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Build Log: Part 4

The Shuttle Bay, continued

Finished up the photo etch applications to the shuttle bay, which included a few extra of the tiny little people (surprisingly hard to get loose without warping).  To get the rear wall aligned and the PE parts lined up right, I attached it to the port side shuttle bay wall.

Shuttle bay wall, all PE attached, rear wall connected and primed up

I then primed the parts with Tamiya fine white primer (three light coats); once this was completely dry I masked off the lower sections and re-primed using Revell light grey.  The film used a green-grey color on the walls and railings, which I thought just looked ugly.  Light grey is very neutral, and very appropriate for a navy vessel (particularly one that had as many brushed-steel highlights as the interior of the Enterprise).  I painted the control room window a darker grey to give it some contrast, and later I’ll do some other color highlights on some spots.  The cargo bay hatches will get decals and some paint highlights as well, but I’ll cover that later.

The control room window area in darker grey, canopy glue applied from behind is drying

The exterior wall, light box walls, and one of the figures (I had it backwards, flipped it shortly after). I didn’t include a wall closer to the main door end, as that wouldn’t be visible when looking in.

Behind the control room windows on each side I created a small light box using styrene sheeting, and colored the sections visible through the windows using some extra decals from another kit and a few spots of paint.  I also added one of the PE persons behind one window to provide a proper silhouette.  The light box will be illuminated from beneath (since the floor won’t be visible) using LED tape, and I’m debating opening one or more of the lower side ports/doors to let some light in from the floor level there as well using the same light strip.

I covered the windows using canopy glue (un-diluted, same consistency as out of the bottle) applied with a medium brush from behind so there wouldn’t be residue on the interior walls.

Most of the rest of the work for this entry was done on the arboretum.

The Arboretum

The base paint coats are applied

I began with a coat of London Grey on the walkway, and a black-brown color for the ground where growing things would be.   A bit of sky grey covered the floor beneath where the water would be.  I did not use the trees on trunks that were supplied with the kit, but I left the conical ones in place, and gave those a coat of beige brown.  Benches got a little slap of light ghost grey.

I then applied the water with a double-fill of Woodland Scenics blue water effects (it’s a clear blue fluid that dries to look just like water).  This worked just fine, but I’m sure other brands would be fine too.

Decals fore and aft are similar, but of different widths, don’t get them mixed up. Also note the larger “rocks” are glued in place.

I gave the water a day to cure, and then applied the fore and aft wall decals from HDA Modelworks, which gave a nice dose of detail over the PE parts.  The HDA decal did have some trouble fitting over a bulge on the aft wall, I had to cut it free and apply it to the face of the part (you can see it on the left side of the image above).  The PE texture is still there, but it gets lost a bit behind the decals.  Based on my experience, if I were to do this again, I’d do one or the other, but not both.  I’d probably skip the HDA decals and paint the PE part while it’s not attached, then paint a back color on the wall before applying the PE part.

Decal Softeners from Micro-Scale – note I penned in “1” and “2” on the caps to remind me the order in which they are supposed to go on.

When applying decals, I first gloss-coat the surface to make it good and slippery (a matte finish will grip your decals and potentially tear them – with HDA’s stuff that’s not a big risk since they use a good, durable film), and I also use a couple of solutions from Microscale Industries, “Micro Sol” and “Micro Set”.  Both are very handy in avoiding silvering and achieving the “painted on” look.  Micro Set goes on first, before the decal, to soften it up and have it adhere to the surface really well; Micro Sol goes on after the decal is securely in place, and it further softens the film and really gets it to settle in very well.  Often this results in a temporary “wrinkly” look for the decal, but as it dries it will tighten up.  Just be careful to get it in exactly the right place before letting it dry, or you may never get it up without destroying it.

I then took some fake rocks made from fragments of cork (these came from a terrain set for WW2 1:100 scale models, but you can chew up a wine cork just as well, or cat litter works perfectly too) and glued them in some random spots away from the holes where the trees would go.

Flock and Gravel

Once the glue was dry, I brushed white glue over the ground previously painted brown, took some fake grass (again from WW2 infantry models, it’s called “flock”) and applied it in small sections so I could catch it before it dried.  To apply it, take a small spoon (I saved a few from my daughter’s ice creams) and put some flock on it, sprinkle it over the glued area.  You can be messy as you want here, the key is to cover the glue area well.  Tap the arboretum firmly several times on the wall to get the stuff to settle onto the glue solidly.  After this, overturn the piece and let the excess fall onto a piece of paper or into the canister, and again tap firmly from above to shake the loose bits out.  Repeat until all the ground is covered.

