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Refitting of
the Enterprise
AMT/ERTL 3 Enterprises Set 1:2500 Build between January and February 2006 |
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| I
always have found curious that the old-fashioned TOS Enterprise was
refitted in such a hard way to finally look like the one we saw in the
movie... So, I've decided to use one of the old 3-Enterprises (TOS,
Refit and D) from AMT/ERTL to build a diorama about this refitting
process. The idea is to use both TOS and Refit Enterprise and mix them to lead to a single one. That's called kitbash. With styrene threes from old models, I will also scratchbuild a Drydock. The refitting of the Enterprise was supposed to take place in the San Francisco Yards, but I find the Drydock a much more attractive choice. The final look of the model is wished to be a half done refitting. It means some parts of the ship are TOS and some other are already Refit. Some of the parts will be neither, just wired... So, let's get started. I took the saucers as a starting part. I decided to take the bridge of the Refit and fit it in to the TOS saucer, because I believe that the Bridge would be the very first part to be changed. So I removed the bridges from both saucers using a Hobby Knife with a #11 blade. Before to fix the new bridge to the old saucer, I cut the TOS saucer I don't want and also the Refit saucer which will be placed on the old saucer... a bit difficult to explain.
With the help of a file, a hobby knife and patience the hole to fit the new bridge on the old saucer was done. To fix the bridge I used 2 small drops of glue to get it fixed and when it was dry, I used Aves Apoxy putty to make a very strong bond between both parts. Aves Apoxy was also used to fill the gaps and with the help of a ear-cleaning stick and some drops of water there was not need of sanding. The connection is perfectly smooth and it is hard to see that the bridge does not belong to this saucer. Next step was to fix both saucer halves, and cut off the bottom saucers. That was done without further problems and all the fitting appear to be perfect. In the case of the bottom saucer I kept the planetary dome of the TOS saucer, just to make some contrast with the top saucer. To fix the saucer's halves I use the very same technique: at first glue and then Aves Apoxy. In this case I let the glue to dry for nearly 24 hours.
After the glue has dried the Aves Apoxy has been applied without any special remark. A bit of water is useful smooth the surface. It was time, then, to fix both saucer halves together and as usual, nothing special had happened. Now comes the funny part. On the frame areas I started to build the interior of the ship. I took styrene sheet and I scratchbuild 3 decks (according to my references). The rest of the details I did it without references, one corridor here, one room there, etc... I used the thinnest styrene sheet I can. I know the thickness of the walls is out of scale, but if I used a thinner one I would not be able to work with. When you see the following pictures of the work, you will see shinny areas due the glue and so on. I will try to remove it and please take into consideration that the model is not finish yet...
Once all the saucer is finally
finish. I started to work on the rest of the ship. The very first thing
was to remove the TMP neck, from the rest of the engineering section.
The main engineering section will be TOS with the exception of the
shuttle bay. On the neck, I did a hole to use it as a frame space, to
give a under construction look. The challenging thing was how to build
the frames in such a small scale. After thinking for some time the
answer came to my mind when I was looking to the window... I saw the
fly stop curtain !!!
A lot of work done last weekend. Unfortunately I left my digicam on my working place and I wasn't able to take process pictures. What I did is finish the building process and leave the model ready for painting. First of all a bit of styrene sheet was used to build a couple of decks on the nearby of the shuttle bay. Then I focussed the effort to take the left TOS nacelle, open it and fix small circular pieces in all the length. Those circular pieces were cut off with a hobby knife from a styrene frame. To make this piece of frame perfect circular (it usually has two sharp edges) I placed it in the head of a drilling machine and with the help of a file and sand paper I made it smooth. Pieces of the nacelle were also removed to allow to see the interior. Of course the right nacelle will be TMP. So one of the plylons is TOS and the other one is TMP. A bit of hobby knife and Aves Apoxy helps to keep everything together. The neck was also glued to the engineering hull and Apoxied to achieve a stronger bond. The same technique was used to fix the saucer section to the neck. So after some minor putty touches-ups the model is ready to get the primer coat. Aves Apoxy was used again for the connection to the base (where the drill bit is placed in the following picture).
I know I haven't updated the page for a long time, but the progress is slow. Mainly I did the painting job and weathering of the TOS parts. I started with a white primer coat, when dry I applied Createx Autoaire white to the TMP parts and finally, when dry, I masked all the white parts and airbrushed Tamiya Dark Sea Grey (a mixture with a bit of white) ovet the TOS parts. After one day of drying, I used classic brush and Tamiya paints to do some detailing: the Bussard collectors (TOS and TMP), inner TOS nacelles, windows and, the most patience thing; the inside parts of the saucer sections. When everything was ready, I used black pastels and a old brush to apply some weathering to the TOS part. The result: well, have a look... The next step will be to apply future over the surface, and decal application.
The final result
Thanks for dropping by !!! |
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| Last updated: 11.01.2011 |
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