DeBoers Enterprise

[dbhs]

The masking is unbelievable. Amazing work.

[NemVia]

This month I've been concentrating on finishing up all of the major painting and/or Aztec patterns on the Enterprise Saucers. I have to say I am super Glad this is now pretty much behind me now. Just some minor touchups that need to be done, but most of these will be finished when the models are completely assembled. The next phase of these kits is the DECALS of both the upper and lower saucers as well as the engineering hulls. I was kind of taken aback with these kits when I finally realized that there are several decals that are not included with the decal page namely, the yellow areas for around the phaser turrets along with their Red outlines. I had to paint all of these on instead. I also had to paint on the Red stripes that go along the outside of the bridge area. But all of these colors are now painted on included the gray stripes where the dorsal meets the saucer and the gray stripe that encircles the bridge area back to the officer's lounge. The area around the windoes was painted Intermediate blue. After everything set, I then Gloss Coated all of the Painted areas with 2 coats to first seal all the paints so that it would be easier to handle the model pieces and also prepare the surface for the massive decaling that needed to be done. The upper and lower saucer and the engineering hulls all needed to be decaled. I believe when I counted up all the decals that needed to be applied and there were about 283 individual applications. Many of the single piece decals had to be cut as individuals, namely the ships name and registry numbers. The decal sheet has great graphics but the backing used is extremely thin and for some reason I needed to soak them a few minutes extra in order for it to seperate completely from the backing. But everything went on very smoothly. After the decals were added another light coat of gloss coat was then spritzed on and left to dry for about an hour, this will prevent the decals from sliding if the coat is too heavy. Then after another hour or so I put on the final coat and this sealed everything in place. There are 38 new pic in this months update.

Now I will be able to start on the interior lighting and adding the interior pieces to the model. I will first need to build some cradles to hold the models in place while I'm working on these areas. But the ships are finally going to be assembled during the next month. Even I'm looking forward to the update for next month! See you then!

Mark

http://www.NemVia.com

[Wombat]

Struth, 3 saucers..

Wow thats some work just there and as with everything you've shown thus far, simple beautiful workmanship at that!!

[NemVia]

Hi Everyone! Sorry this update took so long to get uploaded. December was a very rough month for my secular work so very little was done on Enterprise x 3. I have 22 new pics in the Updates for January page

For Enterprise updates:

I needed to get all of the viewport glass in place as well as the wiring and lighting for some of the spot lights and the warp engines in place before I could put the Hanger and Botany deck pieces in place. So I added the clear pieces into the hull first. This included the Botany Deck Viewports.

I was then able to add the exterior lighting on the other two engineering hulls and get all of the spot lights aimed to their proper locations. There are 7 Spots on each of the hulls. To insert them and secure them in place as well as aim them took about 2 - 3 hours each. No easy task because of the limited amount of room to work in with each of these models. In the November update I was able to get the first model done, but I learned from that one what NOT to do on the other 2. With the polar Lights Enterprise you can work on one half of the hull at a time, then assemble the 2 halves together. With the DeBoers, the hull is already one piece so you have to try to get your hands into that limited space. So it is very time consuming.

I was also able to finally put the saucers back on so all of the ships are basically assembled. I also added all of the upper and lower saucer spot lights and they are all in place. I was able to get one of the saucer Interior lighting in place this month. I'm using some 4" fluorescent tubes that run off of ballasts and require 12v. to operate. I just have 2 more saucers to put the lighting into, but I do have a good pic of the lighting tests with these fluorescent mini lights on. There are also a couple pics with the warp engines on. By the next update I should have all of the lighting done in the saucers as well as the torpedo launcher effect and other lighting effects such as the impulse engine effect. I am looking forward to sealing up this ships and getting ready for the next phase of 2 of these builds.


That's all for this months update. We'll see you next month.

Mark

http://www.NemVia.com