After the ground was covered, I picked a few more spots and applied glue over the grass, then some fake gravel (just smaller bits of cork that look like rocks).  After this, the conical trees got glue applied and some very fine forest-green and evergreen colored dust on them.

After the glue dried, the brown of the ground and the beige of the trees showed through a little (this was intentional) and gave an added depth to the features.  Unfortunately, the grass also extended over the edge of the ground, over the walkways.  Looked a lot like it needed a lawn mowing, really.

A knife would be a little too hazardous for trimming the verge here, so I took a sewing needle in some spring-loaded tweezers, and used a tea light candle to heat it up.  Dragging the needle gently along the edge and re-heating the needle when it cooled too much removed the excess grass without too much damage, and I touched up the walkway with fresh paint when I was done.

The tree…any HO or other scale tree that looks like what you want will work.

Next came the trees – I used a single Woodland Scenics tree from a terrain package I had (really any scenery tree will work if the colors and texture are what you are looking for) been using for a 1:35^th scale tank model and cut some of its branches off, and got the ends down into points to fit the holes in the floor for the kit-supplied trees.  White glue in somewhat generous proportions was used to fix them in place.

I added two figures from the PE sheet (one painted with red and a light flesh tone, the other white with a darker tone), one to each side.  Once those were in place and standing properly, I attached the clear ceiling part and glued it down with canopy glue.  I’ll later add two short strips of LED tape in warm white to provide illumination into the room, so looking into the windows it’ll be nicely lit.

Everything is in – time to add the roof

Admittedly a lot of this detail will not be visible from the windows, but it gives me a lot of satisfaction to know it’s there.

Roof, attached and glue drying. Felt a little sad to cover all that up.  Glad I didn’t do it upside down.

But it’s all going to look great looking in the windows when it’s done.

I’ll add the wiring later, once I’m ready to fit this into the secondary hull.  Until then, I’ll pop this into a ziplock bag and store it somewhere safe.  Hopefully I won’t forget where.

USS Enterprise Build Log – Part 3

USS Enterprise Build Log – Part 5

Build Log:  Part 3

Okay, been working a bit on the arboretum and the shuttle bay walls, mostly just attaching photo-etch pieces, so I’ll do a bit of info on how to make those work a little better.

Handling Photo-Etch

If you haven’t read my frustrations with PE parts in my E25 build log, maybe that’s a good thing :).  The PE for the Enterprise is a bit larger and easier to handle, but it’s still a very thin brass sheet and easily bent the wrong way.  So let’s go over some basics here.

#1 – Photo etch will bend and crease if you look at it funny.  So always, be careful – it’s better to go over the cut several times with a gentle pressure than to do it just once with a lot of pressure.

#2 – Put something strong and un-giving as a surface behind it.  I use a glossy white tile that I bought from a DIY warehouse store for something like a buck and a half.  It cleans easy, very little sticks to it, and the white surface provides very good contrast when I’m searching for tiny parts.

Because it’s hard to build models when half your hand dangles like a zombie.

#3 – the gentle hand is what wins here.  If you feel like you’re applying a lot of pressure or you’re straining to cut something, stop and back off.  Try something different.  When you are applying too much pressure, you are setting yourself up for something bad to happen.  Like a trip to the Emergency Room after the part does cut clean and all that extra pressure rams the knife two or three centimeters through your hand.

Locating the walls of the arboretum …

So – first, find the part on the brass sheet that you need to cut.  If there are symmetrical pieces for multiple sides of a model, DO NOT immediately separate them all.  They might be different from one another, and this can result in messy removal and reapplication of parts.  So – find the part you want, and only cut off that part.  If there are multiples and they are identical, then feel free to do more than one at a time.  Just make sure they are, indeed, identical.

Always be careful with these knives

Next, cut the part free.  If you can fit them in, use your snippers.  If you can’t, or there’s some danger of warping using the snippers, then lay the brass on your backing and either press the razor down on the connector if it will fit, or if it won’t fit, drag the point over the connector several times until it is cut.  You might also want to put a paper towel between your off-hand and the brass while you hold it down to prevent unnecessary dirtying of the brass.

Some spots won’t be easy, just gently drag the point over the connection a few times until it comes loose.

