMP look for it (to disguise the crappiness of the mold!)

Check out @Dobber penciled work on his Aztecs....they look amazing:

 

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/topic/35120-whats-lying-on-your-workbench-mk-iv/?do=findComment&comment=1534707

also, HDA also has the hull markings:

https://hdamodelworx.com/537600-SCALE-TMP-USS-ENTERPRISE-REFIT-STRONGBACK-DEFLECTOR-HOUSING-and-Pylon-Decals-_p_217.html

$13.95

https://hdamodelworx.com/537600-SCALE-USS-ENTERPRISE-REFIT-HULL-MARKINGS-AND-DETAIL-DECAL-SET_p_218.html

$16.95

Not to sound like a salesman for HDA, but their decals are amazing.