Plastic Surgery

14 May 2006

Given that I am going to be putting so much effort into this model and that by virtue of my job it is going to get moved quite a bit, I decided to purchase one of the metal armatures developed by a guy on the HobbyTalk message boards and available from CultlTVMan. When I finally got my hands on the armature, I realized that it was going to take more work to get it fitted to the model than I had expected. Thus, I worked on this part of the model while I was home in Indiana and had the resources of my Dad's shop to help me. Still, the process went pretty smoothly.

Following the directions included with the armature, the first step I took was to open up a hole in the bottom of the model for the rod of the armature to pass through (see above and below). Since the kit comes with two of these pieces (one for the early version of the ship and one for the later), I decided to use the one I wasn't putting in the model as a practice piece. The instructions warn that the sizing and placement of this hole is vital, so I didn't want to mess it up! I used five different bit sizes, using a small bit to first drill a pilot hole and then opening up that small hole with progressively larger bits. As it turned out, my final hole was slightly off (it should be just a bit farther forward, right against that vertical post you see in the picture below). But it didn't affect the overall fit of the armature near as I can tell, so no worries..

Left: These are the bits I used to drill the hole.
Center: Drilling the final 1/2" hole.
Right: Oops! A little off, but it still works.

Once this process was complete, a hole had to be opened through the arboretum and arboretum ceiling for the rod to pass through, and attach a brace to the forward end of the shuttle bay assembly. I made the whole through the arboretum first, but I got a little over-zealous and made too big of an opening. This won't really be a problem, though, since I'm not really planning on showing this area off. The opening has to be a little bigger than the armature post, to avoid interfering with the brace I made below, but I still overdid it!

Left: Yeah, just a little too big!
Right: I did a little better with the ceiling.

The instructions suggest making the brace out of sheet styrene, but I used 1/8" aircraft plywood since I had that on hand and thought it might give more support than a plastic one. I first drilled out the 1/2" hole (using much the same method as I described above), and then laid out the rest of the brace around that hole using the detailed template included in the instruction sheet. I then cut out the brace using a jig saw.

Left: Here is the brace laid out on the plywood.
Center: In the process of cutting the brace.
Right: Double-checking the dimensions of the brace.

Once the brace was cut out and ready to go, I glued it to the bottom of the "shelf" on the forward end of the cargo bay unit using a little 5-minute epoxy. I attached the brace while the bottom of the hull and the arboretum were positioned on the armature, so that I could be certain that the brace was contacting the armature and doing its job. To hold the brace in place while the epoxy dried, I used a couple of spring clamps. By the way, that big piece of wood that the armature is stuck in is a hunk of an old kitchen cutting board that I was laying around my Dad's shop (Don't ask...) that I am using a temporary base for the model.  

Left: The shuttle bay unit that the brace is glued to. The "shelf" is on the right side.
Right: Gluing the brace to the shuttle bay.

The next step was to file down a cross-brace to allow the armature to seat right inside the secondary hull. Almost half the brace had to be removed in this step, so I elected to use a hand file rather than a motor tool on this job. While the inner tube of the brace that accepts the peg from the opposite side is now exposed, there is still enough materiel left to make contact needed for alignment purposes.

Left: This is the brace that has to be filed down.
Right: This is how the brace fits under the armature after filing.

The next step was to create small openings in the end of the nacelle pylons to allow the armature to pass through. This was actually pretty easy to do with a Dremel, but during this step I had to make several adjustment to the angle of the nacelle supports on the armature. While it can be bent by hand, I actually had to adjust the twist of the metal pieces of mine. This required chucking the armature in a vise, which would have been impossible had I been at home. After the pylons were straitened around and fitted, I opened up the top of the secondary hull and the bottom of the saucer where they meet the neck to enable the armature to pass through there. The method I used was to first trace the outline of the opening I wanted with a pencil. Then, I used a drill and a small bit to make a series of holes along that line. I then used a razor knife to "connect the dots" and create a rough opening that I then cleaned up with a file. On the top of the secondary hull, a cross brace has to be left because it will be used to transfer the model's weight to the armature. Once I got done with the engineering section, I repeated the process for the lower half of the saucer section.

Left: This is the pencil outline of the opening.
Center: Here are the series of holes I drilled around the outline.
Right: This is the rough opening. I later cleaned this up with a file.

After the openings in the saucer and engineering sections were made, I test fitted the saucer. The armature supports the saucer from the upper half, but it needs a shim to do so. While the instructions suggested using a plastic shim, I again substituted wood. I used a small wood block with a grove cut in the bottom so that it would balance on the blade of the armature. I applied some epoxy to the top of the wood block and fitted the model around the armature. Then, using a long screwdriver, I reached through the opening for the VIP lounge in the back of the saucer and pushed the wood block forward until it came in contact with the top of the saucer. I then left the model taped and clamped until the epoxy dried.

Above: Here is the block right before the upper half of the saucer was put on.

Once the saucer was shimmed in place, I could test fit the whole model around the armature (with the aid of a few Starfleet approved "uni-directional bonding strips"). There turned out to be a few gaps that will definitely have to be filled, but I think many of them can be made smaller or even eliminated during the gluing process. The process of fitting the armature took a full day's work (ah, I love vacation!), but I think the result was definitely worth it.

Left: Here you can see a few gaps, especially along the top of the engineering hull.
Center: Here is how she looks after the fitting process.
Right: Amazing how good she looks already with out a drop of paint or a single LED!

Andy Rucker