Constitution Class Refit - Polar Lights 1/350 scale UPDATE #10 Finishing the Saucer: Part 2 - Sticking a neck out...

Greetings!!

I know it's been a while, work, life and other projects have been exceptionally busy, I had to put this model down for several weeks.  Meesa Back!

Where I last left off, I had a completed Saucer section,  the neck, and a completed Engineering section with the nacelle pylons attached.  The only things that were missing were there were light leaks on the engineering section and the saucer had a gap where the neck meets the impulse engine as well as overspray along the hull due to a masking accident and a piss-poor masking on the perimeter of the saucer's walls, the sensor bands.  As I mentioned last, I didn't end the blog on a high note...

One of the sore spots on this model that bothered me the most was a difference in colour when I sprayed on the base colour again in the first grid on the upper saucer.

Because I didn't want to repaint the whole model, I came up with what I thought was a bright idea, give this ship a 'rust ring' like the TOS Enterprise.

(from an earlier build)

Since the colour of the ship is white, I decide to use 'antique white', same colour I used on my Avro Arrow build a number of years ago.

My next step was to paint the individual access doors on the upper saucer hull.  These doors allow the crew of the starship access to the exterior of the ship via a lift (elevator).  Kirk, Spock, Decker and Ilia used one of these in Star Trek The Motion Picture when they journey to the heart of V'Ger.

Once I got these completed, I realised the rust ring needed to look, aged so I decided to weather my already weather upper saucer surface.  Certainly an interesting experiment in fixing a problem...

Come together...

Once I (thought I) was done with painting the saucer, I moved onto the exciting part for me, attaching the neck.  Due to the mass of wires, I felt the order of assembly has to be: saucer to neck to engineering hull.

For the gap between the saucer and neck, I used bits of styrene and lots of Evercoat and red putty.  To sand it, I built myself a new sanding stick.

a popsicle stick with sand paper

Once I was satisfied, I masked off the area where the neck meets the saucer which gets painted a light blue.  Having this on both the saucer and neck means its easy to isolate this part of the model and fully paint the subassemblies.

Whenever you start to paint an area that has had putty, I use grey primer to see the flaws, and like most areas, I find you do this about 2-3 times: spray, evaluate, sand, fill, sand and then back to spraying again.

Now this is where the fun begins...back to adding colour, starting with white primer.  I usually will prime it white, unless a dark grey or black is going over it.

As I described previously, this part has the same design element as the other skeg on the nacelles, so they get painted the same colour.  I decided to do them from both kits.  The parts needed a lot of preening as there was lots of flash and a few sink spots.

The green 'block' a special kind of foam used in floral arrangements.  It's great to stick parts in for painting, so long as they are lightweight.

It is really hard to see this in the following picture, but both the nacelle and saucer skegs are indeed the same colour.

That will wrap this up for now.  Expect more coming sooner than later.

As things have changed recently in the relationship between Star Trek fans and CBS/Paramount, I am going to refrain from posting screencaps in future, out of respect to their current guidelines for fan films (even though this is just a model building blog, primarily concerned with Star Trek).  I do this blog to 'give back' as there are so many wonderful YouTube channels which feature models being built in various stages, and I regularly watch them and have learned many techniques from them.  I would hate to have happen to the model, prop-maker enthusiasts what recently happened to Star Trek fan films.  (Not exactly the Gene Rodenberry spirit...I digress on that.)

That said, have a great weekend, Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends and followers and I wish a Happy 4th of July to my American friends and followers.

Disclaimer

Star Trek and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan blog (production) is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise, and is a non-commercial fan-made blog intended for recreational use.  No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures.