A little something for the weekend - building the Starship Enterprise
Entry posted by Barry Ten
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You couldn't get much further from a Toplight Third or Blue Pullman than this, but a change is a good as a rest and this big box of pieces has been gathering dust in my attic for far too long. Although it's not a railway project, its a subject that's very dear to my heart, and it'll draw on a range of familiar skills to get it done.
The Polar Lights 1/350th Enterprise kit is justly regarded, being both huge, well designed, and for the most part very accurate. The kit is based around the "refit" Enterprise, which debuted in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture, before going on to feature in a number of the sequels - as well as being destroyed, before coming back as the 1701-A. There are slight differences between the 1701 and 1701-A variants which the kit accounts for.
Personally, I've always somewhat preferred the original design of the Enterprise, maybe because I had the much smaller AMT kit as a child, but when I bought this monster Polar Lights hadn't brought out their version of the original one. But, now that I've spent a lot of time drooling over pictures of other people's models, as well as rewatching bits of ST on Youtube, the refit has really started growing on me. I don't think it will displace the original in my affections, but it's certainly got a lot going for it.
It turns out there is an entire modelling subculture of people building these kits. Not just this one, either, but all the other scales and variants. And as with railway modelling, there are various bits and pieces you can buy to improve your model, as well as pages and pages of internet forums full of discussion and hints and tips.
One thing you notice is that a lot of people put lights in their models, but that seemed like more work than it was worth when I started building the kit. However, after a chance conversation in a model shop, I was persuaded that it's really worth the trouble to light it! I then started looking around for the after-market lighting options, before deciding to go for a relatively budget installation rather than the full bells and whistles. I got a set of LEDS and a lighting board from this ebay retailer:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/jblightingandmodels?_trksid=p2047675.l2559
The total cost was under 30 pounds, I think, which struck me as a reasonable amount relative to the initial cost of the kit. There is a superb lighting kit available from the States, but it costs more than the original model. Perhaps for another day?
While I was at it, I also ordered a set of Para-grafix etches for superdetailing and replacing one or two of the less accurate details:
The etch even includes tiny 2-d figures, useful as there a number of areas in the kit where you can legitimately display people, giving a useful sense of size to the finished model.
Because I'd started the kit, I had to indulge in a certain amount of careful dismantling and cutting before I could start putting the lights in. Fortunately I managed to separate all the critical parts without too much damage.
Putting lights in requires a lot of interior work to make sure the finished model is totally light-tight, except for the windows!
The saucer halves fill up most of the box. Here's the underside of the saucer, with some painting guides on a post-it.
Light-blocking requires numerous coats of black paint. Even when it looks light-tight, it won't be! The only sure test was to hold the finished part up against a bright ceiling light and see if there was any trace of bleed-through. Inevitably there will be some areas which can't be addressed until final assembly, and there I'll have to light-block from the outside in, before applying the final paint scheme.
Once the black has been applied, the next job is to use foil to create a reflective interior so that the light from the LEDS bounces around evely. Here's the inner side of the upper saucer half, after treating with three or four coats of black, silver foil, and most of the required LEDS. I still have to add the navigation lights, which will be wired in separately to allow for flashing. There are a lot more lights that could be added, but again this is where the budget options comes in - as well as not taking an eternity.
I hope that my Enterprise will look good, but it won't be a patch on some of the amazing models out there. Basically I want a holiday from a railway modelling project, not a change of hobby! Look at this guy's amazing build sequence:
http://showcase.netins.net/web/marc111creations/PL_Enterprise_Refit_WIP_1.htm
or this one - 1080 hours of work:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=170700
Utterly amazing modelling skills.
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