Try to cut as close as you can to the part, but leave a little bit on it so you don’t risk messing up the part with the knife.  You can file the nub off after you get it clear of the sheet.

Those little burrs need to be filed off

Once it’s clear, you’ll see you have some extra nubs of brass – this is where the straight flat file comes in.  You’re going to need to file those bits off, but don’t file so far that you eat into the piece.  So hold the part in your off hand, and get as close to the edge with your grip as you can.  You want to have the file rubbing on your fingers to provide you a little extra feedback, and you want to support the piece as much as possible to avoid bending it.  Also, hold the file in such a fashion that its filing side faces directly onto the part.  You want to have as much strength in the part facing against the file as you can, because that will also help prevent bending.

Try to keep the part and the file lined up so you aren’t applying a lot of lateral pressure.

Gently file a few strokes at a time, until you can’t see the nub any more.  Then feel for it.  You’ll probably still be able to feel a rough edge there.  Keep giving it a few file strokes at a time, until it feels completely smooth, then move to the next burr and keep going until the part is completely clean.

For gluing the parts, some will be large enough that you can apply glue to the part

The arboretum walls are big enough to glue directly

itself, others will require you to glue the plastic where the part will live.  That’s your judgment call, just depends on how you feel.  Once in place, remove the excess glue (you don’t have to go berserk on this, just pull the biggest globs away) with a toothpick.  If you get glue on the facing surface of the part, it can be washed off with a clean paintbrush dipped in water.

The Arboretum

For the arboretum, I light-blocked the exterior (masking off the attachment points).  What that means is coating the exterior of the main part with a paint that won’t transmit light through it.  Since the parts are white plastic, and I intend to have a lot of lights in here, there’s potential for a lot of light to leak through the parts.  I use a matte black primer coat, mainly because it’s easy to get and I had some handy.  Some people go for silver.  I don’t care that much, and black works great.  There’s not much extra to do yet – I attached the PE wall plates (which give the walls a lot more detail, and once painted they’ll receive HDA’s decals to prettify them.  I also went ahead with the decals on the ceiling, which are a “blue sky with clouds” motif near the windows.  You can actually see this in ST:TMP during the final ‘go to warp’ sequence and in WoK during the Enterprise launch shot.  I recently re-watched TMP, and man, what a pretty ship this is going to be!

Decals applied to arboretum roof to show “blue sky” motif…

…just like in the films!

Forward wall, attached

Both wall sections have door holes, but I won’t paint in there since the HDA decals already have some good detail for them.  I am really curious how those decals are going to stick, since the surface is very uneven, but when the time comes I’ll read the instructions and let you know.

Aft Wall, Attached

The Shuttle Bay

First, I light-blocked the back sides of the bay walls, floor, and ceiling, then covered that over lightly with some white primer.  The interior didn’t get any paint treatment at all, as I’ll add primer once the PE is attached.

What I spent most of my time with on the shuttle bay lately was in priming and applying some PE girders, railings, and detail to the walls.  I showed earlier how the windows were cut and then the PE part applied, I figured I’d give you the more detailed explanation here.

Again, those plastic windows are destined for the trash.

The photos initially didn’t come out so clear with the guide holes, but I hope this will at least help clarify what to do when chopping out sections of a polystyrene wall.

Adding the guide holes

Guide holes, done

First, using a very small bit in a pin vise, drill a few “guide holes” – just three holes lined up along the line you expect to cut, for each intended cut.  In this case, there will be two long horizontal cuts, so I want two sets of guide holes.  Once the holes are made, use the same pin vise and very gently use it like a file to eat away at the plastic between the guide holes – start in the center and work left and right, until you have joined all three holes into a single stretch of open space.

Use the pin vise to abrade away the plastic and join up those holes.

Remember, be gentle!

Not as clear focus as I was hoping, but you get the idea, I suspect.

Now, you should have enough room to insert the razor saw.  Note that although the saw has a handle, you aren’t required to hold it by that handle.  In fact, I recommend you choke up on it quite a bit to give yourself some added control and to avoid bending the saw blade while you work.  Carefully use the saw to cut the long horizontal line across the section you are cutting away.  Repeat for any other line(s) that are prepped.

The saw should fit nicely here. If not, add another guide hole and join it.

Don’t hold it so far back like this…

Instead, get up on it like this.

