Just checking the finish.

Just went and grabbed these from the shed as I don't want them out there overnight getting damp etc. The finish seems really smooth so far so I'm happy with that. Ill wet send these back in the morning and re primer them as there are still a few blemishes that need sorting.

Lewis

More filling, and a test shot of primer...

Tidied up some of the filled areas today, and further sanded the secondary hull, and the nacelle pylons. I also started sanding the dorsal support, needless to say, I'm getting fed up with sanding now, but it's got to be done. Once I was reasonably happy with the secondary hull I gave gave it a few very thin coats of primer, just to help highlight defects, there are a few, but nothing massive. Tomorrow I'll wet sand the primer back down and refine some of the filling, then re-primer it.

Lewis.

Fill, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand...

The title pretty much explains today's events, filling and sanding. The vast majority of the panel lines on the secondary hull are gone, and most of the filling is done, it just needs a few more passes, then I'll do a test coat of primer to highlight further defects more easily. I am not looking forward to sanding the saucer section, of that much I am certain.

Also made a start on the dorsal pylon, gluing in the tubing to correct the docking port sizes, I'll sand and fill those tomorrow. I've masked the nacelle pylons ready for sanding too, but I don't think they'll take long.

Making some progress sanding the panel lines off.

Masking up ready to start sanding the pylons.

Correctly sized docking ports done, I'll sand and fill these tomorrow no doubt.

Lewis

Well I've made a start...

Well I've begun. Simple prep stuff so far while I had a few hours, managed to get the windows glued back in that were removed, filled the gaps round them and filled in some large panel gaps round the top. Didn't realise how quick you have to be with the green putty, it starts to dry the second its out the tube. A few pics below...

Window sections re-glued in, and first application of filler applied.

Docking ports correctly sized using 7/32" tubing, obviously ill fill the edges.

Masking off ready to apply filler to the large panel gap.

Lewis.

Delivery...

Well the essentials have turned up, so I'll get started at the weekend. I suspect I'll be ordering some more putty but we'll see how it goes, I'm also having reservations about how far that primer will go, but its inexpensive so that's not a problem.

Lewis.

1701-A Refit

It's been a little while since I posted here I admit, but I'm still alive, and still working on and off on the source project, albeit at a slower pace lately. As it stands my PC is prone to crashing a fair bit (the RAM is on its death bed) so it doesn't lend itself well to extended mapping session or resource hungry tasks.

After next week I've got a couple of weeks off work so thought I'd try something a little different, still trek related though obviously.  Many years ago I gave my uncle a boxed kit of the ERTL refit enterprise A, which he was going to build and light for me. Alas he never got round to it and its sat in his loft for years. I decided a while back that I'd have a shot at building it as I'm much older and wiser.

So after he'd dug it out (almost literally), I went over and picked it up.

Despite it being in a UDC box I know for a fact its a Star Trek V model, i think over the years its just been migrated to different boxes. Having said that so far as I'm aware the models are identical.

And yes, unfortunately this is not the 'smoothie' version that modellers prefer, meaning it has a loads of horrible panel lines all over the hull, which are meant to simulate the 'Aztec pattern' I presume but just look awful. The photo below illustrates this;

Firstly I plan to clean the whole model pretty thoroughly, its covered in dirt, bits of glue, old paint, and a yellow patina at the moment so that needs sorting. Then its on to filling all those lines, which is going to be a big job, but should be worth it. There's also some damage to the secondary hull sections where glue has melted the plastic so ill need to fill those putty and sand them back down, although I don't see this being too difficult.

With that in mind I'm sure I'll be spending more than enough time simply filling, sanding, filling, and sanding again. I'm not going to 'ultra-accuracy' but I'd like it to be fairly close. Here's a few more pics of the kit as it stands...

Not sure why the botanical gardens windows were pulled out, I'll have to rebuild the frames i guess.

Lewis