After the last entry, I managed to light block the entire fuselage successfully and then return it to white primer. I then masked off a section of the model on both sides, this represents where the panel removes on the studio model for the armature mount. It's going to be a different white than the rest of the hull, like before.
First coat is Tamiya Pearl White. This is the base coat for this model.
Pearl White is a translucent paint, so it's crucial to have an even coat of whatever colour is underneath of it.
The next section to mask off is the 'strong back'. It's called that because 'in universe', it is a reinforced section of the ship where engineering is located.
There is a bit of debate on what the colour of this should be. It appears grey onscreen. It was original painted with green undertones for Star Trek The Motion Picture. It got repainted for the Enterprise A, twice I believe. First to restore it from the battle damage as seen in Star Trek III The Search For Spock, but also between films, the model got repainted on one side for a theme park ride video. The area was then painted in blue tones, and other areas of the ship were added with blue as well. At the time, the USS Excelsior had blue accent colours and the Enterprise D was painted blue. My theory is this became an established colour scheme for the Federation: red, white and blue (more accurately: white, blue and red pin stripes). For Olympia, I went with a TOS grey base coat for the strong back and deflector housing.
Surround the deflector on three sides, there are these protrusions, which are on most starships (TOS Enterprise, Enterprise-C, Enterprise-E, Voyager) which in universe I'm not sure what they do. I've hear they're sensors and I've heard they're the clamps which hold the deflector to the hull. Either way, they are distinct. I chose to repaint them metallic silver.
Final reveal - of this part of the model
The ground work is here to lay down the wallpaper decals.
There is overspray however...not a big deal. Next entry will cover that.
And a bit of bleed. Again, that's an easy fix.
....and here too.
Now the process is to carefully remove the window masks and prep for painting the phaser banks (next entry).
I was prepared to say my traditional closing, 'Happy Model Building'...then I noticed this!
WTF?
I've been trying to figure out how this happened?? I'm wondering if I dropped it?? I might have. Did I break it off while taking off the wrapping?? I searched my trash looking for the busted piece to no avail. It really doesn't matter at this point...after all this is just plastic and I can conquer this. (Mental note - reinforce this on future builds.)
What is really fortunate is I have two more of these kits unbuilt (I'm going to kit bash a 'Stargazer' one day.) I thought about replacing that part of the model...I may still do that. But first, I know I could probably make a mould off of an unbuilt pylon. I could splice in the section as well...whatever happens, I will fix it.
The more I look at it, I could graft other part onto the pylon, or at least the outside pylon corner (blue section).
Then a bigger issue...a crack in the seam where the pylon meets the fuselage. Well, there was bleed in the paint and this was going to be needed to be repainted anyways, so I used a bit of science to squeeze liquid glue into the seam.
An overhead view of the damage and a missing pin. I've been contemplating replacing each pin with brass rod and epoxying them in. I guess I'm committed now.
That wraps up this entry...more fixing and painting on this 'beastie'. Well if it was easy, it wouldn't be fun!
Happy Model Building!
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