Once the lines are cut, you can use either the small pin vise again, or if you have a larger bit, use that to drill a new hole between the ends of the two sawed lines.  Then, join the holes with the lines and remove the unwanted section of plastic.  Use a razor knife or file to smooth down the section some.  In this case with the shuttle bay windows, it doesn’t have to be really super-precise, since it’ll be covered up with a brass PE part, but I want to make sure there aren’t any little fringes that might show through the windows.

Lines are cut

Drill a little between the lines…

Pop that mother out and do a little cleanup on it.

For the girders on the shuttle bay walls, I pulled each identical set of parts free and applied them to either side in “assembly line” style.

Correction to the PE instruction sheet

I want to note an error on the Paragrafix sheet I have here – the lower center support girders for each side (the very small ones with the triangular hole in them) are labeled as part #5 on the instruction sheet for the PE card.  That’s incorrect – they are actually part #24 on the brass card.  Paragrafix has already corrected the error in their instructions (you can get the official instructions here), but if you happen to have an older set the hardcopy may still show this.

Girders need special care to avoid damaging the thin parts when filing.

Once separated from the card, the girders are really thin, fragile parts – so filing away the flash is difficult.  Not impossible, but yeah, it’s a little tedious.  Just remember, don’t be afraid to abrade a bit of your fingers with the file, grip those parts really close to the filing part and keep the file aligned against the strength of the part.  Try to avoid lateral pressure if at all possible, and be very gentle.  Better to take twenty weak strokes with the file than three really strong ones and end up with a mangled part.

Gluing the girders was pretty easy – I mixed a little bit of water into some canopy glue (about 2 parts water to 5 parts glue) to thin it up a little, then applied it to the receiving areas of the plastic with a toothpick.  Once the plastic was ready, just slip the part on and press it into place with the dry end of the toothpick, and collect any big bubbles of excess glue with it.

Girders before and after filing – you really need to get these smooth so they fit flush.

That’s all for now, I’ve still got some attaching to do, which I may cover in a future update if it differs significantly from this.  Chances are I won’t need to.

You can see even at this early stage how much PE adds to a kit like this – this is going to look stunning.

USS Enterprise Build Log – Part 2    USS Enterprise Build Log – Part 4

Build Log:  Part 2

I’m beginning, as mentioned before, with the shuttle bay and arboretum, and this is a short tack-on from part 1, detailing a little bit about some of the tools and accessories I’ll use here.

The primary PE card

First off – two primary accessories for the kit are going to be photo-etch kits from Paragrafix, part # PGX111 and PGX166 from them (see photos).

Previously in my E25 build I used cyanoacrylate glue (commonly known as super-glue, or CA glue) to fix brass parts to the plastic.  I’m going to switch to canopy glue for this build for most of that, for a couple of reasons:

Secondary PE Card

Most model shops carry this stuff.

1 – CA glue sticks like hell to everything, including my fingers, and for small brass parts, that just isn’t workable.  Even for big brass parts.  I don’t want my fingerprints all over this damn thing needing to be sanded away.  Canopy glue, on the other hand, does cling, but because it sets more slowly, it’s easier to get off of things.

2 – CA glue is also very thin, and has a tendency to run exactly where you don’t want it.  Canopy glue is more viscous and has a tendency to stay where it’s put.

3 – CA glue can be rather brittle when dry, and doesn’t like to stick to itself, requiring extensive chipping out and re-application if something does go badly wrong.  Canopy glue is happier sticking to itself, and can be peeled away pretty easily if it needs to be removed.

4 – CA glue isn’t soluble in anything other than alien blood molecular acid, to my knowledge.  Canopy glue cleans up and dilutes with water.  It’s basically a really fine version of regular old school white glue, with the added bonus that it dries totally clear like glass.

Left to right – hobby chisel, saw, and two pin vices

I’ll also be using a couple of pin-vices (they’re called a pin vice because just like a normal vice clamps down to hold things, a pin vice clamps down to hold – wait for it – pins and needles and things like drill bits).  These are basically little hand-held drills.

A small hand-held saw will also be in play for cutting out sections of the plastic, as will a commonplace Xacto razor knife and a fine-point chisel.

Let’s get the necessaries over with in advance…

WARNING:
Razor knives can chop off parts of your hands and fingers that you’d rather keep.  Always cut away from your body with them.  NEVER hold them close to your eyes.  Most of the tools and glues and paints I’m going to talk about here can cause you severe distress, and in some cases permanent maiming or death (which will always be permanent) if misused.  Pin vices and chisels can punch holes in things that shouldn’t have holes in them.  Saws can cause very ragged, very painful, cuts.

And if that isn’t enough warning, your model kit will take some serious cleaning up if you get blood all over the damn thing, so be careful.

Note the eight windows in the middle

Here’s a sample of what I’ve begun – see the “Before” section of the side wall of the shuttle bay.  See those eight windows all lined up (two sets of four)?  I’ve got a photo-etch piece that’s going to go over that, and I’ll have lighting behind it to flood the bay with.  So, this plastic’s gotta go.

I’ll drill a few holes in above and below the windows (leaving some space to attach the PE part), and then will saw the rest of the way through.

I’ll shave off the various scraps, but it doesn’t have to be perfect, since it’ll be obscured by the PE part.

Here’s the after shot.

I’ll start attaching the other shuttle bay PE parts (most of which don’t require sawing or cutting) shortly, and then prime the bay.  Photos will be attached below in a future edit.

USS Enterprise build log part 1; USS Enterprise build log part 3

Build Log:  Part 1

Well, here we go!  I bought this kit some six or seven years ago when I moved to England, thinking I’d be living alone and have time and space to put it together, but in the end I realized I couldn’t do it justice.  So it’s been sitting in my various closets for a long while as I moved around, and until I moved to Hamburg I just didn’t have the space to accomplish the job.

I present:  the Polar Lights kit #4204, the 1:350th scale USS Enterprise.

I have to admit, the sheer size of this thing is rather intimidating

Well, I’ve got the space now – and I decided if I can pull off a detailed WW2 model like the E25 or the Priest, it’s time to pull out the stops and do the BIG DOG at last.

I’ll put together an unboxing video shortly, to give you some ideas of what I’m dealing with parts-wise (I think it actually has fewer parts than the Priest kit did, so from an assembly point of view it will probably be easier).  In this section I’m going to give you a run-down on what my plans are for how I’ll approach the build, and start talking about the tools and extra accessories I’m going to use.

First – the plan:

My goal is to make this the 1701 using the lighting plan from “Wrath of Khan”, and as much good detail as I can yank from “The Motion Picture.”  I’m will treat this as several separate model kits, each one with its own needs, and then put all the parts together to make the master assembly.  Those parts will be:

• shuttle bay – including shuttles, work pods, lighting, etc.
• arboretum – very lightweight effort, not a lot of cutting needed, but it’ll get dressing similar to how I do my bases for “Flames of War” infantry, so it’ll look nice
• warp engines – I’ve got some underbody lighting kits for automobiles that generate UV / Purple, so I’ll see if those will work as light sources for the warp engines; if not, I’ll have to source out some purple LED tape. Also some floodlights, and anti-collision strobes, so in the end there will be three separate circuits leading into these (warp on/off, anti-collision timer, and main power on/off)
• main deflector – mostly this is going to be about getting the lighting right, with warp on and impulse on changes between amber and blue
• neck and torpedo launcher – still not sure if I’m going to include a torp-launch cycle here, but the neck overall will need attention to get the interior lighting right and to make sure it can support the full weight of the saucer
• officer’s lounge – this will be a small sub-assembly that is seen through the windows behind the bridge; it’ll need lighting and dressing
• rec deck – similar to the o’lounge
• saucer with impulse engines – big and from what I’ve seen has some fit issues, so there’ll be a lot of putty-sand-putty-sand, etc. Also, several lighting schemes will be needed here – main power for the interior window-lighting, navigational lights cycling, impulse engine on/off, and anti-collision strobes too
• secondary hull – this is where everything will come together, and will need its own circuits for main power (interior lighting), and anti-collision strobes; this one is going to have a tight fit for some parts, and as well will need some shaving away for photo-etch stuff; it will also need some reinforcing on the connector where the main rod connects to the base – there’ll be a lot of weight here, and I don’t want just a single plastic plate being the load-bearing spot
• base – the ship will sit on this, and I intend to run the four circuits down into it to enable me to control them from the base; the circuit control board will live in here
• circuit board – this is going to be a big first for me, I’m going to build the control circuit board myself, using either an Arduino board or, perhaps, using an Arduino board to program an ATTiny chip which I will then solder into a separate board to control the various on-off-fade circuits, and possibly to put in an MP3 player with speakers

I’ve already started chewing into the shuttle bay and arboretum, so I’ll drop in some pics of that after the unboxing video.

Part 2 of the build log can be found here.